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!

Also I meant to add that I always used to think a driving ban was a bit of a feeble punishment, but if driving is your job and ‘clean driving licence’ is one of the only qualifications you have on your CV then it is not an inconsequential one and one you continue to feel the ramifications of with hiked insurance premiums even after the ban expires.

Quite often the ban runs alongside the prison sentence so the punishment of not driving isn't a punishment as you can't drive in prison.
George's family have said theyvcan drive him places, but getting any job after prison is difficult.
I think he should swallow his pride and work with his Mum and Ed and do jobs with them outside of Ambridge. Im sure their business is bigger than Ambridge.

He didn't rape or murder anyone. He took a car without the owner's consent, might have been over the limit, wasn't insured, drove dangerously causing an accident that could have resulted in manslaughter.
He then tried to frame the car owner.

Mick didn't want to spend a week working in a cold packhouse in November. He has a job at Grey Gables.

I'm guilty of defending some characters even if they are not in the right. The characters I'd not defend are Eddie, Pip, Paul and Denise. As for the Bunny Boiler, I'll be scanning the Spoilers page so I can choose to not listen to her episodes.

I can see why Susan is annoyed - she was the person who handed him into the police now she wants to give him a chance to redeem himself.

and that is all well and good, but she seems to be ignoring the fact that she can't force anyone else to go along with this.

Poor Neil.

ETA: agree it is good character based drama. So with this lot of SW i expect it to be done and dusted by the end of this week

and that is all well and good, but she seems to be ignoring the fact that she can't force anyone else to go along with this. She can’t - and nor can anyone force her to continue running the shop and post office. I can understand her feeling the way she does about her grandson and I can understand George’s victims feeling the way they do (except Alice it would appear). Susan is all about family - she handed George in after going to prison herself for failing to hand her brother in. She’s trying to do the right thing unfortunately it’s impossible to do right by everyone so she’s doing right by herself as she sees it. ETA she was doubly conflicted over George because Alice is her DIL and Martha is her granddaughter.

i really don't think anyone cares if Susan runs the shop, or if anyone else does.

It is going to be interesting to see if there is a fight to keep it going, or if it now dies a death and succumbs to what is available at the EV Charging station.

The issue i have around Susan (as a character, not how she is being written) is that she is adamant that she is right, everyone must now look past their own issues and all support George. And maybe if everyone in the village was the local vicar, she might have a point...

So from that POV there are a few interesting storylines coming up for the SW to completely mangle beyond all recognition.

I agree with you @LillianGish , if your family won’t fight for you who will?

sorry, don't get me wrong: you should be looking after your family, but you should also absolutely understand and take on board that everyone else might have a different opinion.

The way Susan is going on is that she won't really contemplate that someone might have issues around George being around. (also: would she be allowed to have a helper in the Post Office who has been in prison without any issue?)

also: would she be allowed to have a helper in the Post Office who has been in prison without any issue? Volunteers don’t work in the post office - that is quite separate to the shop even though it’s based in the shop, George would have been carrying boxes, stacking shelves and serving shop customers. Villagers would miss the shop and certainly the post office if it closed. I would miss the door bell - though we haven’t heard that since it moved into the church. Also there is far less change counting now everyone pays by card. It is potentially the end of an era.

Given the history of the post office, the price of stamps and the fact we now only get one delivery a week, I’m not sure the powers that be within the post office would have a leg to stand on refusing George employment.

Isn’t Susan Carter a former jailbird? I’m pretty certain she had a few weeks in the slammer for harbouring Clive.

Yet she managed to become a subpostmistress (or was that an SW continuity failure)?

that Leonard nonsense last night I just know is going to be irritating!

BOOP for Susan and Neil being themselves. I think Susan feels that even Neil doesn’t support George and that means she has do it twice as hard.

Yes, she did indeed do time for Clive.

if Susan hadn't persuaded George to hand himself in, both George and Emma could have been sent down.

Yet she managed to become a subpostmistress (or was that an SW continuity failure)?
It was a spent conviction (if that makes a difference).

Having a criminal conviction isn’t an automatic bar to being a sub post mistress, it depends on the nature of the offence, how long ago it was committed and efforts at rehabilitation since. Exactly as it should be imo.

My optimistic response is that the SWers haven't forgotten and are merely waiting for the entire family holiday to have happened on credit cards before probate is granted and reimbursement refused.

George has only actually asked at the pub, hasn't he? Freddy offered to try at the abattoir for him, and the shop was Susan's idea, and tree business EdNEmmur's. Her isn't exactly being terribly proactive.

I still don't see why he hasn't asked Freddy for a job at LL.

I also think that if he actually gave a damn about building back his reputation he could find volunteering to do that wasn't so blatantly problematic and therefore quite so likely to run into people he had hurt. He could grab a bin bag and litter pick. He could clear out the village pond.

@WeNeedToTalkAboutIT George approached Susan with the idea of him volunteering in the shop.

I enjoyed this last episode, and sincerely hope Lilian gives Kate the proverbial finger and flies to Scotland. Clearly, all Kate's plans for the idyllic mother-daughter sesh will come to nothing.

George's cleaning suffered the fate of all housework - no-one notices.

Ah but a Grundy man doing housework is a rarity - therefore the Performance must be Acknowledged and Appreciated. Good on Amber for not ending up in drudgery (yet) like the other Grundy women.

I found all the mentions of Phoebe quite ominous.

And no way would wealthy octogenarians Lilian & Justin & Brian and Miranda agree to a 16 hour round trip in a people carrier.

Heck I wouldn't agree to it!

I wouldn't be in the people carrier either and why dosnt Phoebe, if she is that far pregnant just meet them in Scotland. That makes no sense like most of the story lines. I think the SW are trying to make us feel sorry for George, and everyone that has spoken out about him are nasty. He did wrong tried to cover it up, and so did his mum until she came to her senses. I don't like Alice but she shouldn't have gone to prison for something she didn't do. Hope they move both these story's along soon.
Oh and I do love Jakob and can't understand why,if he is OCD, is with erratic Kate. He has the patience of a saint.

Sorry should have used paragraphs.

Last time we were in Scotland we hired cars from Aberdeen and Edinburgh airports (from big multi-agency car pounds). We were struck by just how many cars waiting to be collected were enormous 4x4’s rather than the usual little compact cars (presumably for the N American market).

No way would the Ambridge elders agree to travel that distance in a people carrier. It would have been fun to give them all a day in London and then a night on the Caledonian Sleeper if they didn’t pop them in a plane (second thoughts, it would have been fun for them to have chartered a plane, while the youngsters drove).

I would definitely be shopping at Underwoods at the EV charging station by now. A visit to the village shop has way too many social implications for me. If I want a pint of milk, then I want a pint of milk- not to have to navigate endless social tensions while I buy it. I might pop in to the church in an emergency but any transaction takes far too long and is best avoided.

I am afraid I couldn’t drag up any enthusiasm to wonder who Leonard was talking to on the phone. I hope he is having an affair as that would be an interesting twist but he is bound to just be planning an appearance as Father Christmas at the Bull on Christmas Eve- yawn.

Why would they ostracise Alice for having an illness?