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.

or the cracks get covered up and not dealt with because they don’t get identified early enough

I guess it would be of more use to be able to recall the title of that thread.

Anyone??

“I hope she gets chucked in jail if only because she must have been drinking around Martha and any thing could happen. Thats just me and Alice is a fictional character . No matter how much some people #Voxpop, likes to believe she is not and is a victim of what Im not sure.”

I am unsure where you get the idea that I believe Alice is not fictional, I would have thought when I recently replied with the phrase
“anyone is entirely entitled to hate Alice’s character”
that might have been a clue, otherwise I would have ended the sentence after the word Alice, but I doubt even that would indicate I believe her not to be fictional, to most people at least.

I thought the general way of this thread was to comment on the storylines, indulge in guessing what might come next, comment on the characters as written or indulge in OTT love or hate of them as any poster sees fit. And others entirely free to agree or disagree as they see fit or relate comments to the real world environment in which the characters are written etc. etc. etc.

So again it would seem unfair for Alice randomly to be thrown in prison hyperbole or not. I imagine quite a lot of people drink around their children without being jailed, but as far as I understood, Alice has tried to avoid that, hence her binges in the woods. She has voluntarily given Martha up to Chris to ensure she is safe after George fitted her up making her believe she was driving whilst almost unconsciously drunk and causing a serious accident where people could have been killed and after which Fallon lost her pregnancy.

As for Alice being a victim of what, I thought that would be painfully obvious, given George’s criminal actions and their very serious potential consequences for Alice and her family. (As characters in the radio drama the Archers - for anyone in need of clarification).

Well. This is annoying. I can find one or two threads that mention Chris and Alice but they’re not in this series of threads. Though I would have sworn it was on one of these threads …

It would be interesting. Well done remembering the starter marriage comment by Jennifer, it was quite funny.

That was Brian's comment, not Jenny's. It was a long time ago, I think before we were all joined in holy Archermony here. They got married no later than 2010, I think, given that Alice was born in 1988 and IIRC she was still a student at the time.

The Ambridge weather fairy let the SWs down last night. It's absolutely tipping it down here and I have the impression that's pretty widespread across England at the moment. Not haymaking weather at all!

Motoring through this thread - 905 posts. Title thoughts now welcome ...

I think these threads started when Lilian was shagging Matt’s unstable brother weren’t they? When was that?

Gasp, how about, ‘Boating over voting! Cringeworthy or sea worthy? Come and discuss…

Ha ha ha very funny …..

As I am sure you understand, from the comment I made in relation to CPS rules, intoxication is not a defence in itself and does not excuse you for your actions, but recognises the level of intoxication may prevent the person forming the intention or knowledge of wrongdoing that constitutes part of the crime.

I was using it to point out that the law recognises that a drunk may not have intended to do wrong or even realise that they were, as an alternative to the view expressed that whatever drunks do, that is basically their underlying character.

I do subscribe to the view that most of us are capable of almost anything under extreme drivers, some more than others, but that does not mean that is our underlying personality, just an extreme potential.

Look what George did at the bridge - except George has already shown a propensity to fit even his best friend up in the cold light of day, and of course he fully understood what he was doing when he dragged Alice into the drivers seat, apologising to her as he did it.

————————————

“Intoxication, whether voluntary or involuntary, is not a defence per se. However, where a person is intoxicated through drink or drugs and commits a crime, the level of intoxication may be such as to prevent that person from forming the necessary mens rea of the crime”

definition of mens rea … the intention or knowledge of wrongdoing that constitutes part of a crime, as opposed to the action or conduct of the accused.

For the rain it raineth every day
But in Ambridge they make hay

Something about Denistare rocking the boat @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g ?
Cider with Georgie?

What about something along the lines of ‘Is George losing his bottle…’

That was in early 2010 when she met him at least, not sure of the full intimacy then. But since Matt out of prison mid 2010 contact with Paul seemed to stop. So don’t know if they got it on again later.

Alice and Chris returned married at the start of Aug 2010

<making notes>
<pondering>
<glancing at spoilers thread just in case...>

Won't be in a position to listen live tonight, so may have to catch up tomorrow. We're at the stage where I have to keep checking how chatty you all are in case the thread fills up quickly. The spoilers thread rarely helps with predicting this!

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g not wanting to fill the thread prematurely…!But, just want to say a big thank you. I really appreciate your thread making skills and this one has become a lovely part of my day 🙂

I have nothing to say (yet!) about tonight except that for two nights in a row we have been subjected to atrocious manglings of the word croissants. And not even from comedy working-class yokels. Surely Justin, Pip, and Stella didn't ALL need to say it (at all), and if they did then they couldn't all be under the misapprehension that it has a rogue w in it or an audible s at the end. Justin in particular was unforgiveable:
a) didn't he use to own a house in France?
b) 'Wait till you see my croissants!' sounded like he was trying to channel Kenneth Williams in a Carry On film.

It was croissant? Maybe I'm going deaf but I was wondering what they were on about. Gasp didn't miss anything.

1:40 in or thereabouts. Mini-kwassonts. Spoken by TWOL & Stella.

Yes, a big thank you from me too.

Just listened to Paul talking to Alistair tonight. Is it normal for people to have such personal discussions with their boss about their love life and that of their parents?

No it bloody isn’t. Intolerable, self-obsessed little tick.

:) Quite right about it being Brian’s comment, and I only llistened to it earlier today and got it the wrong way round.

B - for the sake of our sanity we’re going to have to look on this as Alice’s starter marriage

J - marriage is not like a mortgage Brian, it’s a serious commitment

There's probably A Reason why we have to listen to Paul droning on about Etienne. I wish we didn't have to. Why should we care about someone Josh described as boring but we haven't met or know anything about.

Where's @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime ? Is she OK?

Paul droning on to Alistair was a not-so-cunningly-disguised plot device to enable Alistair to all about Denise & John's home life, which appears to be less ghastly than Denise claims. Coming on top of John being cast (and sounding like a perfectly normal, pleasant, sociable bloke) this is potentially interesting, though more likely just a change of scriptwriters! I sometimes imagine them deliberately sabotaging each other's plot lines ...

John seems far more interesting than his wife and son.

I don’t know…I’ve long suspected that Denise has fabricated the problems in her marriage. Impossible to tell from his brief appearance but John didn’t sound like a man whose marriage is in the doldrums.

Why didn’t Alistair at least ask Denise why she went on holiday with the man she is allegedly planning to leave? Ridiculous.

Denise says John can't talk about feelings but he seems to have no difficulty talking to Paul about his feelings.
He does seem nice and normal - although I can't get the image of him in cycling lycra out of my mind I'm afraid. That alone would be grounds for divorce in my view.
There were suggestions tonight that Alistair is going to accidentally let the cat out of the bag in one of his creepy conversations with Paul. Even the self obsessed Paul seemed a bit surprised that Denise had told Alistair so much about him and John.