Archers thread #164: AmbridgEnders! An Everyday Story of Soapy Folk. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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

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

Thread thrown together in great haste in advance of tonight's episode. Who's in the Am? Is it George's fault? Is this the end for Alice? Over to you!

Aliced really pissed me off last night and the whole idea that she could park up, get hammered and then only drive home again when sober is ridiculous. Just how long would she have to sit in that car waiting for the effects of a whole bottle of vodka to wear off?

Well, Lexie didn't want him (too much?)

I'm yet another pissed off by Fallon being upduffed. It's so reductive and massively suggestive that being happily child free is not a valid life choice. Bah.

The thing is, they’ve never made her ‘happily child free’ - at least not since she married. It has always been a source of conflict within her marriage, which the SWs were bound to dig into eventually.

I completely agree that ‘happily child free’ doesn’t get much of a run in Ambridge. Even Debbie sounded somewhat wistful with her ‘That ship has sailed’.

That worked, thank you.

Crikey, Hollie Chapman has 3 kids under 5!

Another good way is to copy the URL of the article and paste it into archive dot ph - it’s highly likely to have been archived already. This article was and it's here https://archive.ph/G3Upm

Works for most things, although not all. You can also archive things yourself if they haven’t been done already.

Quite, and I don't think enough was made of Alice's reluctance to become a mother (particularly in the face of Chris' tone-deaf enthusiasm) being the trigger for her descent into alcoholism. There's always the narrative arc of "You'll love it when it's here/it's the natural lot of women" which completely ignores the taboo that's occasionally touched on on MN, which is that some women deeply regret having children having either been pushed into it or found that motherhood is not for them. It's their bodies and lives which will change exponentially, not men's (because the societal role of Mother is one loaded with baggage, expectations and judgement in a way that Father isn't).

It's early enough on for Fallon to have choices although what that might be in the face of Harrison's potential joy remains to be seen. It's a shame she didn't find out in private because then she'd have the additional choice of a termination he didn't know about. Who knows, maybe Harrison will change his mind in the face of reality or she'll have a miscarriage (does a coil affect a pregnancy? Google suggests there's a higher chance of an ectopic pregnancy).

But sadly I think the lazy trope of "Woman suffers life-altering shock then has the epiphany that a baby is what she truly wanted all along to complete her" will prevail 😡

I completely agree that ‘happily child free’ doesn’t get much of a run in Ambridge. Even Debbie sounded somewhat wistful with her ‘That ship has sailed’.

I celebrated when I hit 35 - I saw it as Happy Fertility Fell Off A Cliff Day!

Harrison is such an irresponsible buffoon

Nah … If he’s coming across like that now, they’re writing him wrong. It was Harrison who produced the miraculous nest egg (squirrelled away over years) that enabled them to buy a house. And he’s the one who did all the life admin when they moved in together - which involved persuading Fallon that all that stuff mattered if they were to have a comfortable or even bearable future together.

I’m picturing Daffodil having a party like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey and Amy Poeler in the Last Fuckable Day sketch
🥂

Yes @BrightYellowDaffodil I fear your epiphany prediction is correct. Tedious in the extreme!

Fallon's pregnancy has been on the cards for a while - ever since her decision not to have children was randomly brought up again for emphasis just before we had to listen to Fallon and Harrison getting it on over and over again to the point where listeners were sick of it. I think Fallon will have the baby and will eventually count it a lucky accident - on her side is the fact that Harrison will be an enthusiastic and hands-on dad (much harder when the dad is the one who is adamant he doesn't want kids), she has her mum and Kenton on hand (and dad though he is now silent) and she is surrounded by friends with small children rather than being a situation where she is the first to have kids. I also think it will bring her and Alice closer together - she didn't want children either. We did speculate that Alice too might be pregnant after her night with Harry, though that might be be a coincidence too far. I did notice that Fallon's reaction on hearing Alice was at the wheel was along the lines of "Oh poor Alice" rather than "How could she?" - that won't have been random, it will have been there for a reason.

George has a streak of malice in him that Eddie doesn’t have

There was quite a lot of wine, as I remember...

I hope they don’t call the baby Marion or Robin

George is a nasty, vindictive little shite. The sooner his knackers get caught in some farm machinery, the better.

Quite - or even Sheriff

Oh poor Alice" rather than "How could she?" - that won't have been random, it will have been there for a reason.

Are you thinking her critical friendship might prompt suspicion of the accepted accident story? Bit of sleuthing? And then George’s adoration of her might mean she’s the only person who can persuade him to confess.

Eddie - a chancer but ultimately harmless. Lots of grifting but nothing that awful, and he adores Clarrie.

See, I don't see him as harmless. To take a few recent examples, look at the fireworks - they were supposed to be silent and they weren't because he got them off a dodgy mate rather than buying proper ones, and pocketed the difference. Fireworks can have a really serious effect on animals (and, by nature, Ambridge is stuffed full of animals) and some people find them upsetting. Then there was the infiltrated fete which nearly became The Grundy World of Ferrets: Eddie wanted to take the money for a proper marquee, put up some shonky tarpaulin and pocket the difference. No matter if it fell down and hurt someone. No matter if they ruined the fete. No matter if other people were left to pick up the pieces.

People like Eddie really boil my piss. Always on the take, always grifting, always leave other people with the fall-out and nothing is ever their fault, whining like hell that the world is against them.

And as for poor old Clarrie, I know she and Eddie love each other but that woman should have "DOORMAT" on her forehead. She's forever being the one to do the actual work behind Eddie's schemes and for what? A few crumbs every now and again (a ride in Eddie's dodgy limo - what a treat!) and being left staring down the barrel of an old age with no secure home and little income or pension because Eddie's "This time next year we'll be millionaires!" schemes ran out of road.

#Team George here: I think part of George's problem is that he might as well have had his knackers caught in some farm machinery as they don't seem to be getting any use. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they have never had any use. Tilly Button has spurned him and I automatically assumed the reason he left the party early was that some other desirable, and probably better educated, young women had rejected his clumsy approaches.

I think you may have called this correctly. Sounds very plausible.

I used to think that Eddie was okay. In recent years it just feels that he has a sense of entitlement that I don't remember before. They were horrid to Oliver.

George? He's just a wrong-un.

One more thing before I reluctantly engage with the day - and relevant to our title: last night purely by chance I turned the hotel TV to BBC1 just as Eastenders was starting. I almost never watch terrestrial TV on an actual television, haven’t seen a full episode of EE for decades and had the TV on silent - but something about the atmosphere portrayed was intriguing right from the start.

It was absolutely enthralling. Beautifully written, masterfully acted - a two hander between two older characters where the preceding story was perfectly clear and their reactions completely truthful and compelling. I felt grateful to have seen it. (And I’m sure it’s all over the internet today as an outstanding episode.) Just hope it doesn’t draw me back in after all this time!

It was @LillianGish’s idea, @Godesstobe !

I’m looking forward to welcoming Sherwood to the cast.