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.

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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!

But no one said Brad is going to Newcastle?

Mia is presumably going there - Will said it was her first choice and she’d obviously got the grades required.

We had previously concluded that Brad attended an open day at Durham (although he then expressed some reluctance because of the strangeness of it all). My thought was that if his girlfriend is going to Newcastle it’s all the more likely that Brilliant Brad will accept Durham after all as the two places are so close to each other.

(It was Tracy who made the claim about Further Maths, though. Not Mia!)

In absolute terms, hardly anyone in the UK has an A* in Further Maths. Hardly anyone has A level Further Maths, full stop. I couldn't have managed Maths A level at all so am in awe of those who can. 45 years this year since my A Level results. Cripes.

It’s Mia who is going to Newcastle - I’m not sure if we heard where Brad was going - just his stellar results. At the moment it feels as if George is going to give himself away by diving in before Alice has actually remembered anything - saying she’s remembering wrong would be one thing, but trying to stop her remembering is only likely to jog her memory further. Surely it can’t be too long before Emma confides in her own mum and dad - the longer it goes on, the deeper her conspiracy to cover it up becomes?

I'm struggling with the George storyline, or rather, with Emma and Will's lack of good judgement and reason. It feels as though the scriptwriters are pushing things too far all the time.

Didn't Brad (along with Tracy and Jazzer) go and have a look at Durham?

Why should Joy remember this? Joy has no knowledge of any of this storyline. It's not that she remembers or has forgotten- no one has asked her about it or had any reason to.

I thought Will's ploy to get him alone in the car and talk him down from interrupting the hypnosis was a good one. Obviously he should really be encouraging him to confess.

I don't think Durham was named but for reasons I've now forgotten we were all sure that's where they were.

I think the only continuing storyline at the moment that I would really enjoy hearing more of is the mystery around Rochelle. Other than that, more farming, less soapy drama, please!

Ah apologies for confusing who's going where. Yes Warwick would be more obvious but maybe Durham (and newc) signals that we're going to hear much less from both actors - which is a shame!

Will was sensible yesterday.

Joy will remember because /if it creates further drama for the storyline. Maybe she could be recalling Rochelle's (highly unusual!) visit and that will jog her memory of events earlier in the day....

I thought I recognised Yasmin’s voice. The actress played Tess in Casualty. I’m not sure Tess would have much truck with hypnotherapy.

Yes, nothing wrong with Will's judgment on that one. Not particularly bright of Emma, however, to tell George that Alice was off to the hypnotherapist. I suppose she didn't think that would be his reaction, but actually it was entirely predictable - George never seems to think more than one step ahead.

@JanglyBeads - I'd also got it into my head that Brad is going to Newcastle. I apologise too for my failed listening skills!

I vaguely think it was Durham, but Brad didn't really want to go to the open day let alone contemplate actually going away 😫to university. I don't remember anything about Mia going to Newcastle - has this been mentioned before? Is it the top choice for Self-Righteousness Studies?

We used to be told Inkberrow was the model for Ambridge - 32 miles from Warwick university. In Ireland that would be regarded as a very do-able commute for a student who wanted to spend at least some of their undergraduate years saving money and keeping their part-time jobs by living at home. There are bound to be other students/academics/admin people living locally he could car share with.

I expect Brad will become even more yokelish and opt for as near as home as possible as he won't be able to cope with those fancy city ways. He's such a boring character.

47 years since I got my A level results. The day Elvis died.

They can’t make up their minds what Brad’s character is. On the one hand, idiot savant levels of gaucherie, as when portering at GG (for very uncomic effect); on the other, a pattern of mature responsibility and respectfulness when getting his end away for the first time, in an SL also designed to portray George as the ‘immature’ lad.
bleugh, frankly. And Mia should have remained in the ranks of the unfucked. I mean, imagine if she breeds.

I don't see any reason for Joy to need to have her memory jogged. Quite the opposite- Joy seems the sort of person who has excellent recollection of detail.

No one has yet asked her about the cider. I'm sure if in the witness box she is asked to describe what happened in the shop, she will say she reluctany sold vodka to Alice. Prosecuting Counsel might say "and cider"?

And Joy will say, " no It was George Grundy who bought cider"

JanglyBeads
I did feel some sympathy for George tonight, who among us wouldn't be terrified of going to prison, esp with whatever it was that Freddie has told him?

We heard on air what Freddie told him, and it was pretty standard stuff about being frightened all the time in case something kicked off, nothing about anal rape or having your ear bitten off by a bully or anything like that. Freddie wasn't setting out to frighten him; when he realised George was worried he tried to reassure him about what might happen or not happen to Alice in prison, which was what George pretended to be worried about.

IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle
Why should Joy remember this? Joy has no knowledge of any of this storyline. It's not that she remembers or has forgotten- no one has asked her about it or had any reason to.

I don't see why there would be any need for anyone to ask Joy about it: she'd be as likely to work things out without being prompted by someone asking questions of her. The presence of the fruit cider bottle is common knowledge in the village, so she might easily remember all of her own accord that Alice bought vodka but not cider that day, and wonder when she bought the cider. From there to if she bought the cider is a short step.

Is it common knowledge? Why would it be?

Because Susan knows, from Chris. And Chris knows from Alice, who was presumably told about it by the police.

It will be all round the village, even if Susan and Joy did not sometimes work in the same shop at the same time, and presumably talk to each other.

I have heard several characters talk about the cider, why would you drink cider and vodka, Alice doesn't like cider etc...I am sure we also heard Joy talk about selling the vodka to Alice?

I'm fairly sure Joy and Alistair have both expressed regret about the vodka, she because she sold it and he because he didn't try to stop her

They have. There's no reason for Joy to know about the cider bottle.

IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle
There's no reason for Joy to know about the cider bottle.

Except that Susan knows about it, Joy and Susan work in the same place, and they are both gossips. Susan was christened Radio Carter by the listeners back when she started to work at the shop, and has never been one to hold back on tittle tattle.