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!

Who was clapping and cheering in court? Adam and Lilian?

I don’t think anyone else from Ambridge was there, so it must have been Adam and Lilian?

I think Fallon’s witness statement was honest; ok, she didn’t plan to be pregnant but she barely had time to get used to the idea before it was ended. Who knows if her view might’ve changed if the pregnancy had continued? It has affected her relationship with Harrison (mainly because he’s a whiny self-centred arsehole). She wasn’t saying the miscarriage was due to the act, she was saying that Harrison believes it was.

A great episode. And thank you to the poster who mentioned The Howard League for Penal Reform above. Perhaps this storyline will do something to raise awareness about prison conditions.

The actor who plays Oliver gets cast as high court judges an awful lot

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/5j04jSPWCs3Yd5frYsR70fr/oliver-sterling

You and me both..

That was bloody ridiculous.

I think Fallon laid it on a bit thick, she didnt want the baby in the first place and told Harrison ,if I remember, that she didnt know if she would have kept it anyway. I was really annoyed also when she said that because of George Alice had become more of an alcoholic than she was. Very dissapointed that George got blamed for thier personal troubles that were there before the accident, but he was in the wrong and should have been punished. Not keen on Emma but I felt for her.

It was dire. All that canned laughter with the idiot tittering in an identical manner each time. Can't call it comedy.

🤣🤣🤣

just heard trailer for podcast

talk about taking yourself seriously

Haven't caught up with thread but have to say, I'm impressed with the SW for once as really thought they were going to go for a bit of a fairytale happy ending where it all turns out ok. But no they've really thrown the book at him and rightly so. His actions have affected so many. If he'd confessed quickly he might have been forgivable but he let it go on so long and didn't seem to have any intention being honest.

Fallon's witness statement felt a bit off. I had expected her to not even mention the miscarriage since she was so angry with Harrison for how he behaved about it. At least she did mention she didn't know if the crash caused it. But talking about how it affected Harrison? It's not George's fault he's an idiot. I'm pretty sure if she'd had a miscarriage under different circumstances, Harrison still would have made it all about him 🙄 but I suppose it was an honest account of the aftermath. If one good thing came out of the crash it would have been for Fallon to wake up to see what an arse her husband is, she did say something about things still not being easy between them so maybe she still isn't sure...

I wonder what this means for George's actor? It's a shame as he's one of the best actors in the programme but it just wouldn't have felt right if any less than prison for what he did. I wonder if we will still hear phone calls or visits. I think we used to hear from Freddie while he was in YOI or have I imagined that?

It was a good episode and I even welled up a touch at Emma's reaction. I think it was the despair as she realised she can't do anything else to help him.

Being sent to adult prison was an unexpected twist, that is a bit foreboding 😬

It feels like the miscarriage has been consistently mishandled by the sw and they don’t seem to realise how it’s coming across? Fallons reaction to finding it was George has made me dislike her tbh and this statement is the nail in the coffin. I’m not really interested in hearing about her new tearoom

note it was Jolene who went to support Fallon because Harrison isn’t capable of supporting her I assume

agree that George getting a suspended sentence was unlikely but I do think this is an example of the justice system being counter productive. If they make him the cartoon villain once he’s out I’m not sure I’ll bother anymore.

I didn't mind Fallon's statement. It didn't matter whether or not the pregnancy was viable or whether the crash caused the miscarriage - the bottom line for her is that the crash fundamentally changed her marriage. She is allowed to be upset by that because it matters. It's ok to articulate how you hated being in a position of thinking the worst about a friend to find that it was wrong and deliberately so. She wasn't rescued because George was a hero but because he put her there in the first place. I thought it was reasonable.

No she said he rescued her to save himself not her and that wasn’t true. Yes he caused the crash but he saved her because he cares about her.

and the miscarriage is irrelevant. All the crash did was make sure it was identified - she would have had the same issues on her marriage with the pregnancy regardless of the crash

and to also bring in the fact she lost a friend in Emma was twisting the knife

also felt like they got the gcse chat bot to write it

They’re really pushing the podcast and I worry they’re going to take it all too seriously and that’s going to impact the sw

saying that the seeds were sown with the post office robbery was odd as the introduction of Clive seemed gratuitous and unnecessary

Aha!

In a hotel so have the TV on silent in the background. (While listening to Today on phone.) Saw what I thought were drones so turned the sound up. It was this:

https://projectair.co.uk

And now I see a route for Brad, from Poor George’s drone filming business to world domination in aeronautical engineering. He may feel the need to switch from Mathematics @ Felpersham to a more tailored degree somewhere else.

(Perhaps there’ll be room for George too, once he’s out. After some healing time with Meg. Though I fear Bartley may not be there to greet him.)

Yes @Bruisername WHAT was the point of Clive’s fleeting reintroduction and panto villain schtick?!

I wonder what this means for George's actor? It's a shame as he's one of the best actors in the programme

Perhaps he's got a juicy film role lined up for the next 10 months?

It's an interesting debate whether the crash or the pregnancy messed up Fallon's marriage. One likely scenario would have been the miscarriage happening anyway, whether she found out she was pregnant beforehand or not, and Harrison would still be feeling that his behbeh had been snatched from him. With any luck he would have just ascribed it to fate, but he's dumb enough to have started blaming Fallon for not looking after his behbeh properly. Another would be the pregnancy remaining viable and potentially major drama around whether she was going to have an abortion or not - which would almost certainly have been the end of the marriage whatever decision she made. In many ways it was the pregnancy that caused the problems, not the crash.

Interesting idea, but I can't see it for Brad. Alice is an aeronautical engineer, although she seems to have turned her back on all that. I can't imagine she's making anything like as much money working at the Stables as she did in her previous career. She may have burned her bridges at her old firm because of her alcoholism-induced behaviour, but surely she could have found another job if she'd really wanted to. However, I assume she's decided it was too stressful and not family-friendly.

Re Fallon's statement - she now believes that George only rescued her to save his own skin. The listeners know that this is wrong, but she doesn't. I think that's plausible.

How do we think George's sentence is going to be received in Ambridge? Punch ups in The Bull? It's going to be very tricky at Bridge Farm, especially if Adam and Lilian were clapping and cheering when the sentence was delivered (I missed that bit, must listen again). Emma won't be slow to report that to the rest of the family.

Re Fallon's statement - she now believes that George only rescued her to save his own skin. The listeners know that this is wrong, but she doesn't. I think that's plausible. Yes. I couldn't really understand why Fallon had to read out her victim impact statement in person, but now I realise it was so we could hear George shouting "No Fallon" "I'm sorry" or whatever from the dock - reminding us that the only reason he dived in that river was because he knew it was Fallon trapped in the car. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have dived in for anyone else. Her victim impact statement would be the one that really mattered to George - it must have been a knife in his heart. As for the content of the statement, Fallon is correct, the crash did put a bomb under her marriage to Harrison, but let's be honest that bomb would have been ticking away anyway. I would argue that she is the one who has been most badly impacted by what happened (apart from George himself of course).

I don’t agree - her blaming the crash for her marriage problems and Alice blaming him for the alcohol problem were wrong

the accident made her go to rehab ultimately and she was rock bottom before the accident

and the marriage problems partly arose from Harrison not prioritising her and her trauma. It’s not George’s fault that the accident highlighted the cracks in her marriage

maybe it makes it easier to blame him but they’re not going to solve the underlying issues with that attitude

Wonder how Alice feels this morning …

I also agree that Alice was already on the rocks before the crash. The crash just brought it out into the open. Which ultimately proved a Good Thing.

And how should she feel? Guilty? Relieved? Vindicated? Triumphant? Indifferent?

I’m going with ‘thirsty’.

I’m hoping she goes back on the booze because she feels going to rehab was based on a lie

at one point I was hoping she and Chris would reunite but now I hope she starts drinking again and fully crushes his heart. And he will have nowhere to turn because he has cut out his family and we will get drama that way!!

they were talking about planting seeds for a long time and perhaps on 15 years Martha is going to be an awful tear away and Chris is going to understand what Emma went through