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.

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'd like to have your fortune told by Bartleby, 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.)

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!

<Rescues beautiful genius Brad from bus>

Loving the image of Alistair wrestling Alice to the ground and roping her to a sturdy post!

Alice is definitely still in the car, I've just listened to the repeat and you can hear her groaning after the swerve. The other car going in to the river would add more possibilities for drama like guilt, recriminations etc

It was probably the Gills in the other car.

I'm convinced that neither Alistair nor Joyce would have let Alice walk out of the shop with a big bottle of vodka without phoning Brian or Susan.

Hahaha @Godesstobe 😂

If it is Brine then I'm surprised they didn't maximise the effect by developing his tel with Miranda a bit more beforehand?

*rel(ationship)

Alistair has waited a looooong time for Denise…. He probably just saw the whole thing as another irritating delay!

I think their response to Alice is believable. They know she can be volatile when drunk. They were taken by surprise.
Phoning someone’s dad or mother-in-law may seem like a good idea in hindsight but actually it could be quite an overstep. Alice is an adult, and Martha wasn’t with her.

Was it Alice or Kate who tore a strip off Joy for having one of Jenny's scarves? Joy might be disinclined to get involved.

So I think George was distracted by aliss. He made the other car swerve and they've gone into the Am. George watched it hence the no no no. He'll put aliss in the driving seat and scarper...

I really hope it's not Joy in the car. I like her.

Wasn’t it Debbie who had a go about the scarf?

Yeah this is what I'm thinking now 😬

Oooh. I hadn’t thought about him putting her in the driving seat to save his own skin.

That would be good, because she probably won't remember much about what happened. Alas, his fingerprints will be on the door, steering wheel, gearstick, seat belt buckle, all over the place. Unless the fast flowing waters of the Am wash them off.

If there were no witnesses or other reason to dispute the evidence of a drunk Alice in the driver’s seat of her own car, I don’t see why the police would look for fingerprints after an RTC, even a fatal one.

The other driver won’t die and will have seen him or two people at least

I'm not sure why George was so bothered about her being sick in the car. It was Alice's car not his.

Probably more worried about it going on him, drunk people don't tend to aim very well

Yes, G framing Alice makes sense of several lines in that episode and is in character for him. She will maybe protest (at some point) but will be dismissed as to drunk to remember.

In that case she'll be in court (life changing) and the drama maybe becomes less about who's been dedded/ injured.

I have driven on a motorway with a drunk person in the car who said he was going to vomit and it is very stressful. Yes I was worried about him throwing up on me which would obviously be horrendous but he was drifting in and out of sleep/consciousness and I was worried he’d choke on his vomit as I couldn’t pull over. There was no hard shoulder or exit for ages.

I do feel sorry for George. He’s no angel but he was trying in his own way to do the right thing. He should have called uncle Chris to pick her up but couldn’t pass up the opportunity to drive Alice’s nice car and unfortunately this is now going to end really badly for him.

Fun bus with Helen, Shula (bad timing for a visit), Julianne, Pat, Tom, Tony, Eddie and Bartleby for good measure all drownded.

I feel George has taken delight in drunk women before. When Emma was drunk and he played a trick on her. Also I’m sure there was another instance more recently. And then with Alice. Although he was nice enough to take her home, I had an undercurrent of something scornful or a kind of power trip from being in a position to help.

also, as an aside, how old was George when Alice and Chris got married? I had in mind that he’d have been too old to be calling her Auntie Alice. My experience is that is reserved for aunts/uncles who’ve basically been around since the child was tiny. But maybe that’s just my experience and it’s normal for someone to suddenly turn into your auntie if they marry into your family, no matter what age.

I've just listened again and he was also hoping to borrow it.

Which indicates that he doesn’t have his own car, and therefore no insurance as “driving other cars” only comes as an extra on a policy you already have. Plus the terms of that cover say you have to be driving with the vehicle owner’s consent, and Alice was too drunk to realise what was going on.

And Joy saying “May Day” was “tomorrow”. She can’t have meant May Day, which was last Wednesday, so she must have meant the early May bank holiday. Which means it was Sunday.

No