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!

@Gonners haha, thankfully none. There are some very pinickity (sp? is that even a word?) women on the committee, but none who strong-arm weak willed people into submission. It does help that this is a voluntary committee I guess 😂.

And good god, it’s definitely not me 😂😂😂

Just listened to last night’s episode btw, and I don’t think I will ever forgive the writing team for making me start to dislike Brian ☹️

Thank you. It was a fabulous post.

Eta:
Saw the new Downton film last night. I love the Mr Mason character. He IS Leonard!

pernickety @TherapistInATabard . I see you more of a Susan than a Lynda Snell

Well, my username would suggest Susan 😉

That's what I thought, @TherapistInATabard . What username would Lynda Snell MBE inspire?

LlamaMama?

Sniffer.

My username was DylanNells for a while 😂

DramaLlama will have been taken.
I'm partial to an anagram, @TherapistInATabard

LillianGish
I found the scene at Grace’s grave incredibly touching. A story stretching back through the annals of Archers history - Jill finally letting go of a long-held resentment and understanding, at the age of 95, that love doesn’t die when a person dies.

I would have found that scene moving if Jill had not ceased to feel any anxiety about or jealousy of Grace a long time ago, some time in the nineteen sixties when Phil was still alive and was able to talk over Jill's feelings about his late wife (after a visit to Grace's grave) and cause her to realise that Grace, having been dead for more than ten years, was not as important to him as Jill, the mother of his children and the person with whom he was spending the rest of his life. After that she was inclined to be sorry for Grace, and certainly wasn't worried about her.

The absurd "I hate her, she ruined my life even though I never met her, I always want to smash the church window in her memory" garbage was dreamed up quite a while after Phil's death, by Sean O'Connor (editor from December 2013 to September 2016), as part of his band-wagon leaping exercise when he wanted to publicise the play he wrote for the sixtieth anniversary of Grace's death in which he attacked someone who was safely dead (Godfrey Basely) and would not have any comeback against him. Dead Girls (may) Tell No Tales; dead editors cannot defend themselves. It's just been another revisionist thing since then, like Neil-the-foundling.

O'Connor also introduced the Fairbrethren to Ambridge that year, to get the name into the listeners' minds before his play was broadcast.

i don't follow as closely as most of you. What does Fairbrother have to do with anyone?

Phil Archer's first wife was Grace Fairbrother. Jill felt a bit 2nd Mrs de Winter for a bit, then it was resolved. Editor (S O'C?) decided that Jill resented Grace.

Robin Fairbrother was I think Grace's nephew. His son Toe-B is Fat Rosie's father.

Jill sounded extremely frail didn’t she? Good on Paddy Greene, still going at 93/4, but I fear her days are numbered, especially following that little speech.

Robin was Grace's very-much-younger half-brother; she was the child of Old Man Fairbrother George's first wife, he was the son of OMF's second wife.

OMF lived in Ambridge from 1951 till 1959; Robin was born in 1953 and left the village with his parents. They were NOT an "old-established Ambridge family"; George was a somewhat disliked and mistrusted blowin. And Robin would have had few or no actual memories of Ambridge itself, or any of the people there, when he came there in 1987 aged 34 having seduced the 20-year-old Elizabeth Archer; when they met I don't think he'd even known Elizabeth was from the place he'd been born. Jill disliked that liaison more because of the age difference and because he was married than because of his name, as far as one could tell.

I'm pinning my hopes on George at some stage taking Amber aside and telling her to stop being foul to his grandparents, stop blaming Alice, the only person to blame for him being in prison was George himself.

When Amber was talking about George's trapped-in-a-car nightmare, I really wanted someone to point out that, due to his actions, Fallon and others had to endure the reality.

I was wondering whether anyone was going to rain on Amber's parade by pointing out that having a party to celebrate getting out of prison was a bit tasteless, especially given that he's coming back to the area where the victims of his crimes live. Plus he's presumably only out on licence, so encouraging him to get smashed is definitely not a good idea.

JudyCoolibar
due to his actions, Fallon and others had to endure the reality.

Really only Fallon, because Mick got out pretty quickly and dragged Joy to the bank, and Joy was unconscious. The only one actually trapped and terrified underwater was Fallon.

Being knocked unconscious is, potentially at least, quite serious, though. Wasn't Joy quite shaken up for a period after, or am I misremembering?

Er, I think being in accident where you're knocked unconcious is a reality I could do without.

So far as Mick , being the driver of a car where another car is heading direct for you must also be pretty frightening.

Oh, absolutely, and Joy caught some vile bug too. But she did not have to endure a trapped-in-a-car nightmare, because she was not trapped in the car, any more than Mick was. That was what I meant.

George doesn't seem to have claimed be having nightmares about a car-crash, but specifically nightmares about being trapped underwater with his grandparents on the bank not helping him.

(I don't for a moment believe that he did, by the way. Have those nightmares, I mean.)

As has been mentioned many times by others, I hope Chelsea ends up marrying Freddie. She will have a bigger house than anyone else in TA then. She would be awesome running LL. She can set up a lovely little salon in the grounds that exapnads into a hairdressing empire.

No, I couldn't recall him having those nightmares, either.