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!

Denise has been around for 20 years so Paul would have been a toddler when she started working. Yet Alistair had no idea who Paul was when he turned up to work at the practice. You’d think they would have met at some point or Denise would have had pictures of her children on her desk over the years.

Would she not have mentioned her son becoming a vet nurse? Brought him in to look around etc? The sw are getting very sloppy

Oh dear. You’re quite right - she would surely have sought holiday / part time work for him at the vet’s over the years, particularly once he expressed an interest in pursuing the same career. And maybe he would have used a reference from Alistair to apply for work in other local practices. And Denise would have been full of joy and celebration when he graduated - and everyone at work would have been shown all her photos and video of his graduation ceremony and Alistair would have been all You must bring him over to The Bull on Friday night and I’ll buy him a drink. And discussions about the best and most exciting career path … (Do vet nurses get to do electives in far away countries? I don’t know?) And, and, and …

And why had Alistair never met John at a single one of the practice’s Christmas lunches or parties? And over the course of 20 years in a tiny practice, how had Alistair and Denise never socialised to the extent of Friday pizza or Sunday lunch as a foursome with their spouses??

I wish I’d never started thinking about it because now the whole story falls apart.

But, @TottersBlanklyIntoThePhysicGarden ... if all (or even any) of that had happened, there would have been a national outcry as hundreds of people were injured by radios being thrown out of windows.

"Carlotta can't even manage chit-chat - in fact she barely speaks!"😂😂😂

Is Justin bonking Carlotta or just hoping that giving her a job means he'll get to? He seems unusually insistent on advancing her interests.

Mentionitis?

Oh, that would be brilliant! Not that I want Lillian to have her life wrecked again (though it wouldn’t be on the scale of the Tiger debacle as she isn’t even a fraction as in love with Justin as she was with Matt) but I am very tired of Justin.

Denise would have had pictures of her children on her desk over the years. When I was working, the message was that photos of DC on the desk were good for a man (stable responsible family man) but career death for a woman.

Well spotted @DeanElderberry. It would be truly excellent if they’ve stealthed that under our noses under cover of noisier stories.

I couldn’t countenance anyone wanting to have an affair with Justin but a sex harassment case would be good

if he’s going to have an affair it needs to be with Miranda who has decided to implode his life in ambridge by creating fall out with his former mistress and his bil/business partner. Then he will leave forever

This is true but she would definitely have had Paul in for work experience etc

No. I think it's just a way of keeping up the demonisation of Alice until the truth eventually comes out. Personally I'm finding the introduction of Clive Horrobin intensely irritating - this was a dramatic enough storyline without needing to resurrect an ancient bogeyman. It feels unrealistic that George would have turned to him (there has been no real suggestion of previous contact or attempts by Clive to stay in touch) and surely it must be widely known in the Grundy family that he was the reason Susan went to prison? I would have preferred a more subtle unravelling - as more people know it becomes harder to keep a lid on it, Emma letting something slip to Susan and Neil who then have a conflict of interest between their grandson and their granddaughter. Instead it's all gone a bit EastEnders!

That may have been true in an investment bank in the City or a Magic Circle legal firm but Denise has been working in a small veterinary practice. I think that’s precisely the kind of place where employees would have photos of children on their desk. Even if she didn’t, is it really likely Denise has never shared photos of e.g. the family at Paul’s graduation? Never mind the fact she apparently never brought him in for work experience. Alistair failing to recognise him doesn’t make sense.

Also…if I have to hear Emma pleading with Gwarge to ‘go to the police and tell the truth’ one more time I will lose my mind.

The storyline has now been stretched beyond credulity. How has Will suddenly found the money to put Clive up in a B&B indefinitely? How are they hoping to keep his presence a secret? He’s not going to just sit quietly in his room.

Is he at Lynda’s?

He can't possibly be at Lynda's.

One of my colleagues was interrupted by her young child when she was doing a presentation on Zoom. The interruption was minimal but some of my (male) colleagues were tut-tutting.

I wish i had said something. The presenter was in another country and it was evening there. People have lives.

Had the presenter been male, the tut-tutters would have probably thought that the presenter was a wonderful, caring father.

are There other b&bs in ambridge!!!

Brookfield

I thought they stopped doing b and b.

They did. Too much work or some such

I'm bored with it now. (Again.) I thought it might be fun if George went to stay with Clive, unlikely though it seemed he'd get in touch, but never dreamed he'd bring Clive back to Ambridge and everyone would be so extraordinarily supine about it. Mostly I listen to TA to see how the SWs will deal with something, but it really does seem like one of those games on ISIHAC where someone starts a sentence and the next person has to add a word and hand it back, trying to snooker them.

terrible pity, Clive turning up there would be quite something

Me too! I've just listened to Sunday's episode and the scripts are going round in circles.

I thought one of NewRobert's first scenes involved cooking breakfast for the guests?