Archers thread #170: The scriptwriters have cast a Paul on proceedings! 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 Drunk Alistair, 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/radioaddicts/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/radioaddicts/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. I was tempted to try some sort of complex riff on chocolate names, given @PedantScorner's lightbulb moment - Paul's sister is Cara Mack! - and all the nonsense in last night's episode about coffee creams, but I couldn't be bothered, beyond thinking we must all be Cadbury's Fruit and Nutcases for listening at the moment. Let's hope the SWs take a walk along Quality Street or we'll have to put a Bounty on their heads!

And over to you ...

No but if your husband is asking that’s a pretty big issue in the marriage

Depends on the marriage, and the person. Jennifer clearly felt that Brian's farm, house and money mattered more.

Jenny was extremely tolerant

i I was just noting that while your spouse hasn’t cheated if they get turned down, the fact they asked can still be a dealbreaker

True, if someone brings it to your attention it may be.

Jenny wasn't entirely innocent herself - unless you don't count chasing after John Tregorran (it was never clear to me whether that was consummated) and also having an affair with your ex-husband (which I'm pretty sure was!) as infidelity.

I just don’t remotely believe in (let alone care about) Alastair and Denise as a couple. I suppose they’re well-suited in dreariness.
For some reason, I picture Paul as a black Mr Tumble.

Well what’s good for the goose! Anyway i wasn’t talking about them specifically

Denistare are so dull and lacklustre

Paul has some serious issues and should probably ask the couples counsellor to recommend someone to help him with those

Definitely. The only storyline I care about less is Pip and the tedious hen party.

Also, I never ever ever want to hear drunk Alistair again. I used to quite like him but at the moment I'd happily push him under the Grundy tree of doom.

Who can help who they lurve? Not surprising Emma said that. Honestly what crap do they make us listen to (yes I know I’m not forced)

where did all the cushions and throws come from? And a photographer? And the photo board. What a load of nonsense

a lot of characters involved and all for such a shit episode

only interesting part was it dawning on Emma that something is really wrong with George. Nice that the whole village is giving an armchair diagnosis. Is this leading to George confessing to his mum? I wonder what she would do if she was the only one to know?

but I do sympathise with Emma as I am having trouble with ds and getting help seems impossible (although hoping ds didn’t cause a near fatal crash…)

I hope we aren't going to have a youth suicide story, though it would be all too realistic. Sometimes true-to-life isn't what I want to listen to.

I'd gladly push him in the Am, and the Dreary Deux-Knees and Appalling Paul too.

David was good with Emmur.

I don't care if he disappears, I just don't want lots of weeping and wailing.

David has been the only saving grace this week.

Even Jakob was sub-par. He should have told Paul to grow up.

my memory of the Brian/betty thing was that he was unpleasantly persistant

He was very nasty and it was frightening - entirely unlike the consensual dalliance with Caroline and Siobhan and Miranda and dear knows who else. I wonder who the SW was for the Betty stuff? neither Brian nor Jenny behaved well - there was that faff with the special cutlery that couldn't go in the dishwasher.

when was the Betty thing, am not sure if I heard it or not? A bit laird
of the manor?

(speaking of men being nasty, can I just say that I often think of the morning after Rob raped Helen when she was in a terrible state and he rang her from work 're their plans to go to the opera at Lower Loxley that evening. It was so upsetting to listen to.)

Fondant icing bees, wasn't it?
trying to steer the conversation towards something more cheerful

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g Thanks for the thread. I much prefer the new snappy titles to the previous long elaborate ones.

The Betty stuff was 1986-7 (the Archers Encyclopedia still hasn't gone back on the shelf after my attempts to work out where the bridge was).

If you ask and are rejected that is not an affair but you are still a cheater, if you’re going to use that sort of terminology. You’re hardly remaining faithful if you’re making overtures to other women.

... or men, for that matter.

I did consider incorporating all possible pairings, but went for conciseness instead

The message to which I was replying said that Brian had had numerous affairs over the years, and I was trying to establish how many; I made it three that we know about. Affairs, not passing lusts after young things on a beach that happened entirely in his head, or remarks to another man about some woman looking like a bit of a goer, or whatever; actual affairs.

The Brian Siobhan affair was what first made me listen properly. It was gripping but not ott or badly written