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.

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.)

Thanks to @OverArmour for the title suggestion!

Over to you.

DeanElderberry
Kenton just might still be Labour. He has been found guilty of reading books for pleasure.

I don't really follow this: is reading bound to lead to supporting Labour? because Rory Stewart doesn't just read books for pleasure, he writes them... as did Benjamin Disraeli.

As for still being Labour, I am unsure we've ever heard Kenton talk about politics at all, let alone say how he voted. It was retrospectively invented that he had irritated Phil by approving in his teens of Harold Wilson, but I'm blowed if I know when that was, because in 1964-70 he was too young to vote and rather young to show any interest in politics at all, and in1974-76 he still wouldn't have been voting: his eighteenth birthday was in August1976 and Wilson stopped being Prime Minister in April that year. Also he was not in the country during most of Wilson's second term: he ran away to sea in 1974 as soon as he was sixteen.

TA has always been mercifully free of politics.

Oh, at last, Chris, questioning the cider bottle.

When Alice arrived at the shop and bought the Vodka I actually assumed she had already been drinking earlier that day since we know she had a stash hidden away. I imagined she finished whatever she had in the house and came looking for more so she may well have been over the limit when she drove to the shop.

Then I don’t understand what her plan was: drink Vodka in the lay-by, fall into oblivion and then call someone when she came to and ask them to pick her up. Who, exactly? She had just had a huge row with her family. She wouldn’t want Chris to see her in that state. She definitely couldn’t have called upon Harrion’s services again. So was she planning to walk home? I just think her assertion that she would never drive after drinking really doesn’t stack up.

Anyway. I think she will start to have flashbacks. Perhaps if someone drives her on the route George took that evening something will trigger a hazy memory feeling sick, trying to get out of the car but being in the passenger seat.Then there will be a few more tense episodes where she desperately tries to remember who was driving…

Why was George carrying an empty cider bottle home? I'd always assumed he hadn't drunk the cider at the party and so, being. Grundy, he was taking it home with him. Carrying an empty bottle doesn't make sense unless he is a very committed recycler.
Like Bruiser, I think Meg has a part to play in the George SL. I was originally worried that she would turn out to be the Sweeney Todd of the horsey set but it seems she is just a genuinely nice old lady. I can see George visiting Bartleby to confide in him and Meg over hearing and then advising George to confess. Or perhaps just realising George is troubled and encouraging him to confide in her.

Why was George carrying an empty cider bottle home?

Exactly! I assumed he’d bought 4 cans or something, drunk one, and not liking it took the rest home. Ugh I hate it when the details stop it making sense.

Also, I’m very far from being a fan of Emma, but that was absolutely shitty of Justin. God I despise that character.

Haven’t managed to listen but I too thought George’s dedication to recycling was odd at the time

what did Justin do?

It was pretty shitty of Emma to carry her vendetta against Alice into a thread about strangles at The Stables, which were quite clearly nothing to do with Alice. She wasn't even there when the outbreak happened. But who cares if it destroys The Stables, eh, so long as Emma can have a go at Alice and accuse her covertly of having taken riding lessons when drunk. (Which come to think of it also has nothing whatever to do with the outbreak of strangles.)

I am still questioning how Alice was supposed to have opened the cider, as don’t you usually need a bottle opener for cider bottles?

Will Emma repeat to George that Chris is investigating mitigating circumstances

Thought the suggestion that Meg may overhear George confiding in Bartleby a good shout, that would bring it all together.

Alice was so disgusted at herself after thinking she drove drunk without realising, and caused the accident, that she was quite prepared to believe she had drunk the cider, even though Chris made it clear he found it difficult to believe. I wonder if despite her families support, the likes of Susan might shame her into changing her plea to guilty, despite believing deep down that she couldn’t have done it.

Maybe Alice’s party trick is opening bottles with her teeth

Or thighs?

Quid pro quo on Emma, got them to do some tree surgery, then claimed it was more taken off than agreed. Ed said I suppose that’s our 5 star review gone.

Then Justin spoke about had much bad reviews affected businesses especially unfair when not true and how he and Lillian had suffered at the hands of that.

Emma understood, and said she was sure when word got round they were not accurate they would be taken down, which she did but told her mum that she would not send Mia back there and was still going to bad mouth them to her friends.

Well done to whoever it was that predicted the reciprocal bad review solution

Oh that was me!!

Emma totally in the wrong and has obviously not learnt her lesson!!

Although I’m struggling to understand how big businessman Justin finds the time

😂 it’s ludicrous

:@VoxPop - I am still questioning how Alice was supposed to have opened the cider, as don’t you usually need a bottle opener for cider bottles?

I assumed they were cans. Though quite why George would have been carrying an empty can home is beyond me: he would surely have left it at the party, or thrown it into a bin/gutter/hedge.

Just listening. Harrison’s ‘look mate’ was rather aggressive

interesting Chris goes straight to Harry

george definitely going to megs when it comes out/about to come out

despite it being so unlikely, it was a good lesson for Emma. She’s deeply unpleasant and stupid!! EmmaG!!

I get why Chris is questioning it - but does he maybe need to think that it's not the most tactful thing to do to discuss it with Harrison?? I know he's a police officer, but as far as he's concerned, Alice nearly killed his wife, and did kill his baby (in his mind, I know it would have been a likely miscarriage, and if not then a probable abortion). Even if Harrison was being rational about the whole thing, hearing potential excuses for the woman he thinks nearly killed his wife isn't going to be what he wants to chat about at the cricket. Just like Chris wouldn't want to hear excuses for Harry, if he'd had nearly killed Alice in a crash.

Chris made the mistake of thinking Harrison might be interested in the law being carried out properly. He will know better in future.

Well there's a reason you wouldn't have a police officer investigating a crime where their relative was the victim.

despite it being so unlikely, it was a good lesson for Emma. She’s deeply unpleasant and stupid!! EmmaG!!

Yes, I nearly spat my tea out at that point. Emma is SO thick, and a horror to boot. My problem is that, with this SL also involving the repugnant Justin, who can be relied on to be loathsome in every situation, I'm faced with the dilemma of not being able to sympathise with either of them.

Yes I think when C suggests Harry's involvement Alice will start remembering something

Well, exactly! It was almost-funny/cringe, like so much. She is awful but also seems like a rightwing demonstration of how so-called 'politics of envy' works. I'm never really sure who the soap is aimed at, how many layers of so-bad-it's-good we can hope for.

And I don't really know why I keep listening (I have many theories) but I do. 🙃

And Justin is reassuringly awfully devious. One day he may astound us with a gesture of apparent magnanimity and we will all be wondering why, how it could possibly benefit him.

(No, it will just be the SWs being random again.)

I assumed it wasn't empty when he left the party and he walked along swigging from it till he came across Alice.