Archers thread #166: Choppy waters in Ambridge! Look out for the red flags and 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'd love to be married to Harrison, 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 www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-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.)

Another thread started in great haste, mid-packing! Over to you.

what was the poem? I was cooking

re Rochelle, maybe she is a trans man (ie FTM)
-she WAS a wonderful daughter and now there's a 'man' living at her house

This is the poem Harrison was referring to

The Mower
BY PHILIP LARKIN
The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.

I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:

Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.

He shouldn't have been mowing grass long enough to hide a hedgehog; that would be bad for his mower, and would have torn the grass out by the roots very likely.

(misses Harrison's mawkish point completely)

You do have to wonder if Larkin ever owned a lawnmower.

Miles behind but did anyone else think Freddie’s “I can’t believe no one got killed!” had a regretful tone about it?

I can’t keep up! I’m still an episode behind.

1.Harrison 😡. He’s being written in a very annoying way. I feel that this story could be done sensitively and interestingly without the complete implosion of his character.

2.Some of the threads apparently leading to this - like Harrison’s Christianity - feel clunky. To be honest, I can’t remember the last time it was mentioned meaningfully (or at all).

1. Joy - not listened to the latest but I like the adoption theory. Something hugely amiss there. I also agree that the name ‘Rochelle’ seems somehow unlikely!

4.Crash storyline- I’m too impatient to wait for this to unfold!!

So you've had a very recent near death experience, found out you've had a miscarriage, you're mowing the lawn and your DH wants to quote you a poem about a loved hedgehog being brutally killed by a lawnmower!!
I understand the point about the last lines of the poem but still😬

It was clumsy!!

I'm also unclear how a hedgehog would get caught in the blades like that and it’s not something I really want to think about it

Surely the Rochelle thing has to be tied up with Joy's skills with someone in a mental health crisis? So either she's on a long term section or she has a mental illness which has estranged her from her mother, e.g. because she's delusional?

Or it is Joy who has had the mental health issues and Rochelle had enough

Well that’s a bit of a rum do. Positive pregnancy test almost immediately followed by test saying pregnancy lost. Harrison goes off the rails for a couple of weeks then sudden hedgehog induced epiphany and as you were.

Wondered on this storyline how different opinions might have been if roles reversed and Fallon had agreed not to have children to fit in with Harrison’s wishes, then goes off the rails about her baby being murdered ignoring the fact that Harrison is perhaps relieved as he had made it clear he did not want children and that is what they agreed.

Possibly Harrison even saying to her it was only a few cells (as she did to him in the actual storyline). Would we be horrified and censure Harrison saying that to her (as no one did her when she actually said it to Harrison in the storyline).

In that case would we think she is not considering Harrison’s feelings and what they agreed or thinking poor Fallon under the thumb of Harrison?

Of course simplistic as would still be Fallon in the accident and carrying the baby, but that also means she still has the power of being final arbiter on the future of that foetus. But of course as Spider-Man knows, with great power comes great responsibility.

And had the dodgy doctor not told Fallon in front of Harrison, which he shouldn't have, we would have been spared this SL.

yes, it would have been a different more interesting story, if the Dr had told Fallon alone, so she had the choice to keep it secret, and then be privately relieved when she miscarried, but unable to share the relief, except maybe with a female friend...

More importantly, bad for hedgehog, and the frogs.

If I’d carelessly slaughtered a hedgehog, I’d be keeping quiet about it

Woman’s hour talking about what happens when one dies and one doesn’t want kids inspired by this sl. On tomorrow. Fortunately I’m at work so won’t be able to listen.

The Fallon / Harrison child issue will be discussed on Woman’s Hour tomorrow. Just mentioned at the end of today’s programme.

If the Fallon actor is on it, the presenter will probably gush about how beautiful she is, and ask some inane questions about the Tea Room.

I think the new woman’s hour presenter is childless by choice so that will inform the discussion I’m sure

agree she’s likely to be inane about it all as she seems to be about everything

I gave up listening ages ago. Every time I tried, my hand would find the off button very quickly.

Strangely, I am too addicted to TA to switch off but I really should stop listening.
I live in hope that Jill will lob me at Harrison.

Poor Hedgehog.

Fallon’s cheese scones must be like rock cakes if Chelsea and Pat can practice fielding with them!

I also wondered what had become of Natasha if she is giving away cakes for the cricket teas. Very unlike her…

Yes, he did. The poem is based on a true event which happened when he had to give up his university-owned flat overlooking Pearson Park and buy a house.

@JoelenesParrot , rub it in why don't you. I'm not good enough for cricket practice, is that it? Are you soft-shaming me? Eh? Eh?