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!

Fallon must be some kind of saint. When, after suggesting she tell her family, he said he wanted to tell his, she should have castrated him on the spot with her third-best blunt pair of nail scissors.
If he has to talk to someone, he should try the Samaritans. Or his god.

I can’t abide ‘broody’ men.

Harrison. No age stated.

I hadn’t pictured him like that at all - in my mind he looks far more like the policeman in Call the Midwife who was married to Miranda.

Fallon said to him she didn't want anyone else to know about the pregnancy and miscarriage. He then yelled the news at Alice so loudly they probably heard it in Brum. It will be all round the village in no time. That's abysmal behaviour from Harrison.

Even if they had both wanted the pregnancy, most people don't tell others before 12 weeks anyway. He's being such an arsehole over it. There was no guarantee Fallon wouldn't have had a termination anyway. The miscarriage is as likely to be from having the coil in. He's behaving, with no discussion, as if they were definitely having the baby, and that's why Fallon can't talk to him about it.

Me neither. He has the perfectly natural desire to be a dad. Hope Fallon has a change of heart and they have a baby.

Fallon has the perfectly natural desire not to have children. I hope she sticks to her guns and if necessary leaves Harrison if he tries to pressure her emotionally to change her mind.

Hear, hear. Harrison is behaving terribly.

I'm sorry but I find that upsetting. Men absolutely have the right to be broody and sad by pregnancy loss. When it happened to us something thatcreally hurt my husband was the idea that it was only I that could be broody or grieving and not him.

I've just started to catch up on about two weeks worth of episodes, with mild trepidation given what I've been reading about recent events...! 🤔

Hear hear. He's been horrible throughout this.

Yes Harrison is acting badly. Im sure he is upset but Fallen was only pregnant with an unplanned pregnancy for 2 mins as far as he knows. I dont think he was wrong in having a go at Alice though, just the way he is treating Fallon, (pressure).
Alice is a pain though. Why didnt she just stay in her room instead of running to Fallen so that Fallen would for give her, and Fallen telling her to sort herself out was kind but if I was in an accident caused by what I think is a lasped drunken friend I dont think I would be as charitable.

Harrison has behaved abysmally! I really hope that next episode we hear Fallon tearing a strip off him for being so fucking self-centered that he can't see the bloody obvious things he is doing to his allegedly beloved, just out of a near fatal accident wife. He's just another misogynistic man who pays lip service to the fact that it's her body but who doesn't really get it that it means that she gets final say over any pregnancy and who is told about it.

In my book Harrison is very much allowed to have all kinds of strong feelings about the pregnancy and miscarriage, the accident and Alice. That does not excuse him driving a sodding steam train through Fallon's clearly stated boundary that she wants it kept personal. Shouting it at Alice outside for all to hear because he was too busy being angry at Alice than to listen to Fallon's protestations that he had got the wrong end of the stick neatly sums up why I've come to loathe his character and hope for him to lose his job and his wife.

Have the people of this thread who think he's behaving well just not Iistened to the latest episode yet?

100% agree.

Harrison starring in the Harrison show.
What a tiresome man he is. Fallon should pack him in and get together with someone like kind and empathetic and sexy (last bit my own imagining) Chris Carter.

Wow, you're in for a rollercoaster morning! Hundreds and hundreds of posts on these threads to catch up with too, although a lot of those were speculation that's now been overtaken by events. Hope you have plenty of tea or coffee and breakfast!

Blimey. I get that Harrison is grieving and also coming to terms with what nearly happened to Fallon…but that was just cruel. That was a completely different side of him, and I suspect Fallon will think that too. And just as Fallon had managed to haul Alice back onto something like an even keel by (rather brilliantly and with collossal grace given recent events) demanding that Alice forgiving herself was the only way forward for their friendship (which Fallon made clear wasn’t over). Then Harrison drove a coach and horses through the lot, probably sending Alice completely over the edge.

He did need to talk to someone, mind. Bottling it all up was what caused that explosion becuase he was clearly struggling. He should really have talked to a professional counselling service or at least Alan (which would neatly cover up Alan already knowing, plus he’d be working in a pastoral capacity so obliged to keep schtum).

But he didn’t and here they are. The entire village will know about the pregnancy that wasn’t before sundown, and possibly every inhabitant from there to Felpersham given the volume he was bellowing at. As I said upthread, it’s easier for Harrison to lash out at Alice (or indeed anyone) than accept that Fallon may well not have chosen to keep the baby anyway.

I do think Fallon will see him differently now, not least because of how he treated Alice but how he treated her in his deranged accusations that “You’ll talk to this one but not to me”. WTF? As soon as Fallon heard Harrison walk in she knew how this was going to go, she tried desperately to protect Alice but it didn’t work.

Poor Fallon and poor Alice.

Fallon is almost acquiring sainthood status. She' had to deal with that spoilt child almost costing her husband his job, followed now by Alice's whining self flagellation and Harrison's appalling behaviour.

…his allegedly beloved, just out of a near fatal accident wife. He's just another misogynistic man who pays lip service to the fact that it's her body but who doesn't really get it that it means that she gets final say over any pregnancy and who is told about it.

I don’t think that Harrison is full-on That Man but he’s certainly teetering on the edge of it, or has traits of it which have come roaring to the fore. I suspect he’s going to be horrified at himself when he calms the fuck down. He certainly displayed understanding - despite his grief - that it was Fallon going through it, not him, and he was trying to respect her wishes. At least until the sight of Alice.

But I do certainly agree that there is a sub*set (emphasis on the “sub” ) of men who would pride themselves on their liberality and progressiveness, how their relationship is equal and how much they are a feminist/respect their partner, when that’s all just a front. Underneath they’re as outdated a misogynist as you’ll find but the mask makes their behaviour even less acceptable and more invidious, in my book.

He has a right to be upset. He has a right to want to have children. He has a right to feel pissed off that at the time they got married Fallon said she thought she would eventually want to have children, and she must have known it was something he wanted too, but later she changed her mind. He has a right to make mistakes (as we all do), and convince himself that he was at peace with Fallon's subsequent change of heart and decision not to have children, and he told himself and her that he loves her so much that she alone would be more than enough for him. However, this week must have shown him that he actually hadn't accepted that at all. As soon as he knew that he might be on his way to becoming a Dad, everything else ceased to matter. He hasn't really thought about Fallon's feelings at all, and that's a red flag. His utter lack of self-control with Alice is understandable, but a very bad sign in a police officer.

On a different subject, thankfully Brian has forgiven Jakob. And the more I hear of Jakob and Kate, the more I like them both. Kate has dragged Jakob out of his rigidly controlled shell and Jakob has tethered Kate a bit closer to planet Earth. She definitely seems to be the grownup in this situation.

Completely agree about Jakob! One of the few grown ups in the village.

Fallon should pack him in and get together with someone like kind and empathetic and sexy (last bit my own imagining) Chris Carter.

It really never works for Fallon when she gets together with a man who’s in love with someone else … First there was Ed. Then the man who came to work in the pub (?) but got off with an ex partner during the ill-fated Ambridge Extra road trip.

But there’ll definitely be a rupture with Harrison. Whether temporary or permanent I suspect she’ll have run home to the Bull before the week is out.

I am cringing already for the time when Harrison tries to broach the subject of trying for another baby…

And I hope she absolutely sticks to her guns, not least because it would be brilliant to hear a positive story of a woman being happy without children. Maybe it would also bring up Alice’s pregnancy and ambivalence about motherhood in the face of Chris’ broodiness being the catalyst for her alcoholism.

I think Fallon can feel sad over losing a pregnancy AND still not want children….