Archers thread #191: Mulligan: stew made from odds and ends; second chance after poor shot. Both fit the bill. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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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!

All of the story lines are ridiculous.

1. What is it with people who ignore others' wishes ? Oliver was quite clear he didn't want any fuss about his birthday and yet Zainab totally ignores his wishes because she is arrogant and thinks she knows best. She only found out about his birthday inadvertently. I'm sure Oliver would have told her that all HR personnel files are confidential and she should not talk about anything she reads in them. Which would include Oliver's birthday.

1. I'm assuming the Malik's marriage was arranged. I think there is a mis-match between a plumber marrying a doctor. Normally arranged marriages are between families of similar backgrounds/professions .

1. Lillian is turning into a deeply unpleasant character. Jolene and Kenton should find a way of buying her out. Raise a business loan? Or Fallon could divorce that tosser of a husband, sell the house and use any profit towards buying Lillian's share of The Bull.

1. Dead farmer SL - utter bullshit (no pun intended)!

Yes, it was very similar to the technique he used to try to bully Susan in to giving Amber her mother's engagement ring. I think we can expect to see more of it.

On the malik marriage - I believe the implication was that she married young and before becoming a doctor

George pleaded guilty to the driving charge, so presumably he accepted that the accident was his fault.

I agree mostly with most - but I don’t see a GP plumber mismatch. I have 2 degrees and am in a professional job. I’ve only ever had ‘blue collar’ partners. Also not all plumbers start off as plumbers. I know a barrister turned plumber, and several CUD turned warehouse workers. Although I do agree that Akram doesn’t work as hard as every single plumber I know.

DogwoodTree · 07/09/2024 13:14

Alice was passed out drunk in her car, intending to sleep it off before driving again.
George came across her and decided to drive her home. (George decided to drive Alice home in her own car*, by moving her to the passenger seat)
Alice woke up and wanted him to stop the car so she could vomit
George didn’t stop as he wanted to get over a bridge first. She tried to get out and and he was distracted trying to stop her, he caused an oncoming car to veer off the bridge into a river.
Fallin, Joy, Mick we’re in the car and injured but George jumped into rescue them.
after everyone was safe, he went back and moved Alice into the drivers seat of her car and pretended he had just been walking past the accident. And lied about that ever since. Alice facing prison.

we only have Alice’s word she would t have driven over the limit though

the whole thing was pretty daft though

Or she could split up with Harrison and get half of the house they lived in, and move into the Bull

Let’s just remember for a moment what George actually did. He was walking home from a party drinking his fruit cider, came across Alice passed out in a lay by and instead of calling a member of her family he decided to play the hero and also seize the opportunity to drive her car. He was almost certainly over the limit, but was never tested. In fact he did call Will and leave a message, but subsequently deleted the voicemail as part of his extensive efforts to cover his tracks. He could have come clean and held his hands up, but instead he went to great lengths to hide his involvement. He would happily have seen Alice go to prison, capitalizing on her reputation as a drunk, in fact this scenario was only averted by the fact Neil snd Susan learned the truth and had a conflict of interest since Alice was the mother of their granddaughter Martha. We as listeners are in no doubt about what actually happened because we were there for all of it. Everything Lilian said last night about George was true- he is a nasty piece of work and a master manipulator. Others in Ambridge may wish to give him the benefit of the doubt, but Lilian has got his measure - as has Neil in fact, who has never let the fact that he is George’s grandfather cloud his judgement.

MinnieBaldock
On the subject of names I heard some women call her DD or DGD Halo, my Dh and I looked at each other and said "what the...?".

Maybe she is an Alan Moore fan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Halo_Jones

George behaved v badly but has now served time and appears to be repentant
Lilian was petulant and OTT
nobody wanted to work with George, they voted on it, he won't get a job- that should satisfy her

Lilian behaved exactly how anyone normal would behave, given what George did to Alice.
I was shocked this week that George plus family had the utter gall to go to the pub at all, let alone George try to persuade Jolene to give him a job. Jolene should have told him to piss off straight away, not faffing around asking the staff. She should have banned George there and then.

doesn't Clarrie work there sometimes?
should they risk a Grundy boycott?

Did someone say on the last thread that one of Oliver and Caroline’s foster children was called Esme? What age would she be now? Now Zainab has (improbably) brought up the fosters, it’s quite some coincidence that an Esme has also appeared. Too much of a coincidence? Is she the same Esme? Not unusual for a childless older couple to adopt.

No Esme is the daughter of the dead farmer. ETA I see you suggested adoption - I guess that could have happened in the sw head but seems unlikely

im going to assume the sw are going to make up completely new foster children as they seem incapable of doing basic research

I would have thought a farmer of that age would have preferred to have adopted a boy to take over the farm. I have a family story somewhat along those lines but couldn't possibly share it on here.

Carlie was the foster child mentioned. I don't think Oliver is going to be thrilled anyway. He wanted his birthday kept under wraps and Zainab is broadcasting it across the country.

She asked for some shifts at The Bull but they didn't show her how to work the new till, and then told her she was unsuitable for the job when she didn't know how it worked.

There isn't that much Grundy custom, with only six adult Grundys and them always playing the Poor Card.

Yes I think I got myself confused and thought someone had mentioned a foster child called Esme. Thank god!

Eddie is adept at getting others to buy him a pint.

@CaptainMyCaptain One of the neighbours had adopted a boy then had children of their own. I don't know the details other than the DC1 looked different from his siblings but the full siblings closely resembled each other.

My story wasn't about adoption but a proposed baby swap in the maternity home. It didn't happen. My relative wanted to keep her own baby.

Good grief! Of course she did.

The current story line is reminding me of a story in my family. My uncle married the woman from a nearby farm after spending time helping out after her father passed away.

Esme still sounds like Zainab when she speaks initially (thought it was her) then lapses into some weird mongrel West Country talk.

Well done Lilian. As PPs have said, George's involvement in shopping Markie in prison isn't a credit, merely levelling the account a little. Wish she'd rung the police and got the nasty manipulative little scrote banged up for another few years

I loved that poem when we had to learn it by heart at school.