Archers thread #175: Crime, punishment and kittens. 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 your current highlight is the kitten naming, 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.)

As I am posting this on Sunday morning at a point where some omnibus listeners won't have caught up with this week's events, I've kept the title less spoilerish than I might have done. Below this point, everything broadcast to date is of course fair game, so be warned!

Of course the main interest for most us at the moment is indeed the kitten naming competition. Isn't it? No?

Oh well, since you insist ...

How do we think George is going to cope now? Whither the Grundy and Horrobin clan? Will Lilian choke on her G&T (please)? Will Kenton get septicaemia from a kitten scratch? Will Alice die of sanctimoniousness? Will Fallon spend the rest of her life with the appalling Harrison and his unfulfulled longing for a behbeh? Will Adam and Will come to blows in the Bridge Farm packing shed?

Over to you!

Thanks for new thread- they’re moving fast!!!

I don’t think the kitten should be named anything pubby. Should be based on her looks or personality.

I quite like the kitten SL. The more kittens, the merrier. But what happened to the peacock?

Thanks Gasp0de
Edited to remove unnecessary comment.

Well in terms of current SL I guess the jailing is going to have ripples for a while, we have kitten naming and what else? I don’t think I can bear to listen to the George fallout tbh. I guess it’s because I have kids similar age and I actually feel how I did when I had post natal anxiety. I guess that’s the curse of motherhood

Thank you for the new thread.

I don't know if Kenton will get septicaemia from a kitten scratch, though I wouldn't mind if he did, but my DC did get very ill when she was 11 from a condition with the splendidly obvious name of Cat Scratch Disease.

We had been on holiday in Turkey and the DC, who was already developing into the mad cat lady she has become, was constantly cuddling every feral cat she could get her hands on, the more obviously disease ridden the better, despite being repeatedly told she was likely to "catch something".

A couple of weeks after we came home she developed a golf ball sized lump in her neck and a fever. She was tested for all kinds of things - I remember saying I never thought I would be disappointed to be told my DC did NOT have TB - and then the lump was removed on the assumption it was cancer. It turned out to be Cat Scratch Disease (not cancer). We had forgotten all about the manky Turkish cats by this point and it had not occurred to us that they could have been connected.

The TA always loves a bit of public service broadcasting - anyone else remember when Tony got tetanus? - and Sheru the AshTray Kitten provides the perfect opportunity to highlight this disease. It's a gift to parents. Our family has since invented a whole range of similar but fictitious diseases like Not Washing Your Hands After Going to the Loo Scrofula, Sitting on Wet Grass Bottom, and Over Eating Ice Cream Syndrome.

Does anybody else wonder whether the George/Brad and the drone storyline might turn into a lucrative "drugs by drone" delivery service. Freddie might know where to source them:

www.lbc.co.uk/news/prisons-drones-flying-drugs/#:~:text=Victorian%2Dera%20jails%2C%20with%20loose,weapons%20and%20help%20facilitate%20escapes.

It's more likely, I think, that Clive will be involved in sourcing if they go down that sl.

I do hope Brad isn't caught up in it.

If the SWs destroy Brad's golden future I will lay siege to the Mailbox.

Our family has since invented a whole range of similar but fictitious diseases like Not Washing Your Hands After Going to the Loo Scrofula, Sitting on Wet Grass Bottom, and Over Eating Ice Cream Syndrome. Love this, @Godesstobe!

#FreeGeorgeGee

Anyone with me?

No? Alright then ...

I think the kitten should be called ... Beatrice 😊

Checking into the new thread - thanks Gaspode!

Lovely new thread, thank you @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g . I hope the katten develops an allergy to the pub and has to go and live with Khalil.

Thanks for the new thread.

Thanks gasp.

Please, please, please don't let Brad get drawn into delivering drugs by drone! Surely he is too sensible?

George may well get into debt in prison. It is common for other prisoners to lend items to naive newcomers who are waiting for the prison to supply the things they need. The newcomer thinks this is being done from simple kindness and then finds they have inadvertently got into debt with interest being added until they pay. (Payment would be in prison currency - vapes, prescription medication, tins of tuna, etc.) This could lead George into trying to persuade Brad or Emma into smuggling drugs in to avoid him getting a beating if he cannot pay his debt.

In some prisons there is a culture among prisoners that you inherit the debt of whoever was in your cell before you, even if you have never met them or had anything to do with them. I have known prisoners attempt suicide (sometimes with fatal consequences) when these inherited debts are enforced. (Sometimes attempted suicide is .just a means of getting out of the prison to hospital and not a serious attempt, but it's not always easy to judge this quite right.)

I think it’s been pretty well established that Brad is incapable of delivering anything by drone, at least not to the person that it’s intended for. I suppose there is potential for a story about George being furious that the drugs he was waiting for have actually been delivered to the other wing.

Thank you for the new thread.

Well, Freddie was frankly useless, so Ambridge needs a competent drug dealer

Perhaps the red headed niece at the abattoir will prove to be the local Ms Big. Or was she, like Meg, just a random introduction by the SW?

Thanks Gaspode.

I almost wish George would attempt suicide (and be unsuccessful in the attempt). Not because I would wish this on any family in real life, but since TA has descended into improbably melodramatic soapland, we might as well milk it. I, for one, would welcome the reflection that some people who gloat over his downfall might have to engage in. Adam, Kenton, Lilian et al might be brought to some sense that, whatever he did wrong, the hell of an English prison isn't something to rejoice over.

Sorry, I've had this post as a draft for an hour while I was called away to something else and I daren't refresh the page for fear of losing it. But I was posting in semi-response to @Godesstobe 's mention of prisoner suicide attempts.

The first time I had heard George had a drone video sideline was that single episode. It must have some meaning for a future storyline, Shirley?

Thanks for the new thread, Gasp0de.

The drone was certainly sprung on us, wasn't it. Brad needs a lot more practice with it before he can use it properly (I know about them a little because we got one in 2014 when they were a very new idea, and learning how to fly it was quite difficult even on a playing-field with no trees anywhere in the area). I think the prison is probably too far away for Brad to get there without his own transport if he wanted to, which if it were to break the law I feel fairly sure he wouldn't anyway

I didn’t think the drone was new?

so to those who know - how likely is it that George would mix with the adult prisoners? Are we going to get something improbable?

I don't think the drone was new to George, but it was certainly new to me. I don't think it had been mentioned before on air. We all knew he had a business of some sort online, to do with videos in some way, but I don't remember that it was ever said exactly what it was.

BTW, when I said in my previous post that drones were a new idea in 2014, I didn't mean drones altogether: they'd been around as weapons for a long time. Having them available for civilians to play with was what was a new idea.

I feel like I knew about the drone and would only have learnt about it during the episodes so I wonder why everyone else is surprised!! I guess if I was the only one who wasn’t then I must be misremembering!!

Maybe you extrapolated from "he takes videos of farms for them to use in advertising", which we knew he did for eg Bridge Farm, to him doing it by drone rather than, as he did for Bridge Farm, with a hand-held camera? I hadn't, but there's no reason for me to think nobody else had and you might be one of the people who did make that leap..