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.

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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.)

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!

Yes wise words from Mick. I just hope he doesn't tell everyone about the rat, I know I would find that hard to keep under wraps 🙄.
Amber and Lily sound the same and makes my ears bleed.
I wish they wouldn't make Brad out to be the country bumpkin.

I’m going to say it - I’m fed up of hearing Brad. He’s not a proper character - just there to fill sl holes. There’s nothing to give any reason why he would suddenly start liking Amber - except she seems to be the only person he interacts with. Loads of sl involving him get dropped with no resolution - is he ND? Is he now coping with uni?

this upcoming love triangle is incredibly forced - the ed/em/will was a slow burn sl but you felt it. It’s like the sw are going back to their greatest hits and trying to replicate the success but are ending up with poor imitations

Interesting! I actually love Brad. I love his existence in that family, and the way his particular character throws a (mostly beautifully positive) light on the personalities and characters of his mother and sister. They appear more kindly, patient and complex because they’ve brought up and nurtured him.

And if it goes the way we think it will, I’ll believe that too. He may meet lots of young women - he’s at university after all - but it doesn’t seem as if he gets close to many, and George has been pushing and pushing him to chaperone and dance attendance upon Amber. Brad has perforce had to be much more patient and conciliatory than would have been natural if he were pursuing his own relationship. (Because he’d have dropped her sharpish in that case.) In short he’s had to show his best self - and sort of accidentally forced her to glimpse a different Amber. I may be talking rubbish, or it could be delightfully complex.

I am slightly worried that with the speed of this particular plot, Brad and Amber might … kiss, or in some other way reveal themselves emotionally to each other during the shopping trip - which would put something of a dampener on the No 1 The Green Homecoming Shag Fest.

I just find he is so inconsistently written that I can’t believe him.

Oh come on! Why on earth would Elizabeth be ‘planning Halloween at LL’? I thought she pays a manager? And has other staff? Halloween comes round every year - it’s surely vanishingly unlikely that both she and Lily would be needed for the planning of something so regular and basic?

I’m still upset about Muck picking Paul as the target for security training.

Makes me want to throw something.

Will and Poppy will still be at Grange Farm at Christmas.

Do we think George and Ahmbear will last, whether or not BrAmber is a thing? I'm expecting that she'll have her feet too much under the table at the Grundy undies to be kicked out, as they seem to be foreshadowing making her a nicer character who is a Lost Soul TM. I reckon they'll plan to move out together or something else that will result in George being out on his own too proud and incel-like to fix it with either his family or Amber, and she'll be comfortably adopted into the clan, like the bird-we-shall-not-mention.

I think the warning from Mick might be A Foreshadowing for hapless Brad

Amberge? Geormber? Grundon? Gorrobin?

Are all villages so backward when it comes to shopping? Why on earth would anyone be thinking ‘oooh, I forgot the shower gel but thank god Susan can nip round with a bottle’🙄. From what I uunderstand the charging station is as accessible as the village shop

Chris is coming across odd and it feels like they’re using him to fill the crazy Harrison hole

I'm still a bit worried about Neil though. Seems a lot of foreshadowing

and was Jolene saying ‘are you two getting off?’ Another foreshadowing. Chris and Fallon is totally awks - the Alice fan club is 🙄

Coo - that was an awkward, abrupt ending tonight!

(And really, the anticipation of squelchy sounds is far worse than actually hearing any.)

Why did Chris throw down such a challenge to Fallon? She won’t be able to rest until she’s proved him wrong …

Neil and Susan all loved up in the church had me expecting a fire bomb through the window. Glad it didn't happen, but still feel uneasy for them.

otoh, I like that Chris and Fallon seem to be preparing to give Alice and Harrison a surprise.

Nooo, that's just sordid. I thought they might be going that way with Chris talking about watching TV etc with Fallon, but then he was going on about Alice being the love of his life. Surely any woman with a speck of self esteem wouldn't want to be with a man who loved another woman even if he acknowledged he couldn't be with her. Also would he be the type of person to go with a married woman? If the SW get them together that's just horrible.

Why can't the SW write a normal relationship with a future with 2 young people who are both single, straight, not in prison, not weird, minimal baggage. When did that last happen?

Why can't the SW write a normal relationship with a future with 2 young people who are both single, straight, not in prison, not weird, minimal baggage. When did that last happen?
Brad and Mia.

Where are the future Neil/susan couplings?

Chris has form with Alice's friends (Amy). I can forsee a drunken ONS with Fallon and then months of guilt and hand-wringing from them both. Hopefully Fallon confesses to Harrison and he can move permanently to wherever he is working now, find a new victim wife and have a child.

Kate and Jakob (okay, not actually young) (not weird by Ambridge standards).

I don't think Fallon is going to be a married woman for ever.

Where are the future Neil/susan couplings?
That's where the Maliks come in useful.
Ben will convert to Islam.
Khalil will procreate with Keira.

Well, to be fair Brad is a little bit weird ... or at least "unusual". And I find Mia perfectly ghastly, though I suspect this is not what the SWs intend.

As to future Neil/Susan couplings, I have always felt sorry for Neil and wonder what his life might have been had he used reliable contraception.

I just can’t see where the future families are going to be. Is Keira the only child in the village being brought up by married parents? I guess there’s Xander and the twins

other than the maliks but they’re still new

Brad is quite weird though. Wouldn't have wanted my daughter to have gone out with someone like him.

Not young, Kate has baggage and is too hippy woo, Jakob can be a bit strange.
Just be nice to have a normal young couple.

O god no, can't bear all the guilt being hashed out, Chris feeling he must confess to Alice blah blah, so tedious.
I do hope Fallon and Harrison break up, they never ever seemed compatible to me, but not because she's cheated.

Chris is such a wet lettuce when it comes to Alice. He needs to get on a dating app and have some fun instead of waffling on about bloody Martha all the time. There's doting dads and then there's Chris Carter.