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!

Possibly I'm late to the party on this but I've just started S2 of Showtrial and bloody Pip (well, Daisy Badger) is in it. I recognised the voice instantly 😫

I was wondering if Neil will turn out to be diabetic, to enable a nice little PSA about the importance of going to your GP and getting tested.

And I also thought we knew about George’s drone somehow.

Pip in Showtrial? How did I miss her? Ep 1 was on last night but it was so clunky and poorly directed I gave up pretty soon. Now I’ll have to take another look.

As for Neil - I initially assumed heart attack. But it’s true the script was giving low blood sugar - which is a bit less exciting. I don’t want Neil to be ill at all, though.

I picture Lilian as amply bosomed and bottomed but well-corseted around the waist!

She's the dark haired activist, Sara.

Agree with poster who says this has soured my view of Lillian. I've always been neutral towards her but now I think she's a Daily Mail reader with zero concept of 'but for the grace of god'.

I agree too. If Alice had been sent down for two years on exactly the same charges and in exactly the same circumstances (early guilty plea etc), Lillian would be shouting to the rooftops how a custodial sentence was unfair and unreasonable.

I think it would have finished Emma off completely, mind.

Was there a diabetes storyline relatively recently with Mike Tucker?

Ohhhhhhh! Thanks! Ok. I do wish Daisy Badger a tremendously busy and successful screen career …

Lilian, in my head (and despite knowing what Sunny Ormonde looks like) has always resembled Lindsay Duncan - just a loud, perma-sozzled, cackling version. (Not at all ethereal and cerebral as LD appears to be.)

20+ years ago, maybe! Walter Gabriel was diabetic too, I think, but that's going back 40+ years.

I’m sure it was much more recent than that! He came back to Ambridge briefly (and seemed to be trying to stay as long as possible’ and was eating like a horse. Turned out Vicky had him in a healthy eating regime that he was escaping from.

I think a diabetes SL would be interesting

Yes I remember that. Wasn’t he ‘pre-diabetic’ or something?

He'd only have low blood sugar if his diabetes was actually being treated though.

Gosh - I like Neil.

Surely we are not due yet another PSA - I cannot keep up with them😁

Has Lynda's reaction to khalil and zainab been discussed yet, maybe on the last thread? I'm hoping for some self reflection and an acknowledgment from Lynda that she did stereotype the kids and that is was rooted in racism but so far it seems lacking. Someone has to point it out to her at some point though.
I do find it irritating that Azra pronounces Khalil with the strongly Urdu inflection on the Kh. By her accent she's British born and every British born Pakistani/arabic parent I know has been mindful of giving a name thats easy to pronounce in the local accent and avoided Kh sounds. I know that's by no means universal but it feels like the SWs are trying to make the family feel as 'different' as possible for the 'outsiders' SL.

You're right. I was thinking of the time when he was told he had high cholesterol, I think, which was before Betty died.

@CameronStrike I also thought that about Azra’s pronunciation. It feels very stagey. (And yes, someone needs to confront Lynda about being a big old racist.)

I see her as plump, a smoker and always with a G&T after 5pm with a horrible cackling laugh. I don't like her and never have.

I see Lilian as slim and impeccably dressed with very expensively dyed blonde hair, so that you’d get a surprise if you saw her from behind and she suddenly turned round, as despite lots of treatments her face shows her age, due to years of smoking.

There was lots of discussion on Lynda. I personally found it out of character and also odd they are trying a racism sl given they aren’t the first non white family. Would be more understandable if it was a school thing but it’s a terrible cliche

also, the racism was gently raised with her when Khalil talks about the ‘r’ word. I don’t think we are in any doubt that she recognised that her behaviour could be interpreted that way and that’s why she turned up with the tagine

This.

Lynda would be respectful to an Asian GP or lawyer but less so to an unknown teenage boy.

I think it also may be influenced by the h National Trust’s recent research findings about non-whites not feeling welcome in the countryside, even when on day trips. (Either done by NT or publicised by them)

If Alice had been sent down for two years on exactly the same charges - Alice wouldn't have been facing exactly the same charges though would she? She would have faced drinking and driving charges of course, but not perverting the course of justice. Alice has never denied she was a drunk - she admits it's an ongoing battle for her. It's an illness. What George did was far more calculated - he would have happily seen Alice or even Harry carry the can for his crime and he almost got away with it. His dangerous driving was the least of it. If he'd owned up straightaway and said it was an accident he would have got a much more lenient sentence. I picture Lilian as looking like a latter-day Diana Dors - someone who was glamorous in her youth, but has gradually gone to seed (especially as a drinker and smoker). I don't think her cackle is the cackle of a thin person.