Archers thread #161: Kenton seems to be getting better, but the storylines aren’t. Discuss The Archers here.

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Well, here we are. I was strongly tempted to go for the dog's dinner, dog/human bullies etc suggestions for the title, but Mere asked if we could not have anything graphic in the thread title, so I've held back. In a couple of weeks when this thead is nearing its end the attack may all be a distant memory, anyway.

Goodness knows what's in store for us now. Kenton seems likely to have PTSD, not surprisingly. Surely we must soon find out why HARRY talks so. Unconvincingly. Alice! Hello. CHRIS. CHRIS. etc, and also whether he is (as many of us suspect) addicted to opiates and/or up to no good. Too much to hope why nobody in Ambridge horsey circles had ever heard of him until recent weeks.

Over to you!

My dad brought a reindeer hide back from Norway once (in the 70s) it was ugly, smelly and sgmged like mad. We binned it very quickly

When V said it was the second best cafe in Borchester, I thought he was simply being loyal to the Orangery at LL.

Glossy black cow hide randomly hung on walls….. I don’t think that is very appealing!

I hope the Markie thing makes sense at some point soon. I want to know if he intentionally targeted Jolene and therefore intentionally arrived with dogs and allowed the attack (and WHY) or if that happened for a more random reason and coincidentally he realised Jolene knew who he was and so know he has to menacingly threaten her to keep quiet.

That's what I thought. That must only be third best.

I was wondering if Natasha's "I hope to hear all this first hand" (re Helen's Paris trip) was a cri de coeur from the scriptwriter.

I don't really understand the Jolene storyline - why has Markie got it in for her and what is he hoping to gain from it? Timotei, Philip Moss and of course Knob were all baddies who disrupted the rural idyll of Ambridge, but you could see how they had got there and how Ed, Kirsty and Helen had fallen into their clutches. This latest storyline is just too random - especially Vince's involvement (purely on the basis that he too has a Midlands accent as far as I can see). Meanwhile the tearoom story limps slowly on - mainly as a way of propelling Fallon and Emma towards pastures new. I still don't feel I've really got a handle on Natasha - running up massive credit card bills (never really followed up), selling her own children to promote agro chemicals (storm in a teacup), the church window for the starry twins (no longer mentioned despite the fact that Alan actually smashed a window while catching a pigeon). Her fruit trees in Wales no longer warrant a mention either though I don't imagine that is a business that can be left to run itself. I couldn't tell you what she's like - she's just there as a catalyst for drama which never really comes to anything.

Plausible deniability? “Tony sneaked in in the night and nailed up animal skins”?“Tony’s my landlord and he insisted”? She’d do better with “my supplier assured me they were pleather”

He wasn’t holding a grudge, nor was he trying to track her down. He was using the Bull carpark for some activity of dubious legality, during the course of which his mate’s dog attacked Kenton. Because he knows Jolene recognised him, he’s using any leverage he’s got to stop her telling anyone his identity. That’s my understanding anyway

That’s how I understand it but, honestly, do the police really care that much about the dog attack? I would imagine after a few weeks they’ll quietly move on. There’s hardly any evidence so bringing a conviction would have been hard as Jolene didn’t even see who it was on the night. So she might say it was markie but his lawyer will tear her apart as she didn’t actually see him that night and he hasn’t directly admitted it in their subsequent interactions

Who the hell is called Markie these days btw?!? He’s about 50, isn’t he?

and Natasha has an odd strategy taking the advice of one customer and not testing it out on others If she just read this thread, she’d realise the voting is about No: 80%, tolerable: 20%, Like: 0%.

Plausible deniability in that saying to Mia "It was Tony's idea not mine" would be enough to send Mia off on a crusade against Tony instead of Natasha.

(I don't think Mia is very bright.)

MereDintofPandiculation
He’s about 50, isn’t he? (meaning Markie)

And the rest. I doubt he can be much younger than Jolene, if he was leading a gang when she was in her twenties.

This is what I don’t understand. Obviously the dog attack was horrible but whole SL is so overblown. Markie sounds like a two bit petty criminal but Jolene’s ‘terror’ makes it seem as if she is dealing with a Mexican cartel. Or maybe that will be the big reveal.

sounds like a two bit petty criminal but Jolene’s ‘terror’ makes it seem as if she is dealing with a Mexican cartel.

Quite. Even if she did recognise him from a pub brawl 30 years ago, how would she dob him in on that info? Even if she could, surely Markie wouldn’t be going to these lengths (after all, he must be stalking her to follow her to Felpersham with Elizabeth) unless he’s the front for a hitherto-unknown Ambridge-based hotbed of Albanian people trafficking or something.

Jolene’s ‘terror’ makes it seem as if she is dealing with a Mexican cartel.

Oh, I could get behind this s/l!
Markie is, in fact, Don Marco. He's the new owner of GG and is about to release a herd of hippos into the Am.

Why in her 20s? Didn't she go out touring around 8-10 years ago?

I assumed it was back when she was still earning a living by singing because both she and this inept sub-gangster prannet have spoken of it as "all that time ago" or wtte, and because the incident happened in Wolverhampton, I didn't think it was during the three-week tour she did in 2019, nor the three-week tour of the south coast in 2004.

after all, he must be stalking her to follow her to Felpersham with Elizabeth Fitted a tracker to her car the night of the car alarms.

I’m sure she mentioned the stage invasion occurred 30 odd years ago in Wolves. I might be wrong but I remember thinking it odd that this man would specifically remember her several decades after a drunken night out. I don’t think it was recent (last 10 years)

She certainly mentioned that it had happened in Wolverhampton, which fits with Markie being a Yam-Yam and wouldn't fit with the south coast tour at all.

Wolverhampton 30 years ago - something never mentioned or alluded to before now (ie a total invention by the SWs to trigger this ridiculous series of events). I still can’t work out why - Kenton couldn’t have been attacked by dog traders/drug dealers in the car park late at night without Jolene knowing the perpetrators. Are we building up to Markie burning the pub down as part of the continued destruction and disappearance of well known settings in Ambridge? It’s all so far fetched I no longer care.

Didn’t need to hear more about Tony’s drunkenness. Or more about the abattoir. At least it’s only 2 skins.

Harry is super cringe and sounds about 13 - glad Harrison had his number and was direct with him. He’s such a twat. Can’t even manage a day. And of course he pulled out his ‘contacts’.

the way he behaves - how can Alice bear him.

Too much Abattoir discussion; not at ALL necessary.
I really hate the people who come up with this as a storyline.....
I just picture the process (as we are required to, for radio drama), and also seeing them fresh and bloody on the coffee shop walls (to many horror films).
Surely this will lose the precious Second Best in the County ranking.
And would certainly lose me - and surely other vegetarians - as a customer.
Certainly lost me as a listener today.

I’m vegetarian and I don’t mind seeing byproducts of the meat industry - remind people what they are eating!

on Harry - given he was a ‘name’ in eventing surely his behaviour would be the subject of gossip

all Harry has to do is set him up. Not the best way for Alice to find out but hey ho

@Bruisername I have a vivid imagination. I turned off when hearing the discussion at the Abattoir, and hearing the mooing in the background.

As a child, I accompanied my Grandpa to many of the the butchers in the Peak District. He managed a Hide & Skin company, the workings of which I knew very little about. I would stay in the car and he would go into the shop - and I would forget all about the meat in the trays and bisected, headless pigs on hooks, and just dreamt about having one of the sheepskin rugs draped over a wooden bar at the top of the window display.
(I was very shallow back then, but I shudder at the memory now.)

Harry just sounds like a drip to me. Obviously drinks to give himself some "character". Cannot see him going round Badminton, or even an oversized log in the woods - even with my imagination.

How old is Harry supposed to be?

it’s funny how Alice is the talking borsetshire but no one’s heard of Harry’s antics