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!

Consumption - Gavin
Conspicuous consumption - Brenda
Not fit for human consumption - Leonard’s cooking / Eddie’s Turkeys

I really hope Eddie sells not a single ticket and has to give them all away.

And I don't know why Roy/Hayley need Brenda in Ambridge. Perfectly easy to sell your house from afar now that we have this thing called the Internet. If SW wanted to bring back Brenda they could have had her wanting to say goodbye to Willow Farm and Ambridge now that all ties are being severed.

Mmm … I don’t think it’s a terrible way to bring her back! (And I’d probably be happy with any return - I love her fearlessness and her interconnectedness with people in the village. The constant Westwood-ing was clumsy but they do only have 12 and a half minutes to portray someone.)

Uh … Ok …

Says Brad in response to Emma saying Will would want to know how the prison visit went. He sounded shifty. Not very, because he’s Brad, but certainly as if there was something he wasn’t saying. As if he thought Will might already know how George was getting on, from another source.

Mia …

What's fearless about her? She's just tactless and rude and a bit pathetic. All in twelve and a half minutes!

Erm … Going up against Lilian for a man? That was a bold move for a young woman! Refusing to become Tom’s Ready Meal Maid. Leaving Ambridge.

I forget the rest!

She gave Dmitri the chuck ten years or so ago, and later became engaged to a chap called Adrian who lived in Wapping and owned an IT company. She did tell us about no longer being with Adrian, when she was conversing with Kirsty.

Finally caught up with the thread and the show.

Clive been to see Freddie?

I am fairly sure he said "OK" in response to Emma telling him that she would pass on to Will what Brad had said about the visit, not in response to the idea that Will would want to know how it had gone.

Maybe Brad is aware how hopelessly unreliable a witness Emma is about anything to do with George. ("Not the first time he's been led astray" she says of little Georgie – by whom, for goodness sake?) He might have been dreading having to sort out her lies to Will when Will came to ask him why George was seeing a loose woman in prison, or something equally garbled and leap-to-conclusions.

George was manipulated by Rob into bringing him Henry.

That may be the one time on which he realised and admitted what a total nitwit he had been, I suppose. Not sure how much he was led astray, though: he seemed to need precious little incentive of any kind to do Helen dirt.

who was the rogue bloke who turned up in the village again just before George got shopped and send to prison - an uncle... ? Thats who i think visited george in prison.

Yeah, Great Uncle Clive, Susan’s ne’er do well brother.

I like the way Kenton dealt with Mucky Mick.

Am I the only one who’s wondering exactly why there’s such a panic about selling Roy and Hayley's house right this minute? They know Kirsty's dead set on buying it, and she has a property to sell, so they have a guaranteed buyer who’s visibly got the means to proceed. Presumably she’s offering Roy the asking price. Rather than send Brenda round to chivvy Kirsty with unachievable demands - she doesn’t actually have any power to make things go any quicker than they’re already going, surely? - they could all just decide to calm down and let it proceed to a satisfactory conclusion. It might take a while but it’ll happen.

Of course, I say all this in the full knowledge that the SL demands we experience the House of Fun that will be Tom, Natasha, the terrible twins, Henry, Jack and Helen cohabiting.

Day Twenty-Three in the Big Brother House, and Helen is measuring the kitchen to prove Natasha is using more than her fair share of worktop space…

I’m imagining that we are supposed to imagine that Roy needs the money from the sale to establish his new life with Lexi?

(I would have left a Laughing reaction for the Big Brother House - but what appears on the screen is weirdly reminiscent of Saturday evening TV in the 60’s, so I’d rather not.)

I wasn't paying attention (can you blame me?): who exactly has made the offer that has been accepted? Is it Tom'n'Tash, Helen, or The Outsiders? Because I can't see how either of the first two are in a position to "proceed" this side of 2030, given their general inability to actually do anything without endless wittering arguments.

Apparently The Outsiders weren’t proceedable either - they hadn’t even put their own house on the market. Natasha claimed she’d secured a mortgage offer on condition they put down a 50k deposit, at which Tom audibly blanched, and she airily waved that aside with a plan to take the money out of her Summer Orchard funds.

Totters, I get Roy's desire to settle down properly with Lexi but I’m just musing on the safe bet that is Kirsty vs an unknown (and as yet I don’t think there have been any other likely buyers?) potentially messing him around. A bird in the hand, as it were.

That was Uncle Clive Horrobin, but I honestly don't see it: he would see no benefit in visiting George and I don't think he would do it unless there were something in it for him. And I am fairly sure he'd need quite a good incentive to set foot in a prison if he were not being forced to.

Also, I seem to remember that he's not well-thought of by any prisoners he's done time with, so he wouldn't even impress the other inmates.

That's if there was any other visitor at all, which seems to me to be in doubt: "That screw was throwing his weight about last week as well" doesn't necessarily mean George was even present when it happened as opposed to having heard someone else talking about the man's behaviour.

I'm waiting for the scenes when Helen tries to patronise Natasha about Knowing Best what the furniture layout should be or how the kitchen cupboards should be arranged. Or perhaps Jack's paternal genes will start to demonstrate themselves when Nova and Seren annoy him sufficiently.

Are the estate agents even involved at this point? If Kirsty is doing all the negotiating herself I don’t know why she ever instructed them, especially with money apparently so tight. Round these parts, word gets out that a property is becoming available, invariably there’s someone who knows someone, good village properties are often snapped up by private buyers with a local connection.

Mind you, we do know this one has been trashed by Helen’s boyz. And then there’s Tom and Tash’s twins spraying the carpets and furniture with juice. It’s going to be carnage….

Mind you, we do know this one has been trashed by Helen’s boyz.

No. We know Helen said her surveyor said, etc, etc. But Helen’s relationship with the truth has always been one of convenience only.

And why isn’t Tom double checking everything Natasha says re them being able to afford the property? It doesn’t make sense that he would let her do the mortgage arranging on her own having had cause for concern over her attitude to money in the past.

He was too quick to accept her comment that she’d paid off all her credit cards. And surely they’d had to finance the cafe refurb too? Perhaps it will come out that the twins next egg has been plundered…

I think it’s interesting that Natasha was introduced with a storyline about her somewhat reckless attitude to debt but that line was never pursued or even mentioned again. Maybe this is going to turn out to be one of the very long story arcs.