Archers thread #189: Brian reaps what he sows, in spite of himself. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

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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.)

Over to you!

Ooh sounds almost John Finnemore esque in it's meta-Ness

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/sep/05/haywire-review-barn-theatre-cirencester

Zainab's delivery made her sound like Amber last night.

Oh I have never Heard Kate raise her voice. Amber is such a stupid little madam and quite vicious so I expect she will give a bad review. Pity Kate didn't have any hot stones to throw at Amber.
When I was a kid in the 60's in South London we called cheese on toast Welsh Rabbit or Just cheese on toast, which is what DH and I call.it to this day, but it dosnt matter what's it is called it's delicious anyway.
I like the snobbyness of Lynda it makes me laugh, but can't understand why everyone is a bit afraid of her. Love Olivers posh voice too.

I live in a rural community and cannot image how Kate had not already heard a detailed description of her bother-in-law's parent's delinquent gandson's bizarre new troublemaking girlfriend.

That said, the outworkings are going to be interesting. Any hope that Amber's encounter with a successful person of the sort she wants to influence who thinks George is a very bad brand to associate with might make her think?

If anything were to persuade her it would be that.

My problem with the whole Amber/George thing is that I still don't really understand how they got together. How did they get in touch in the first place to form any sort of relationship and why would would an influencer (or someone with pretensions of becoming one) want to taint their brand by associating themselves with a young offender? This wasn't a burgeoning romance before he was jailed - previous to that George seemed to be being set up as an incel with an unrequited crush on Tilly Button and a weird obsession with Fallon. Now we're supposed to believe Kate had no inkling about Amber's identity - it's all too contrived. There needed to be at least an effort by the SWs to make this story hang together or have I missed something? Amber's appearance as someone with a long-time crush on George and as a bullying victim of Chelsea's (again, something never previously hinted at in Chelsea's character) feels as contrived as Marky popping up in The Bull and recognising Jolene as the woman who looked at him the wrong way at a gig in Wolverhampton 20 years ago. It's just not believable.

Do influencers have reviews? I'd love Kate to retaliate by writing something about how Amber is either too bloody stupid to realise that her fiancé tried to get an innocent woman imprisoned for his crime and that that is not all right, or that she condones it and is therefore as bad as he is.

I'm trying to work out what Kate's relationship to George is, and the best I can come up with is that she is Alice's sister, Alice is divorced from Chris, and Chris is Emma's brother and therefore George's uncle.

This is a bit like my relationship with my sister's nephew and niece by marriage - her husband's sister's children. I would describe those children as absolutely not related to me in any way and of no interest whatsoever!

Kate's niece is George's cousin. But I think it's more George's framing of Kate's sister that bothered Kate.

Good point, I was forgetting that! I'd feel the same ... though possibly not if my sister was Alice.

@Gonners , it was built for Phil and Jill. Phil was more into pigs than coos, so Dunpiggin might have been more appropriate.

Usually the tendency is to use a name linked to the farm name, like Mianed calling their home Little Grange.

I like Dunpiggin, but would prefer Dunoinkin.

Even if you lived in the same very small village and went to primary school with his father (indeed, once led a gang that 'kidnapped' his father)? Small communities have their own dynamic, and sharing information is the glue that holds it together.

@Gonners , Dunmilkin is better IMO. I don't like The Bungalow. I don't like bland names either.

@DeanElderberry , Kate isn't really interested in anyone other than herself though.

there is that

The bungalow was built in 1990-1991 for David and Ruth after they got married, because there was not enough room for them in Brookfield farmhouse. They lived there until Ruth said point-blank that unless Jill got out of her house for Ruth's benefit, Ruth wasn't going to have another grandchild for Jill because the bungalow was too small. (And then she got cancer and wasn't going to have another child anyway; Ben in 2002 was an unexpected accident. Ruth's words, not mine.)

Phil and Jill stayed there for I think it was two months because Jill fractured her kneecap in May 1999 and had a full-leg plaster so she was unable to manage stairs until it was removed, but other than that they were never there. It was during that two months that Ruth got a taste for ownership of the main farmhouse. When faced with Ruth's blackmail, Phil and Jill looked at various possibilities (of which the bungalow was not one, because Jill had hated being there) and eventually moved out of Brookfield Farmhouse into Glebe Cottage in 2001.

I'm happy to be corrected. You've probably checked. I remember it as being built for Phil and Jill to retire to in due course, but it was a long time ago, and I could well be wrong. I'd forgotten about Jill being there.
I remembered that Phil and Jill hadn't lived there.

Like @LillianGish, I’m still struggling to understand how George, in prison, seems to have struck up and conducted this improbable courtship from scratch. When do he and Amber have these cosy couple chats about how his offence played out - just at normal prison visits? Is prison just like hanging out in a coffee shop nowadays?

I thought (though I could be wrong) that he’d accepted his wrongdoing, but I guess he must have said otherwise to Amber, who appears to have zero insight of any sort into the actual facts, let alone any awareness of nuance or the likelihood that Kate - generally awful though she may be in my view - might quite legitimately be on the side of her own sister, who was dragged through an extended and appalling ordeal thanks to George’s lying (and I’m not a big Alice fan either, but he was the one at fault).

Amber’s just an all-round terrible character and her voice and weird mannered delivery give me a mental picture of the sort of ‘kooky Britisher’ they might have imported into Friends or Frasier, aged about 30 and trying to be down with the kids. It’s all so unbelievable. I’m counting on her Turkey Teeth being her ultimate downfall 🙏

Re the bungalow, as I recall, there was an eventful time when the residents of Ambridge played musical houses. Thanks to the invaluable Lowfield site, I see this mostly happened in the autumn of 2001.

Phil and Jill moved out of the Brookfield farmhouse and David, Ruth and the children moved in from the bungalow. Phil and Jill moved into Glebe Cottage which they had bought from Shula, who inherited it from Phil's mother, Doris, who had been left it (improbably) by the old Squire's widow, because she had worked for her as a girl before she married. Carol Tregorran lives at Glebe Cottage now, renting it from Jill, who moved back to Brookfield to live with David and Ruth after Phil died.

Shula, Alistair and Dan moved out of Glebe Cottage and into the Stables, which they had bought from Christine, who ran it back then, and lived there with George. Shula still owns it but now lets the house to Lily, Josh and Paul, and Lilian and Alice run the business for her while she does missionary work with the heathen of the North-East of England . Alistair and the veterinary practice use part of the site for their business, so that may belong to Lovell James now.

Christine and George moved into The Old Police House in the village, but after Clive Horrobin burnt it to the ground they couldn't face returning to the rebuilt dwelling (now named Greenacres, home to Jim and Alistair), so they moved to Woodbine Cottage, which they bought from Brookfield. Brookfield had had it as a tied cottage for a long time. Clarrie grew up there with her Dad, Jethro, who was a farm labourer at Brookfield. (Fallon and Harrison own Woodbine now.)

Bert and Freda Fry moved out of Woodbine Cottage and into the bungalow, which they loved. I think during the period after D&R left it Jill tried to have it as a holiday let. Bert was the farm labourer at Brookfield for yonks. Freda was the silent cook at The Bull before Wayne. She died after the Great Flood and poor Bert was bereft. He stayed in the Bungalow after he retired, sharing it latterly with Rex and Toby.

👏 @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g!😅

Do I correctly remember (because it seems very real in my mind’s eye) that Bert was painfully reluctant to retire because he feared he might be homeless once he stopped working for Brookfield? And very relieved when they reassured him that he’d always have a home there.

Yes, I think I remember that. Poor old Bert. I miss him and his pomes.

I send this from beyond the grave,
And to old neighbours I do wave.
Bert Froi’s the name to me was given
And still I use it here in heaven.
Moi Freda’s here, we are together
No longer bothered by the weather.
I have a harp, but I can’t say
I’ve really worked out how to play,
Nor can I use my wings to fly –
What can you do, I hear you cry?
Well, in spite of my trip in a hearse,
I still compose a lot of verse.

😂😂😂

Elizabeth should definitely book him for the Christmas season. Would be very cool … (And possibly very cheap.)

"Hello" from Freda (that's a joke) -
You all know Freda never spoke.

Didn’t Clarrie make Amber apologising to Susan and Neil a prerequisite to her staying at the farm?

She did. Amber has ignored this, and appears to be demanding that they should apologise to her.