Archers thread #191: Mulligan: stew made from odds and ends; second chance after poor shot. Both fit the bill. 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 like George you like your steak very well done, 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.)

Mulligan mostly makes me think of John Finnemore's Souvenir Show. This is good, and tenuously connected to a recent TA storyline

Over to you!

Apologies, @DeanElderberry, I didn't realise there were so many Catholic boarding schools.

[Reeling here from a terrible crisis - there are no ice cubes in the freezer, not that I can find, anyway. I bet Lilian never allows this to happen. This is what comes of going away for a few days.]

@Buxusmortus , thanks for the link. I listened and I wouldn't have wanted to hear it at any time, and certainly not sandwiched between the 6 o'clock news and The Archers.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime , Why not Ampleforth? It's probably closer than Downside...
Nearer where? Ampleforth is in Yorkshire, Downside in Somerset.

Of course it did, but that wouldn't mean a grandmother, recently bereaved of a daughter, wouldn't like her grandson to be educated on the same land mass.

@Michaelah , I don't tune in for certain programmes - I switch off certain programmes.

Scriptwriter Keri Davies on Twitter re ‘bad grammar’ -

keridavies

@keridavies

I hate it. But I have to write realistic dialogue. Even “educated” people frequently misuse I and me nowadays #TheArchers

I hate it because I’m such a clever clogs but I have to acknowledge the rest of the world are thickos in comparison

I really like Tracey, the voice of reason.

Can’t stand Emma even more now, she’s deluded. Hopefully there’s a terrible chainsaw accident coming on Tuesday that will see both her and George off.

I agree with whoever upthread said that it’s strange Ruarhi is the driving force behind the holiday booking unless he is about to be banned from attending due to the small print in the relevant clause in the will. I can only think the trip is likely to go ahead next month because we will all have lost the will to live by 2027 (and many listeners will be ex-listeners by then). They would have been better off it had been a last-minute Christmas cancellation leaving us with a glorious Christmas special! This would have avoided the agony of any Ambridge amateur dramatics this Christmas and actually given us something to look forward to…

I wish that Tracy had bitten the bullet and told Emma that she voted against George being employed there because like everyone else there she didn't want to work with him. I mean for goodness' sake: two of the three co-workers he did a good job of nearly killing, eighteen months ago, and, even if he didn't mean to do it, that kind of thing can turn you right off a person.

Let's face it, as a co-worker he's poison, too; Hannah found that out the hard way, and so did Neil. One of them ended up evicted from her home and the other sent to Coventry for the rest of time. (Hey, is Coventry one of the places Neil was in a care home during his tour of the country as a very small foundling?)

I could have done with a warning about all that cackling from Lilian 😖

Oh for flip sake why did Lilian and tracy get so tanked up that they broke the prize and then laughed about it. I would be furious. Come clean and buy some glass glue. Thinking its funny is so rotten.
Emma is really getting on my nerves.George is a grown up and she and Ed should have a man to man talk to tell him he better sort hisself out, instead of going round having a go at everyone, but not the one she should be having a go at.
I hope Amber leaves him, ( as bad as she is , she deserves better). and he drowns himself in the Am and emma is so upset she gets herself to a nunnery (if you can these days). Or a big tree branch falls on his nogging and splatt! Bye bye Georgie. This would be Emma's fault at last and she cant blame anyone else for George's lets say, run of bad luck except herself.

George eliminated by his own stupid refusal to do what he's told at the tree felling would be perfect.

As would no more entertainment involving drunk people, it's as bad as those excruciating panto sequences with professional actors pretending to be Ambridge characters who can't act.

My brain has finally done a ‘hang on…..’, apologies if I’ve missed this being discussed.

Hang on…. so if Mulligan was a tenant farmer, who is the landowner?

That's what I love about R4 - I can just be driving along and a programme will come on about something I've never heard of, or never thought was interesting, and someone makes it fascinating.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall the day Emma turns up at the council and claims The Bull is discriminating against George. "Let me see, Mrs Grundy, which section of the Equality Act do you say makes it a licensing offence to discriminate against someone who nearly killed two of your employees and tried to frame your niece for his crime?"

Has George tried to get work at Bridge Farm? They must be struggling a bit without Adam. He'd have to cycle there, but that can't be impossible.

That is where he was working before, so it can’t be that difficult to get to.

The difficulty would be Tony …

I’ve finished all the appointments and reading (The Rose Field) that have kept me from TA for the past few days. But you’ve all put me off so thoroughly I’m struggling with the thought of going back to it!

Exactly. The other farmers in the area would know and they would have contacted them. It would either be a big consortium - who would have a clear action plan for the death of a livestock farming tenant - or one of the other locals. Most tenancies would end with the death of the tenant.

struggling a bit without Adam

But it’s worth it 😂

Emma believing that George should be welcomed with open arms, and her and George thinking that he's done his time and everything is taking soooo long is one of the things about TA that really gets on my nerves. It has been less than a year since the trial, FGS.

And of course he should be barred from the pub, let alone allowed to work there. Emma should have been barred too.

This is typical Ambrige SW though. Everything happens in an instant (i know i bang on about it but see also Alice's recovery)

If things took a long time, the momentum would be lost.
When they do a long subtle SL, they do it well.

@Buxusmortus ,did you hear Feedback? CJp was mentioned but apparently it was edited. I heard the original in a late night slot months ago but switched it off.

Emma’s behaviour seems grimly spot on tbh. Meanwhile if Fallon had so much as called George a twat let alone dumped him into a river Emma would never get over it.

This is silly but I genuinely find the idea of Fallon potentially having to work with the man who caused her near drowning and miscarriage (let’s not relitigate that one but we can all agree the physical side is horrible) upsetting. He’s such an entitled male bastard and his mum enabling him is on the money.

Why on earth have the scriptwriters decided to give us another plot featuring a blow-in when we still have no idea how Helen, Tom and Natasha are faring all under the same roof?

How did he get there before? Never tell me a fit, healthy lad like him used a car!

It is about 800 yards from 1, The Green to Bridge Farm. Most commuters without cars have to walk further to get to their nearest bus-stop, or tube station in London.