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!

david probably used to do it 🙄

the sw always manage to make everything so amateur

At one point Jolene did, for line dancing?

so typical that the woman almost dies but it’s the man who we have to hear crumbling.

Quite. And he’s going off the deep end with the whole “It was a DEATH” thing.

Good for Joy joining in with the barn dance, she has really grown on me over recent times!

is rochelle her probate officer?

I felt sympathy for Harrison's feelings initially but he is now totally OTT and being really weird. I had thought he and Fallon would get over this but now I am not so sure. She's out dancing and laughing and he's at home having a complete breakdown. Hardly compatible.

I have to say though I don't understand Fallon's saintly response to Alice. That doesn't ring true to me.

I was having a think the other day about who in TA has had mental health or PTSD issues, and there seemed to be a whole lot more men than women. Am I forgetting things? I remember Pat falling apart over her son's death, and Christine getting depression when her house was fire-bombed, but mostly I came up with people like Mike, and Sid, and Greg, and George, and Ben. Help me out here!

Helen

Alice

yes, Fallon is having flashbacks ! get a grip Harrison
surely he can't be so ignorant of the law?

He’s the very definition of ‘pig ignorant’.

Oh, and what ‘Norris’ said about victim impact statements, and also Fallon’s reaction to the idea, highlights them for the insidious nonsense they are. Regular readers will know that I am not a likeable person. Further, I have no dependents, unless you count the cat. Presume a drunk Alice-alike mows me down. Should this hypothetical she face a lesser penalty than her counterpart, who fatally squished a much-loved wife, mother and daughter who happened, in mumsnet approved fashion, also to be pregnant with twins (and all of whose relatives with the exception of the fœtuses, presented mawkish drivel for the titillation of the court and journalists)? The offence in each case is the same.
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Fallon is going to have to use actual words (possibly single syllables) to communicate effectively with Harrison.

Oh, @hanahsaunt, I think a hefty great club with a nail through it would be a preferable medium.

maybe you have friends or colleagues who would miss you?

Are you on the right thread?

The hospital doctor has a lot to answer for. Harrison should redirect his anger at him. The whole story line is ridiculous.

But would they be asked to put an impact statement to the court before sentencing?

I think Fallon, like Neil, is prepared to recognise that Alice is an addict and is not doing these things out of malice. Her clumsy and desperate attempts to put things right can come across as playing the victim but I think it shows she does actually care about people.

Harrison however can sod off. Current least favourite character by a country mile!

Current least favourite character by a country mile!

And that’s before ‘the diversion’ is taken into account

also, how come as a police officer Harrison is so ignorant about addiction?

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Is he playing up his accent more at the minute as well?

could Harrison jump off the enormous bridge into the torrential waters once it’s been repaired?

Helen
Elizabeth

Thanks, DeanElderberry and Abra1t.

It's funny how unconvincing I always found Helen being deeply traumatised by the death of the brother she'd never got on with, and then by the death of the boyfriend she had already left because he was violent towards her. But I suppose she is an example of someone who was mentally unstable, yes, even before Rob got his hooks into her.

Alice, not at all sure. She is addicted to alcohol, but that's a different class of illness from the purely mental, isn't it?

Elizabeth, yes. She definitely did go off the rails over Nigel's death, and who could blame her. And then again when her son was sent to prison, at which point she finally got help and discovered how being angry with Nigel was necessary for her to heal, which was a good thing.

I said I wouldn't comment on Harrison, but the more I think about it, the more annoyed I am.

I am increasingly worried that he is going to be overtly anti-abortion sometime soon, with all his talk of wanting Alice prosecuted for the murder of his child. This annoys me because, speaking as a prolifer, we get bad enough press as it is; I could do without the new mouthpiece of the fictional prolife movement (the drama is fictional, not the movement) being a misogynist, dim-witted, selfish arsehole.

I feel very invested atm so the scriptwriters are doing something right. At the moment I feel for poor Ma’am who must despair of that malingering, ignorant, big mouth Sergeant Burns and wish he’d been permanently suspended.

Harrison is totally losing the plot. In his anger he’s forgotten the law about foetal death as well as the many causes of miscarriage so early in pregnancy. Who knows what on earth he’ll do when George is finally revealed as the driver?

Harrison is displaying so many red flags. As someone who has had multiple miscarriages I am appalled by his self pitying behaviour and escalation of the pregnancy into “our child”. How would he behave if the pregnancy had continued? I suspect he would have descended into controlling behaviour and coercive control. Fallen should run for the hills.

Should someone face a more severe sentence because the partner of the person they mowed down is better able to express their grief?

I hope victim impact statements don’t have any effect on sentencing and are just a con to make the victims feel they are “heard”.

35 years ago we had a sneak thief. Caused a lot of nuisance, and made me feel unsafe for a while. Suspect was a 1-boy crime wave on a nearby estate. Then I heard he’d tried the local leisure centre, and had been thrown over a wall by the caretaker, and I was glad. And that’s why victims shouldn’t control sentences.

Now I just feel sad he mucked up his life chances when he was too young to understand the long-term impact of his behaviour.