Archers thread #169: Denise rocks the boat in more than one way! Will Chris find a message in a cider bottle? 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 have liked to have Harrison's behbe, 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 https://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 @LikeTalkingToLassie and @BrightYellowDaffodil for title inspiration. Is this the end for Denise and John? It does seem odd to introduce John now if he's going to disappear. He has a lovely voice.

Over to you!

Thanks, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g , for this vast blank slate on which who knows what horrors will be dissected.

Always one to look on the bright side, me.

Thank you. I can’t tell you how much this thread enhances my enjoyment of each episode.

I’m so glad to know that other people have evil fantasies that involve wholesale massacre in Ambridge. I just used to think I was weird, but now I’m not alone 😄

Thank you once again, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g.

I imagine there’s a stony silence in the Metcalf/Mack household tonight. John in his custom built bike shed oiling his favourite leather saddle. Denise creeping straight up to bed after a painful evening at the Stables with Paul …

John has to stay. Half the women in Ambridge are already in love with him …

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Quite an episode.

(Biscuit) Crumbs! 🍪

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
Thanks for new thread.

Isn't it about time George came clean and admitted he was driving..

John has to stay. Half the women in Ambridge are already in love with him …

I don't think it's love...

I hope we don’t get a full new family though with Cara turning up. There’s been a few too many newcomers lately and I’d like a bit more focus on the existing

I’d be happy for new characters to join the ranks.
Thanks for the new thread.

Thanks for new thread.
Good episode last night.
Poor John, fancy being dumped on a bench outside the village shop, after being married for a long time, a bit cold, but I think Denise is a bit cold.
I would hate living in a village where everyone knows your business, no matter how picturesque it is.
Hope the biscuits were dark choc digestives and also gingernuts, both my favs.

Thanks for the thread.

I don't know why they couldn't have broadcast the breakup from the Metcalfe-Mack house. It's kind of convention that only what happens in Ambridge is heard, and maybe we wouldn't have believed Denise if she reported the conversation afterwards. But we've always had scenes at LL, and various places like Jaxx, including recent events at Casey Meats (has that SL been dropped?) so why not Chez Denise? It would have been a lot more believable than 'oh, since you're passing, our marriage is over.'

It’s like Casey meats so was used to tie up the markie sl but was all very unsatisfactory

Oh yes we don't know if Vince has told Jolene.

Yes re weird on a bench. Could have at least been in a car parked outside the vet surgery. Or maybe not.

There was a quick throwaway conversation between Harrison and Kenton about how markie had been caught and would be going down for a long time I thought. Neatly tying things up until he takes revenge when paroled in 5 years

why they couldn't have broadcast the breakup from the Metcalfe-Mack house.

Because then Joy and Jazzer (Radio Carter’s representatives on Earth) wouldn’t have witnessed it and been able to spread the conclusions they drew from the scene all over the village?

Actually it’s quite likely everyone living within sight of that bench witnessed it from behind their kitchen blinds or bedroom curtains. As would anyone who happened to be passing at the time. It could hardly have been more public.

The cheap (but very good) birdwatching binoculars from Lidl that everyone has beside the window onto the Green (everyone I tell you) would have come in handy to help with the lipreading.

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

I'm just waiting for Joy to get a neuron fizzling into life about the cut-price fruit cider.

Yes, I'm impatient for this to wrap up. I'm finding this storyline quite irritating!

However, I don't think George is going to come clean by morally choosing to do the right thing... It'll be an accident if he does (e.g. spilling the beans to Emma/Brad in a moment of anxiety, who will then agonise over the position they've been put in before telling Harrison).

Or, Alice will remember/he'll be found out somehow.

I like how they're starting to write George's character as a little more nuanced than before... he does seem to genuinely care about Alice and have some sort of inner turmoil going on (although, clearly, not enough to confess...)

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

i predict Pip will adopt one of the kittens without asking Stella and there’ll be a scene where Stella has to do some looking after of the cat, echoing the way Pip makes her look after Rosie without asking. And it will add to Stella’s sense of suffocation.

and also Stella’s dog (I think she has a new one? Or she will also get a new one) won’t get on with the cat. And it will not only make it hard for them to stay in the same house but it will be a metaphor.

Thanks for the new thread.

Was the Casey meat thing ever resolved?

I'm just not that invested in the Denise/John/Alistair love triangle. John has been introduced too late in the storyline no matter how attractive he is meant to be, I found it vanishingly unlikely that Denise would have been spurred into action to break up with him in the village shop and then done the deed on the village green. The only realistic aspect of the whole debacle was that she couched the break up in terms of it's not working, we've been growing apart, things are not right between us instead of stating honestly up front that she'd met someone else. I don't understand why they couldn't have been separated from the start (before we were ever introduced to John) then she and Alistair could have got together unimpeded and we would have been spared this tedious sub-plot. I'd far rather have had Chris walking into the shop last night, being asked how Alice was getting on, revealing the cider bottle mystery and getting Joy's detection skills onto that instead of spying on Denise and John through the window.

There was a quick throwaway conversation between Harrison and Kenton about how Markie had been caught and would be going down for a long time I thought. @Bruisername has it in a nutshell., tying up both the Casey Meats SL and the Kenton dog attack - all neatly brushed under the carpet in one fell swoop.

I completely missed that, as well!

I completely missed the Markie denouement, so it must have been pretty damn throwaway indeed. Ridiculous after all that fear and over-dramatic wibbling from J’lene - and for what?? The script development is so bad.