Archers thread #162: ‘This is like talking to Lassie’ – how right you are, Fallon! Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you think cowhide-covered walls are a great idea for a cafe with vegan and vegetarian customers, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

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 - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Title comes from one of the better scripted conversations of recent weeks, when Fallon said ”Harrison, this is like talking to Lassie! Just TELL ME”. So true of so many conversations on TA where you just want to shake them and yell 'Just TELL US, and quickly, so you don't get interrupted before you can say the important bit', but of course they rarely do and days pass before the conversation resumes. @TheBell suggested putting it in the title, so thanks for that.

@OverArmour had a great if more obscure idea, paying tribute to a Peter Greenaway film: The Policeman, The Drunk, The Vet and his Lover. That will do very well as a starting point for the new thread. Will Alistair leave? Will Denise tell John she's leaving him? Will Paul learn to be less noisy? Do any of us care?

I do care a little about Harrison and Fallon. I want Harrison to get a grip and realise he needs a paying job more than the captaincy of the cricket team. I don't care at all about Harry but I think he's been brought in purely as a plot device so with any luck we can all forget about him very soon.

Over to you!

Thank you everyone for the golden years suggestions. I wish there was a good way to listen to classic Archers. I think maybe I would go back 20 years and just start there instead.

There was nothing in today’s episode that interested me at all. Just more of the tired old trope of ‘let’s have a romantic night’ and random person turning up and misreading the signs. With misreading the signs being another much repeated storyline. And then the weird repetitive storyline of another struggling alcoholic combined with the repetitive storyline of a woman being sucked back in by a controlling man combined with the repetitive storyline of controlling man using illness as bait. I mean - what are the scriptwriters thinking? It’s a donkey of a script with an actual donkey included. I’m choosing to call Bartleby a donkey just because the Grundy’s own him which means he probably might be.

So is Alice going to start drinking again or is she going to cure Harry? She is so marvellous. I found her and Harry so hard to listern to it was hard work for me and seemed to go on for hours, thank god for the Grundys light relief for once.
What an intruder was Robert too, but then Fallen,( I got the name right this time) and Harrison can have a nice cosy shag fest any time. Kissing sounds yuk on the radio.

OK I'm going to defend the storyline of recovering alcoholic unwittingly gets entangled with struggling alcoholic. I think this is realistic. We are drawn to certain things without realising. In this case alcoholism is what Alice knows, but also on some level, to help someone else is another form of contrition (is that the word I want Jeeves?). Like I said she herself has done all the things Eve said Harry had. Wrecking occasions, turning on family members.

She would have spotted the signs whether she expressly knew it or not. And then she couldn't help herself - going with him to the dr (half coerced), going to his mum (off her own bat because she is now falling further into it).

I wonder if it is a common trap amongst freshly recovering alcoholics. I think it might be.

Does she still have a mentor? I should think she will set her straight.

Although @OverArmour re-reading your post. Yes, the repetition around controlling man using his illness is weird. So will it be Helen that helps Alice see what is happening. Is it a compare and contrast situation?

Juliet Aubrey has a very distinctive voice, I recognised it from when she played Dorethea in Middlemarch.

Alice is an idiot but then Harry is very manipulative. When he said he wasn't try to make her feel guilty I shouted " yes you bloody were". And guilt tripping her about maybe he should give up. I remember when he first turned up at the stables and how unpleasant he was. I think that's the real him. Alice needs to speak with her sponsor and tell them what's she's doing. I'm sure that they will tell her to not have anything to do with him. He will pull her down with him. Two alcoholics together usually end up enabling each other. I've seen it happen.

Why didn't Robert go to the pub?

I agree stilldumdedumming but they’ve not gone about it very well. Part of the problem is that Harry’s not very nice when he’s sober. And he is ‘known’ yet no one has gossiped about his behaviour?

alice seems to be taking her recovery for granted and that’s a dangerous step. she also has a lot more to lose than Helen - despite being a single Mum, Helen was never in a position where she could lose custody of Henry. I think for Chris any inkling she is drinking again or if she brings an alcoholic into her home and he will be going for Martha. I hope that’s not the sl they are going to go for though. I don’t need to hear Alice relapse and I don’t want another court case

I'm hoping word will get back to Chris and he'll tell her she's risking losing Martha. I'd really like them to get back together, at least he doesn't keep saying her name!

Yes! And no offence to any Alice’s on here but with his accent the name sounds really unpleasant on the ear!

maybe he thinks it impresses women when he can remember their name

Alice's alcoholism was a good story line - introduced very subtly, built up over the years, is she or isn't she until she very much definitely was! And it was interesting to speculate about previous alcoholics in the family (Jenny and Lilian's father), growing up around alcohol (lots of social drinking at Home Farm), coping with work stress etc etc and whether that might have given her a predisposition towards alcoholism. It's hard to imagine Martha could have escaped unscathed - I can't decide if this is the Ambridge Health Fairy or if her problems have yet to be revealed (I suspect the former). Harry has just been parachuted in fully formed as the alcoholic boyfriend (with a somewhat unbelievable eventing backstory) so it feels like we are now in for some alcoholic public service broadcasting.

Has she questioned him about this friend of his who died from liver failure? She doesn’t seem to see how duplicitous he has been from the start

Good spot @Bruisername

It's the way he pauses then say 'Alice' in a lispy way.

Why didn't Robert go to the pub?

And why didn’t Harrison and Fallon, when Robert asked if it was a good time to talk, say ‘no, sorry, it’s not.’ And (politely) shut the door.

No is a complete sentence! Get Fallon on MN forthwith.

As for Alice - all that time in the rehab clinic, the buddy she’s (supposedly) sought support from, the determination she’s repeatedly stated to stay away from alcohol….her boundaries are still very, very poor if she thinks she can be Harry’s saviour. What happened to her vow to send him away and have nothing more to do with him? She’s learned very little after all if she can’t instantly recognise patterns of manipulative behaviour in a fellow-alcoholic.

In a way I’m sad Toby left. He did seem to grasp the point of being there, rather than anywhere else. Perhaps one day we’ll be allowed to hear how Rex is getting on with his stately home pigs

I think the brothers are a real loss. Both wanted to farm. Toby brought some energy and charisma into the show. Wish he'd married Pip and become part of the future of the farm I can't remember the name of!

And Rex is earnest about his pigs and rewilding. Again, that countryside connection.

Brookfield!

Why didn't Robert go to the pub?

And why didn’t Harrison and Fallon, when Robert asked if it was a good time to talk, say ‘no, sorry, it’s not.’ And (politely) shut the door.

This. Harrison could have said, "that's great, Robert, but can we talk about it tomorrow/after nets/Sunday morning?" I grew up in a house where people often dropped in unannounced, but as part of that, people knew we a) might not be in and b) if we were in, might be busy/about to go out/be dealing with the vet/cattle out/vomiting cat or whatever else, and m8ght not have time for a chat.

Poor silly Alice. She is taking huge risks.

Well, you heard Harrison and Fallon. “Must you go?” “So soon?” I’d have taken that at face value. Life is very hard when you can’t read body language or recognise polite lies (or in this case, piss taking) for what they are.

Yes! That’s what annoys me about MN threads about “this rude person knocked on my door and I had to drop everything and entertain them”. The person knocking is expecting the answer may be “no”. It’s not rude to ask. In 10 years time the threads will be “this rude person texted me and I had to drop everything and invite them round”

And Rex is earnest about his pigs and rewilding.

Gosh, I’d almost forgotten about the Ambridge Conservation Trust. The two native instigators skedaddled pdq, leaving the green incomer. Plus Kirsty. And Peggy no longer has a speaking role. Who is ‘in charge’ of the thing now - in terms of the story rather than legally or whatever. Which old or new character will have a voice if Rex and Kirsty get into difficulty or disagree? Who is looking to muscle in on the action and exert their power and influence over the land? And has all the Trust dosh been spent?

I think the brothers are a real loss I agree @BeatriceBatchelor and for all the reasons you outline. I liked the geese, the gin, the pigs - anything which adds some country pursuits into the mix.

Rex is still in the programme and still keeping pigs, we just don't hear about it any more than we hear anything any more about any of the animals on any of the farms. For some months before Ed's Texels earlier this year, everyone might as well have been living on a street in Weatherfield for all that they had to do with the countryside. I think there was a passing nod to the constant rain meaning that Stella had to replant some field or other, but we were not told which field or even which farm it was on.

No. It'll be In 10 years time the threads will be “this rude person text me and I had to drop everything and invite them round”.

Alice thinks she can save Harry because she thinks she is rather marvellous, and yes I agree with PP it’s ruining the name Alice for me!! Sounds horrible.

I hate it when people turn up unannounced, and have on occasion refused to let them in - one was a sort of friend asking if they could stay the night instead of forking out for a hotel, another two were on the way somewhere and wanted to use my bathroom.
AIBU?

What's Rex getting up to? Where's Kirsty? Where's Helen? Are the cowskins still in Te Rum? Where are Josh'n'Ben?