Archers thread #173: The Fall of the House of Grundy? 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 wish we were hearing more of Pip, 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.)

I chose the thread title to echo one I used three years ago, which is here if anyone fancies a trip down Memory Lane: www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4320618--Archers-thread-130-The-Fall-of-the-House-of-Aldridge-Discuss-The-Archers-here. That was the thread where I caused all sorts of confusion at the start by not starting it before the old thread filled up, but others stepped in, fortunately.

At that point I see Ruairi was heading off to London to start his degree, which he has now finished, with none of us any the wiser about what he studied or where. Perhaps this will finally be mentioned now he's graduating.

And now, over to you!

Community Hall tables so rickety, and with such non-intuitive stabilising features, sound really dangerous (imagine if it was Harvest Supper and they were at the tea-and-coffee stage). And unbelievable.

I’m guessing Clarrie is never returning to her job in the dairy.

(Really it would be a relief if she and Eddie could retire quietly to Rosie’s house in Norfolk. They’ve put in a long and arduous shift in Ambridge - they need a rest.)

And wasn’t Susan talking about retirement a while ago?

@TottersBlanklyOnTheEdge (Really it would be a relief if she and Eddie could retire quietly to Rosie’s house in Norfolk. They’ve put in a long and arduous shift in Ambridge - they need a rest.)

Never mind what they need, we need a rest from them!

If he's not being prosecuted for the accident, why would that be necessary? She's not a victim in relation to the perversion of the course of justice offence.

He is also being done for dangerous driving

If it's George's hearing today and Harrison's celebratory cricket dinner tonight, what's the betting they will cross paths and Harrison will kick off. Particularly if he's had a couple of scoops... I do hope so!

Agree with both those points!

I'll be out tonight so I'll have to catch up tomorrow.

Re sentencing and Huw Edwards - it's not that his sentence was light compared with others'. This article from Janice Turner points out that his offence was one of the less serious and the number of men convicted of similar offences is enormous. They can't all get custodial sentences unless we build and pay for a lot of new prisons.

There are 850 arrests a month for child abuse image offences and, according to the child safety institute Childlight, 1.8 million British men have admitted to viewing such material online.

https://archive.li/VZicI

Not a happy thought.

It's good to hear Jim again but he and Lynda are wasted on this foolish table/pie story. Is there more of it to come? Is it really just supposed to be a case of not putting up the new tables correctly?

It's good to hear Jim again but he and Lynda are wasted on this foolish table/pie story. Is there more of it to come? Is it really just supposed to be a case of not putting up the new tables correctly?

The CA at the end mentioned someone making an 'emotional confession' today. We're probably supposed to be fooled into thinking that it's George when it will actually be Lynda owning up to Tablegate.

to Kenton? God it’s a load of old shite.

but fingers crossed it’s a good one tonight and doesn’t end with

George Grundy, I sentence you to….

dum de dum de dum de dum

or will coming back alone and Emma saying ‘what happened?’ And him replying ‘not good Em’

dum de dum de dum de dum

Surely any Show Committee worth its salt sets out labelled spaces for each class by marking up the paper table coverings. I couldn’t believe it when I heard the entrants arguing over whose pie went where!

Well, quite - the committee decides and labels where everything goes. You don't get a choice.

@Bruisername IANAL, and I know it's Friday so we're owed some dramaaah, but my suspicion would be that today's hearing is simply George confirming his name, address & guilty plea and being sent away until X date for sentencing.

I might be wrong. Time will tell!

It wouldn’t surprise me if the sw push the process into one after having dragged it out so painfully

(sorry for derail: i know what the law says. I have been through this with the twats on twitter. The point is for me and for many others: our laws are wrong. They are indefensible. Because what Edwards and those of his ilk are wanking off to is Child Sex Abuse. Rape of children. And there MUST be jailtime and serious consequences for that.
I feel the same way, by the way, about people who drink & drive and then cause accidents that damage/kill other people. Most of us here, i think, are women? Crimes against women, including rape and murder, are also - if they even make it as far as court - hideously leniently dealt with)

I couldn't see that crime had any victims apart from the justice system itself, and Alice, so I couldn't see why anyone other than Alice would be called on to provide an impact statement.

But then I discovered that George was actually being done for "perverting the course of justice and dangerous driving" according to what Will read out from the letter that had been sent him, so anyone involved in the accident could do an impact statement. Mick, Joy, Fallon, possibly Denise who got ill because of it.

I still don't see why Harrison gets to stick his oar in: he wasn't in the accident, and the only impact it has had on him is that he blames his wife having had a miscarriage onto it and has been carrying on about that in a demented sort of way.

It seems the SWs may have forgotten the bridge farm Archers have form for Perverting the course of justice following a serious RTC.

Helen's drink drive accident may have influenced Pat to give George a reference but why the heck hasn't Pat asked Tony whether he would have wanted someone to give Helen a character reference had she been caught?

I don't think many current Ambridge residents know that Helen rather than Tom was driving when Mike was knocked over, so it is a shame Mike, Brenda and Roy aren't around. It could have made for some interesting tensions.

Very well said. I agree. I don't know if women are still sent to prison for not paying the TV licence, but I believe hardly any are there for offences involving violence. I'd rather we got most of the non-violent offenders out of prison, and the violent people (who will be 99% male, and I include the ones who watch CSA images in this) can be locked up. The deterrent effect would be quite strong, I'd hope. In or out of prison, it would be good to think that tough but compassionate people would be working intensively with convicts to try to get through to them why what they've done is wrong and why they should never do it again.

Gosh, good point that the Tuckers are now completely erased from Ambridge.

Were Pat and Tony definitely in on Tom taking the rap for Helen?

I confess I had to check but this BBC article suggests they found out after the event and didn't report it.

www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thearchers/entries/333baea2-20ce-40c4-8702-9dc452a2ce1b

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13897057/How-number-women-arrested-surging-faster-men-violence-sex-crimes.html

only paper I can find reporting this at the moment but I thought it was quite interesting…

of the prisoners released early a few backs how many were women?

Oh wow - tony is a terrible hypocrite as he happily allowed the wrong person to take the blame and believed he knew better than the law. Surprised sw didn’t remember when Pat was giving her reasons

Im thoroughly sick of these prison storylines. They come up too frequently to bring any tension . I don’t care if any of them get banged up now, although it’s a very high incarceration ( or threat of) rate for a village!

I do wish they’d shut Harrison up too. We had “ oh I don’t know how I feel about God “ , then “I don’t want to work full time” then “ oh will I make Sergeant” then “ my poor baby ( that I didnt even know existed) “ and now “I don’t want to be a copper”. Does the man never just get on with it?

I do wonder if all of the women reported in these increases are actually women.

Indeed!