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 think she ditched the plans in favour of spending the summer being Oliver's PA at Grey Gables and poking her nose in everywhere there. For a while she kept on occurring on air bullying Brad.

No one enthused by tonight’s episode, then?

It was Rob Drummond. He's definitely a listener, even if he holds contentious views.

I liked it, I thought Alice’s was kind to Emma. Mind you, Alice - like Helen - can seem to do no right on these threads, so I was expecting a lot of “Hark at Lady Muck bestowing her grace” comments…

On the Emma front, she doesn’t seem to have been able to talk to him much, the only information about him was that she is waiting for a visit.

And it was lovely to hear Brian (although he does always sound like he’s just run a mile) and I’m looking forward to more stuff about the ploughing competition. I wonder if the two women ploughers were real? <off to Google>

Brian’s romance seems to have gone off the boil. No mention of Miranda for ages!

i completely forgot it was on last night! Having a bit of a dip in enthusiasm for listening!!

Alice's hypocrisy in that "victim" statement was astonishing, even by her standards, suggesting that her downfall and problems with Martha were caused by George. Has she forgotten that the whole business started because she was semi-conscious in her car, having necked a bottle of vodka? And as for Fallon's nonsense ... words fail me, but she's off my Christmas card list.

I think Brian was away with Miranda when Alice learned about the charges being dropped. She didn’t tell him about George because she didn’t want to spoil their holiday, having managed to ruin a previous one somehow or other. The relationship is very much a going concern - off air.

I’d totally forgotten that, thanks @RegimentalSturgeon

i strongly agree @Gonners !

I find fallons behaviour odd. She was very quick to forgive Alice but can’t seem to forgive Emma. Of the whole ridiculous SL it was the victim impact statements that have irritated me the most!!

i quite liked Emma and Alice's awkwardness. I will not stop harping on about Alice reinventing history though. Martha's issues didn't start with the accident. And the setback wasn't due to the accident.

But i did like the olive branch about the Apple thing. I thought that was quite nice. And the acknowledgement to Brian that it is for her not for Emma. (that is right and good, but i did like hearing her say it. Just so i know that she isn't fooling herself that she is lovely and forgiving for kindness sake)

To be fair to Alice (but why should I be?) she did acknowledge to Emma that her problems wih drinking and Martha had started before the accident. And Emma acknowledged: yes, but George made things worse,

I wonder if Brian will "retire" and tootle off into the sunset with Miranda, occasionally phoning Ambridge? Judy Bennett seems to have done that quite successfully with Shula.

The disadvantage of that from the listeners' point of view (apart from Less Brian) would be the probability of More Adam.

yes, she finally admitted that to Emma. In the statement it was a whole other scenario though. It rankles a bit.

I did like the Ruth/Stella stuff though. Nice to hear lady farmers talking about stuff.

I'd really miss Brian if he was retired but the actor really doesn't sound at all well in episodes - I wondered if they'd started the angina SL to cover up a RL health problem which is leading to his very breathy delivery...

It's a bit morbid, but with so many elderly voice actors, I suppose it does show foresight on the writers' part to foreshadow various health complaints just in case.

Brian can’t possibly retire without a ginormous Home Farm inheritance row involving all Jenny’s children, Ruairi, Stella and the future prospects of Phoebe, Noluthando, Sipho, Xander and Martha …

I’ve been waiting half a lifetime …

I think life for the Aldridge children and grandchildren will be interesting to say the least once Brian is no longer with us. The arguments could rumble on for years.

Interesting Alice still thinks of Keira and George as her neice and nephew. It's almost as if in her head she is still married to Chris. I'll be quite disappointed if they get back together.

We need to start preparing a family tree for this.

Interesting Alice still thinks of Keira and George as her neice and nephew.

Tying an Archer-Aldridge to both the Carter-Horrobins and the Grundys through marriage is possibly the greatest triumph in the whole history of Ambridge. Alice and Chris’s starter marriage - and how it shapes relationships in the village - is worth about a hundred million duff episodes of crappy humour and unlikely micro-plots.

And best closing line ever, from Jennifer:
'Oh Brian, I'm going to be related to a Horrobin.'

Or words to that effect.

How many years now, since Kate last saw her son?

(FaceTime / WhatsApp doesn’t count.)

(Kenton and Meriel ditto …)

Wait. Kenton has a child?! @TottersBlanklyTopplesOver is that what you meant?

Kenton saw Meriel in New Zealand when he took his holiday there in the expectation of money from the sale of Brookfield. The sale didn't happen and Kenton was left with the pub's credit cards maxed out – which I suspected at the time might have been embezzlement or something, since the business paying for his and Jolene's holiday seemed to me to be well dodgy. I don't think he ever paid it back; he was too busy sorting out payment for the repair of the pub after Ye Grate Fludde (which he got by borrowing from his family, mostly Brookfield, and then refusing to pay it back because it was All Dave's Fault he didn't have the money from the sale of Brookfield which he had already spent).

That was in 2015-6.

Meriel's name has not been mentioned in Lowfield since that date, and I suspect it would have been if he'd been said on air to have gone to see her, or she had turned up to see him.