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!

I was slightly taken aback by Natasha’s comments about Fallon: “You and the tearoom - it’s like you belong together”. Well of course they do you half-wit - the tea room is Fallon’s brainchild. She set it up, built it up and then you and Tom snatched it from under her nose! I can’t believe Fallon didn’t say this - it would have been so satisfying - instead she simpered on about being incredibly flattered and enjoying not having the responsibility. Very disappointing!

Fallon in her current iteration (as opposed to the one who took drugs, or the one who castigated and despised Freddie about drugs, or the one who thumped an ex for lying to her, or the one who fought hard to get a business off the ground) seems very keen to be sweetness and light and Pollyannaish to all and sundry, for some reason. So she won't tell Natasha the harsh truths that Natasha deserves. It's a shame and a missed opportunity, but she seems determined to out-Kirsty Kirsty and doormat all over the programme.

Chelsea and whatever her name is were unutterably tedious.

So what do we think is going to happen to mar Fallon's happiness? The hubris of rejecting an Archer surely can't go unpunished.

Another unplanned pregnancy (we don't know what contraception she's now using after the failure of the coil)? Or something predicatable like Harrison being uncontrollably angry that she didn't consult him about the offer? Or the ever-present threat of him losing his job?

I don't see how Harrison can be angry about Fallon taking the offer, given that she fully consulted him before applying, and she would hardly apply if she didn't intend to follow through.

Aww, I liked them.

I didn't like the Asian girl just happens to be carrying homemade henna trope. I think it's been adequately demonstrated that the Maliks are brown, we don't need it to be reminded of it every time they speak.

But apart from that, I'm glad Chelsea has a chance of a friend in the village. And I wouldn't mind a plot where Mia comes home for the holidays and is irrationally jealous that Brad has moved on without her. It sounds realistic, and a break from the melodrama.

I was surprised that Chelsea didn't mention potential vacancies in the Terum when Zainab said she was looking for a job. Surely that is where she will end up? Unless Fallon starts a henna tattoo sideline.

I was cheering Fallon for rejecting the offer but raging that she didn’t tell Natasha what controlling arses she and Tom are.

I enjoyed the Chelsea/Zainab/Brad scenes.

Who did the bull end up employing when Emma left?

I meant Natasha's offer rather than the charging station offer.

Natasha specifically gave her time to speak to him while considering it. We have no indication that she did so. I can well see a situation where Harrison finds out from Tom at nets or something and goes mad that he wasn't consulted.

I'm not saying he would be justified. Merely that he has form for flying off the handle and that neither of them are communicating properly at the moment.

Agree with both points in this - it was a bit of a cliche that a young Asian woman happened to have henna in her bag 🙄 but I’m glad Chelsea has a counterpart and a potential friend - would prefer if it was literally just that and not muddled with Brad’s new personality shift tbh though. Also at that age every year is critical for relationships, romantic or otherwise - Chelsea is older than Brad so I can’t really get on board with her encouraging her younger brother to flirt with her new friend?

Yes @LillianGish i totally agree with your analysis

After her victim statement and her general doormat behaviour I have taken against Fallon tbh and don’t really care about her new venture

perhaps she’ll be writing another statement soon about her husbands mental state for his trial for beating up a suspect. No doubt she’ll blame George for that too

I thought they were excrutiating. Chelsea and Zainab might as well be the same (annoying) character.

Brad was well written and well acted in his scenes with George but he's cringe making in anything with young women. I could see the drool hanging off his mouth as he was eyeing up Zainab.

They’ve always tried to present Brad as respectful of women but there’s something of the pest about him

And I wouldn't mind a plot where Mia comes home for the holidays and is irrationally jealous that Brad has moved on without her.

I'd hate to see Mia hurt. She lost her mum at a very vulnerable age. All she's guilty of is being a bit too full on in her passions. But it's good to see a young woman care about the environment and animal rights.

Some bloke who was mentioned in a single sentence and never again since.

Zainab did her A levels in the summer, same as Brad, so they must be much the same age. I expect in due course we'll hear why she's taking an unplanned gap year.

When was Emma working at The Bull? Back in about 2020?

There was a new barman who took a while to learn the job, I think. And he doesn't seem to be there now, so perhaps he simply turned out to be unsatisfactory and they let him go after a month's probationary period or something.

They must have been in need of staff again when they interviewed Chelsea in April this year. Did we hear who they got instead of her?

They were recruiting because Emma was leaving for tree surgery and that’s why Chelsea was pitting them against each other

Zainab has just left school and is doing a gap year so is the same age as Brad.

Edit: @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g beat me to it.

To annoy her mother? Or maybe she just changed her mind about what she wants to do? The eldest child of a local family - academically very bright indeed - decided last August that in fact he probably didn't want to be a doctor after all, and decided to take a year out chez the Radha Krishna Temple at the other side of the UK. His parents just smiled and let him get on with it. His mum says it's been the making of him, he has grown up and (as a bonus) when he comes home he now does chores and cooks without having to be asked.

I thought the point of selling the land for Beechwood was to invest in the farm, didn’t that pay for the dairy with the big glass window and a teaching room for Helen or something like that?

Getting planning permission for Beechwood was one thing, getting permission to build a house on the retained farm land is quite another. But I can’t see why Helen hasn’t already thought about buying her own property, she could probably get something a bit cheaper than The Slaver’s House and unless Kirsty is doing her a special deal, a mortgage is likely to be cheaper than rent.

Is there? As far as I could make out he only had sex with Mia because she told him to, and he was frankly terrified when Lily tried to vamp him.

So before Emma added the tree surgery to her workload she was working at both the jobs Chelsea applied to do, Bull and Tearoom?

She certainly manages to fit forty-eight hours into each twenty-four.