Archers thread #167: Welcome to Ambridge, the world capital of loose ends! 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 like The Archers to be wall to wall election conversations for the next month, 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.)

Over to you!

Rumsfeld was quoting a respected source. It's called the Johari Window, an idea developed by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the mid-fifties, and the intelligence community had been using it for a long time before Rumsfeld said it and caused people who were a bit differently-brained to mock at him.

Countryfile (BBC1) is currently looking at the growth of mega farms. They mention dairy farming being on the up because of the coffee shop phenomenon! All fascinating stuff that we used to get far more of on TA.

Thanks for that, Asking. I remember wondering at the time why people were laughing at him, when it seemed so bleedin' obvious, but didn't know the source. I shall read up on it.

I find Justin’s voice so uncomfortable

what’s with Paul and his itch in the funny place?

Employment law!

Hope it’s not Sandy McNabs - crabs!
(Paul’s sensitive issue)

I thought Fallon and Paul had been up to something. Maybe not.

That's the result of Etienne's open relationship. And why was he so embarrassed with Fallon when she only sang a rude song?

So did I.

I was only half listening. Is the embarrassing revelation that Fallon sang an obscene song/rap in the bar? Or something else?

Yeah. That was it

Other questions: when did Fallon and Kirsty become such good friends?

Why is Paul being given so much air time when he is the dullest character in the entire show? Are we being groomed into caring about him ahead of a Denise & Alistair reveal that will devastate him..

Since the Fallon actor playing general drunk wasn't brilliant, I'm glad we didn't have to hear her drunk rapping Snoop Dogg!

At least the collective wish of the thread has come true with some discussion of the legality of sacking Alice (I have no idea how accurate Lilian was). I don't think it'll come to lawyers. The horsey Borsetshire set is presumably small enough that Justin's 'discreet' enquiries will get back to Alice soon enough and cause drama there without the need for any further legal wrangling.

This notwithstanding the minor inconvenient fact that the Borsetshire horsey set was immense enough that no one in Ambridge had heard of Harry.

The🔮 says that we are about to discover that Paul is bisexual and has fallen for Fallon after she snogged him last night

how old is Fallon? I can’t see her attracting all these young men! I don’t think she would be interested either

She's just about to turn 39 (born 19 June 1985)

That was quite the anti climax 😆

Certainly something of that nature.

Yes very amused by the amazingly coincidental employment law discussion, immediately after the discussion on here about that sort of thing being required.

Paul's itching definitely sounds like there could be some little visitors doing the rounds.

Pubic lice are apparently becoming endangered because of the fashion for pubic depilation. Whatever it is, it's definitely a sign that Etienne has already opened the relationship before brining it up with Paul. (Which is just plain old cheating, not actually an open relationship.)

Pubic, not Public. Stop trying to censor me, autocorrect!

Fallon reminds me of a friend of mine who is very attractive, so I don’t have any problem imagining her attracting young men.

Alice has been employed at the Stables since September 2022, so not for the two years she'd need before taking her relations to an employment tribunal.

When Lilian said they should have a system of checks and balances to make sure things like this didn't happen, what exactly do we think (did she think!) she meant by "things like this"? Alice being drunk habitually and then walking out on them for an indefinite period? I think that is rather outwith their control. There being cases of strangles among the horses in their care? Ditto. I can't see how a system of checks and balances would have been even slightly helpful.

I imagine Fallon would be very attractive to younger men.
Dodnt she used to be best mates with Jazzer though - what happened there? I can't remember the last time we heard them talking. He also seems a lot older than her, isn't he around 50? Not that that stops them being mates, but it was 10+ years ago when they had storylines together (I think) which would make that age gap a bit weird. I might be remembering completely wrong though.

Even if Alice had been at the Stables for more than two years, I would have thought she would reach a point where simply being totally unavailable to work for months on end would be reasonable cause for dismissal.

Jazzer was in the same year at school as Ed, and Ed was born in 1984, nine months before Fallon was. So no, not a massive age-gap.

Well! I'm preening myself now having predicted odd goings-on at the disco. How far it will have gone is the issue.

I wonder if total recall will be on the cards for both Fallon and Alice in due course.