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

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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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!

You don't see red flags when you're wearing rose tinted glasses.

Sure - but the few times we’ve heard him with her speaking to Chris etc she has noticeably sounded wtf and tried to shut him up

Handsome is as handsome does, you mean?

I tend to agree. Indeed, I found it slightly shocking that someone who was charged with (and found guilty of) that sort of assault was employed to play a policeman in a family drama. It would even be surprising, if the person who hired him had been one of the other editors the programme has had this century, but since it was O'Connor it's not really all that strange.

Probably think it’s ‘ironic’

Can I ask what you’re referring to with who hired him? My background knowledge isn’t comprehensive enough to figure out what it means. Yes I’m rather nosy!

Officer Burns!

@OverArmour , after Voldemort's Wife dedded Nigel, we got a new editor called (amongst other things) O'Connor. He brought in the creepy Rob & Helen coercive control and rape SL.

Sean O'C was the editor of The Archers who brought in Rob and devised the coercive control storyline. He also made some arbitrary casting decisions, e.g. replacing the actors playing Tom and Pip. I get the impression Asking didn't take to him.

Voldemort's Wife was ex-Brookcide, Sean O'Codpiece was ex-EE.

Thank you @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g and @Shambridge I love the behind the scenes background knowledge!

Harrison and Harry are an odd choice of names for a storyline together. Perhaps Harry will find out about Alice’s drunken pass at Harrison.

Also agree the gossip between stablehands would have been obvious.

@OverArmour , I'll never forgive VW for the dedding of my beloved Nigel, or SO'C for getting rid of Sausage Boy.
Nigel was the best TA character ever - 'Oh Lizzie!'.

He was before my time as a listener, and somehow I even miss him!

He didn't actually introduce Rob, because that was done before he took over. He just changed the character completely and as you say, devised the coercive control storyline. He also oversaw the workplace bullying and constructive dismissal of Kathy from the golf club, and recast rather more than two characters, of whom one actor left for health reasons and one only discovered he had been replaced when his replacement appeared on air.

I made a note in 2014:
New actors since August 2013 who have a "bio" of their character in the online Who's Who:

Eleanor Bron (Carol Tregorran)
Terence Harvey (Justin Elliott)
James Cartwright (Harrison Burns)
Rina Mahoney (Jess Titchener)
Felix Scott (Charlie Thomas)
Simon Williams (Justin Elliott)
Nick Barber (Rex Fairbrother)
Rhys Bevan (Toby Fairbrother)

Perdita Avery (Kate Madikane) - replacement
Daisy Badger (Pip Archer) - replacement
Tom Gibbons (Johnny Phillips) - replacement
Will Howard (Dan Hebden Lloyd) - replacement
Angus Imrie (Josh Archer) - replacement
Oliver Le Sueur (Patrick Hennessy) - replacement
David Troughton (Tony Archer) - replacement
William Troughton (Tom Archer) - replacement

Departures since August 2013

Kim Durham (Matt Crawford) - "pressure of work"
Colin Skipp (Tony Archer) - ill health

Kellie Bright (Kate Madikane) - replaced
Cian Cheesbrough (Josh Archer) - replaced
Tom Graham (Tom Archer) - replaced
Louis Hamblett (Daniel Hebden Lloyd) - replaced
Joseph Kloska (Patrick Hennessy) - replaced
Luke Hudson (Rich Phillips) - replaced
Helen Monks (Pip Archer) - replaced

Of these, we have been told that the first two jumped, and we know that Tom Graham was pushed. We may never know how the other five actually felt about leaving.

I thought Kellie Bright left voluntarily to be the landlady of the Queen Vic.

The other seven, not five; the note was made before two of them.

Hang on - Harry had clearly been drinking when he saw Harrison in the pub. How did Alice not notice when he turned up for dinner?

I can’t quite get over Nigel’s untimely demise. Or the fact Elizabeth has gone from Nigel to Vince

Cian Cheesbrough - now a sports journalist
Helen Monks - seems busy enough

She stopped by for a fling with Rota Boy.

Oh I forgot that ridiculous sl

What now confuses me even more about Jolene/Markie is that apparently she recognised him immediately across the Bull after a 30 year gap, but then didn't recognise him when he asked for the spare chair in the cafe.

What did Vince do to Ben?

All that sniffing made me wonder about nose candy rather than just alcohol, but yes: she would definitely be able to smell drink on his breath if he had been having a pint.

I had Harry down for an opiate addiction post surgery.

Maybe Harrison’s actor was cast due to his in depth knowledge of police protocols?

Ben was “going steady” with one of Vince’s two “princesses”, a dull but worthy girl called Beth. When Ben had his breakdown, he decided Beth deserved better than him and chucked her. Vince was not amused.