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!

at Clove!

Oh dear, Kate’s not going to be dedded is she? That was all a bit…much.

Many thanks for this link. I love the comment by lesparapluies - it's dated 2014 but could have been written on this thread today with it's complaints about characters being changed to fit plot and the "I'm right, your wrong" attitude on Feedback.

If Kate is dedded, I'll never get over it. although sexy time with Jakob might help

I'm totally baffled why Johnny no longer features. He was a lovely character but aside from that was an important first family character.

The main thing I liked about Johnnie when he first appeared on the scene was the fact his mere existence caused Tom and Helen so much discomfort. They behaved like a couple of jealous school children just because Pat and Tony wanted to get the know their grandson.

I guess Johnny’s absence created a space at Bridge Farm which George has filled. Or in other words - it was necessary for Johnny to be absent in order that George should become ensconced at Bridge Farm. So that George’s eventual downfall will significantly affect the Archer farming story as well as Grundys, Horrobins, Carters and ex-Carters née Aldridge, and the Aldridge clan.

I’m not sure it’s been entirely successful but I can see why the creative team felt they needed to have George embedded within an Archer territory to give the Bridge of Doom story breadth and heft. That’s how they counter any EastEnder-isation outrage - by being able to claim the story is grounded in Archer farming life.

Yuk Jazzer's pants on the bedroom floor!
I think Clive was looking for the tenacy agreement to see if his name was on it, Dont think he would care about his daughter after all this time , but who knows, he soon turns nasty and not very Zen when he dosnt get his own way, and yes he is going to be the one in court to say it was George. George deserves everything he gets for bringing this all down on the heads of his family.
Bit soppy the scene with Alice and Kate, I come from a big family and my mum prefered everyone to me but I couldnot have cared less as my DB and DS are all very close which is lovely, cant see me saying oh but mum loved you lot more, its not Alices fault that Brian feels that way, but at Least Kate has cleared the air I suppose.

I know. I was wondering who Chloe was and thought I'd missed something.

Touching as the scene was between Kate and Alice, the idea that Alice was the favourite doesn’t seem to hold water. Brian and Jenny actually sold the family home rather than require Kate to move her tents. I mean they are tents FGS - she couldn’t have had a more portable business! Instead of spending her final years enjoying her dream kitchen Jenny was forced to downsize to a poky rental (one could argue that the stress of it contributed to her demise).

I mean they are tents FGS - she couldn’t have had a more portable business! You’re not taking into account the vibrations from the Earth. The tents needed to be on that spot. They couldn’t have been less portable

Didn't they have to give in to Kate because they couldn't legally force her to move her business?

Kate has had decades of unreliability and causing worry.

buggering off with no word to go and give birth at a festival

buggering off, leaving her only child in the uk to live in South Africa

Doing the same in reverse to her South African children when she came back

no support at all to her parents when she may have been able to help them stay in their home (where she grew up)

these are just a few of her highlights.

Alice - pony club success’s (😄) engineering, good job, startling marriage to Chris but stable right up until the alcoholism

I came to think Ruairi was the favourite of both Brian and Jenny. Youngest child, fewer years in which to piss them off.

TBF, if Alice has done all her Pony Club tests, the A test is accepted as equivalent to BHS Stage 4, which is to be taken seriously as a qualification. Even the earlier tests (starting, I think, from C+, which you can take at 13) qualify you for direct entry to various higher levels of the BHS Stages. So theoretically, Alice's Pony Club activities could have had her qualified to begin an equestrian career, if she sat her B test as a teenager and then did a Direct Entry to sit her BHSAI (as it was called then) at the minimum age of 18. Does anyone know how much her "successes" were actually quantified? If she was continuously active with horses throughout her adulthood, it would not be weird for her to have done BHSAI alongside her regular studies/job, or for Shula to have encouraged her to do so. Does Shula have any of the qualifications?

Shula does have some qualifications, I think, mentioned when she took the business over from Auntie Chris. No idea what they were or whether this was realistic. All the horse-related stuff washes right over me. I had no memory of hearing about any of Alice's horsey interests and successes so was quite surprised when she suddenly got involved with the Stables. Ditto Lilian. I remember Shula and Caroline always being very horsey, and Debbie rode, but that's really all that sank in.

I have only been listening since the Rob/Helen storyline. The first one I mean not the most recent but it seems to me that Kate has had a personality transplant. She's really lovely now but that's not how I remember her from a few years ago when she just seemed entirely self centred and with a massive sense of entitlement.

What did Clive do to Debbie?

I think she’s shown some of her is usual behaviour but she has mellowed with age I imagine - and having Jakob in her life has probably helped

from recent conversations it’s also clear that she understands her parenting has been substandard and she has regret

Held her up in the Post Office along with Kate, Betty and Jack Woolley. I think he may have knocked her down when she tried to help Jack after he started to have a heart attack.

Clive held up the post office at gun point, including Kate, Debbie and Jack Woolley. Jack had a heart attack and he wouldn't let them call for an ambulance.

I think it was @MereDintofPandiculation who mentioned TKC upthread
The Kitchen Cabinet - Series 45 - Aldershot - BBC Sounds
(about 13 minutes in)

Kate said she wanted her share of Home Farm if they sold the land Spiritual Home is on, IIRC. It would have meant the end of Home Farm as a business, I think.

I might not be remembering it quite right, but it was something along those lines.

Why (oh why) do they let themselves get dragged into convos with clive? Neil finds him in Tracy & Jazzer's room - he tells him to get out, and keeps repeating that until the scrote has gone. No more than that.

I can't work out if Clive is so delusional that he really believes he's changed, or he's up to something. I'd put money on up to something tho. But they all need to take a consistent line with him: grey rock and watch like a hawk.

Kate and Joy - both of whom i would love to see the back of - were great. the Kate/Alice scene made me choke up tho.

I think you're right - it would have involved buying her out of the partnership, i.e. selling more land and making HF unviable. Is she still even running her camping, woo and massage business? We don't hear much about it!

<on edit> :@Brefugee - I now hate almost all the characters so much that Kate and Joy are very, very low on my list of exterminees.