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!

It wasn't me who reported it, but what I found offensive in it was the 'eff of back to ...' - the back to rather than the swearing. In reference to a (probably) black British character.

I didn't report it but I imagine whoever did pointed out that you were suggesting that Paul, who as far as we know is British by birth, should go and live in the Caribbean island where his grandmother lives.

Alice and Ruari made up following the Julianne saga, a long time after he said "I'll never forgive you" etc. Unless he was pretending.

And what about the ‘OR Vanuatu, OR Timbuktu, OR Tasmania’ - three destinations notable for their remoteness? The ‘back to’ - which I can now see might have given offence - was intended to reference his recent, and improbably long compassionate leave in St Lucia (not St Kitts and Nevis). It was nice while the insufferable little tick was elsewhere.
Gruinard’s nice at this time of year.

Eastie77Returns
the island John is from, St Kitts and Nevis

Is he? His mother lives on Saint Lucia.

And in fact John might well have been born in England to a mother who came over here, spent much of her life here, and then returned to a better climate and place she found more congenial to live in after (say) the death of her husband. (I don't think John's father was mentioned as being with her, was he?) In which case John wouldn't be from anywhere in the Caribbean.

She hasn’t been charged yet, then?

There’s two types of bail, pre-charge and after charge. It’s the pre-charge bail that seems to have been largely replaced by RUI.

I think the pre-charge bail is what I used to know as “police bail”.

“He bats for the other side” was a standard code that someone was gay, so a short step to “he bats for Darrington”

The notably gay Sean Myerson (he was being gay in Ambridge before Adam came back from That Abroad) went off to play cricket for Darrington, so that had a part in it, I think.

Now that you mention it, I do remember Alice being instrumental in extricating Ruairi from the situation with Julianne, but it wasn't my recollection that they've ever really buried the hatchet. Ruairi then had to leave town in a hurry after having Alice and Martha walk in on his ONS. I think he still hasn't forgiven her, really. It's not the sort of thing many people would be able to get over readily.

Ok then. Denise, Paul and John are all white.

I didn’t think it was really that important (although it clearly is to some)🤷🏽‍♀️

Eastie77Returns
Ok then. Denise, Paul and John are all white.

I don't think I made that suggestion: it would be fairly stupid to assume that someone born in this country had to be white, or that someone from Saint Lucia couldn't be black!

Fink
Ruairi then had to leave town in a hurry after having Alice and Martha walk in on his ONS. I think he still hasn't forgiven her, really.

Um, she walked into her own house at five in the afternoon with her two year old daughter whom she needed to get to bed. What is there for him to forgive about that?

I am a bit behind. Has Chelsea supporting Fallin been mentioned. Another pregnancy lost and nuanced realistic feelings portrayed.

Bloody Harrison “you weren’t thinking about how I felt at all”. He isn’t listening to her and I can see how F feels he never has.

Aren't they waiting on the blood test results, which apparently can take weeks? She will be charged (unless George's culpability comes to light first,) but maybe they are waiting to decide exactly with what.

But he has listened to her by concealing his own desire for children for so long.

Did he really say "That was our pregnancy.?"

They really need to talk to each other.

Their situation is serious. She chose to sleep at a different address, just to not be with him.

Yes, I think this spells the beginning of the end, if a partner would rather do that to avoid having to have a conversation.

She knows that if she’s honest about her feelings he’ll hit the roof. Her hormones will be all to cock, she’s hinted that she isn’t sleeping. I have every sympathy with her wanting to get out for a couple of days.

Perhaps I should have parsed the sentences better/ created a new paragraph. I wasn't trying to suggest that Ruairi hadn't forgiven Alice for the last incident (the sex with a stranger in her house): I meant that that was when they separated and he went back to London, and at that point I didn't have the feeling that the previous incident (what Alice said about him) had been fully dealt with and forgiven between them.

I don't remember them having much to do with each other after that. He wasn't heard at the funeral, was he?

He's right. It was as much his as hers.

All this about them having to talk - Fallon said she can’t talk to him because he immediately assumed it would be happy families despite knowing she doesn’t want to be a mum. Yet she is trying to be sensitive to the fact he wants to be a dad.

also, given he announced it to the whole village he’s also made it a lot harder for her with everyone talking to her about it

so yes he might be upset but given the way he is acting I wouldn’t want to talk to him either!