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 window open 😱. Disgusting

I'd alter that slightly: if all I know about someone is that they do yoga, or that they are a vegan, or that they are obsessive about a political party, then I would swerve their company. But if they manage to be very interesting indeed about, oh, I don't know, orangutans or seventeenth century poetry or obscure points of castle architecture, and I only find out about the yoga or plant-feeding or political religiosity in passing, then they would be ok by me.*

Actually if all I know about anyone is that they can go on until the cows come home about one particular subject in which I am not all that interested, I'm not going to cross the road to avoid them but I am equally not going to cross the road to greet them. And I certainly wouldn't sit down near them in the pub.

*My father once spent an evening explaining existentialism to me, when I was fifteen. But he was not an existentialist, so I forgave him. And I did ask him, so it was my own fault really.

There are just some hobbies that seem to become obsessions and that’s fine but it’s when the person seems to think they are sometime worthier because of it. Eg cyclists

worst night of my life was a party where everyone else there was a local councillor/researcher/volunteer for a political party!

I'm always a bit worried when they suddenly make someone extra likeable. I could live quite happily with Harrison's untimely demise, but would miss Alice and Kate and be devastated if anything happens to Neil.

Was Clive just predicting his exposing George's crimes, or was there more? Do we know who Kylie's child/ren is/are?

I suspect this is building up Cloyve's desperation that he's backed into a corner. Clearly something has happened to make him want contact with his family but he just isn't able to stop being an arsehole. Seemingly his daughter wants nothing to do with him either, and is preventing his grandchildren having contact too - his reference to everything being "bleak" suggests that this is more than just wanting to find new people to rip off.

Shunned by everyone, he's going to come out swinging because it's all he knows, like the scorpion and the frog.

AFAIK, We know nothing of Kylie's offspring. Kylie's half brother is Johnny, not related to Clive.

Did anything happen tonight? I should have asked for tonight’s meeting to begin at 7.15 not 7.00

Alice + Kate sisterly affection
Neil = strong, responsible, unbending
Clive slime

not sure if anything else

I thought he said Chloe. I probably misheard and it was Kylie.

Clive's daughter by Sharon is Kylie.

Hang on, Clive has a child by the same Sharon who is the mother of under-the-tractor-John's son Rich-aka-Johnnie? I must have blinked and missed that.

What little we heard of Sharon indicated that she was head and shoulders over everyone in Ambridge when it came to common sense, catching up on education, raising a family and demonstrating some get up and go. I think Clive would be making a big mistake if he went after her.

Though why on earth would he expect to find her (or Kylie's) address in Tracey's bedroom?

I thought the mention of Kylie was just a dramatic device to get Clive and Neil talking about grandchildren thus prompting Neil to taunt Clive about his unfitness to be a grandfather little realizing what his own grandson has been up to. Dramatic irony at its finest. Clive just won’t be able to help himself - I thought he was going to blurt it all out there and then.

Yes.

Kylie Richards was born on 26th October 1989, and John (Ritchie) Richards was retrospectively invented as having been born in summer 1998 – can't have been later than August or so, because the last time Sharon and John had sex was on 11th November, 1997, and I think that was interrupted by Hayley before anything much had happened.

Only on this thread can you go from having sex with the window open to dogging! 😂😂

Clive and Sharon lived together for a time and then Clive buggered off, leaving Sharon literally holding the baby. They were allowed to stay in the vicarage for a while by the soft-hearted vicar of the day, Gerry Buckle, and then Pat let Sharon and Kylie live in a caravan near the farmhouse. John Archer, Pat and Tony's eldest, the first Sausage King, was a teenager at the time and had a huge crush on Sharon. Some time later they did indeed become involved and John was unfaithful to his long-term girlfriend Hayley, who found out and gave John his marching orders. Shortly after this John had his fatal accident on the tractor. Hayley, devastated, tried to keep the pig business going with Tom in John's memory and was warned off by Helen. Nobody at Bridge Farm has ever got over John's death, ime.

Hayley ended up married to Roy, bringing up Phoebe (Kate and Roy's daughter, abandoned by Kate when she ran away to South Africa). Roy was unfaithful to Hayley with Elizabeth, leading Hayley to start divorce proceedings and move to Brum with their daughter Abbie. I miss Hayley.

Anyway, Sharon left Ambridge before John's accident, taking Kylie with her, and ended up in Leeds where she had her son, now called Johnnie. Sharon is happily married to a decent man who treated Johnnie as his own son, but we found out some years ago that his biological father was John. I miss Johnnie too. Thoroughly decent character, well acted, distinctive voice. I'm baffled that he seems to have been reduced to a silent character.

Apparently his eighteenth birthday was on 1st August, 2016.

I'm baffled that he seems to have been reduced to a silent character.

Maybe the actor had other offers.

Hayley being silenced and deported was a terrible shame imo

Johnny is 26! Really? I thought he was much younger

Gosh, lots of details I'd forgotten. (Many actor photos.) https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thearchers/entries/ca3a325e-d35a-3f86-9e9a-dfca5ea15e56

I suppose he might be doing a lot of theatre work, but his IMDB entry has nothing much for the last few years.

Most enjoyable if a bit compare and contrast. I especially liked Kate's openness in saying Neil wasn't responsible for the horrible Clove, a principle which will be sorely tested when all the George malarkey comes out (though not Neil's fault).

Clove is sooo repugnant though. I am enjoying his incessant therapeutic/woo suggestions, almost as if he'd read The Big Book of How To Get On People's Tits.

Nothing worse than telling a heated person to calm down.

Cloyve - blood autocorrect!