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.

Why not? There never has to be a logical reason why a teenager does anything, let alone why they might drink cider.

I do hope Susan's (excellent) appeal to Alice hits home. But I suspect that much as it's Martha that's making her want to give up drinking, facing up to a potential prison sentence plus a life time of knowing "what she did" (much as we know she didn't) without the insulation of booze, is what's holding her back.

And it's not going to help that she's been stealing from the pub.

On the subject of loose ends - I may have missed it, but did Jim get the all clear on the mole on his hand?

I don't think it was ever mentioned again.

Just a clumsy way to introduce azra

In real life I think he wpuld have involved social care & the courts snd removed her. He's soft for Alice though.

Even though he’s her nephew….

Someone suggested upthread that Josh might have a crush on Paul and I did wonder during this evening’s episode. He is hugely over invested in Paul’s love life. John sounds like a nice person. I suppose his appearance means we are going to hear more from A&D...

Alice almost had a bit of a flashback as Adam drove towards the bridge. I thought she’d realise she must have been in the passenger seat when the crash occurred. Maybe it will all come back to her when she’s in rehab.

She definitely had a flashback, but Adam didn’t pursue it when she said ‘us’ - just encouraged her to plead guilty. I’m quietly confident we will get there in the end, but the SWs don’t want to rush anything.

John sounds a lot more interesting (and a great deal more sensible) than Alistair. He may well welcome having Denise taken off his hands!

How have they managed to make John sound just like a male copy of Denise? Accent, delivery, character.

I thought that@JanglyBeads

Is this the first time he’s spoken?

I think it is and he doesn't appear on the cast list for the episode.

Dreadful rainbow symbolism, but interesting to see the non-stop rain has eventually been noted on TA. I'm in Australia and even I know all about it.

My thoughts exactly! It was quite odd. I thought he sounded lovely too.

Interesting that John has appeared as a real character. For someone I couldn’t wait to get rid of as a storyline, I quite liked him!

Also I’m going with AmBridgertons because we had a bit of a spate of sex scenes

Bridge being the operative word at the minute with Alice’s accident. Ambridge over Troubled Waters!

I can understand George still drinking the ‘rank’ cider. Probably less so with alcohol, but I seem to have a definite ‘I’ve paid for it so I will eat it’ problem with food. I hate waste and would rather eat something I don’t like than throw it away. I have chickens which help me deal with this issue with household food waste.

I do know it’s probably not normal behaviour, but George is fairly broke and spent his last bit of change on the rank cider, he won’t have let it go to waste and chugging it as he walked will have given him something to do/less to carry.

i do think it’s more likely, given its george, that he would have felt vindicated in ‘swapping’ if for something more to his taste at the party though.

I also thought John sounded like Denise. He loves his boy so his ok in my books. Thank goodness Alice is going away for a while, it great they had a space in the same re-hab place she went to before.🙄
Surprise Brian didnt take her though. The whole truth about the crash and George is bound to come out in the end, its just that the SW like dragging it out until we dont give a toss what happens. Like, dare I say, Helen. Talking of Helen, she seems to have disappeared,(im not complaining). Would like a bit of Ruth and David for a while now ( no Pip), with a bit of farming chatter, that would be nice.

We haven’t heard from Brian in far too long.

Granted that the UK can have wildly varying weather (I’m in the south east) but we’ve been desperate for rain! It’s been drier than Gandhi’s flip flops for weeks.

Thank goodness Alice is going away for a while, it great they had a space in the same re-hab place she went to before.🙄
Surprise Brian didnt take her though.

Are you not more surprised that Brian, who has allegedly been feverishly calling around all the rehab places in the country to try to find one with a vacancy, apparently didn't try the one they'd already used? Unless he didn't think they were any good (which we've never heard before) then I find that quite fishy.

Whatever it takes, I suppose. At least she's there now.

I was also frustrated with the thwarted bridge flashback. I don't think it was Adam's fault: he did question the 'we'. But when confronted with it, Alice backed down. I think the SWs are just teasing us, to make us keep thinking that it's about to be revealed.

I hope it doesn’t come out in court - that would be ridiculous

Family support all round, nice one.
Would like John to become a permanent character.

Driving along, Adam talking about changing her plea to guilty. Alice gone quiet.

Alice (cuts across him) it was here wasn’t it
Adam: oh ah yeah err, I think it was

(really Adam you had to think, major accident, small community, bridge closed for ages for repair, causing traffic chaos, not even aware you are driving your on the edge sister to rehab over the scene of the accident that has sent her life spiralling out of control)

Alice: I remember the bridge. And the other car coming towards us
Adam: us?
Alice: me. ah err? it’s all so jumbled in my head, I can’t get a handle on it. It’s like a nightmare
Adam: Try not to think about it - (bad advice Adam)
Alice: I know I should plead guilty, I will, it’s the right thing to do,
Adam: good - (no,no,no, Adam)
Alice: but it just seems so unreal to me that I did that. I got drunk and I drove into another car. I really could have killed someone.

Theres a reason why it seems unreal Alice, think, think. If only Chris had heard Alice say that, he would have been right on it, like a ferret down a hole.

I like the John actor’s accent, distinctive from other male cast members and with a nice “timbre”.

John did sound unexpectedly delightful - and the actor who plays him is both attractive and well known … I do hope this won’t be another instance where they bring in an actor clearly over qualified for the role (Alistair’s sister for example) and give them five minutes’ airtime.

What would be more satisfactory would be for Denise and John to split up, leaving him a single man and concerned father who now finds it necessary to be in Ambridge regularly to check up on poor broken hearted Paul.

Which mature women in Ambridge are short of gentlemen callers at the moment?

There’s Helen …