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!

Or is it just any sort of cupboard?

I can’t listen tonight!! Edited highlights would be appreciated!!

Putting a horse down can be really expensive - especially if it isn’t planned (planned = bolt and hounds/zoo, unplanned = drugs for whatever condition and then more likely injection by vet, either of which will tender it unsuitable for feed and will mean you have to pay for cremation at the cheapest. You can’t just bury them). Horses very rarely just lie down and die, far more likely he would colic or lie down and be unable to get up. I wonder if any of this will be used in a storyline. I think it might be good if Bartlebys earnings have to be used for his disposal. I hate how he is being treated by the Gundys, although at least he is getting some attention having seemingly been ignored for eons.

Guest stars Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray play Tilly Button and George Grundy in tonight's episode titled "Double Bartleby."

You can't kiss away a murder. Not with a horse, anyway.

I think it might be good if Bartlebys earnings have to be used for his disposal I read that as earrings, which put an interesting picture in my mind, and made me wonder what I’d missed.

Poor Jakob! Just as predicted! Alice is an obnoxious drunk, isn’t she? The whole family turning on Jakob - can’t help feeling it was a good job he was there, else all that anger at Alice would have been directed fully on Alice instead of being redirected on to Jakob. And I can’t help feeling “the damage” Brian was talking about was less about Alice and more to do with revealing the family’s dirty linen in front of Miranda. Who behaved impeccably.

I know of a horse cemetery

That was fun! Much to my surprise. George treating his family to a meal and not quite being able to pay the bill at a fairly ghastly-sounding restaurant, all tiny portions and massive prices. But Will stepping in tactfully to spare embarrassment,

and then

DRUNK ALICE

at the pub quiz so everyone in Ambridge will know by now

Rather unfair Jakob-blaming, he was naive rather than malicious, but all shaping up splendidly for a sodden showdown

Ok. Well my plans fell through and listening now.

god Alice is annoying when she’s drunk. I don’t understand how she’s relapsed so suddenly. And Jakob being thrown under the bus!

George is just annoying. Not sure about the snobbery of the working class not getting the posh restaurant cliche

I am not particularly working class, more idle and undeserving poor, and I totally fail to get that sort of restaurant and am totally on the Grundys' side, can't be doing with foams and gels and alleged purees which look more like patches where someone failed to wash the plate.

Well less dramatic than the spoiler thread speculation! So back to Denise and Alistair, if it were lust they'd be jumping on each other despite the slippers, if she was in love she would love the boardgames as part of him. The fancy hotel reminds me of women online dating who demand they get treated like a princess. Maybe it will give Alistair performance anxiety?

Oh - that was painful! Hollie Chapman really throws herself into Drunk Alice. (I’m extremely rarely drunk but I don’t believe my voice and intonation change so much when I am.) I trust Kate will rapidly turn her ire towards her sister. Not so sure about Brian. How excruciating for them to have had Miranda there.

Quite liked the juxtaposition of Posh Aldridge’s ‘dahn the pub’ with the Grubbers at Grey Gables. (Though I don’t really believe George would have willingly treated his parents out of pure altruism.)

Someone I know with an inherited handle to their name totally fails to "get" that sort of silly snob-caff, and also can't be doing with foams and gels and alleged purees and all the rest of it, at inflated prices. This same person absolutely used to love the porters' all-night eatery just outside old Covent Garden Market, and go there for breakfast in the early hours to eat sausage bacon egg chips and beans washed down with a couple of mugs of tea.

Yes, that sounds excellent.

Oh I’m not saying I’m a fan of those places (xref Emma noting the crazy mark up on the borchester blue) but it felt a very cliched scene

does Alice live in walking distance of the pub?

Bruisername
does Alice live in walking distance of the pub?

From The Nest to The Bull is a bit under three-quarters of a mile, but quite a lot of it is along an unlit, narrow lane.

Brian was right - Jakob has no idea what damage he's done. But it is literally true - he doesn't know. He's never had to deal with drunk Alice before this week. He believes what he's told. If someone had told him, "if Alice falls off the wagon, you have to let us know," he would have, but probably no one imagined that if she did, Jakib would be the only one to witness it. I felt very sorry for Jakob. Brian was being quite unreasonable - which I think he will realise, once things have calmed down.

Hope she didn’t drive

I think it extremely likely that she did drive, unless Jakob gave her a lift – he lives in the cottage next door so that seems like quite a sensible idea.

Ah ok - although I assume he was at work rather than home on Monday

Yes precisely what "enormous damage" has Jakob caused? Or did Brine mean just to his family's reputation and potentially his relationship with Miranda?

It's not sudden - it's probably been going on at least since she discovered the truth about Harry.

Jakob had been at work on Monday when Kate rang him in a panic from Martha's nursery, where they wouldn't allow her to collect Martha without a say-so from one of her parents. Chris had his phone turned off, Alice wasn't answering hers, and Kate was afraid something must have happened to Alice so she rang Jakob and asked him to go and see if something was wrong.

(I’m extremely rarely drunk but I don’t believe my voice and intonation change so much when I am.)
Alice wasn't just drunk, she was off-the-scale drunk.

I think Brian meant if Jakob had told them (probably Kate) that Alice had been drinking when he went round earlier in the week, then they'd have sll saved her from drinking again. Except if Alice was determined to drink, she would have done her utmost to find a way. Brian is mostly lashing out in fear because it's a situation he can't control.

Yes I agree he was lashing out. One more drinking sess is not going to kill her, she's not at that point; thankfully she hadn't tried to drive or been in charge of Martha.

I don’t get why Drunk Alice forgets that her family are going to go apeshit if they see her drunk, and so she drinks and heads out in public. After all, the last thing she told Jakob was how she was afraid Chris would take Martha, so wasn’t her plan then to drink only in secret? Was she intending to go to the quiz when she started drinking?