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Archers thread #167: Welcome to Ambridge, the world capital of loose ends! Discuss The Archers here.

1000 replies

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 05/06/2024 13:32

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

Archers 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. Grin

Archers 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!

Archers 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!

OP posts:
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JanglyBeads · 20/06/2024 21:03

Not sure why the SWs have to keep putting poor Jakob in these situations. Actually I do, thinking about it - it's bc they're trying to write him as ND but not doing it very convincingly (or maybe it's they acting that's unconvincing?)

IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle · 20/06/2024 21:11

I enjoyed the Kirsty, Fallon and Joy conversation. Goodness knows what they were doing.

I'm fed up of Alice, but not as fed up as I am of Fagash Lil.

TottersDeterminedlyTowardsThePollingStation · 20/06/2024 21:35

IIRC they were test driving a new ‘survival’ day course Kirsty is planning to run on the re-wilding land.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 20/06/2024 22:17

You have it! Except she was calling it "Bushcraft", but the meaning seemed the same.

LillianGish · 20/06/2024 22:18

I’m very worried about what Alice might do with her prescription of diazepam having heard she’s being replaced as manager at the Stables. I hope it’s not a case of desperate times call for desperate measures. She has nothing left to hold onto even assuming she can stay out of jail.

DrBlackbird · 20/06/2024 22:43

The SW are piling on the pressure for Alice. She’s going to be left with nothing to live for / believing that Martha is better off without her. This is the metaphorical car crash we’re being made to watch listen to Can’t say I’m enjoying it.

VoxPop · 20/06/2024 23:17

One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small
… ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall

Don’t chase the white rabbit Alice - believe in yourself and remember, remember, remember - fruit cider

noodlezoodle · 21/06/2024 03:19

I think Fallon and Harrison are headed for divorce, not least because it's been a long time since The Archers had a divorce storyline! #teamFallon

I am however very frustrated at the way they are talking past each other and not really getting to the crux of the problem - which to be fair is probably quite realistic. But my understanding is that while Fallon has said to Harrison that she had a miscarriage and there was no viable baby, what she has never said (unless I fell asleep and missed it) is that even if there had been a viable baby, she would have had an abortion. And while that would have been a brutal conversation, it would also have meant that if Harrison was angry, he would have to be angry with Fallon, and not with Alice.

Perhaps they'll get to that conversation and it will prompt a separation, but I'm not hopeful that we'll get a resolution to this storyline any time soon.

echt · 21/06/2024 04:45

But my understanding is that while Fallon has said to Harrison that she had a miscarriage and there was no viable baby, what she has never said (unless I fell asleep and missed it) is that even if there had been a viable baby, she would have had an abortion

If I've remembered correctly she did say this and Harrison stumbled out of the room horrified, so again no further talk to get to the root of it all.

buidhebeltainn · 21/06/2024 05:05

I think she said she didn't know what she would have done, but she might have terminated. Which seemed realistic, because she had only a day between being told she was pregnant and being told she wasn't, and during that day she had no headspace to consider it because she was in shock from the accident.

CaptainMyCaptain · 21/06/2024 07:09

echt · 21/06/2024 04:45

But my understanding is that while Fallon has said to Harrison that she had a miscarriage and there was no viable baby, what she has never said (unless I fell asleep and missed it) is that even if there had been a viable baby, she would have had an abortion

If I've remembered correctly she did say this and Harrison stumbled out of the room horrified, so again no further talk to get to the root of it all.

Yes. She did say this although maybe it was she 'probably' would. I think she made her position clear.

WitcheryDivine · 21/06/2024 07:44

I liked the silage explanation as well.

Re: Ruairi - isn’t he studying business or something? I honestly can’t remember if we ever found out but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was. (typical sort of thing quite well off young men do)

WitcheryDivine · 21/06/2024 07:45

Sorry that randomly posted from the other day!

Why are they emphasising joy’s sex life?

VoxPop · 21/06/2024 07:55

echt · 21/06/2024 04:45

But my understanding is that while Fallon has said to Harrison that she had a miscarriage and there was no viable baby, what she has never said (unless I fell asleep and missed it) is that even if there had been a viable baby, she would have had an abortion

If I've remembered correctly she did say this and Harrison stumbled out of the room horrified, so again no further talk to get to the root of it all.

I would be interested when that was, because I agree with noodlezoodle that to my knowledge, she has never said this. A few times posters have suggested she had told Harrison and I actually double checked and posted what she actually said at that time.

Hence the repeated comment that we may logically assume she would have had an abortion, but not wanting a pregnancy (or even being relieved at a miscarriage - which I assume, but I don’t think she has even said that) is a different decision from terminating a viable pregnancy. So we just don’t know definitively.

The nearest she has got to telling Harrison anything like this is in the early days when she dismisses it as a miscarriage and tells him it was just a few cells (which I recall quite clearly). I was even hoping she would explain to him then but she did not say anything about abortion or even being glad she miscarried or even (as far as I recall) not wanting the baby. She really needs to shake Harrison out of his dream world. However as I said a long time ago I think they both know the truth of how each other feels but it is so incompatible that they do not want to address it, because they know it will likely end their relationship.

She has repeatedly told him there was no baby, it was a miscarriage, up until recently mocking him for it being referred to as a baby in the prayers. He even then agreed, not literally, but it was about what could have been.

The truth and the problem is they are unable to sit down and calmly discuss each others feelings, beliefs and where they go from here but hopefully now since Fallon told Kirsty
Been doing a lot of thinking, I really need to sort things out with Harrison
They might do that, it is such a shame on the whole they are both decent, kindly people who love(d) each other very much, but this accidental pregnancy and miscarriage has just dragged all Harrison’s desires to have children out of the box he had tucked them neatly away in.

Bruisername · 21/06/2024 08:00

I think it was the scene where he decided to sleep on the sofa

she didn’t say she would have had an abortion but she heavily implied that if the pregnancy had been viable he should not have taken it for granted that she would have continued with it. I think he let out one of those odd little whimpers

VoxPop · 21/06/2024 08:00

CaptainMyCaptain · 21/06/2024 07:09

Yes. She did say this although maybe it was she 'probably' would. I think she made her position clear.

Can you remember when this was, because I would be really interested to know as If she did say that I must have missed it. I really didn’t think she had.

VoxPop · 21/06/2024 08:02

Thanks Bruiser will check it out later

Bruisername · 21/06/2024 08:10

It was a bit of a throw away line tbh so if you were half listening it would have been easily missed

i think it is very clear to Harrison that Fallon will not be having children but she doesn’t seem to have taken on board how much he does want to be a father so I think she has strayed into cruel territory a bit. However, it’s not really surprising as she’s still getting over the trauma of the accident so her bandwidth will be low

Cantsleepdontsleep · 21/06/2024 08:16

I’m pages out from catching up but I must have started this bout of listening between Fallon and Harrison marriage and her saying she doesn’t want kids as I don’t remember the former but I do the latter.

Before we got married (CofE wedding)we had to go for a few chats with the vicar to make sure we were compatible or whatever. One topic which was definitely brought up was children and I’m pretty sure that in her spiel at the wedding there was a bit about effectively going forth and multiplying/starting a family.

i think Adam has an old classic as a run around from wealthier days.

and as a pretty solid atheist (with indoctrinated wobbles from a childhood of CofE), if people say they will pray for me, I’m partly grateful they are willing to take the time, but also find it patronising as I think I see prayer as a bit of last resort - or as get out from actually doing something physical to help.

VoxPop · 21/06/2024 08:28

Great actually found it straight away it was the end of 24th May, Joys birthday and the one before the lawnmower poem.

He suggests if the pregnancy had been viable they would have got on with it wouldn’t they. She repeatedly reminds him he knows she didn’t want children and asks if he has changed his mind. He asks if she would have had an abortion, she says she doesn’t know (but presumably he infers she probably would because she has stressed not wanting children).

Both get upset. Then next episode 2 days later squashed hedgehog.

shame it went so downhill since, but I suppose inevitable.

Many Thanks

Bruisername · 21/06/2024 08:37

I still can’t get over the hedgehog poem

hedgehog is the baby and Fallon is the mower? Or Alice is?

or Fallon is the mower and the hedgehog is Harrison’s dream of fatherhood?

Ambridge · 21/06/2024 08:50

buidhebeltainn · 21/06/2024 05:05

I think she said she didn't know what she would have done, but she might have terminated. Which seemed realistic, because she had only a day between being told she was pregnant and being told she wasn't, and during that day she had no headspace to consider it because she was in shock from the accident.

24th May. Harrison was ranting and raving and accusing her of 'not caring' about her own baby because she’d expressed concern about Martha (after he’d yet again insisted that the accident had definitely caused her to lose the baby and it was all Alice's fault).

I can’t be bothered to transcribe it but essentially Fallon tried gently to be sensitive to Harrison, but after he assured her that 'you would have got used to the idea' of a baby she finally had to lay it on the line and told him that she didn’t even know whether she’d have kept it anyway - he demanded to know, in tones of horror, whether she’d have terminated 'our baby', and she replied that she didn’t know but that 'you know I don’t want children'. After which he made various noises of distress and blundered out of the house, refusing to speak to her any further.

This was all precipitated by Fallon suggesting that come to Joy's party. He refused on the grounds that he couldn’t think about anything but his grief and he was appalled that she could just get on with her life.

Still available on Sounds to listen again (if you can endure Harrison's self-pity)

Ambridge · 21/06/2024 08:51

X-post!

Bruisername · 21/06/2024 08:57

Ah yes that’s it, the ‘you would have got used to it’ would have wound me up

the arrogance of the man who doesn’t have to carry the child, give birth, put their life on hold (I’m sure he would have scurried back to work because ‘someone has to earn the money’) all on top of the potential health issues she may face as she is an older mum. The limited help she would get as her mum is the only support and she has a demanding job and isn’t exactly young. All things you can deal with when you want a child but extremely hard to deal with when you don’t.

Harrison has never given the impression that he really understands fatherhood. All his interactions with children are ‘fun’ and I think he would be a full on Disney dad

MereDintofPandiculation · 21/06/2024 09:01

I think Fallon and Harrison are headed for divorce, not least because it's been a long time since The Archers had a divorce storyline! Be a change to have a divorce for a substantial reason rather than “I’m devout CofE and promised “for better or worse … till death do us part, but I’m a bit bored of you”

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