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 think that’s fair enough to a point @CaptainMyCaptain, but would you extend that to not telling him that you had children (or being happy for him to keep something like that from you)? We don’t know if Rochelle is real or imaginary - there’s been speculation on here that she could be a criminal/a victim of crime/in police protection - or that Joy could be any of those things herself. I think I’d want to know that before entering into a serious relationship with someone and would have a right to be seriously pissed off if they kept that from me.

What does "security" at a posh hotel involve? What would Mick's day-to-day job entail? How many staff do they have? Why would Mick end up on reception?

I’d imagined it to be a far larger operation. And for someone to pick up the rota mishap before Mick actually parked himself at the desk. Ludicrous.

I'd expect security in a GG type place to be keeping an eye out for undesirables (ie people without silly money to spend on hideous sunglasses) from the moment they turn in at the gate, with making sure that no one tried to live in a camper van in the car park high on the list of priorities.

A few places I know keep the leisure-centre parking separate from the main hotel parking, and the deliveries and services vans and staff cars somewhere else again - all about protecting the brand image. That's a thing that (a properly groomed and clad) security man might be expected to stay on top of.

Security at a ‘posh’ hotel?

I have no professional knowledge but it’s a place where:

Rich people congregate - so: luxury cars, expensive personal goods, escorts requiring payment … Theft, burglary, scams.

Drink is taken, by both overnight guests and drop ins - so high likelihood of conflict, damage to hotel and personal property, risky behaviour, fighting …

Lovely grounds, attracting unwanted non-guests.

I would assume they have more than just one person employed to manage all this?

And, as @DeanElderberry suggests, a large part of their job must be keeping a beady eye on the staff, who mostly - by definition - must be quite badly off and required to service the needs of people who seem unimaginably wealthy. There’s a strange tension inherent in such a place.

I would have thought a security role at such a hotel would require a high level of IT expertise- CCTV, alarms etc all with remote access. Does Mick really have such skills? It’s not just about manning the door and keeping an eye out for undesirables…

It’s a short step from there to confessing to something you haven’t done in order to avoid the ill effects of a long investigation. Even criminals are entitled to correct processes, it’s part if being a civilised society.

I’ve always felt worried about “lesser sentence if you confess early” for the same reason. Or accepting a police caution (which means you have accepted you’re guilty) because it’s a quick way to get home and feed the cat.

Yes, and turning it round the other way, I’d be seriously pissed off if my later life husband turned out to have been a wife beater in previous marriages.

That’s a very aspiring goddess point of view! Never mind the feelings of the people involved, the audience wants to know

The fact that they are so helpless without Roy suggests he definitely is going to stay with Lexi for good. Fgs even supermarkets not known for their staff management skills know how to nit put the security guy in the bakery or the trolley collector on the till.

Those sunglasses! Edna Everage!

Wasn’t Mick a roadie before, @JoelenesParrot? He must have some experience of managing complex organisation, equipment, tech, liaison … He may well have needed to oversee CCTV concerning vehicles, electronic equipment, etc?

Looked it up …

https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/roadie#:~:text=Roadies%20set%20up%20and%20dismantle,live%20shows%2C%20festivals%20and%20events.

It says the job may require you to:

act as security for equipment and band members

Though how that translates to a country hotel, I couldn’t say.

Eeeekh. Woman's Hour has a feature on sexual assaults in Young Farmers clubs that I suspect is about to be picked up as a future Archers storyline

It does seem that Lily is being shaped into the new Caroline brilliant observation @TottersDeterminedlyTowardsThePollingStation with Lily’s links to LL comparable to Caroline being the niece of Lord Netherborne. GG certainly needs someone. I don’t think it’s properly been made clear who’s in charge - I thought the whole point of Oliver selling up was so he no longer had the responsibility. Do we know yet who the mysterious owners are? So far it seems to be a skeleton staff of Roy of the Rotas, Mick - who sounds more roadie than security - and Brad as bag carrier. We used to have Lynda on reception, Ian in the kitchen, Kirsty in the health club - it felt like a whole separate eco-system. What’s actually happened feels more like a downsizing than an upgrade.

Oh yes, the sexual assault issue was all over the papers yesterday.

(I hesitated to mention it here because no one in Ambridge seems to have anything to do with Young Farmers these days.)

But that would require the SWs to engage with some farming storylines.

I'm not thinking that Joy has been guilty of anything criminal herself but if she is a victim of past trauma she is, at least, entitled to talk about when and to whom she chooses or not at all. Him being pissed off about it is his problem.

I agree but, of course, this is TA where people are constantly getting jobs or setting up businesses without any previous experience or the relevant qualifications. If they belong to the Archer clan it's then a great success, but if they are a Grundy, its doomed to be a total failure.

Also, if Joy was under witness protection, as has previously been suggested, she wouldn't be able to tell anyone about it.

Joy has been portrayed as the one who is holding back on her relationship with Mick (though she was quick enough to get into it) - doesn’t seem to want to move it on further, was a bit taken aback when he got a job in Ambridge etc, but it’s Mick who should be wary until he knows exactly what he’s getting into. Joy seems like a harmless, chatty, slightly needy middle-aged single woman, but she clearly has a secret. If the positions were reversed and it was Mick who was hiding something I think we would be much more concerned.

TottersDeterminedlyTowardsThePollingStation
It does seem that Lily is being shaped into the new Caroline.

Lily does not have the class to be a Caroline, new or otherwise. She's more like a new Lynda Snell, only with all the bossiness and nosiness and without the kind heart.

Lily is the new Lizzy. Nasty smug self absorbed cow. Apple, tree etc etc.

Of course; silly me. But definitely not Caroline, who was none of the above.

You forgot snobbish. Freddie seems to be more like Nigel, hapless and not very bright, but well-meaning and kind.

I stopped believing in Lizzy when she took up with Vince. It is so out of character that it is clear the SW have no idea who she is. And, if they don't care, I can't either.

I don't think Caroline was ever a snob: snobs are fakes, and she wasn't. She just made shameless use of having a relation with a handle to his name, and having a few useful contacts as a result – like was it the Duke of Westminster, at one point, whom she could get to do her a favour? Or possibly Princess Margaret to stay at Grey Gables and make Jack Woolley, who was a snob, unutterably happy?

People who are the real thing are by definition not snobs. It's those who are not but long to be, like Jennifer, who are snobs. Elizabeth is stereotypical, and so was her mother-in-law: more stuck-up than any duchess, and with less excuse.

The dictionary definition is interesting:

1. One who despises, ignores, or is patronizing to those he or she considers inferior.
2. One who is convinced of his or her superiority in matters of taste or intellect.
3. A vulgar person who affects to be better, richer, or more fashionable, than he really is; a vulgar upstart; one who apes his superiors.