Archers thread #172: Come on, Clive! Spill the beans and put us all out of our misery. 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 Clive sounds deeply misunderstood, 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.)

Fete over, cricket season over - can the Flower and Produce show be far behind? I don't think I've heard a mention of it this year. Have I not been paying attention?

In any real village, preparations for the Christmas show would already be under way, but not in Ambridge, of course. I am probably in a minority of one in regretting this.

With any luck, though, by Christmas this incredibly protracted tale of Alice, George and the crash will be behind us at last. Do we think Clive's really gone? I don't believe it. We won't be rid of him that easily. Will he go to the police himself? Will he attempt to blackmail his family or extort money from the Aldridges in return for information that would secure Alice's acquittal? Do we care? I find I don't really, unfortunately. I did enjoy hearing Clive for those few brief exchanges but I've had enough now. Unrelieved nastiness is not really what I want from TA.

Over to you!

I refuse to join whotsap or whatever it's called because I don't want to feed all my data to a megacorp (I know they probably have it anyway) and was amused when the person who manages the one for craft group and the garden club and the history society and her family and for all I know several other groups as well got hacked and had to get every single member to log out for ever so that she could close the things down.

I did feel sorry for her, but also very glad personally to be a dinosaur.

And whatever Joy’s faults, she doesn’t seem to forensically examine other people’s business in the way Susan does.

I agree that's not how I've known it to be done IRL, I was just explaining how the Loxley Barratt Reception group was set up (which Ian and Adam's conversation detailled), in answer to the query about Ian having people's numbers.

Well, even copy and paste and bold is more work than hitting “quote”.

I haven’t got used to the things below the box yet. When I joined MN, none of them existed.

It must be like living with a texting Labrador But lots of people love living with labradors!

He didn't have their numbers. The teacher took Ian's number and sent it out to the other parents by email. I owe the SWs an apology! He did still have their numbers but only when they gave him them

I loved Ian’s joy at the novelty of Xander starting school and eagerness to be part of it all and in the know with the one way system, sheep gate and WhatsApp group. Adam sounded exhausted with it all as usual. I imagine the WhatsApp group and Ian’s involvement will be the source of much hilarity and drama in weeks to come!

What I don’t understand is how they didn’t already know at least half the children and their parents. Surely Xander would have been at nursery school with other local children - many of whom would have proceeded to the same reception class?

Is there something I’ve misunderstood?

I thought Adam and Ian sounded just too polar opposite from each other to plausibly be a couple. IME, when you have someone who's super keen (sets up the WhatsApp group, suggests a parents' night out on the first day ...), they're normally partnered to someone who is at least reasonably on board with it all.

Congratulations to Lottie for being the sort of middle ground parent that most of us could probably get on with. But why did they have to make Adam and Ian into the 'comedy' double extremes?

Is there something I’ve misunderstood?

I think there must be: the shallowness of the prod team’s thought processes.

Here (European country) it's apparently normal for livery yards to have WhatsApps. MULTIPLE WhatsApps. Because I have two horses of opposite sexes, I got added to no less than THREE WhatsApps: the whole yard, the mare group, and the eastern gelding group. I have notifications off on my phone, which is a good thing, because it would be constantly pinging with cute videos of cute horses being cute, free apples on the table, free plums in the kitchen, requests for farrier recommendations, and panicked requests to make sure the horse with the pink glue-on horseshoes (yes, they really are pink) is still wearing her fly mask. But it's also very useful, because if I can't get to the yard, I know I can immediately find at least 3 volunteers to give my horses their medication. So I'm broadly in favour (with notifications turned off). So-far, no cattiness or bullying, but I think the yard owner would come down on anything like that like a tonne of bricks.

I agree, most livery yards have a WA group. Some use it for safety (e.g. I’m going out for a ride for about an hour, I’m going round the big woods, so if you don’t arrive back they a) know you’re missing and b) know where to look).

I also have WA groups for festival groups, women’s groups, event groups…. Never had a problem with them being hacked.

Here (European country) it's apparently normal for livery yards to have WhatsApps. MULTIPLE WhatsApps.

My daughter does a sport, in ONE club. There's a WhatsApp group for her specific class within the whole club; an overall club WhatsApp group, a group for competitions in general, a separate group for any big competition (anything that includes overnight travel), a group for selling second-hand kit, a group for notifications about upcoming events ... and I'm pretty sure some of the other parents have set up some unofficial groups too! Plus I'm on two other groups as a referee in the same sport.

To be fair, the club manager is very strict about keeping messages relevant, so there's no extraneous chat (or photos of free windfall fruit). But it's still all a bit much.

Quote: He didn't have their numbers. The teacher took Ian's number and sent it out to the other parents by email.
quote: I owe the SWs an apology! He did still have their numbers but only when they gave him them

you may be able to hold on to your apology. For the WhatsApp group to have worked the way it did in the scene (constantly pinging with people joining) Ian would have had to have a list of everyone’s number, create a group, and then send an invitation link to each individual phone number. I’m not going to LA but I had the impression that Ian gave his number to the teacher to pass on to the class so they could join- which I don’t think is how WhatsApp groups work. Who cares though? I’m just procrastinating really.

I feel Lottie is a SW device to start relatable parent conversations. I can’t decide if it annoys me or not!

FWIW all the school WhatsApp groups I’ve been in have been fine: questions answered about trips, and birthday party invites mostly. I hate the way school mums (it’s nearly always mums) are lazily stereotyped as people with awful personalities, particularly in popular media.

Yes it is notable how few dads are on the WhatsApp groups

when a dad joined the pta I thought he was going to be sainted from the fuss they made

and honestly, you take a career away from a high flying woman and give her kids….

Ah... yes... my husband (mid forties, very grey hair, child was in reception class at the time) was addressed as "Grandpa" by Father Christmas last year (who promptly realised his mistake and smiled apologetically as I laughed my head off)... 🤣

I wonder how Bridge Farm will cope when the truth comes out about George, and Will and Emma. They pretty much fell apart when George went away 'on holiday' for a few days. I doubt that all 3 of them will end up jailed, but if they did then the tea room, veg boxes, and farm would all be left short handed. Even if they escape a custodial sentence, some of the Archer family might not be too keen on having the brand tainted by association. I know they weathered having Helen in prison, but it'll be a different story when it's the Grundys who get their comeuppance.

Mick definitely knew about the cider bottle in the car, as did Paul on the day after the accident and thus everyone in the bar at the Bull that evening, so I am surprised Joy didn't.

I think the sw assume that only the people I the episode and the listeners know this stuff and that there are no conversations between characters off air.

Still irritated about Susan supposedly not having told Emma about Chris confronting Harry

I wonder if Rochelle is in prison!

DogwoodTree
FWIW all the school WhatsApp groups I’ve been in have been fine: questions answered about trips, and birthday party invites mostly. I hate the way school mums (it’s nearly always mums) are lazily stereotyped as people with awful personalities, particularly in popular media.

When I was quite new to MN and first finding my way around it, I fell into a thread about a school WhatsApp group in which a mum was furiously complaining about other mums on it who asked obvious questions the entire time and expected her and the other more clued-up mums to tell them when things were happening although the information was already widely distributed, including on the group. She resented this with a terrible fury. I felt glad these things didn't exist when my lot were at school, and marvelled rather at the degree of heat it seemed to generate.

People are funny. Rather than get angry just ignore and let someone else answer the stupid questions

i can only imagine the people who rage about it haven’t found the mute button and are glued to their phones

.

I am afraid you may not have read every single post on the previous (maybe, at least,) 60 threads with sufficient attention.

Her whereabouts, and indeed her very existence, have prompted endless speculation!

I, for one, would fail a test on said 60 threads, and I feel no shame about this! I wonder if we'll ever find about Rochelle. I quite like the idea that we may never know, but that every so often the SWs will slot something in to jog our memories about this tantalising mystery.

Prison does seem a strong possibility, @muddyford.

Though I’m slightly more in favour of ‘no longer exists within this earthly realm’.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g I wonder if we'll ever find about Rochelle. I quite like the idea that we may never know

I very much like that idea. May Rochelle's fate (if she ever existed) remain a mystery!