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.

However, he peaked me last night by showing his ignorance of the law. What will him being a copper.

I'm guessing he's been driven so mad by his grief that he's forgotten or doesn't care.

I'm not a lawyer or a police officer but it wouldn't be murder anyway unless there was intent to kill. Would it?

He has really lost the plot. His boss must have just been wondering how she could get him out asap

That's right. There are also a series of offences to do with causing death by dangerous driving, causing death while driving under the influence of alcohol etc. None of them apply to an unborn child. There's another series of offences generally used in domestic violence cases around attacking a pregnant woman to try to cause a miscarriage. The most well known is 'child destruction', but that only applies to a pregnancy that had reached the stage where the child could viably survive if born then and if the intent was to kill it. There's no equivalent of manslaughter for the unborn. Basically, even if Alice/George had set out to drive a car drunk with the deliberate intent of finding pregnant Fallon, crashing into her, and causing ther to miscarry, there wouldn't be any offence against the foetus. Harrison has wandered off down a fantasy road of law based on his feelings, when he should know full well that's not how the law works.

The thing with panic attacks is they aren't rational. Although Alistair no doubt realised he wasn't really in danger, the experience of the water against his clothes and skin could easily be a trigger for an avalanche of irrational reactions.

Wasn't there uproar a few years ago when Adam admitted he had voted for Brexit then regretted it having seen the resulting policies? Unless I've got a complete doubly-fictional version of TA running in my head that is separate from the actual show! Maybe the SWs have been shy of bringing things up again after that didn't go down well.

Tracy was instrumental in persuading Kenton and Jolene to offer the Bull as a desginated Warm Space when the crisis in energy prices was topical, and brought her family to hang out there.

I can't remember much else recent. I would like more realistic farm chat on the topics above.

I’m not disputing that the experience of water could have triggered a panic attack (I wonder how he’s coping with his morning shower?), just wondering why he was paddling in the first place, because every ford I know has a means for pedestrians to get across without getting their feet wet

Bruisername
im surprised her broken ribs didn’t bother her a bit more at the barn dance and with all the laughing.

Fallon's ribs were bruised, not broken.

DeanElderberry
Poor broken-armed Joy, still suffering from the after-effects of shock and PDST, and in pain from a broken arm

Joy broke her collarbone, not her arm.

Ah ok. That explains it then!

broken collarbone is super ouch

I think they did shoehorn in a mention of the Queen's death. Don't remember any mention of Liz Truss's laughably short tenure as PM.

We've also not heard even one person make a slightly racist comment about our first Asian PM, which strikes me as unusual for the rural west midlands.

If the cack-handed way the Israel-Palestine conversation was handled by Alan is anything to go by, we're better off without the topical inserts. It's fine if they're so bad as to be funny, but not if they come way out the other side into just weird.

Edited to insert the word 'the'

To be absolutely fair about it, there is another ford marked on the map. It is just downstream from the weir. It goes from Grange Farm land to the island in the middle of the Am, but not to the other side of the river from the island. I tend to discount it.

I can't help feeling that in order for there to be water shallow enough for there to be a ford between the three main bridges over the River Am, the river would have to widen out a great deal at that point; otherwise where does all the water deep enough to submerge a car completely in some other section of the waterway go to at the ford? And it clearly does not widen, on the map.

We have a river near here which is about as long as the Am is from source to larger waterway, and while it does occasionally do a bit of rampaging about in the rainy season and flood one of the garden centres so that water seeps up through the floor in places, and it fills up the local playing fields to a depth of three inches or so for a month or so occasionally, it has never managed to flood any local village to the height of the tops of ground floor windows, nor indeed to flood any house on its banks; nor has it gone tidal on us. And at its ford (with footbridge), now closed to motor vehicles just in case, it widens out considerably even though in general conditions if you dropped a car into the watercourse to either side of the ford in the narrows it would stand there forlornly with the top of its bonnet above water.

If the whole village finds out about the non existence of Rochelle, whatever the reason, that's going to be a massive thing for already bruised and probably traumatised Joy to cope with.

• or even one resident finds out.

(Sorry, just thinking random TA thoughts as I go about my day!)

Especially if they turn on her because she killed Rochelle’s first born or something

she will have endless sympathy for George though!!

That's because they "did" racism years ago with Usha and Roy.

Yes it’s a bit odd that Paul was sledged for his sexuality and not the colour of his skin. I would have thought the latter more likely

or maybe more casual racism - like asking Denise if they can touch her hair or something

it does feel a bit like ambridge is a multicultural idyll. Perhaps all the sw are white so don’t want to write it insensitively?

It’s not any sort of idyll (except for ancient people) but it is part of the 21st century. They experience schools and TV and cities - so I definitely would not expect very basic 20th century racism of the type I experienced as a child. And I would be deeply unimpressed if a SW invented any after maybe reading a novel set in the 1970s …

Azras kids must be appearing soon - wonder what SL they will bring

Not all fords do, one I used to go though was generally only a few inches deep, it was passable on foot as long as you had wellies on (or didn't mind wet feet). It wasn't even vaguely a main road though, it was barely more than a stream running off the main river over a single-track lane.

I'm fairly sure there's another couple near me that have no footbridge, however: it's 4x4/tractor, horse or waders if you want to get across. One is more of a river crossing that's developed over time by people riding up and down the riverbank, the other is quite big and the road runs through it.

Gurpreet also would be used to controversy after her play Bezhti sparked threats from Sikh militants

Exactly right. My cousin was trapped in a gully with water flowing on her for a few hours fifteen years ago. She still can't take a shower!

Was Alistair actually in the water during the accident? I know Denise must have been, because otherwise what would have been the point of her bragging about her swimming skills. Did Dull Al jump in too (and if so, did he have to be rescued?) or is he suffering flashback by proxy?