Archers thread #174: God it's lame! But it still limps on. 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 think Ben-meets-Zainab is on a par with Elizabeth-meets-Darcy, 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.)

Thanks to @Bruisername for the title inspiration. She said God it's lame and that seemed to strike a chord with many, for some reason.

I am terrified of wasps and live in fear of encountering a hornet, so that was a tricky episode. I hope that's the last we're going to hear of them, except for confirmation that they've been nuked. [shudder]

So what do we reckon - custodial or suspended sentence for George? Will Clarrie return from Great Yarmouth or will she realise that actually life as a carer for her (presumably disabled) sister is easier than the endless and thankless drudgery at Grange Farm? Will any more tables collapse at the Village Hall?

Over to you!

OK.

Could someone fill me in on the Grey Gables closure? I’m a returned listener who has only just started listening again. I would have thought it would have been snapped up by a chain.

Anti-townie prejudice is alive and well in the countryside, but isnt Lynda from Sunningdale?

It's very odd. Caroline died a good few years ago and Oliver carried on as sole owner for a while. Then he announced that there were money problems but he'd found someone/some firm that wanted to invest. He would remain as a minority shareholder. The hotel would be completely refurbished/remodelled as a luxury boutique hotel. Roy stayed on to assist Adil who was the project manager. All the other employees lost their jobs. There was a very weird story about Adil running off before it was finished because he'd had a breakdown. A lot of extra money was needed because he'd made mistakes/overlooked things. Somehow or other this was all resolved.

Adil lived with Lynda and Robert at Ambridge Hall as a long-term B&B guest. He took on an allotment, rather improbably. It's his sister Azra who is the new GP.

Anyway, the hotel is now open and Elizabeth's daughter Lily worked there for a bit on a placement (she's doing an Events Management degree at Felpersham). Ian is back as Executive Chef. We hardly ever have scenes there, though, which is a shame. It used to be one of the natural places for people to meet and chat, whether having a meal out or using the health club, or delivering produce to the kitchen.

It was snapped up by invisible, enheard and unnamed Owners with Oliver retaining a share under a curious arrangement which sees him putting in more money and more hours of work than he ever did when he owned the whole thing. The Owners put Ardil in charge of a complete refurbishment, a very misguided move, since Ardil, though a sweet guy, is incapable of project managing anything more than getting himself dressed in the morning

Grey Gables had a fire and Lynda got badly burned.
Not long afterwards, Oliver sold most of the ownership to (unknown to us) investors. Adil was (haplessly) overseeing the refurb.

GG has now reopened and employs Ian, Lily, Mick (Joy's chap) and Brad Horrobin. Despite only owning only a third of GG, Oliver seems actively involved.

Adil's much older sister is Azra, who was a locum at the local GP surgery, but she is the permanent GP now. Adil did a runner as he was suffering from stress and is now in Pakistan, I think.

She and her children now rent a house on the Beechwood estate, and are neighbours of Helen and Joy. Helen used to live with Lee but she dumped him.

She had left her job at Grey Gables after she was blown up there in March 2020, so Adil didn't cause her to lose it. She just objected to the closure happening at all.

Sunningdale isn't exactly a metropolis. It's a village.

I think it was the way she was enunciating ‘don’t feed the an-i-mals’ as if he might not speak English. That’s what he picked up on.

Uncharacteristic - Lynda is irritating, pretentious and snobbish but I don’t think she’d be discriminatory.

Thank you for all the updates!

@MerelyPlaying , I didn't pick that up. I took it as her assuming he was an ignorant townie.

I took it that she was assuming he didn't speak English.

I took it that she was talking to him like a halfwit because it seems very strange that she would immediately assume a non white person can’t speak English given what we know of her

i did think it could be racist that she thought they are Azras kids based on their skin colour and that they are local. Are we to assume that other than usha and Denise/paul everyone else in the area is white?

I agree with @Bruisername that I thought she was talking to him as though he were dim: because he made a sort of teenage grunt in response to her first overture and she then treated him as thick. If she thought he couldn't speak English, she probably would have simplified 'jalapeño cheese crisps' .

Those crisps sound gross

I think Khalil assumed that she was talking to him LOUDLY AND CLEARLY because he isn't white and therefore this woman thinks he is is probably foreign and/or stupid. He doesn't know what we know, that Lynda will patronise ANYONE regardless of age or race. I do think most/many of us have streaks of "unconscious bias" though, so she may have subconsciously thought Asian teenager = probable city dweller = idiotic about animals, more than she would if he were a white teenager.

And yeah I am not surprised the connection was made with Azra, Ambridge isn't so big that families are constantly moving in and out, so if she knows Azra has teenagers and has just moved in, it's not unnatural to wonder if the new "local" teenager is one of her kids.

I am far too behind the thread to catch up but did everyone think it as weird as I did that Jill and David invited Khalil in for cake? No way would I ever invite a stranger's child in!

You know, I think my family would! My ma is over 90 so neighbours quite often drop by on or around her birthday with a card or whatever. If someone - either an old or a new neighbour - timed it well and happened to be outside the door as we were bringing in the birthday cake, we and she would happily invite them in.

I don't care how incompetent Adil became (he seemed perfectly competent at the start, until it all started to go pear-shaped), I luuurved him for his beautiful voice. He sounded pretty much exactly like my endlessly kind, patient and (crucially!) very competent GP. Ronnie Jhutti did a terrific job with the character.

Shame he was stuck with some terrible writing eg the whole wife/fiancee nonsense

Agreed - I never did understand the point of that.

I am reasonably sure that two different scriptwriters got two different messages and one called her wife and the other called her fiancée, which caused a lot of questioning on social media, so an editorial decision was made to explain away the confusion.

It's 7th October. I know teenagers aren't always keen on country rambles, but surely Khalil and Zainab have at least been to the shop since they moved in? Why has it taken till now for them to be noticed by the rest of the village? If Khalil is going to Borchester Green, as seems very likely, why hasn't Henry met him at the bus stop waiting for the school bus?

I expect they have met silently, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - I mean, we know people only speak when required to do so for plot purposes.

SW silence is the most likely reason.

But successful cajoling of parent to drive poor new child to school is also a possibility.

Or - how far is it to Borchester Green? Might he have been cycling to school? (Assuming decent cycle lanes.)

A few miles. I don't personally think country lanes are very safe for cycling, given the ridiculous speeds of some drivers, blind corners, lack of street lighting etc. I'd be amazed if there were cycle lanes.