Archers thread #190: Carry on, Cleo! Best new character for ages. 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'd be delighted to have your wedding reception across the lawn from the local Flower & Produce Show, 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.)

Charlotte Smith must have been delighted to get back to Countryfile and Farming Today. What a pile of piffle tonight. Ah well.

When is George expected back? It can't be long now, surely. It occurs to me that I can't recall whether he's ever spoken on air to Ruairi. As their actors are currently the best (IMO) amongst the younger members of the cast, I hope they will cross swords in some way.

And finally, I can't mention Carry on Cleo without squeezing in one of the best lines ever written (Denis Norden and Frank Muir have the credit): Infamy, infamy! They've all got it in for me! Currently, Lily probably feels this way.

https://youtube.com/shorts/eRnd48yTC5A?si=N05njp3uLfpSjAmI

Over to you!

If he was then so were Adam and Debbie in Brian's nest. It's a vile way of describing him and Jenny never thought that of him.

No she didn’t. But I suppose when it comes to the holiday it’s what Peggy thought

In what way is a father bringing his motherless son into the father's house "debatable"? as bringing "a cuckoo into a nest"?

It's legally and morally the proper and decent thing to do. If you think that's "debatable" that makes you a rather unpleasant person. If you said this in a real life situation I wouldn't want to know you.

I suppose he was a cuckoo in jennys nest - exactly. Ruairi was not a child from a previous relationship like Adam and Debbie, he was Brian’s love child, foisted on Jenny and the rest of the family whether they liked it or not and it is very much to her credit that he was made so welcome. Brian treated Jenny appallingly and Ruairi is the living proof. Not his fault I agree, but if Brian blatantly favours him over all his other children they may rightly feel aggrieved. I don’t think cuckoo is a terrible analogy - he might be Brian’s son, but he didn’t play much part in his upbringing.

I'm picturing a family photo with all the Bruisers under 5'3" and one 5'9" daughter.

Years ago, I went to a tourist attraction with a close friend. We could buy photographs, but in the one of us my friend had been decapitated.

Ruairi won't be part of the Descendants of Peggy's holiday group.

Well we will have to disagree to the point that I'm bowing out of and hiding this thread.

It's a vile way to describe Ruari or a child in this situation and any of you who think it is appropriate are people I don't want to know.

It is mean on Ruairi, but I can see why his step- and half-siblings might see him in that way, especially as he seems to be favoured because he is Myson.

We could moderate ourselves on here but some of the outrageous posts are funny (e.g. pot of glue).

Brian made a big deal of having a son at long last.

Of course they would, he's the living embodiment of Brian cheating on their mother, plus he's a son so in Brian's eyes superior.
Jenny was saintly the way she took Ruairi on, I doubt many women in real life would do the same, even if they put up with their husband's affairs.

I doubt many women in real life would do the same, even if they put up with their husband's affairs.
The singer Paul Young, and to some extent Bob Geldof.

I think this has been the plan ever since the SWs dreamed up Ruairi. Just to be clear @IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle, it’s not intended as a criticism of Ruairi who is of course blameless in the circumstances of his conception, but of the appalling Brian who so blatantly favours the son he had with Siobhan and who would happily hang Adam out to dry now his mother is no longer there to defend him, but was happy enough to watch Adam give up his job to help him out of of the hole he had dug for himself when Stella resigned. I love Brian as a character and I love the actor who plays him, but I loathe him as a person. I feel so sorry for all his children that they lost Jenny and not him. I think Ruairi will be going to the Highlands whatever - he has virtually organised it and they are booking a whole place - Landmark Trust style - rather than individual rooms in a hotel. If the family want to take him I don’t see how anyone could stop them whatever Peggy (another character with a nasty side) intended.

What @LillianGish said.

Ruairi lost his mother at a very young age, came to live with the father he didn't know, lived silently (like all Ambridge youngsters) in a cupboard for a few years and was then packed off to boarding school. Jenny was quite brilliant with him, but still.

However, if Brian continues to favour him so blatantly over Adam and indeed Alice (remembering their recent discussions), then the Myson storyline has real potential.

Spicy on here today.

I had Baxter's Spicy Parsnip soup for lunch, poured over leftovers because I don't like soup. I don't like parsnips either, but it was tasty.
It was a 32p yellow sticker. Bargain.
Baxters Vegetarian Spicy Parsnip Soup 400G - Tesco Groceries

Buxusmortus
Jenny was saintly the way she took Ruairi on, I doubt many women in real life would do the same, even if they put up with their husband's affairs.

Woman's Hour looked long and hard for any woman who would do the same to come onto the programme and talk about it and came up blank, I seem to remember. The only historical example they were able to find was E Nesbit bringing up the child her husband had fathered on one of her friends.

Parsnips are one of the few veg I can’t abide.

Me too

i once went to a lunch and the vegetarian course was ‘parsnip 3 ways’ 🤮

i don't normally make a fuss but this time I asked for something different

I also listened to this. Absolute nonsense, but I enjoyed it! The aural equivalent of a lot of the stuff that the Talking Pictures TV channel churns out. So many gems from the period would have gone out live on radio or TV and not been recorded, or (even worse) the recordings would have been wiped so the tapes could be re-used. I expect this applies to a lot of The Archers from the early years. I have no idea why the BBC doesn't launch an archive service you could pay for, giving unlimited access to what they do have. I'd cough up.

I've never met a vegetable I didn't like. Love parsnips.

i once went to a lunch and the vegetarian course was ‘parsnip 3 ways’ 🤮
Parsnip risotto, parsnip wellington, and parsnip and goat's cheese tartlet?

Parsnips and swedes make tasty soup but they're usually minging otherwise. Soup gives me indigestion. They might be OK roasted.
The microwaved swede I saw on one of these threads is nice.

I love parsnips and every other vegetable except Jerusalem Artichokes- I like them but they don't like me.

Mice absolutely love Jerusalem artichokes. When my mother used to grow them, the cats would hang about nonchalantly just up the path from the artichoke bed and always manage to come back with a dead mouse each to show off. My mother was all for it except the time one of the cats left her mouse in mother's left wellington boot.

I love roast parsnips but don't fancy spicy parsnip soup. Parsnip and goat cheese sounds yuk but I don't like goats cheese or milk.
I always have bits of mice under my bed that the cat leaves for me.nice.

@MinnieBaldock , I ate it because it was cheap.
The reply to parsnip 3 ways was a dig at the vegetarian food on menus. It's usually butternut squash or mushrooms, and it will be risotto, wellington or with goat's cheese.

DKitten killed a pigeon today, and was having fun with playing with it.

Not listened to TA yet.

Parsnips are among my favourites and I would have loved that 3-ways menu! I like almost all vegetables - at least, almost all the ones I've tried, apart from swedes, turnips and okra. The last one is just a texture thing.