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!

Yes I’m not sure what the plan is for George long term. Him leaving and popping back occasionally to cause trouble a la Nasty Nick would be pretty dreadful

Oh thanks @WorriedRelative, only v vague memory of that (vvv). So about 10-15 years ago? When I was busy with littlies and leaving my husband, I did miss a few things then!

Has Keith been mentioned at all since though?

Roy hasn’t even had the house valued yet, let alone found a buyer. And DeNeez was clear she was looking for a short-term let so why she can’t move in for the three months minimum while the house is sold is unclear.

The H of E seems ideal for tenants. We never hear of K having to deal with any maintenance issues.

Rental properties in this area are heavily regulated but K doesn’t seem to deal with any rental-related red tape. Helen renting from a mate would have been a good way into highlighting the problems small-scale landlords face at the moment but may be that’s not as exciting as having a hit-and-run driver on the run so I can see why the SWs have passed on that.

Ah but Roy is pricing it for a quick sale so no doubt it will be sold by next Thursday 🙄

he has a tenant and another willing to do a short let so why sell for a low price unless he needs it for hostage money

I really hope that when the dastardly George returns Emma and Will collect him from the station and take him straight to the police station. Give him the ultimatum of either he goes in and confesses or they will. That would sort it all out.

George is a totally without morals. He is rude ( why they don't pull him up when he speaks to them in that highly unpleasant manner I don't know), selfish ( only thinks of himself), a liar and frankly a waste of space. I'm looking forward to him going down. Emma, Will and the rest (apart from Neil) are partially responsible for George being what he is. Such bad parenting.

Would Keith be willing to help Emma's son? Didn't Emma shop him to the police over the barn burning?

Also if George was speaking to a relative when he made his phone call asking for help would he have described himself as "George Grundy"?

Good point, detective Godesstobe.

I'm not sure whether I'm irritated or pleased by the litter thing. The constant nagging litter thing is what i think the Archers really should be about - rural life, with the "eastenders style" story lines as secondary.

(I live a) in the countryside and b) in the country where the ape-house at the zoo was burned down by chinese lanterns)

the litter thing is a bit heavy handed

@Brefugee (I live a) in the countryside and b) in the country where the ape-house at the zoo was burned down by chinese lanterns)

I remember that, chiefly for the photo of the "shrine" set up afterwards just outside the zoo entrance. I wondered who on earth thought it was a good idea to include quite so many candles?

it is desperately needed. I live in a village where livestock, including pet ponies, have eaten balloons from those stupid balloon releases.

And even so, this year when the kids left Kindergarten to start school, the kindergarten wanted to do a balloon release.... luckily village parents heard about it.

we see so much littering too, people just tossing takeaway cups (with plastic lid) out of the windows as they whizz past to the more picturesque village a few kms on.

I wholeheartedly support any anti litter campaign, although I suspect the perpetrators are unlikely to be Archers listeners…

Yes I’m not sure what they’re driving at

its an issue in the city as well and seems to be getting worse

I’m always surprised when people talk about other parts of the world that are so clean and seem to think it’s some magical fairy or the government paying. Getting rid of litter is very simple if people took personal responsibility

Exactly this!

Litter is disgusting. We live near a park that gets very busy in decent summer weather. People carry bags and bags of food and drink up there, consume it and then either leave the chicken bones, crisp packets, bags, cans, bottles etc on the grass or try to stuff them into the already overflowing bins. The urban foxes, squirrels, magpies and crows are delighted but I don't think it's good for them. (No doubt we also have rats there but they hide during the hours of daylight.) Why the park users can't carry the rubbish away with them and dispose of it in their own bins is a mystery.

Agree completely.

Will put down a deposit on 1, The Green using the money he inherited from his great-aunt, but had a mortgage on it as well. He used the rent he got for it to pay the mortgage for many years.

He took out another mortgage on it to invest in the tree surgery business.

Fretfulagain
George is with Uncle Clive. There is going to be a lot of pearl clutching but has he turned over a new leaf?!
how old must he be the best part of 30 years since Susan’s incarceration.

Clive was born in November 1972, so he is now fifty-one.

Quite a lot of the various houses in Ambridge and who lives in them are to be found at https://ambridgereporter.org.uk/Ambridge_Residences_and_Occupiers.html but that hasn't been corrected since April 2023 and a fair number of people have moved since then.

Does Kirsty own the house outright?

I think there was a mortgage on the Beechwood house.

I wonder how much the beechwood house and no 1 the green would sell for

i struggle to see how Will would have managed to get a mortgage tbh

You mean the recent one? He put down the house as collateral, I think, since he'd paid off the first mortgage which he got with no trouble at all because he was in full-time employment and had a tied house with his job. The rent for 1, The Green pretty-much guaranteed the mortgage payments on it.

But you still have to show you have enough income to repay the monthly mortgage and as he no longer gets the rent he can’t have been able to borrow much

I think we have to accept that it was a plot necessity so it was going to happen.

I remember when TA generally used to make sense relative to what would happen in the real world, but those days have been gone for quite a while. The sudden disappearance of Pat's best friend Kathy for the whole of the storyline when Pat really needed a clear-headed friend to help her see what was being done to Helen marked a boundary for me between "might happen" and "wouldn't happen in a million years".

He has his BridgeFresh delivery job. No idea how much that might bring in or whether it's full-time, substantial part-time or very part-time. He doesn't seem to do casual work in the same way as the other Grundy men.