Archers thread #180: Burgeoning backstories! Continuity, what’s that? 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 think it's a great idea for Helen and the boys to lodge with Tom, Natasha, Seren and Dippity*, 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 www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/5244480-the-archers-spoilers-thread-10-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.)

*Can't remember who coined this, but it's genius.

I was strongly tempted to use one or both of the posts suggested for the title of this thread on the last thread, but went for something a bit briefer. However, they're brilliant and will kickstart this thread very nicely, so here they are:

@Sidebeforeself: Beavers, bridge, bunny boilers and busybodies - it's all a load of bollocks!

(I couldn't agree more!)

@DeanElderberry: I don't usually speculate much on the appearance of characters, but do wonder what it is about Miranda that is bringing out the chest-thumping silverback in Brian and Justin? One little bridge game and the course of Ambridge rewilding is set. The face that launched a thousand beavers.

Over to you!

Chelsea & Freddie. Yes please.

I should think that's about right re Chelsea, but also because she's a Horrobin, one of the worst families in the village, 2 siblings went to prison etc.
Young people( the ones I know anyway) may not talk about the class system per se these days but they're perfectly aware of the differences, it's couched in different terminology and talked about with reference to education, outlook, attitudes, background etc.
As to what R and D could do, well after Ben's mental problems I suppose they'd have to treat him with kid gloves so couldn't do or say much. But I don't remember Ben even particularly liking Chelsea in terms of wanting a proper relationship, I thought she was just a bit of a drunken shag.
Jenny and Brian were not only horrified by Alice and Christopher's relationship and even more so by their las Vegas marriage, they were aghast at having to be related by marriage to Susan and Neil and having to invite them round to Home Farm for meals and events etc.

No, no, no! I think Freddie's probably asexual anyway.
Doubt the trustees would be happy if the potential lady of lower loxley was Chelsea Horrobin.

Chels is awful.

Is Harrison's job going to involve working 24/7 without any days off?

MrBatchelor and I had two longish periods in our marriage when he worked a few hours drive away. He came home every weekend and occasionally I'd go to see him. So I can't understand why F&H are being so dramatic about their separation. She's not waving him off to the trenches.

I thought it was an ‘under cover’ operation that might involve longer hours and less leave.

<hopeful>

I was worried we were going to be treated to a bath rumpy pumpy scene last evening 🤮.

I agree! And I can't pick on Chelsea for not being a fully qualified rocket scientist, she always comes across as hard working.

Thank God for small mercies.And for us not witnessing Susan discovering Neil dressing up.

I agree. There's nothing wrong with Chelsea. She's a hard worker like her mother.

Nigel's mother was a chorus girl.

I’m still team Chelsea and Freddie. She’s going to need to go through a maturing process though (maybe the dairy can help) as she sounds the same now as 3 years ago. She must be in her 20s?

Ooh maybe they get together, take a year off to travel the world, come back and boot out Elizabeth.

Tbh she’s still too young to get married etc - she needs to live a little!!

True but I have nothing against her and wouldn't mind if she ended up with Freddie or Ben. The fact that her uncle is a criminal is not her fault.

I remember Brian calling it Alice's starter marriage. Which it has turned out to be.

I would be astonished if Alice’s starter marriage partner didn’t end up being her forever marriage partner as well …

I miss Beth.

On the other hand I love Chelsea and would like her dreams to come true. So if Zainab is the catalyst for Ben and Chelsea to realise they are meant to be together forever …

I our Army days Mr ref and I were often in different Postings. Even different countries. Even pre-internet it was OK. (and there was always 2 Way Family Favorites 😂)
Even a few years ago with teenage DCs I worked far enough away to have a flat there (bliss, tbh) and come home for weekends.

No one in Ambridge can cope with long-distance relationships. Brenda and Tom seemed to think they were the first couple on earth to have to contend with being apart for work reasons during the week, and I think she was only in ?Leicester, which is not that far from wherever Ambridge is supposed to be. I remember nothing about the specific reasons for their eventual split, but I assume their permanent exhaustion, moaning and harassed state was a big factor. Mark Hebden worked in Brum for a time, commuting, and that was too tiring so he set up his practice in Borchester. I assume some of the silent characters commute to Brum or Felpersham, but I expect a lot of them are now wfh a lot of the time. For all we know, the Gills are running a successful business from Home Farm, with all food delivered from the supermarket on the bypass, which no one else in the village has worked out how to do.

Jennifer was horrified because Chris was half-Horrobin and she didn't at all want to be related to the criminal Horrobin family, not because he was (not actually) working class. Brian was pragmatic, and mocked her reaction by advising her to think of it as a starter marriage. He liked Christopher, and had done for a while.

It's not really been made clear exactly what Harrison will be doing (it's conveniently hush hush), but isn't he staying in Police accommodation in the form of single rooms in a sort of halls of residence type arrangement which is why Fallon can't go with him? In which case I can't understand why he wouldn't go home for weekends (days off assuming he has to work weekends). Does such police work exist? I can't believe for a minute he's going to be working undercover - Harrison would be absolutely useless, he's far too heart-on-your-sleeve, over-emotional for that surely? Probably best not to over-think it - the SWs want him out of the way and this is what they have come up with. He's going North - which seems to be the direction of choice for those being banished. Ruari's gone South because he's coming back.

I agree that Brian grew to like Chris, but I definitely don't think he was amused when Alice and Chris returned from Las Vegas and announced that they were married. He was resigned to the fact that it had happened, and was trying to make the best of a bad job. I also think that Jennifer's horror at being related to Susan was not just because of the criminal element in the Horrobin family. Jennifer conveniently forgot that she was the daughter of a publican and an East End girl whose social status came entirely from a fortuitous marriage. She looked down on Susan for being a social climber as well as working class by birth.

@LillianGish its utterly bizarre, my husband has worked in Scotland during the week and commuted back to the South East weekly for decades and I know tonnes of other couples in a broadly similar situation. It really isn’t that unusual.

I entirely agree @AzurePanda - not unusual and not difficult yet for some reason the SWs have decided to make it so for reasons of removing Harrison from the Ambridge force field. Ours is not to reason why - I take it to mean Harrison is no longer part of the story, but Fallon is. Shula could pop back from Sunderland, Phoebe could pop back from Scotland, the Tuckers could certainly pop over from Birmingham, but they don't. They have left Ambridge. They have gone.

New thread here: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/5267603-archers-thread-181-panto-weeks-behind-you-was-that-the-nadir-discuss-the-archers-here

I think many working class people who are honest look down on working class people who are criminal. Is it snobbery to wish not to be associated with criminals? Or is it merely sensible if you are not a criminal yourself?

Mr and Mrs P may have been working class, but I never heard any hint they were criminal.... And Jack Archer was not criminal on the whole, just a bit of a waste of oxygen from a middle-class family. (He also wasn't a publican, because his status as a drunk meant that the brewery refused to allow him to be the licence holder for The Bull. He, like Kenton, was a publican's husband.)

I always had a feeling that a fair bit of Jennifer's shock and horror about her daughter having sneaked away to get married in another country with no notice was because she had been deprived, again, of planning and arranging a big wedding for a daughter. Debbie married Simon Gerrard on the QT, Kate sloped off and married Lucas in RSA and without telling her mother first, and then Alice did the same as Kate only in Vegas instead of Jo'berg. Hence the wish to hold a huge party for her after the event.