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!

Our GP does the same, with extra nurses brought in from other practices so they have all the consulting rooms in use. It's very efficient but the nurses can be a bit of a mixed bunch and last time I went, a large and apparently angry woman stabbed me so hard that I staggered sideways. Since then I've booked in at various local pharmacies.

I don’t agree ‘in real life’ that Neil should have been referred for further tests immediately. A bit of intermittent dizziness and moderate hypertension are neither of them particularly alarming, and given that he is ‘stressed’ by identifiable factors are likely to resolve without intervention. He even got a follow-up appointment, which is by no means a given.

In The Archers, however, I was rather hoping he would drop dead mid-ploughing, thus ruining Dr Malik’s image as WonderDoc. A second ‘breakdown’ for Fragile Ben would have been pure jam.

Our GP practice has now been absorbed by some sort of larger entity and it's still all settling down. I had a phone consultation with a GP from a different practice a few weeks ago. That was fine as I rarely see/talk to the same GP from one consultation to another anyway. They have a community pharmacist who does some phone consultations too, also fine from my limited experience. The communications are very efficient in some ways but much worse than they were in others. I wanted to try to find out if I could get a flu and Covid jab this autumn and there was nothing on the website at all. However, when I went into the surgery they said no problem, go through to the pharmacy next door. The pharmacist did it within ten minutes. (I'm not old enough yet to get them automatically and I don't have any underlying health conditions that would qualify me either, but they were happy to treat me as a carer because of the Gaspmother.) Still, the NHS app seems to have some useful information on it.

The one thing they really do not seem to want at the practice I go to is anyone going there in person. There was one slightly hysterical occasion when I was told by the receptionist that I would have to ring up about something, so I took out my phone and rang up, from the other side of the reception desk from her.

Yes I noticed the irritating woman in two of them and an irritating man yesterday and possibly the week before. I really shouldn't bother listening but it just fits my routine to listen to the 6.30 'comedy' before The Archers.

Was anyone else hoping to hear a bit about seed drills? No? Just me then.

I would have expected them to get it wrong, though, because whenever someone who really knows about stuff comes on to explain about whatever it may be, it is clear that the writer got it wrong either a lot or a little.

Isn't the point of Stella's very expensive spandy new bit of kit (that she didn't bother to get permission to spend someone else's money on from anyone who actually had the right to give it to her) that it is a no till seed drill?

“polite like ‘is mum taught ‘im” said the doughty working classes according to middle class script writers. I mean REALLY, who talks like that??

🙄🙄🙄 who the hell was the sw this week? They’re desperate to ram stuff down our throats aren’t they?

Sarah Hehir.

I hope it was work experience then

She has been writing for the radio for more than ten years.

www.sarahhehir.com/about

Oh dear

My local GP has separate sessions for flu/covid jabs with a long queue which moved really fast - name? D.o.b? Jab. Out - no sitting about waiting. Last year, as the nurse moved to my right arm to give me the covid jab, another nurse stepped forward to simultaneously give the flu jab in the other arm. A bit grim for someone who relies on biting hard on the forefinger to get through any jab or blood collection .

This year it was less busy, with only one nurse, so we had time to chat. Covid is a liquid, so comes with a fine needle with a fine bore. Flu is an emulsion, more viscous, so a wider bore and a bigger needle. So it hurts a lot more.

Absolutely! There was another listen with mother turn of phrase from someone like Brad or George which made me do a double take! I shall have to listen again

Neither of mine hurt going in but my covid arm started aching that night and carried on for 24 hours.

Both mine ached. Not a good night's sleep.

Oh Brad, well done.

I did some Covid vaccinating and definitely noticed that the old people were totally chilled about it. Only ever had two people make a fuss (beyond just maybe being tense or gritting teeth) , both younger. And of course one of them was the only one to go badly. She sort of waved her arm around just as I was doing it, whilst shrieking (which started before the needle reached her) thus making me pierce her twice. Had to seize her arm to stop her wrenching it away against the needle. Was dreadful. She seemed almost pleased her expectations had been met.

I don't have first-hand experience (thankfully) but I would have thought that being a known grass in prison would more likely mean getting your head kicked in repeatedly than something relatively minor like having your bed pissed on.

I thought the hint of George being worried the young girls' photos were stolen for sexual purposes was well played though.

worried the young girls' photos were stolen for sexual purposes

[boggles at what kind of photos were being imagined]

I expect the head-kickings-in will kick in in due course.

I don't think the photos themselves were at all explicit, but George was concerned that anyone with a sexual interest in young girls would get gratification from them and it sickened it him to think of it. That's how I heard it anyway.

I think they're doing rather a good job of countering the Mail/Express depiction of prisons as close to luxury hotels and showing the grim reality.

Oh god that was excruciating. She sounded like Alice and/or Lottie in places. Very GCSE, sorry A-level drama.

Brad and Jazzer were great, and Emma and Fallon. Poor George ☹️

And if he’s got an ounce of sense he won’t breathe a word about his drone!