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 can’t see Neil revealing hidden depths in therapy. He always strikes me as a very straightforward person, who would probably get most benefit from talking things over with his mates in the pub. Maybe a heart to heart with Tony?

I think Neil would probably go and talk to Alan if he needed an ear?

Neil is one of the few really likable characters isn't he? Maybe he just needs a few of Suasn's chilli con carnes inside him? 😉

I'd rather they revoiced than dedded him too, but Nu Robert appears to have had a personality transplant as well as a new voice. I really hope they don't do that to Neil. He's a real solidly nice bloke character. Uncomplicated, decent, hardworking. Don't change him!

I’d forgotten that Neil is a church warden - talking to Alan is a good shout.

Despite being a cat lover, I'm rather bored by this kitten and also by the way that nobody in Ambridge seems to know anything about cats. Obviously a sprightly young animal will be jumping about and knocking over any glasses that are left around. It was the same when Hilda went to live with Pat and Tony; they were outraged whatever the poor creature did while she was settling in.

No, you're right and I'm wrong here, they're first cousins. I must not have been fully awake.

I have a slightly dizzying head cold - and spent a few moments wondering if I’d been listening wrong for 60 odd years!

Poor Neil, it sounds like his funny turns might be stress related (a mild panic attack?), particularly as it came on immediately after Emma asked him to leave. He's very much the sort that would try and carry everyone else at whatever personal cost.

I thought Helen was kind and helpful with him. Mind, she could have done anything up to and including paying for therapy herself and she'd still have been criticised for it here

And I agree about Emma blaming everyone but herself. I suppose she's lashing out because she's scared, but for whatever reason she just can't/won't see that she's probably saved George from a longer stint. And did she really think that it would just blow over, that Alice would either be acquitted or get a non-custodial sentence (on the grounds that somehow the criminal justice system would work differently for her?)?

Perhaps it's too much to start looking to herself, she might have to acknowledge that a hefty part of why George is the way he is is because he was hopelessly indulged by her.

Haha, she did indeed!

And did she really think that it would just blow over, that Alice would either be acquitted or get a non-custodial sentence (on the grounds that somehow the criminal justice system would work differently for her?)?

It’s quite possible that Alice would not have gone to prison (less likely after she changed her plea, mind), but then she was ‘only’ being charged with driving offences. Emma would probably see that as unjust…

Whereas the rest of us would probably see it as Alice not being charged with perverting the course of justice simply because she didn't pervert the course of justice, rather than that omission being anything to do with her being a privileged Non-Grundy.

She jumped right into how awful George’s crimes were (which as they said he’s being punished for) which isn’t exactly breaking news without any compassion for what they were going through and then pretty much had it grudgingly extracted from her. Given her experience she could have done better.

But we all put our own perspective onto what we hear so that was just my take.

Yes, agreed. I wonder if her habit of making it everyone else's fault is something that's rubbed off on her son?

And why his Assassins' Guild nickname is Dog-botherer.

Absolutely. All this "They come down harder on the likes of us" might just be because they choose courses of action that other people don't.

I'm trying to envisage (say) Oliver twocking a car and framing its drunken owner after he had a minor accident in it. Somehow he seems unlikely to do that, and so, for all I find him an odious individual, does Justin. Apart from George, who? Possibly Helen or Elizabeth (well-meaning to get someone safely home, then getting into a panic and trying to shift the blame); and I can see Ben or Josh thinking they'd drive her home, but I don't really see them then framing her. I honestly don't know about Will or Ed; either of them might drive, but would either of them frame? It seems like a very unlikely possible, and the same for Jazzer.

You get unscrupulous people of all classes - just not all on TA!

his youth had a lot to do with it. Would a young Justin? I think a Harry would

Having a big name surname certainly saves you when you’re in an ‘accident’ in the states

It's exactly the sort of thing I could see Justin doing. Only it wouldn't make interesting radio because he'd have absolutely no qualms about having fitted someone else up for it and would just phone up his expensive lawyer to sort it out for him.

I can't imagine him coming to Alice's rescue in the first place, but having taken the car for some other reason, he would perjure himself without a second thought.

PM news items on endemic gangs in prison.

George might come out full Gangsta

Oh my …

There’s a prisoner phoning PM from a smuggled phone (…) to talk about how overcrowding is making it impossible for prison officers to police gang activity and violence.

Say around 17.21pm.

It’s not good news for Poor George.

(And I hope Emma wasn’t listening to PM.)

I'm guessing Emma doesn't listen to Radio 4.

She's probably a bit GB News

As I understand it, in some counties so does "accidentally" folding a large denomination bill into the driving license you hand over. You probably need to know who in the local force is on the take, though.

In Mexico my uncle used to carry banknotes in the car for precisely such occasions, in particular speeding ones.