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!

To be honest I'm really glad they spared us that one. I don't care about any of these characters, and it was tedious enough having to listen to Denise breaking up with John.

That hen party sounds awful. 6 women sitting in a barn nibbling cake (possibly, Fallon hasn't agreed to it yet) while one other gets a beauty treatment! You need at least 2 therapists, ideally 3, for a group that size. And not even a lot of cake, since they don't have the money to pay for it.

I mean, it would still be better than a strip show or drinking games IMO, but if you're going to do afternoon tea and a spa day then do it properly!

Last night was so dull. Did it really move any storylines along much?

The hen do sounds naff, yet again periphery being given too much air time. The crash needs resolving, it's boring now.

Yes that does sound like an awful hen party!!

I'm confused about what training Chelsea has had - I thought she did a hairdressing qualification?

so Freddie is paying the price for being a snitch. I’m not sure I can be bothered with that SL tbh.

and 2 months since the crash! It’s really starting to drag!!

Maybe Alice will sober up and discover her left clavicle to be mysteriously broken and healed, Chris will pick up her car from Harrison and discover the seat set to George Grundy height…
Or George goes mad in the style of Edgar Allen Poe’s Tell Tale Heart…

Also Waitrose sell lard!

Alice is a horseriding. I'd be surprised if she's never broken her collarbone.

I still want to know what sort of car Alice has that George was so keen to drive it.
Anyone?

I picture her in a VW golf or polo. No idea why.

I reckon it’s the bmw or Audi equivalent of a vw golf and it was bought new

Whose Hen Do is it?

A friend of Lotties I think. So not sure why Pip is booking on her behalf?

I seem to remember that Lottie seemed a tad on the feeble-minded side (hence being Pip's friend). Or of course I may have imagined that, or just assumed it because she was Pip's friend!

And are Pip & Stella both going? Does it change the dynamics of a Hen/Stag do if some of the attendees are in a relationship together?

Don’t know why I’m interested. I’ve never been to a Hen Do <thankfully>

Stella going would be odd - I don’t think pip is great friends with the bride so Stella must not know her well enough to attend a small hen do. Not much different to someone wanting to bring their DH or mum along!

I took Ivy's biscuits along to the craft club. They vanished very fast - baked about 40 minutes before I set off, so they had just cooled to maximum crispness. Next time I'm going to try the all-butter hobnobs recipe I read on Twitter.

Waitrose clearly sell many good things but since they are hundreds of miles away in another country they are no good to me. It is possible that Tesco and/or Dunnes do Lard, but Lidl, Aldi and Supervalu don't, and since I walk past the Polski Sklep every time I go into town that works better for me than exploring the outer fringes of the town.

I misread the remark about the number of therapists needed for the hen event and thought psychotherapists rather than beauticians, and absolutely agreed that that's what I'd need if I got trapped there.

I reckon the SWs had a good time coming up with those plant names. Pineapple mayweed is standard, but I’d not heard any of the others, and my mother was brought up near Ambridge.

I think I've managed to catch 40% of the past month; I'm none the wiser having read the "new" thread.

Thanks to Gaspode

Returning to the important topic of biscuits, savoury or otherwise:

-Bath Olivers are baked near me. I think they had a mention in Hansard, during lockdown, because United Biscuits stopped making the things until everybody noticed. The (Bath) Fine Cheese Co also make decent cheese biscuits BTW

-Speculoos and digestives are best reserved for cheesecakes!

• Shortbread all butter are DH's biscuit of choice. Garibaldis are great, because I am the only one in the house who likes them.

-Stroopwaffels (heated over a mug of coffee) are a winter treat

-Chocolate chip etc cookies get hoovered up by the teen so need to be rationed.

-Bahlsen and Jules Destrooper have to be hidden (the latter has a lovely factory tour not too far from Dunkirk/Ypres).

Back to the Archers, did Adam plant some cherry trees quite a few years ago?

The one he chewed up and slapped on the wound was yarrow, but I wasn't sure what the ?purple one was. Much better Archers subject matter than love'n'angst, anyway. Might even listen again.

I picture Alice in a mini with a Union Jack roof, or a little Audi.

Poor Susan! A walk around the woods with Neil followed by him painfully working his way through her favourite cookbook is really not what she had in mind at all! 🤦‍♀️ Tonight’s ending made me smile and almost made up for the tedium of last night. Obvs I wasn’t happy with Tracey and Neil talking over each other - just for the record.

The “purple” (most people would say “pink”) was mallow. It wasn’t those names I was querying, it was the string of twee “folk names” he said before the better known name.

I’m just catching up with the omnibus and doing my usual shake of the head that Stella is Lucy Benjamin, and what a great versatile actress she is. Just actually bothered to google and it’s actually Lucy Speed who played Natalie Evans and not LB who played Lisa Fowler. I haven’t watched Eastenders for about 15 years but both of them loom quite large in my memory so this has thrown me. I also watched detectorists quite recently which has LB in it so I was really into her versatility as an actress 😆

the pip and Stella relationship is just so odd. Not sure if it’s just badly written or what but I just don’t believe them as a couple at all, they only seem to have a function as being a creative device to reflect back each others inner monologue. I quite liked hearing Stella talk to Justin and then David for that reason, hearing her express emotions and her ideas on business strategy etc to another person (used to get some of that with Brian but not so much of late). Perhaps that’s why I find a lot of the current scripting a bit annoying, as in reality you don’t only speak to your partner/spouse, or your immediate work colleague, or housemates etc, in isolation - you interact with others on a meaningful level - older characters like Brian, Jenny, Lillian, Jim have always had breadth of character interactions, while we keep having lots (some?) characters lately who are only having scenes with one other person on repeat. I suppose that’s due to cost saving etc though.

The folk names did seem improbable - Neil is far more likely to learned what he knows from books or on farm walks from people using standard names that from some hitherto unknown whimsy merchant.

Has anyone asked whether Martha is in nursery and/ or whether she could do a few more days there? Wasn’t there some story with Jim making costumes for her to go to nursery? Surely a few more days there would be better than being passed from
Kate’s herbal self guided childcare to granny Susan telling her off for smearing the windows and grandad Neil telling her to eat hemlock on toast to staying with Aunty Tracey plus Jazzer with Bert festering away in the corner. Not to mention aunty Emma disappearing up trees or counselling George through his inevitable nervous breakdown.

In reality surely that’s what most parents in Chris’ position would at least try to organise?