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!

And George is on the horns of a dilemma, isn’t he?

Condemn Alice to a scarring prison experience she didn’t deserve, or end up there himself if he comes clean.

[As an aside, I don’t think Alice will go to prison - we’ve already had Susan, Helen and Freddie as jailbirds. If the SW send Alice as well Ambridge is going to have one of the highest offender-per-capita rates anywhere in the UK…]

Fords can vary wildly as to depth and speed. One near me is notorious for its variability- it’s passable in a 4X4 during very dry spells but I’ve also known it be over 5 feet deep and fast flowing enough to sweep a vehicle away.

Unless they've had a serious drought in Borsetshire in the past ten days (which if the outfield is very dry, as per Pat on Sunday, I suppose they might have done) this river is the same river as it was earlier in the month when it was able to swallow a car. And the ford has no road leading to it on either side of the river, which makes it unlikely that anyone regards it as an alternative road to the bridge nearby. What with being on a footpath and all. And unlikely to be used by cars, even 4X4s, if they have no way to get to it.

Why haven’t we heard about Harrison’s religious turn during this recent crisis? Other than casually sharing the pregnancy news with Alan we really haven’t heard him taking any comfort or finding strength in his recently found faith.

Puzzling …

They will need a Cadre of Psychoanalysts. I love collective nouns.

Lucky that Ali-stare was able to confide in Ben, the only other person in the village with MH issues, about his panic attack. I hope this isn’t going to be the start of a new SL for Ali-stare. That would be incredibly tedious…

I also hope we don’t have to listen to any more about the miscarriage. I quite liked Harrison as a Steady Eddie copper. I found him discovering religion and going part-time so he can look at the birds to be self-indulgent. I would like him to go back to being a full-time policeman looking for bunting and working shifts. Fine to play cricket in his spare time and sort out the teams for Sunday- not fine to start sledging.

@BrightYellowDaffodil Ah, I'm afraid I cannot take the credit for the excellent "chronic pig botherer", I was just quoting from @WitcheryDivine's post from here:-

"WitcheryDivine · Yesterday 13:14
I’ve never liked Harrison so I’m not v surprised he’s reacting like this and making it all about him, if I were Fallon I’d be finding it unforgivable.

I’m so sorry for your losses @iratepirate 💙

Didn’t Kirsty famously nearly marry chronic pig botherer Tom? AS IF a man that obsessed with himself wouldn’t bore on about sows and piglets etc as well as other pig business at every opportunity."

In this house he was always referred to as Sausage Boy.

It isn’t usual in the space of a village for a river to go from deep enough to half drown a car to shallow enough to ford, unless it’s coming out of a steep rocky gully into a wide plain. But Ambridge is on the wide alluvial plain formed by the Severn and its tributaries.

The only possible excuse is that the ford is not on the Am but on one of its tributaries, but I think @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime will-be able to scotch that one.

The ford is marked on the Magnetic North map, which is the one they have on the wall in the studio so they can consult it. The only tributary of the Am marked on that map is Heydon Brook, and that has two bridges over it but no ford through it anywhere.

The marked ford goes from near the end of a track on Brookfield land, with a footpath leading down to it, and on the other side of the river a footpath from it leads across fields to the road out of Ambridge towards Home Farm (and Felpersham) across the narrow bridge where the accident seems most likely to have been. It is about two hundred yards upstream from that bridge, and about the same distance downstream from a bridge between Brookfield and the village, which mysteriously seemed to be closed so Lily couldn't use it. But whichever bridge was the one from which the car flew to be submerged in the river, it's the same river that also has a ford across which a man can wade in wellies in order to have a panic attack about water because he was in deep water at night recently. And that ford is not accessible by car or "delivery van"; possibly by tractor.

Recent scriptwriters seem to be ignoring the map in order to write plays-for-the-day about people with the names of Ambridge characters in a village going by the name of Ambridge but with rather different geography.

I'm a counsellor. I was with with some colleagues last week and decided we were a crisis of counsellors.

That would probably work quite well for your homonyms too.

jazzer couldn’t go and help because of bio security. Someone who has worked with pigs and is not currently is George of course…

I really don’t need to hear Alastair having any more panic attacks

i think Harrison will go back to work and thump someone while on duty or have a complaint made because he was aggressive etc and as he’s on a final warning that will be the end of his career

It occurred to me that if the pregnancy had proceeded and Fallon and Harrison had become parents, would Harrison have gone back to work full time while his wife was on maternity leave? Or would he have chosen to be the stay at home parent, either continuing with part time policing or giving up work entirely whilst Fallon takes on even more work to keep a roof over their heads? I just wonder if he would have stepped up and gone back to full time work? Somehow I doubt it.

Ugh just listened to Mondays episode- Ben and Alistair felt like ‘How to have a conversation with someone about their mental health’
step 1 - express concern
step 2 - listen and empathise
step 3 - reassure
step 4 - offer practical solution

I mean I know it’s important to get the message out but honestly it was like a GCSE drama skit.

Is.... is this Pig wanking?

Re Rochelle and the address being near Borchester - is she in prison ? Presume we would have heard of a HMP Borchester before - would explain why she's never appeared and why Joy moved in first place

Harrison: "we were pregnant when Fallon got in Mick's car.... "

No. They're giving him an injection for his bad leg.

I’m a little confused why Elizabeth would have offered to help? Was it just to get Lily there? Are these pigs going to enter the food chain? As predicted George was the only one who could help!! Kirsty being seriously annoying again.

Had some farming at least.

rochelle mystery - so what’s going on? Sounds like they are estranged, so why?

harrison going on about George is lining us up for the big reveal.

we were pregnant. Ugh. Glad he’s spoken to someone at least. And Neil was a good choice

Oh I know. The big "surprise" about mystery Rochelle.

Topic du jour. Rochelle is Trans

Or joy is 🙄

I don't think Joy would have a problem with that. Not enough to keep her away from everyone.

Matt was held in HMP Felpersham for a bit and then assessed as category D and transferred to an open prison just beyond Borchester.

But would Rochelle have been able to get out to visit Joy in hospital if she were in prison? Joy was not in any particular danger of dying; she had a broken collar-bone and some bruising.

Rochelle didn’t visit. That was one of Joy’s lies.

Psychiatric hospital? But then again I don't think she would be ashamed of that.