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.

I was more surprised at yet more leave for Harrison - he's already had his aliquot of compassionate leave and AL so mulling how this will be recorded.

She told him to get signed off by his gp

I assume his GP will be Azra. I wonder if we'll hear that consultation!

I guess there are some jobs where they can’t let you back if you are clearly mentally disturbed - he would probably thump someone!

I have sympathy to an extent as he is grieving fatherhood rather than the pregnancy loss but he is being extremely self indulgent and his level of care for his wife is non existent

as for Fallon being saint like to alice - she is her best friend - she knows her extremely well and whilst she is no doubt angry with her she also recognises Alice’s flaws and will be sad for her friend.

There’s no doctor patient confidentiality in ambridge! Surgery fully mic’ed up!

interesting to consider how much planning went into this sl - introducing a GP to allow these in air appointments, georges crush on Fallon, Alastair and Denise being there controversially together, Joy and Rochelle, gearing up the Harrison psycho dad act with all the sex and him going ott with Martha’s birthday etc

Gosh, I feel sorry for Lily. There she is, the wealthy daughter of a stately home - young, healthy, fun loving, intelligent, presumably good looking - and yet, apart from one failed attempt in Manchester, she has never gone out into the world. ( And I don’t mean the odd week on holiday somewhere.) I know characters need to physically be in Ambridge to be properly part of the story - but it’s surely vanishingly unlikely that at this stage of her life, single, with zero responsibilities, she would be bothering the likes of Fallon by sticking her nose into little local shindigs. There’s no doubt a real life Lily would have been on the first plane to Tasmania or Japan or Botswana or Monaco to fulfil the work placement part of her degree. Pursued by countless hedge funding suitors and a retinue of Tatler photographers. She wouldn’t be in Ambridge.

(I know she’s studying stately home enterprises - but other countries have ‘heritage’ too. And realistically I’d be surprised if her tutors would have allowed such an unambitious placement as the failed hotel down the road.)

I can’t believe how we are romping through these threads! Thanks so much @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g for keeping up with demand!

I’m sure we didn’t hear the car going through the wall of the bridge.

Has Harrison never stopped to wonder why the police don't get called in every time someone has a miscarriage?

otoh, Alastair's panic attack in ankle-deep water has excellent comic potential. I hope we're going to vignettes of him melting down when confronted by random wet things - a bathtub, a flushing loo, a cup of tea . . .

…a consultation about a goldfish? That made me laugh, @DeanElderberry, ta.

ETA: an imaginary goldfish, obviously. Apparently they aren’t real. The characters, I mean. Goldfish definitely exist, just not this one. 🙄

It was described as a ford. Fords are about 6in deep.

Yes @RegimentalSturgeon I'm hoping for a bit of thumpage too! And SO many candidates to choose from, who'd benefit from a good slap...

So a little over ankle but not knee deep.

Not deep enough to induce panic in most of us.

Does Home Farm still have its disgusting fish-producing enterprise? Does it need the attention of a vet?

as for Fallon being saint like to alice - she is her best friend - she knows her extremely well and whilst she is no doubt angry with her she also recognises Alice’s flaws and will be sad for her friend.

This. I suspect she may have a better understanding of addiction from her band days and growing up in a pub - she was friends with Ed in his crack days, I think? But even so, she'd have seen addicts around (including her father, I think.) Obviously policeman Burns has never ever had to repeatedly deal with any drunks or drug addicts... you'd think he'd have some understanding of what people can go through.

I suspect also, that while she didn't know about the pregnancy and knows there are lots of possible causes of miscarriage, she's probably feeling a bit grateful for the pregnancy no longer being an issue, despite the fear of almost drowning.

Sounds a bit blasé but I imagine for Fallon the miscarriage has not really bothered her beyond the physical symptoms and it’s the near death experience that is weighing on her so she is fundamentally on a different page to Harrison who only seems to care about the accident because of the miscarriage

I think we'll need one!

I can’t help feeling that, aside from plot driven conflict within her marriage, Fallon instinctively, subconsciously feels that something about the crash event just doesn't stack up - and that’s why she’s not ready to completely condemn Alice.

And George so adores her. I’m impatient for what I hope will unfold there - that it will be her influence that prompts him to confess.

Really? I'd love a few comically bad topical inserts:

"Eesh, that heifer's limping worse than Sunak's poll ratings!"

"Who the heck is Ed Davey? Bartleby's got more followers than him!"

"Listen, I'd trust Eddie Grundy before I trust Starmer. At least everyone knows Eddie is dodgy."

Etc.

They obviously can't do it, but they could have a lot of fun with it if it were possible!

Just on the politics point - when was the last time Brexit, rising prices or immigration got mentioned on TA? I mean it must be having an impact on a farming community - cost of animal feed, barriers to exporting, migrant workers, price of milk,... all that sort of thing.

They don't have the migrant workers in caravans any more do they? They haven't been mentioned anyway.

Indeed, @DadDadDad. As someone brilliantly described on the last thread, those are the sort of conversations Home Farm and Brookfield used to have, because the SWs had them actually involved in the issues. Sorely missed.

I guess we might get Ben ferrying all the most elderly residents to the next village to vote, after they’ve rejected the option of doing so by post.

And the Horrobins en masse refusing to be involved because ‘voting is a waste of time and won’t make any difference to the likes of them’. Except Brad, who will argue till he’s blue in the face and maybe, maybe persuade one of them.

Mia will be joyfully anticipating spoiling her vote.

But Home Farm scarcely exists any more. Stella is more preoccupied with avoiding stepmother duties, and Adam - God knows …

It’s really bizarre. Fords are designed for vehicle traffic (horse and cart originally). So they usually have a way of pedestrians getting across dry-shod - a narrow footbridge or stepping stones. @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime tells us the only ford in Ambridge is over the Am not a tributary, and doesn’t have a road, only a path. So why no stepping stones or footbridge? Why was Alistair even in the water?

Even if there were no bridges or stepping stones, they would arrive. No-one likes getting their feet wet. Even a path in our local park, flooded because of all this rain, has acquired some broken paving slab stepping stones.

It is odd - I was imagining Alastair in wellies but the way he reacted a full set of waders were needed

also finding this one bridge in a sleepy village goes down and it creates so much traffic chaos really odd

It doesn't quite add up, does it? There's a ford near me that fluctuates wildly - can be passable by a 4x4 in summer (and by horse most of the year round), has been deep enough to sweep vehicles away but that's because there's sluice gates installed in the 20th century that wouldn't have been there originally. When the gates are opened after heavy rain the river can go over 5ft deep. Which is why they put a footbridge alongside.