Archers thread #178: Ambridge or Scambridge? 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 you fancy Mucky Mick, 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.)

The scars from Scambridge week will take some healing. Most of us felt we were the ones scammed - where was The Archers we know and (very occasionally) love?

Anyway, onwards and - almost certainly not - upwards. Will it be the best Christmas ever in Ambridge? Do we still care? Over to you!

It really, really is!

Oi, @Scambridge, are you trying to steal my identity?!

Kirsty needs to serve a s21 asap

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime She's a real, live, human being, and a mother to 2 children.

Did the lodge actually ever sell?
It was going to be put for sale

The Helen bits were just great last night. The bit where she ripped the mortgage offer out of Tom's hand. Pure toddler rage.

Of recent Helen moments I can't decide if I prefer this scene or the moment where she wanted to judge her own cheese and award it a gold star. Ian had to intervene.

If nothing else she's a great character.

Tom is such a wet ( organic) lettuce. Mind you the Ambridge money fairy seems to have visited Tom and Natasha recently .

Almost every time we hear mention of The Stellar Twins, they are being looked after by someone outside the family. Perhaps Natasha has sold them?

She is an imaginary construct who has been written and acted as obnoxious and repellent since ca 1988.

If she was a real, live, human being I'd feel obliged to make allowances, be kind, but since she's a pretendy makey-up I have no guilt about feeling delight at the thought of her being smothered with cotton wool.

Actually, thinking about it, she's been annoying since 1979 with Pat carrying on about the clicky hip and wallowing in guilt and over-protectiveness - the killing of poor Comet was just another chapter in the awfulness of Helen. And the Blossom Hill gang. As so often Kate got the blame for stuff they did together.

I remember when the Rob storyline was going on someone posted on here that in real life they’d support Helen , but as a character, they wanted her locked up and for them to throw away the key! I knew what they meant…

I wasn't on here then, but would not be at all surprised if I posted just that on another board. Or boards.

I find Helen fascinating. She has endured a series of mishaps and truly tragic events that would usually elicit a great deal of sympathy but she is instead widely reviled on these threads and amongst my friends who listen to TA. I do feel for her and I think she tries her best with the boys but there is a strong selfish streak I can’t get past. However, as PP’s have pointed out, this has all been enabled by her family who have treated her like a fragile object d’art. Tom taking the blame for her hit and run is just one example. It hasn’t done her any favours. I think the fact she has lurched from one failed relationship to another is because she cannot see things for what they really are which is partly due to her family’s over protectiveness and ‘shielding’ her from reality.

I think if Helen were real, she'd fall into the category of "people I know and cross the road to avoid" rather than "friend" and I wouldn't have supported her. I do have a recent real life example of someone I know having done something very similar, dreadful and violent (under extreme provocation). The thing is, he is a decent person I like a lot and I am very much in sympathy with him ... as are a great many people locally. Helen, to me, is 100% selfish, not likeable and therefore - well, not exactly "string 'er up", but I wouldn't be offering a character reference.

Oh by the way MNHQ have posted this

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5232977-reactions-are-here-update-from-mnhq

She really isn't. Helen is a fictional character, not a living person.

Her actor has children but is not the person she portrays.

Yes, it did. The new owners closed the cat-flap against Hilda.

As you would.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime , wash yer mouth out. It's a documentary.~

Maybe it was Mere who visited George.

I was thinking Clive Horrobin.

Well it won't have been Alice.

Good thinking.

Poor Emma. Poor Brad too.

I'm amazed that Leonard was able to fill glasses of mulled wine with one arm in a sling. I spent time in a sling and a cast last year when I broke my pinkie and it had to be pinned. It was incredibly limiting. As he mentioned, when your thumb is out of action the entire hand becomes useless. Things improved enormously when my thumb was liberated from captivity.

I also think George's mystery visitor was Uncle Clive. Susan and Emma are going to be so upset if so.

On a completely different subject, who on earth is doing the food at the tea room? Emma is working there but I can't imagine she is doing the cooking. Or Natasha. Or Pat. Or Helen. It's annoying me that the tea room has just continued with no apparent problems after Fallon's departure when we were previously led to believe its success was due to her excellent culinary skills. Have I missed the explanation?

I was amazed Leonard was able to cook dinner (okay, chaotically), hoover/sweep, and help in the yard. I think he is milking it - appropriate word, really. 😉

the killing of poor Comet was just another chapter in the awfulness of Helen. And the Blossom Hill gang.
These events must have happened during my Wilderness Years. Can anyone fill me in on the details please?

PS
I too thought of Clive but it's possible that it was Meg the Pony Woman.