Archers thread #171: Harvest's nearly over – but will George ever reap what he has sown? 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 been delighted with a hand-painted squirrel tray for your 40th, as shown below, 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.)

All I have to say about current storylines for now is that I want the George Alice crash stuff to come to a resolution, sooner rather than later, and I also want to hear very little indeed of Alistair, Denise and Paul maundering on. More of Jakob would be very welcome. His brother can come back any time too.

I now declare this thread open for business!

The prediction was that, because he found a ring in the slice of barmbrack Eddie gave him to try, he would be married within a year of 16th October, 2023.

On a different subject, I find it hard to credit believe that if Doug Lovell and Don James were married or in a civil partnership Paul would not at some point have mentioned it.

Emma has chosen to confide in Will (her ex-husband and father of her son) rather than in Ed; there’s still a rivalry between them and I think Ed’s going to resent that.

If you want to see what Simon Williams (Justin) looked like in 1976 he's on Going For a Song on bbc4. All brylcremed hair and a thin moustache looking like some kind of spiv.

Has Ed ever had any time for George? He is going to be devastated about what all this has done to Emma, the lying and the excuses. How could the relationship ever recover?
It's always a challenge though, with TA, trying to balance what might happen IRL with these characters - as if real life humans are always in character and predictable! - and what will happen in the script. There are conventions in drama, after all.

Thanks, @CaptainMyCaptain, but I'll pass on that. He was utterly repulsive just a few years earlier, playing posh in Upstairs Downstairs.

Ed and Neil are the only members of George’s family who have consistently seen him for who he is. The rest have pandered to him and made excuses for his awful behaviour over the years. I mean he called his mother a slag and mocked his dad’s dead wife and they did precisely nothing in response to this. They are terrible parents.

He looks repulsively smarmy but without the phlegmy voice. I have to say Going for a Song must be the most boring tv programme ever made.

Another who is finding the dragging out of the George-goes-to-jail and the Denise/Alistair storylines a bit painful.

Mind you, TBH I can't recall many fast-moving ones over the years.

I think I am just finding them both tedious.

This is the thing, though. It's a steam-age soap that goes at Bartleby pace. We just have to readjust to the idea of appointment wireless radio.

I don't think it's the pace as such - I like a bit of slow radio - I just want those storyline over and done with.

I think it's because I don't like any of the characters involved!

Heavens, I don't like them either! I don't think I like any of TA characters. (Except maybe Jim, Lynda and Fagash). I'm just interested in what the SW will do.

It doesn’t feel realistic and feels like they’re slipping into eastenders territory

Being more believable and interesting than Brad's A levels is a fairly low bar @IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle

Please God, no!

WagnersFourthSymphony
Has Ed ever had any time for George?

Yes. He was wildly jealous about him for absolutely years, set out to smash Will's relationship with Nic because he didn't want her offering to take George for longer time per week than Will was allowed (by the private agreement worked out by Clarrie and Susan) and spent time trying to buy George's affection: after he shot Will's dog and then realised George was upset about it, he bought George a puppy for Christmas, and he always bitterly resented the fact that Will could afford to get the child better presents than Ed could himself. He wanted George. Whether he liked him, who knows, but he definitely wanted Will not to have him and Ed to have him instead. The one time Emma agreed to Will having George for longer each week, because she was exhausted after Keira was born, Ed didn't allow it and made a pact with Nic to prevent it.
And so on and on. This whole "he loves Keira and he has never cared about me" lie of George's is just in order to do his usual thing of playing off his three parents against each other.

I wonder if Meg will act as a character witness for George and if he will avoid prison because she tells the judge she is offering him a job?

A few years away from his family at her care home for old horses could be the making of him, especially if she were then to die and leave him all her money. He could return to Ambridge in triumph, marry Tilly Button, buy Grey Gables so poor Oliver doesn't have to work himself into an early grave trying to keep the place going, and turn the tree surgery business into a successful multinational.

Thanks for this! Fascinating background.
You have been paying more attention than I have, and for longer.

I wonder if Meg will act as a character witness for George and if he will avoid prison because she tells the judge she is offering him a job?

While the SWs are capable of anything, I would think a character witness would rely on far longer acquaintance than Meg and George have.

How does Emma manage to put a W in George?

She follows her mother's example with Christeefur.

Fascinating, but nothing there convinces me that Ed actually loves George. Ed has had a very bad relationship with Will on and off, he's nuts about Emma, and George has been a useful pawn in all of this. Will and Emma do appear to love him, but he was a thorn in Nic's side.

I don't like George but he's not had a great start in life. (Very well acted, though.)

I need to check if I'm missing something. What's all the talk of him going to Meg? That to me seems the most unbelievably bizarre turn of events. If I was in a dire situation there are a lot of people I would think of before I got to the stranger I sold my horse to?

What's all the talk of him going to Meg?

Just random idle speculation as to who he might have been calling that he needed to give them his surname. I think she may (foolishly) have said something to the effect that he was welcome to visit Bartleby. But it may well have been his hitherto unmentioned friend Spike, or the Borsetshire branch of Fugitives-R-Us.

When the bizarrely contrived Bartleby story was happening and Meg not only appeared on the scene but was given a voice (and used it to be kind to George), a lot of us thought she might have something to do with the denouement of the George storyline. That’s why there’s speculation now.