Archers thread #168: Near to the Maddening Crowd? 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 to hear more of Harrison's strange little moaning noises, or other unusual views.

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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.)

Thanks to @OverArmour for the title suggestion!

Over to you.

Thank you! Very prompt. I’ll just copy what I said on old

I don’t think she would have been clear next morning given how much she had drunk

I think the fruit cider is more likely to jog her memory. I think she will confront him in front of others (at the bull?) and his reaction will make it clear and he will probably break down

Nicely done @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Thanks for the new thread :)

she was desperate to get out of the shop, I remember she was quite rude about the concert. I imagine she knocked the lot back as soon as she parked up in her special place

Chris expressed surprise about the fruit cider but I recall she said it was exactly what she would do (I.e. drink anything). But perhaps that is because she was so full of self loathing at the time because it appeared there was not doubt she did it.

I think the fruit cider is the key. And I also think Chris will be key. I just hope they don’t drag it out.

I'm not looking forward to George being the pariah of the village. Maybe he will go and join bartleby

I posted at the end of the last thread and bored on about it when the incident happened. Alice would not have been clear the next day.
https://www.rehab-recovery.co.uk/articles/how-long-does-alcohol-stay-in-your-system/#

Not as burgers I hope!

I also think it would be shame to lose the George character not least because he's well-acted. I feel the same about the mangling of Harrison's character.

I guess we'll also have to sit through teary apologies from people like Kate, saying sorry for not believing Alice all along.
Which would be ridiculous - knowing what they know now, believing Alice would be absurd. Thinking she's guilty is completely rational. But I'm sure they'll apologise anyway.

It's interesting because although she is innocent of drink driving (on this occasion) she is still guilty of drinking, whuch isn't actually illegal, but it's a long way off polishing your halo.

I feel the same about the mangling of Harrison's character.

Has Harrison’s character actually been mangled? He started out as a git and is, judging by recent events, still a git. Tonight’s conciliation (with Fallon doing all the heavy lifting) has to be a blip, surely.
He ‘might put it in a drawer’ ( his new spiffy bit of paper with writing on it). I have at least one alternative suggestion.

sorry posted my bottom reply to RSs comment on the old thread in error so copied here

VoxPop · Yesterday 22:31 …

Alice knows she would not have driven.because she put her keys in the glove compartment. She is so certain she pleaded not guilty because despite all the evidence she knows she did not do it (so do we).

The comments that this would not have stopped her driving have one fatal flaw. Alice has done this many times and she knows it works because it has always worked, and she knows that because she sobers up in the same pull in she started off at (with the exception of George’s molestation and kidnapping of her and taking her car without consent, perverting the course of justice …)

RegimentalSturgeon · Yesterday 23:13 …

So, to clear herself of one charge ( which isn’t going to happen anyway as things stand) her defence is effectively “I’m regularly drunk in charge, yer Honour, but I never inhale”. Which will go down like a cup of cold sick.”
Show quote history

VoxPop · Yesterday 23:52 …

Except I wasn’t presenting this as a legal defence but as a fatal flaw in the assertions here, that this would not have stopped her driving (which could not have been known anyway, even without considering the fact that it always has stopped her before)

Thanks for the new thread, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

(Edited because I used the wrong emoji)

Im fed up with Alice stuttering and Adam talking so calmly to everyone,even when he is annoyed, does he ever rant and rage?
I dont think I fancy a peanut butter lasagne, Im not mad keen on peanut butter, lucky im not American.

I love peanut butter but the lasagne sounded gross!

Except I wasn’t presenting this as a legal defence but as a fatal flaw in the assertions here, that this would not have stopped her driving (which could not have been known anyway, even without considering the fact that it always has stopped her before)

Why drink in the car at all? She lives alone - drink there.
There's no way she could drink a whole bottle of vodka, starting after the village shop closes, and be fine to drive in the morning. So she'd have driven over the limit then.

I agree with others that I am not looking forward to the canonisation of St Alice and the vilification of George when the truth comes out.

I wasn't sure whether it was meant to be sweet or savoury. The cream suggested sweet - yuk.

Thanks for the new thread.

Joy has probably spent a lot of time going over the things that happened before the accident - we heard her expressing regret at selling the vodka to Alice. Her own shock and pain from her injury would have added to her need to process the whole horrible AMBRIDGE BRIDGE TERROR NIGHT event.

I hate the way the Grundys have been degraded and demonised over the last 30 years, but George needs a dose of nemesis. Is there any sentencing option where Alice could be ordered to go back into rehab to cure her of getting stotious in her car?

Agree about the lasagne - chocolate, cream, peanut butter - layered somehow? -presumably not with pasta sheets and baked, but hard to imagine eating a plate of it.

I've googled - it seems to be some kind of refrigerator cake that includes a biscuit layer and sounds vile.

Isn’t banoffee pie the original sweet lasagne?

looked up the recipe and if Fallon is being inspired by American baking websites/social media then god help the arteries of ambridge

Thanks for the new thread @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Banoffee pie is just a rather nasty thing to do to poor harmless bananas. Much better split with ice cream and chocolate sauce, or baked with brown sugar, rum and limes. Or with whiskey and lemon.

Perversion of course of justice now, isn't it? Which is rightly seen as serious - if we can't rely on law and justice, what can we rely on?

He could be sent down for a long time which would make for a v interesting plot-line in a few years. Freddie as the heir of LL will always land on his feet despite being an ex-jail-bird but it won’t be like that for George. I still have zero sympathy for him. The slow-burn is working well for me- especially if the truth is revealed by Alice remembering rather than him coming forward and confessing…

Re the ‘lasagne’ without pasta- aren’t we basically looking at a version of a mille-feuille?

Thanks so much @gasp

Thanks for new thread.