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

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

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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!

Intrigued by Schrödinger’s Rochelle being simultaneously there and not there. I know it was expected but the writing was clunky.

I've not been listening long. What is the Rochelle thing?

In Harrisons defence he was overcome and needed to talk

That's what I thought. Just terrible form from the SW.

I'm also going to skip the scenes related to Harrison and Fallon. Listening to the doctor brought back my own experience at 15 weeks but thankfully there was much more compassion!

Joy frequently mentions her daughter Rochelle but there is widespread belief among listeners that Rochelle may not be alive and that Joy was somehow culpable.

Other theories are available.

Joy

We have no explanation for her arrival in Ambridge five years ago. She had no connection to the area and, as far as we know, no friends or family or colleagues have visited her from her previous home. Our general conclusion has been that she’s here under Witness Protection.

Crucially she speaks often of her daughter Rochelle, and of her grandchildren. But there is no evidence that they exist. (No mention of photos in her house either? Can’t recall. Did she show Tony photos of her grandchildren?) Leading to wild speculation amongst listeners as to whether Joy has invented this family background.

After the accident on Sunday she was taken to hospital. When Mick went to see her she told him that Rochelle had visited but had just left … It is passing strange.

I had two miscarriages one after the other. The first just happened when I was in the toilet, the 2nd was after the first scan and they said no heart beat. I was asked if I would like a DNC or leave it to come away naturally. I went for the Procedure as I was feeling very unwell.
Funny but I was talking about it to DH the other day and said we just took it on the chin so to speak and he said he thought we were just nieve at the time. I was about 42 so the chances of miscarriage was quite high. We did try again but it wasnt too be.

"Rochelle" is Joy's Secret Service handler.

I don’t think she’s in witness protection - I think she came out of prison! Not sure what she did to earn money though.

If so she came out of prison with enough money to buy a house.

Why didn't Alice sit in the passenger seat or get into the back seat to drink her bottle of vodka? Surely that would show a 'no intention ' to drive.

And it would be more comfortable, well the back seat would... Lie down to sleep it off once she had finished the bottle.

Its funny with Alan. Fallon has just been in a RTA and he is knocking on the door asking for clothes for charity as the song goes," wheres your head at".
Who phoned Rochelle to tell her about Joys accident?
Why dosnt Mick just shut up. It must be hard to get a word in with Joy and Mick.
Harrison going on about the baby when he knew fallon really didnt want one.
Did he ask her how she felt about it?
I wonder if Fallon is relieved in a way that she is not pregnant any more she seemed very reluctant to go for the scan in the first place.

I thought Nic locked up George in a cupboard?

So Joy was either in prison for killing Rochelle and paid for the house with inheritance

or Rochelle died some other way and Joy ended up having a breakdown (hence sympathy for Ben) and decided to move away where people don’t know and she doesn’t have to face it

Although she would have photos if Rochelle and the grandkids ever existed

OMG it was indeed awful, wasn’t it- the bit about children from the church writing letters to the families of hostages and “being delighted to get a reply”

That was topped by the idea they are collecting clothes to send in parcels into Gaza. WTF?!? I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing. Have the SWs heard about the blockade? It’s been impossible to send anything to Gaza for decades let alone at the moment now it’s a full-on war-zone. The SWs clearly don’t listen to the 7pm bulletins…Couldn’t Alan just have been collecting for a local homelessness shelter?

And as for the topical insert - it couldn’t have been clumsier if they’d tried. Truly pathetic.

And how convenient a Man U baby grow was there. Although not surprised it was donated unused

Discussed earlier in the thread: legal websites are pretty clear that climbing in the back seat is not enough to defend against the offence of being in charge of the vehicle. As long as you have access to the keys (even in the glovebox) and you are in your car (or even next to it?), the court can find you guilty of being drunk in charge of a vehicle.

When George first got into the car and started driving Alice home I wondered if we were going to hear either Alice making a pass at George or George taking advantage (ie raping) of her. I wouldn't put it past him.

Alice wouldn't remember the incident or just very hazily and think it was a dream. Then a few months later realising she is pregnant. Thinking it must be Harry's until the scan reveals the baby's age and she realises it can't be Harry's. Not remembering that George raped her she believes she she is carrying the miracle child.

Wouldn't that be a storyline worth of EastEnders!

😂 I thought that too when George found her, didn’t extrapolate it out as much as you did though!

I’m struggling to find the right words to describe how I thought Fallon felt about her scan - I think she just wanted it over and done with so she knew what her termination options were. There didn’t seem to be any worry over whether she would keep it or not. Harrison obviously jumped completely the other way, which was stupid as even he said to her that he knew how she felt about it (and clearly didn’t, or didn’t care/felt his needs were priority).

Why didn't she lock herself in The Nook or hide up in a farm outbuilding somewhere at Home Farm? She seemed to be suggesting that she used to do this years ago when she was married to Chris. Why didn't he notice that Alice had disappeared for hours at a time with her car? Very odd.

George is going to be a long term character and I don’t think there would be any coming back from him raping someone

If she drank a bottle of vodka in one evening, she would still be unfit to drive until well into the next morning - so who's picking up Martha?

Actually she'd probably be dead of alcohol poisoning.

Who phoned Rochelle to tell her about Joys accident?
Nobody because she's a figment of Joy's imagination.

I think calling George a rapist is a bit much.

Didn't Alice say she had intended to go home but was so desperate to start drinking the vodka she ending up pulling over somewhere instead? That's how I read the reasoning. That and for plot purposes 😆

She didn’t want to go home because Brian was there