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!

Love Lilian. They are toying with us with George. Less likely to confess now he won’t have to have every pint in the Bull from his hero tankard. Seems Alice is coming back, perhaps she will buy him a replacement.

Alice hasn't been away very long if she is serious about rehab. I would have expected her to be there at least a month and more likely 2 or 3 given Brian is paying.

Fagash is a loathsome old soak. I wonder if her unhealthy relationship with booze influenced Alice.

Left on 5th July, coming back first week of August; no, that really isn't enough for me to take it seriously.

I'll ask my mum and post it in here. I always have to ask her before making it.

The actress who played Grace Archer has died:

‘Death of the first soap queen: The Archers’ Ysanne Churchman, in life and radio’

https://www.thetimes.com/article/3cbecfc5-a094-4db2-b115-9b12ae6d93a1?shareToken=d725c79806412ae118c5d312ef687558

Grace’s Ambridge life and death were before my time - but I always heard Phil in the context of her loss.

That Times link isn't working for me - just gives a list of articles, none of which are about TA.

Lilian is a real comedic character. Makes me laugh.

If Alice gets her relationship with alcohol from anyone, I imagine it would be her grandad Jack (direct forbear and Lilian’s dad).

Perhaps Alice is a precocious rehabber, unfortunately stats are against not relapsing even if stayed 3 months.

Perhaps Alice is a precocious rehabber, unfortunately stats are against not relapsing even if stayed 3 months

A similar business model to the slimming clubs. But we’ve been missing Alice, haven’t we.
Haven’t we?

It'd be nice if they work in some sort of tribute, even though she was 'deaded' several decades ago.

Wasn't Grace's departure 🛫 meant as a spoiler for the launch of ITV?
Edit: yes
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-34285145

Just been mentioned on the R4 news

Sorry about that, @EBearhug - I used a share token direct from the app. Not sure how to correct the link for you but you may be able to read it on the website anyway?

(Tbh it’s only a profile by SOC, with no new information as far as I could see. Not an actual obituary.)

This:

It used to be the centrepiece of my physic garden - the best throwaway line of the thread so far @TottersBlanklyTowardsImaginarySunlight. What I want know is does lovage no longer form the centrepiece because it has been replaced by some other herb or is it that you no longer have a physic garden (which sounds like an impossibly desirable thing to have)?

Sadly the latter, @LillianGish! These days I only poke my nose into other people’s gardens - though I’m hoping that may change soon.

What else did your physic garden have in it, @TottersBlanklyTowardsImaginarySunlight ?

Sage?

O'Connor was born in 1968, and Grace Archer died in1955, so any comment by him on how the nation felt about her death can only be hearsay. (And when he was trying to justify his habit of not sticking to the actual days of the week for TA, as for instance when the single night of the flood was broadcast over six days, he claimed in public that Grace's death had happened over three episodes, which shows that he was blithely ignorant about it.) I doubt the nation as a whole was "rocked"; Archers listeners were rather upset for a few days.

Camomile? Echinacia? Rosemary? Mint? Salvia?

There was a tea recommended in the nineties against the lasting effects of chronic fatigue syndrome: equal parts of four dried herbs, vervain, nettle, borage and balm. It seemed, in three cases I knew of, to have been helpful, and was also good as a pick-me-up after flu and other viral horrors. But I am not sure many people grow nettles in their gardens deliberately, no matter how good they are for compost heaps.

I grow nettles deliberately.
I'm still upset about the dedding of Nigel Pargetter.

I used to let nettles grow, when I had a garden of a size to allow of it, but I can't say I grew them on purpose; they were like Pigling Bland and came of themselves whatever. The compost heap loved them.

I grow them in a pot.

For medicinal use, or culinary, or just because you like them?

For self-flagellation purposes.

My mum made nettle quiche once (probably from a recipe in the Guardian/Observer), a bit like spinach quiche.

I’m certain I made that nettle quiche! Probably only once. Late 80s / early 90s?

Not encouraging the herb growing discussion; I cried every day for two years after I left that house. (Although, yes, I had a friend in the same village who had ME. It was her garden that inspired my early efforts.)