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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Over to you!

The toast must be buttered.

I agree about buttering the toast.
If feeling especially gourmet I also add a bit of butter to the beans too.
The beans must be on the toast; I feel your pain, TottersBlankly.

This is like French cafes (excellent in so many ways) who insist on bringing you tea with the teabag on the side (and not in the pot!) Beans are only available at an extortionately high price (7 euros a can) in the food halls of posh department stores here in Paris. Obviously there are other things to eat, but I do miss them so can understand Freddie’s craving.
Re. the cricket, wasn’t Lawrence going round offering to pay people- including Tom. Why has no one mentioned this? How is he better than Lynda/Lily??

Butter for me. Mr Gasp has spread. I still love him, though.

Thick bread, toasted both sides, buttered with a scrape of marmite.
Beans (Branston) heated thoroughly, not boiled, with a generous slug of Hendos (no other sauce will do) and a know of butter.
Finely grated cheddar sprinkled over the beans once they are on the toast.

For gourmet version: fried egg (or two) on top. And there you have every soldier's favourite: Egg Beano

Lily should stay, sack quisling Freddie. Get all the old players back to the Ambridge team. Enjoy it as a fun pastime.

The Cleo story is stupid. Do not like

I have to ask: why "quisling" Freddie? Who are the invading enemy with whom he is collaborating? Lawrence? I missed it.

Wasn’t Laurence offering to pay players to try and sniff them out and to sow discord ‘well I was offered payment and refused quite rightly!’

Freddie was against the payment idea, wasn’t he? But overruled by Lily? Am I remembering correctly? Lily has no self-awareness at all.

I like beans that have been boiled, with pepper and a scrap of butter in the pan, on unbuttered toast.

BBC synopsis for Monday, 1 September, 2025, says

Lawrence compliments Tom on his game yesterday. He asks how much he gets paid for playing. Tom assures him he doesn’t get paid and neither does anyone else. It would be against the ethos of the team. As Chelsea serves Lawrence his lunch, he insists he’s tried to apologise to her and Zainab for his recent comments. He hints that if the complaint to the golf association goes ahead he might be forced to take action. Rattled Chelsea reports this to Lynda, who tells her not to worry. Lawrence presses Rex on a decision about payment, and Rex declines. Lawrence announces to Lynda that he knows her secret, and if she reports his comments he’ll tell the whole Ambridge team.

What beats me is where Lawrence came up with his certainty that Lynda paid people to play, when he had no evidence that she had ever done so, and in fact she never had. Tom told him he had never been paid for playing, and Rex, having turned down his offer of payment, told him it was none of his business; neither could be said to have confirmed his (frankly weird) assumption they must have been paid.

Maybe it was the other paid player?

SisterTeatime
Freddie was against the payment idea, wasn’t he? But overruled by Lily? Am I remembering correctly? Lily has no self-awareness at all.

You are indeed remembering correctly. BBC synopsis,Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Freddie thinks paying Rex will split the cricket team. Lily assures him they won’t know, but Freddie still thinks it’s against the spirit of the game. He asks her if she’s run the plan past Lynda, and Lily says she intends to. Later Freddie’s dismayed to hear that Vince has approved the payment, and more so that he wants not one but two players to be paid. Lily assures Freddie that this makes it a policy rather than favouritism, but Freddie’s still worried.

Yeah, sorry, quisling was the wrong word. But Freddie should be front and centre, as Lynda is, in support of Lily. Sure not his decision, but once it's made, that is it.

Lily made the decision unilaterally, and ignored the fact that Freddie disagreed with it: she just went ahead regardless of him. She didn't even bother to tell Lynda what she and Vince were doing. I really don't see why either Lynda or Freddie should be protecting and defending her, nor why it is in any way a bad idea for her to give up the position which was invented for her (by her) and which she's filled disastrously for a single season.

Exactly - thanks for confirming my memory of events.

Lily made up the job ‘Director of Cricket’ for herself to muscle in on what Freddie was doing.

I thought she was also quite rude to Dane about the fete.

The altered voice Brad used when speaking to Amber last night makes me wonder if he's going to make a cuckold of his cousin.

Imagine!

I thought Amber's voice changed too @BeatriceBatchelor . Bring it on.

Oh definitely @BeatriceBatchelor I think it's been set up for a while!

It’s a bit Ed/emma/Will isn’t it

Although Brad is a year or so younger than George, he certainly has more (for which read some) "experience" <fnar fnar!> in matters of the heart and genitalia. But surely Amber falls into the category of untouchable ... not just because she's George's fiancee, but because she's shallow and thick.

I heard it as Brad feeling profound pity for Amber.

Re. Amber: I still cannot comprehend why everyone is fawning over her and treading on eggshells around her. But I also don't get why everyone (other than his own parents) fawns over George. I don't know if they are trying to portray George as could-be-decent-but-has-gone-astray, or as has-a-kernel-of-real-nastiness, but either way, he's someone I'd go out of my way to avoid. And Amber presents herself as a shallow person with a truly vicious streak, portraying herself as the victim in every situation and sounding like she's swallowed the worst kind of pseudo-psychological self-help bilge whole, and is now vomiting it over everyone in her proximity. YUCK! She's even more irritating than Rochelle, and that's saying a lot.

Re. Beans on Toast, the Canadian perspective: I like beans, and I like toast, so when presented with beans on toast, I'll happily eat and enjoy it. But which beans? The Canadian default would be maple beans...I imagine those would be rather good on toast (they certainly are good with toast), but the British ones are in a tomatoey sauce, aren't they? The Continental perspective is a mild confusion that two starchy things get combined like that...a slightly lesser strangeness than serving lasagna with chips and garlic bread.

Oh my - lasagne and chips! God, that’s such a piercingly magnificent memory of my first year at uni. The local Greek place must have understood undergraduate appetites - we used to dive in and hoover up almost the entire menu, and absolutely loved the sheer wrongness of chips with everything.

As for George … Given the reported statistics for suicide amongst young men in prison, I’d say his family are wise to do everything they can to keep his spirits up. They can deal with anything else once he’s safely out.

I've said before that I cannot understand why everyone believes everything Amber says. And why Brad felt he needed to apologise for something he hadn't done. The whole writhing maggots' nest of storylines is really getting me down.

@Trivium4all , I don't know if they still do them, but I've seen lasagne sandwiches and pasta pasties in the supermarket.
Epic Bakes Mac N' Cheese 150g

I'm struggling to make sense of what is going on with the Archers storylines these days; every storyline seems to become more implausible that the one it preceded,

Vince Casey is supposed to be a shrewd businessman. He must surely have had a bit of sports Corporate Hospitality in his time and spotted that lots of amateur sportsmen get "sponsored" by a local firm. Most amateur clubs are on the lookout for a spot of cash, as well as individuals. MAybe I just know this because DD knows a few sportsmen, hoping to get professional contracts in the next year or two.

I am cross about what they have done to Azzra (though I am pleased they have let Charlotte Smith appear - I seem to remember she is a big Archers fan).

Amber? Well the whole premise is weird.

On the plus side, the couple WHO SHAN"T BE NAMED have been absent for several weeks and there is a spot of farming in the plots.