Archers thread #165: Bridge over troubled waters! 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 believe Rochelle exists, 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 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/5071889-the-archers-spoilers-thread-9-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.)

This thread may well fill up as fast as the last one, so let's just get stuck in!

I thought I heard Alice saying something apart how she'd apparently drunk fruit cider and couldn't remember. I presumed that George had left some in the car

So it maybe that that will come up in conversation and joy will realise that it must have been George as he was the only one who had bought any

Please tell me I'm not the only one who heard that (I heard it on a repeat listening of one of the episodes)

Asking will have chapter and verse here, but has anybody on air actually confirmed the ethnicity of any or all of Denise, John or Paul? All I can be sure of is that Clare Perkins (Denise) and Joshua Riley (Paul) from their pictures are Black British or mixed race. This being Ambridge, nobody ever mentions race or ethnicity. Having said that, both Denise and Paul have voices that immediately made me think they were black or mixed race (I'm neither, but I live in SE London and hear voices like that all the time).

What we have specifically been told is that John's mother lives somewhere in the Caribbean. That doesn't mean she's black, but statistically it's likely that she is, and either he emigrated to the UK from that country, or he came with her (or a bit after), or she emigrated here and gave birth to him in the UK, and he's still here and she's retired back to the sun.

None of this matters, but in the real world we'd all know because we'd have seen them and/or talked about it as a normal conversational topic.

Wistful sigh.....

This is Joshua Riley (Paul). Good looking lad. Not blond! Which doesn't, of course, mean that Paul isn't.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/5phVs6cvSbw1YmL7T6lmFbT/paul-mack

No, many of us noticed this throwaway remark. Surely it can't have been dropped in for no purpose!

<clutches straw for umpteenth time>

Very nice! I'll try to picture him when I hear his voice. You just get a picture in your head when someone speaks for the first time and mine was clearly wrong.

A while back Alistair told Denise he liked her braids. That's when we decided she was black.

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - I'm an intermittent reader! They made so much of the fruit cider it has to be that that reveals the truth

We definitely noticed, @ninja! You’d have to scroll back through either this thread, or the last - which went by in the blink of an eye.

Reasonable assumption, but then there's this.

Denise sounds black, wears braids and the actress playing her is black so it would be odd if her character is meant to be white. I guess you never know though as the actress who plays Alistair’s sister is black and I assume her character is white (unless she is his adopted sister).

There are white West Indians and indeed many other ethnicities in the Caribbean - my black, Jamaican cousin is married to a Jamaican man who is ethnically Chinese - but isn’t very common on the island John is from, St Kitts and Nevis, so I assume he is black as well which would obviously mean Paul is as well.

I’ve never lived in a rural location but I think in real life someone at some point in a small village have made reference to fact D or P are black (not necessarily in a malicious way) but it doesn’t seem to have occurred in all the years they’ve been around.

To get back to farming…..
There is no way a vet would give a farm animal anti-inflammatories without speaking to the farmer. All meds have to be logged when it comes to animals that are part of the food chain, many take time to be passed out of the body. How did Alistair know this wasn’t a sheep destined for market the next day? Obviously it’s all a lie but what a frigging stupid one for a farm vet to continue with.

Spot on!
(IMO, anyway)

has she been released on bail? If so, is she allowed to leave the area

I'm a long term listener (started in 1970 age 6 but didn't really start to get it until 1980) .. I lurk on here and have only really commented on the modern slavery story which I thought was tremendous - I work in MSHT investigations and thought it fantastically well researched and played out - ... I now feel compelled to comment on the 'baby loss' of a woman who is adamant that she doesn't want a child.

So far, so good. As someone who had 4 miscarriages (3 prior to first child and one between 2 & 3 rd) I find Fallons ambivalence towards miscarriage extremely believable. The difference between her character and my reality is of course a desire for a baby. However her 'practical approach' (relief for her not to have a baby she doesn't want - and for me, acceptance that something was not right and therefore the right thing) ring true. Miscarriages are not always the horrific and devastating event they are often portrayed to be. Although I know that (more often than not) they really are. I just really appreciate this script portraying a reality of miscarriage as quite different for women with different mind sets.

'Bail' is rare these days. If on Bail she would be required to report to the charging police station at periods dictated by the custody sergeant... in reality she will be RUI'd (released under investigation) which has no conditions attached. (all designed to free up custody time - but is just a fudge .. don't get me started.. )

Perhaps you’d like to re-phrase, @RegimentalSturgeon?

I nipped over to Mustardland and am glad to find that I'm not the only person to conclude that clever Ruairi is pursuing his revenge, setting Alice up to drink herself to death.

Alas, Chris will probably confound his scheme and rescue her.

I have an ongoing case of harassment against someone whose court date keeps getting pushed back. The police informed me that his bail conditions included various things to do with not contacting me. So I assumed bail was relatively common. Interesting to hear that it's not used as much as I thought.

Agreed. I had an extremely early miscarriage before I had my first child. I was sad at the time, having been trying to conceive for a while, but on the other hand (a) it was so early that I assumed there was something very badly wrong either with me or with the embryo so it was for the best that the pregnancy ended as early as possible and (b) at least it gave us hope that we could conceive, which we had begun to doubt. Everybody's circumstances are different, so responses to pregnancy loss are also going to be very different.

Is that you Paul?

only joking of course, fully understand the importance of food safety, interesting hyper Paul missed checking on that one

that would be very Machiavellian of ruari

but I suspect the whole past has been swept away by ‘we all say things we don’t mean’

That hadn't occurred to me, but it makes sense. I was confused by Ruairi's apparent volte face with 'we all say things we regret' when he was very clear, last time I remember them being around together, that he would never forgive Alice and wanted nothing to do with her. Secretly trying to get her to drink more and do more damage sounds right up his machiavellian street.

I was itching for Fallon to turn round to Harrison and say 'there wasn't a baby and there never would have been, because if I hadn't miscarried then I would have aborted.' Instead, she knows exactly how he feels about it all, but he is still clueless (through his own fault) about what she's going through.

No, I don’t think I would. Maybe whoever complained and got the post removed would like to explain what they found objectionable. I’ve seen far ‘worse’ swearing pass unchallenged on mumsnet for years.