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.

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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!

Apparently the OED and SOD always have as well. Since its root is the same as for the word "vicar" that does seem to make sense.

Chambers is of the same mind, while Collins offers vi as an alternative to vic, with vic being first and preferred.

Harper Collins was a Glasgow firm, I think, so possibly Scots pronunciation does differ.

I hate Paul. So petty and melodramatic.

If he doesn't like he should leave. And take Denise Ruth him. Alistair is more valuable to the practice than Paul.

He is old enough to have assimilated the awful truth that his parents have sex lives, and even the sad fact that that can be complicated. If he was 13 or 14 I'd have sympathy, but sorry Paul, time to grow the f up.

It was shocking that Paul felt he had the right to dictate the behaviour of his seniors in the practice, and utterly unacceptable for him to demand that if they did not do as he told them they must leave the practice and work elsewhere.

Apart from anything else, the business may belong to Lovell James, but the premises belong to Alistair and Shula, as far as we know. Paul does not have the authority to chuck Alistair out of them.

Where is the no-nonsense Jakob in all this farrago of rubbish?

I think Americans say vike-arious - I just tested this by spelling it out to my US-born-and-raised OH and that's what he said, I wonder if they got it from the Scots/Irish? I'm firmly on the vick- side of the argument.

Paul is like a particularly ghastly, more than usually immature 12-year-old and needs to accidentally fall on a syringe full of something lethal. I can see why Etienne (I always think of him as ATM) dumped him. And yes, I think he did dump him and the nonsense about open-relationships was brought up as a means of getting shot of the dreary little twerp.

To the best of my recollection, I've only ever heard vicarious pronounced vye-carious. Only the other day, a group of non-legal friends were talking about living vyecariously.

It does seem not at all unlikely that Lily would use that pronunciation.

I took it that Paul was proposing this as some sort of agreement between the three of them. It would be a ridiculous thing for Alistair to agree to, but I guess he feels he doesn't have much choice.

Paul REALLY needs his friends to tell him to grow the fuck up and stop acting like he should be the prodigal adult child at the centre of his parents' universe. I really hope somebody (who isn't A or D) tells him to wind his fucking neck in, and soon.

And if he flounces off into the sunset good riddance.

Paul live and let live you delusional, spoilt, self righteous, naive, whining, juvenile, control freak. Stop living your life vi cariously through your parents.

Did the scriptwriters seriously consider that realistic? The same person who was happy to let his boyfriend walk all over him.

Ignoring the fact that was terribly written and after sitting through an hour of the opening ceremony I shouldn’t be feeling so generous, but I have a few friends whose parents divorced once they were adults and they really struggled with it.

I think what Paul was supposed to be saying was that it was going to be super awkward working together but he would put on a professional face and if they could t deal with it then they can always find a new workplace. It’s just the sw seemed to use very different words

paul has so much potential as a long term character but they have written him so poorly it is fast disappearing

I've only ever pronounced it 'vick-arious" (Southern England).

Reminds me that I was taught to pronounce 'i' in Latin as 'ee' not 'eye' and 'vi" as 'wee', not 'vee' as we were told that was how the actual Romans would have spoken. I have always thought it makes phrases such as 'vivat regina' and 'veni, vidi, vici" sound much less impressive than in the traditional pronunciation.

I'm feeling for George who seems to be on the edge of a breakdown. It must be time for him to confide in Bartleby surely?

Shame about the pouring rain for the Olympics opening ceremony. I think these river pageants are cursed. My daughter and I had a place on one of the boats in the flotilla for the Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the Thames in 2012 when it also tipped down. We were right at the back and got absolutely soaked and frozen over a truly horrendous four hours and could ring our underwear out afterwards. The poor Queen and Prince Philip bravely stood through it all and Prince Philip and I both went down with a chill the next day. To be fair Prince Philip was worse as he had to be hospitalised. I only had 4 days off work.

I fast-forwarded through some of it and thought it was potentially unusually good for an Opening Ceremony - using the Seine was genius. Shame about the weather, obviously, and maybe they should have started a bit earlier to get more daylight? The galloping horse at the end was great!

I think what Paul was supposed to be saying was that it was going to be super awkward working together but he would put on a professional face and if they could t deal with it then they can always find a new workplace. It’s just the sw seemed to use very different words

The Paul actor’s reading of the scene was totally at odds with that interpretation, to my ear. He’s scented power, what with the idiot Denise grovelling to the prurient little tick, and is intending to make the Guilty Pair suffer while sashaying about self-righteously.

Paul is such a complete wanker. Yep fine, be upset that your parents are getting divorced, and be upset on behalf of your dad. But demanding to know every detail - fuck off. Literally none of his business.

I agree: vai-carious is the American pronunciation; the standard English had been vi-carious until the American version gained in popularity. I don't know whether some UK regions/nations used the vai pronunciation traditionally.

That wasn't the end, they dragged it on for another hour after that!

Paul was soooo annoying, and as for his laying down the law about conduct at work. Grow up, ya numpty.

Paul was never told ‘no’ as a child was he? He’s acting like he’s the one that was cheated on. Denise is a complete drip.

Anyone know how many SWs are on the case at the moment, and what kind of continuity there is? It feels as if a lot of balls have been dropped. (Maybe it's just that I don't listen continuously that I missed the fascinating outcome of the cowhides in the Terum, what happened to Ardil's promising sister - or Ardil himself, come to that - or where Spiritual Home found its permanent base.)

And then there's often a cheap parallelism between the brief plots they are running with, latterly George's guilty secret vs Denisetair's, Fallon's employment difficulties vs Freddy's, and, more convergently and with heavy dramatic irony, George's drinking vs Alice's.

My guesses of how the plot might be more interesting are always wrong.
I'd have expected George to become totally invested in the myth he'd created, but SWs must have had fun writing Pat's 'reassuring' pep talk. Groan.

And Paul. Oh dear. But I can actually believe the flounce/unflounce, if not the laying down the law.

Adil went away. His sister, Azra, is the local GP, and is renting a house on the Beechwood estate. The cowhides were ditched. Spiritual Home is where it has always been.

Ah yes, I knew Azra had become local GP, but where is she? Just another shot in the locker? Maybe she'll descend like a fairy godmother to suggest to Linda, on being badgered, that instead of competing against each other Linda and the stables join forces for a village-wide celebration of austerity and, er, its opposite.

Ahem! It's Lynda.

embarrassed face

Paul is going to have a snarky go at Jakob, Gazzer and Jim when the latter two meet in the shop or pub. I hope Jakob tells him if he is going to lay down the law he should leave. Paul needs a good kick up the arse and I would love to do it!
Susan is only good for nagging and gives women of a certain age ie 60+ a bad rep. If I had a grandson of George's age I wouldnt interfere if he wants to have a drink mid week its down to him. You can say Susan is just worried but she goes on and on and noone says Shut Up. Infact noone says shut up to anyone who needs to be told and I find that really annoying.
Also I love tinned corned beef in a sandwich with lettuce, cue, toms and salad cream, or with creamy mash, gardenpeas and bring out the Branston. When I get to my target weight im going to have a tinned corned beef fest.