Archers thread #163: Too much aggro, not enough agri! 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, 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.)

Thanks to @LikeTalkingToLassie for the thread title idea! She and @LillianGish had fun with this theme on the last thread:

More farmer, less drama
More ploughing, less rowing
There's mileage in silage.
More sheds, fewer beds.

All good points. Fair to say nobody on the last thread was delighted to see the return of Harry. I think we all agree that Alice is a blithering idiot to get involved with him again. Most of us also think that Miranda is up to no good. Other storylines in play at the moment:

Alistair and Denise, with the massive complication of John and Paul
Ed and Emma - another doomed Grundy enterprise? Does Will still have the will to wang them some wonga?
Whither George - YouTube sensation or Borchester Magistrates' Court?
Will Markie cause mayhem at The Bull?
Will Harrison haul him in to Borchester nick?
Will Hannah get off with Chris?
Will we ever get used to the new Robert?
Will there ever be a new Roy?
Why do we hear so little from Brookfield now? (Although if we never heard Pip again, I for one would be delighted)
Will Stella dump Pip?

There are probably others I've missed. Over to you!

Glad I’m not the only one who was spluttering with disbelief at Jim going for a sleepover at his friend’s house in hopes his son would get his leg over (!) with his married (!!) colleague (!!!)

Ugh, me too!

@TherapistInATabard

Surely not??

I think they feel the need to do this to Alice because it would be unrealistic if they didn't. I think I would be more annoyed if they ran a storyline suggesting that you can just get over alcoholism and never have a problem again - a bit like having an Ambridge Addiction Fairy as well as an Ambridge Health Fairy.

I think Alice fell off the wagon precisely when we think she did, i.e. the episode when we heard her getting a bottle out. Witness the fact that it was only after that that Lillian said she was like her old self. If she was going to use vicious attack to fend them off, she wouldn't have gone on to apologise and tell Kate and Lillian they did nothing wrong.

Id like to know what the puzzle is too.
Will Lynda be a new tic tok influencer?

Well Jazzer told him it was wrong but his objections were dismissed by Jim who said they should trust Alistair to ‘do the right thing’.

You had it easy*. I did A level Greek as well as A level Latin. My Greek classes were one to one. I had led a very sheltered life, but I had to translate some very explicit passages in The Frogs (Aristophanes) out loud in class, which was a good exercise in toughening up and conquering embarrassment. The ancient Athenians appear to have had few inhibitions.

*Channelling the Four Yorkshiremen here ...

All that stuff with Chelsea in the Te Rum appears to have been a convoluted way of getting Jim to help Alistair with his puzzle leaving the coast clear for Alistair and Denise. Very heavy handed plotting with only a glancing reference to Ed's Texels grazing the cricket pitch by way of agricultural input. Interesting that Jakob had popped over to The Stables - presumably to check up on Alice.

I enjoyed the reference to the Texels and the outfield so much I relistened.

Jazzer initially thought it was wrong but then gave a speech in the pub telling Alistair to go for it IIRC.

I wondered if the reference to Jakob rushing over to The Stables was actually him going over there at Kate’s request (I.e from the previous episode) but couldn’t quite figure out if the timeline worked. I hope it was him going for a second time to check on Alice or maybe even to say “I’ve decided not to collude with you! I’m not keeping a secret because that will only lead to predictable soapy disaster arguments so instead I’m going to do something sensible that won’t annoy the loyal listeners”.

If I were married to the sw who came up with the Alastair stuff I would be checking my dps phone

I’m not sure Jazzer’s speech was meant to encourage Alistair to go for it. I thought it was something along the lines of supporting your friends and trusting them to make the right decision. I doubt the right decision he had in mind was Alistair and Denise carrying on in the Vet’s medicine cupboard within earshot of Paul, the church vestry and now Jim’s latest unseemly plan (hopefully Denise refuses to go along with it).

More evidence of the SWs current obsession with sex. The Jim-staying-at-Ambridge-Hall subplot is beyond ridiculous. It is impossible to believe in A and D as star-crossed lovers battling against the odds to be together. It would have been far better if John had been terminally-ill, as that would have provided D with a real dilemma. Having him as fighting fit and cycling/travelling to the Caribbean and back just makes the whole thing unbelievable. And Robert’s laboured and naive comments on the need to be happy after witnessing A’s innocent joy at his work nearly made me switch off for good.

We know TA has the potential to be excellent but it’s as if the SWs are deliberately sabotaging it time and time again. The inevitable question is why?!?

We know TA has the potential to be excellent

Like I have the potential to be a warm and wonderful human being fluent in Hungarian. Ain’t going to happen.

It just isn't Jim. He'd be more stoical - yes, he'd be happy for Alistair to be in a good relationship, but he'd be pointing out Denise is married and they work together and he's at great risk of getting very hurt when it all gets messy and more complicated. He might not openly disapprove of Alistair if things did get moving, but I don't find it credible he would actually orchestrate circumstances to push them together.

The idea of John having a terminal diagnosis is good.

Good thing too. We all know what Hungarian translations lead to.

I’d temporarily forgotten the implications of ‘Hungarian’, but rest assured that’s another entry on the ‘ain’t going to happen list’. Quite near the top, in fact.

Ughh .. that was a bit of an Elaine Paige cackle from Denise!

Yuck - this all feels very seedy. And now we have to cope with a luxury hotel seduction scene over the Bank Holiday.

Golly that opening scene with Alastair, Denise and Fifi was cringe. Particularly the needle 🙄. Icky the way Denise was coming up with excuses to give her husband. And then she has the nerve to be touchy about the fact they are in Jim’s house. Clearly getting busted on Sunday

lots of signalling that the ‘wonderful son’ is not going to be happy

poor Jakob - she’s putting him through the mill. He can’t tell when she’s lying.

Another episode where we could have just heard a couple of minutes of this rather than most of the episode.

Alistair is booked to play in the T20 cricket on Sunday; he said to Robert that he had signed up to do so, and also that he would ask Denise if she would help with the teas.

TA has settled into a pattern of two stories per episode, Alice and Alistair today, Alice and Bartleby yesterday, and so on. My memory of the Nelson Gabriel Marjorie Antrobus days is that there was more than two stories a day. It was more bitty, you had to wait longer for any story to play out. Am I imagining things?

It seems Denise has certain expectations and standards that Alistair will not be able to live up to.

The assignation in the hotel is obviously going to go wrong.

Was Alice lying about the call with her buddy Lisa? I assume so but she’s so convincing I genuinely couldn’t tell and the alleged conversation they had sounded plausible.