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

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have]] - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

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!

That's true, it was lovely. But the idea that a promise of a middle-aged man playing floor is lava (love that!) in the local pub would be enough to get the whole village out, is just so stupid I was shouting at the radio. And then his speech didn't say "it's safe here in the Bull" but was more "you only live once so do the scary exciting thing" (ie go to the dodgy local boozer where you might end up mauled by a gangster's dog but what the hell, life is short). Utter crap, all of it.

Oo, haven't listened yet!

Most of the problems that the writers contrive into the storyline are caused by people failing to keep their trap shut.

I have not heard today. On the planning front, it should be in the planning permission. Controlled via the approved plan or a landscaping condition. If that's not mentioned, they're talking rubbish. Unless the Council screwed up and forgot to look at the landscaping/ tree retention.

TPO generally is only where it can be seen by the public. Although not always

Typical Princessy Alice. He was doing it for meeeeeeee so rules of normal behavior don't count.

That’s going to be one hell of an awkward car journey back to ambridge

Yes, I was wondering if she would just leave Alice there and Alice would go to the pub etc

Apols if this has already been covered but did Harrison actually do anything wrong by telling Alice about dreadful Harry’s conviction?

Yes. He arrested Harry but Harry hasn't been convicted of the offence.
Harrison should not be divulging information about his police work.

Harrison told Harry that he had looked him up on the police database and discovered his drink-driving ban, and it then became clear to Harry that Harrison must have told this to Alice. Divulging to a third party information from the database is utterly against police procedure, and a disciplinary offence. Harry certainly had/has grounds for an official complaint against him for that.

His also having told Fallon about someone's record in the database just makes his offence worse. Well done Alice for telling his boss that bit of information.

Ah, thank you!
And yes, Alice is an utter pillock.

The stupid thing is that Harrison, had he engaged his one brain cell, could have (having seen Harry out drunk in town twice), just engineered a few situations where maybe he was out with Fallon and would have seen Harry, and he could have stayed out of it on a professional basis. Or even if he’d just told Alice he’d seen Harry out drunk twice in a week and not mentioned he was on duty, enough red flags would have been raised. Taking Fallon out would have worked easily with their seemingly increased efforts to smooth over the child wanting situation too. I think there is a clunky link to someone’s downfall - whether his, Fallons or Alice’s as an outcome of this.

or maybe is just a storyline. I suppose not everything needs to lead to a bigger picture.

Alice is an idiot

Far worse than just an idiot; Alice is a fool who is very much concerned with how she will look, to herself and others, at the expense of anyone else's actual good.

She decides what they ought to want or need, works out a way for this to be achieved regardless of what they actually want or need, thinks out some way of getting that result which she thinks will make her look good, and then bulldozes them towards her goal. She nearly drove Ruairi into a breakdown with her decision that she knew best about his love-life and her interference in it, and now she may have scuppered Harrison's career, in the interests of seeming to be such a Good Person herself.

The woman is a menace!

So is Fallon, for taking her along in the first place. And Harrison is the biggest idiot of all.

Still, it will all be worth it if it leads to a reconciliation between Alice and booze.

Yes, what possessed Fallon?

She must have known when Harrison would come off duty; did she really want to loiter in the police station car-park for four hours? (The copshop just round the corner from us had a car-park but God help you if you'd parked in there and then sat around in the car: they'd have told you to sling your hook sharpish, because it was for the police, not the general public.) His not answering her message was an excellent reason not to go and pester him: he might not even have been at the police station at all. What a numpty she is.

You want Alice back drinking again?

Yes. It would be both realistic and satisfying. Ideally after she makes advances to Chris and is firmly rebuffed.

@RegimentalSturgeon (previous UNs are available) is not known for her compassion....

It will be interesting to see how they go on with Alice. It's all very well her being able to stay off the drink when she's got loads of support and things are going well, but it's during the hard times that an addict's ability to stay off it is really tested. It looks like Fallon and Harrison won't be seeing her for a while, broken up with Harry, realising that Chris was a good one etc, so she's facing some testing times.

I really hope we don’t have a drunk Alice storyline again. It was bad enough the first time.

I do think they have minimised Alices alcoholism. Was surprised to hear she’s been sober 3 years. We haven’t had any sense of the ongoing struggle esp when Jenny died

Alice has stopped drinking and not had a wobble in 3 years. She had her mum die ,Chris slept with someone else 2 mins after they split and now her boyfriend is a Alcoholic and her best friends have turned her away because she couldnt keep quiet. I did say before Alice would cause trouble for Harrison then say opps me and my big mouth. It would be a miracle if she doesn't start drinking again.
Also how comes the chief policewomen is making such a fuss when there are loads of coppers getting away with so much stuff in RL.

But Harrison didn't tell Alice about the conviction? She only found out about that when Harry mentioned it.

He isn’t supposed to tell her anything he discovers on the job and he told her about the drink driving. He didn’t mention that he has arrested him for being drunk and disorderly a couple of nights earlier

whilst a major breach you do wonder why they would get rid of an honest copper given the recruitment crisis and the other things coming out atm. It seems a bit tone deaf by the sw given recent news