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!

Oof, finally caught up!

@Eastie77Returns My sister works with offenders and visited a prison over there as part of a project. She said at certain points it genuinely reminded her of a relaxing spa facility.

I've been in a men's prison to visit a friend and I found the opposite - it was enough to put anyone off a life of crime. I remember sitting in the car crying that we had to leave him behind in that awful place, and that was a Category C, not the previous B which other friends said was even worse. I remember receiving a letter from him that there'd been a fight where they thought a kid in there had died (it later transpired he hadn't but he'd had his head battered against a wall). And once he came out my friend told me he saw people go in clean and come out addicts because drugs were so rife (often bought in by staff, some of whom were clearly so bent you wondered how they stood up straight). The experience changed my friend indelibly.

As for the sentence reduction, 40% was the norm back then (10/15 years ago).

Surely an obvious direction for George's drones is as a delivery mechanism for prison contraband. (Never mind that a camera drone is a different beast.) Drone operator goes to jail - can you imagine that the other cons will leave him alone for a moment until he gets Brad to deliver the goods?

I’m hoping she goes back on the booze because she feels going to rehab was based on a lie I'm hoping she stays off the booze because she truly believes she has been given a second chance.

I expect Emma to get around to voicing publicly that if it hadn’t been for Alice, none of this would ave appened, and there is Alice sitting prettay while Jawidge is behind bars, thus polarising feelings further.
Which could be fun.

Alice is always enabled - she relapsed because of Harry, if she relapses now it will be because of George

she had a very short stint in rehab and I think she still doesn’t really take responsibility for her addiction and ime that’s the only way you can truly stay sober

This wasn’t mentioned when I did the BBC Mailbox tour some years ago, but it does feel as if the SWs are using aphorisms to prompt storylines.

I can’t stop thinking about the day George tore into Will, Emma and Ed - from the great height of his teenage ignorance. That was the start. That’s what he’s being punished for. Pridefulness.

I woke up this morning feeling sad. I couldn't think why at first and then I remembered George.

TA doesn't normally affect me emotionally - there is so much clunky writing and dodgy acting that it's hardly ever possible to suspend belief and feel genuinely moved - but George being sent to an adult prison has really upset me. A lot of that is due to the fact that I know what it will be like for him and how difficult it will be for him to survive. But credit must also go to Angus Stobie and the other actors and to some decent script writing for once.

I know someone who has a side-business supplying drone filming (or maybe it’s his main business, whereas the one I know him from - a totally different area - is the side-business). They do a lot of surveying for building/archaeological projects but the applications are very varied.

The extensive advert disguised as an interview for the podcast at the end of Today this morning was something I really dislike on principle. It's a current affairs show. They can get away with interviewing the makers of investigate journalism programmes (e.g. the Post Office thing), but it really shouldn't be a vehicle for people to give an extended trailer for a random BBC show.

Anyway, it didn't come across well. Emma Freud confidently asserted that George had been sentenced to three years in prison, and it was criticised as a spoiler but not for being wrong.

It was interesting to hear 'Tracey''s real voice. I would never have picked her out in a crowd.

@BrightYellowDaffodil I've been in a men's prison to visit a friend and I found the opposite ...

But @Eastie77Returns was talking about a facility in Norway.

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

It might not have come to the surface. She might have had what she thought was an unusually heavy period, or she might have found out in private, either with a bought test, or at the GP that she was pregnant - and could have decided herself whether to carry on and tell Harrison or have an abortion. If she should blame anyone, it is the doctor I the hospital who told her with Harrison there, rather than when she was alone.

The problems in the marriage would still have been there, but they could have probably trundled on for years until some other flashpoint, at which point, Harrison would have been all, "I could have been a father, but I was happy to accept you didn't want children, and this is how you repay me for my support!"

The extensive advert disguised as an interview

I meant extended rather than extensive, of course, but my phone was playing up. It didn't recognise confidently or asserted either.

But the marriage problems and pregnancy are totally irrelevant. If it had just been the accident Harrison wasn’t that bothered (red flag) but the miscarriage is what tipped him over

if the doctor had discovered she had cancer and it had saved her life because picked up early then would he have had a shorter sentence?

I'm glad I didn't hear the puff piece. The BBC is extremely keen on these filler items (cheaper than finding another real news story?). They frequently do it in the evening news for a forthcoming Panorama documentary. It works against them here as we rarely bother watching the full documentary, having had the edited highlights on the news.

Not sure I'm going to bother with the podcast. Hoping for reports from others.

The only thing I took away from last night's episode was a brand new and hearty dislike of Fallon. So well done the scriptwriters!

I felt much the same.

a vehicle for people to give an extended trailer for a random BBC show

’Twas ever thus. I can’t remember a time when the BBC didn’t utilise its news programmes to promote its other shows. Always disguised either as Gosh, isn’t this issue suddenly urgently interesting? By coincidence we have … Or just Emma X has made many fascinating programmes, We caught up with her as she launches …

I don’t like it at all, but 🤷🏽‍♀️

I don’t think anyone else from Ambridge was there, so it must have been Adam and Lilian? That’s contemptible. How can the sentence be unalloyed joy when it causes distress to people they know?

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. But she presented it as a consequence of-the accident rather than a concurrent event.

maybe Meg paid to have a role in TA? So there’s no long term purpose to her.

@Bruisername You are a cheerful soul!

Sorry, I missed that bit (although I'd still make the same points about the reality of British prisons).

I honestly find the whole SL despicable and they’ve only got away with the shitness because of some excellent acting

@BrightYellowDaffodil - the other poster was talking about Norway, I don’t think you were, were you? (@Gonners @Eastie77Returns was being quoted by the other poster I think, it wasn’t her speaking)

@WagnersFourthSymphony I hope you’re wrong. I don’t want Brad dragged in. But there’s an awful plausibility, given the careful build-up we’ve had of George leading Brad astray.

It will probably not surprise you to learn that my dislike of Fallon is not new . Since her marriage to Burns she has become very much Mrs Moral Majority (an occupational hazard, I suppose) and is generally nauseatingly upbeat. But what really stuck in my craw was her po-faced and condemnatory attitude to Freddie, given her own tastes and behaviour as a juvenile and her indignation at the treatment of her father for drug offences.

Me too!

@MereDintofPandiculation I'd missed that Eastie was talking about Norwegian prisons (although I'd still make the same points about what British prisons are like) :)

Emma's anguished scream brought back memories of Kirsty being jilted at the altar... Goodness knows how she's going to react when she finds out he's been sent to the adult estate (albeit on a youth wing) :/

And as for the cheering from the gallery, how crass and lacking in any sort of grace. It will be very interesting to see how the ripples from this continue to spread through Ambridge. I thought Fallon's victim statement was rather OTT, too - it's hardly George's fault that the cracks in her marriage became yawning chasms!