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.

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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!

I wonder is she pregnant yet?

More work for the female Grundys (Carter / Horrobins) …

In the real world less likely as all the youngsters I work with have the implant!
But Ambridge isnt the real world

And you can just bet that George, Emma , Susan and clarrie would be anti-abortion types and wouldn't hold back on pressurising Amber to have it if she were pregnant.

What because they have low education and are working class?

i don’t get the impression any of them would be vehemently anti abortion

we also had that SL with Chelsea quite recently plus the Fallon debacle

I think that because both Clarrie and Susan would yearn to be great-grandmothers they would oppose abortion of a foetus Amber was carrying. Their OTT reaction to grannydom is a bit of a giveaway.

George would object to the evidence of his potency being obliterated.

About Emma I am not at all sure. She might feel a bit young to be granny, and also be a bit more women's lib about Amber's right to control of her own body. So her feelings might depend on whether Amber wanted an abortion.

The post above did not mention the one person with an absolute right to decide whether she is an anti-abortion type or not.

I think both clarrie and susan would understand the difficulties of a baby so young and in the financial position they are in and support either way

Yes partly. But also because Susan could have had an abortion when she accidently got pregnant with Emma but didn't, same with Emma. I can imagine them being the types that would think it "would be the making of George".

Having listened to tonight's episode, and that Amber could have gone to university, I would hope she has the intelligence to realise that a pregnancy at 19 or however old she is, with an unemployed man, no home of their own, would not be a good idea.
But then again she's decided to marry an ex-con, is feeling rejected by her family, so maybe she would carry on with a pregnancy as a sort of " up yours" to her parents.

I very much liked Kate's window-cracking joy in proposing staying with Phoebe - just like Dead Ringers' Liz Truss: I KNOW!!!!!

Poor poor Phoebe. Kate's going to insist on being there at the birth and will probably be telling Phoebe she doesn't need any pain relief, she's going to breathe the baby out or some such rubbish. Has Kate even met Phoebe's partner? Imagine having her as your MiL.

Kate! What nightmare. Poor poor Phoebe. But enough of that.
Why, prey tell wasn't Kirsty at the inspection as well as Rex. Knowing her she would be right next to the inspector explaining everything and also Justin.
I would love to be there when the beavers are let lose that would be lovely to see.
Last year I saw a dead badger in the road, poor thing must have got run over. I was so surprised at how big it was. I was sad to see that.😢

I hope they do the Scottish trip as an Ambridge extra (anyone remember Matt in Russia with the mafia?), so that we don’t have to bother with it.

Also Kate as a born again mother is very good. She is such a steamroller and so oblivious to anything else when she’s in the zone. Poor Phoebe, having to suffer Kate fixing what she got so wrong first time round.

God, Phoebe’s contempt for her mother is actually more potent than George’s disgust at the romantic shenanigans of his three parents. Hard to understand why she’s come when she despises Kate so much.

(Presumably it’s so there can be draaaaama on the journey to Scotland?)

I wouldn’t say Phoebe despises her, and have not seen any thing to suggest she doesn’t love her, but she sees her for who she is - remember Kate buggered off to South Africa leaving Phoebe to be brought up by Roy, so they have never had a proper mother/daughter relationship.

I thought Amber’s dad’s “That was a bit OTT” when she returned from the loo sounded almost conspiratorial, but I think I was maybe reading a bit too much into it. I still can’t understand how she ended up corresponding with George in prison in the first place - he was in for such a vanishingly short time in the scheme of things, not like writing to someone on death row. I know we’re just supposed to accept it and go with the flow, along with Amber’s dad - straight out of central casting as a cockney car salesman, but it irritates me in the same way the Rochelle storyline did, Jolene and the Wolverhampton incident or even worse, Neil the foundling. The best stories are the ones with deep roots in Ambridge - so George’s backstory and Alice’s backstory culminating in the car crash with the cross family allegiances between the Grundys and the Aldridges. I can’t get behind it when it feels like the SWs are just making it up as they go along - character over event based drama for me every time.

I have found it’s possible to both love and despise the same person, @crumpet.

Yes, that exchange between Amber and GeezerDad was … confusing, wasn’t it?

But probably only by accident. (Poor writing / direction.) There’d be no reason for them to be scamming George or the Grundys in general.

I felt exactly the same when the dad said “that was a bit OTT” and thought we were going to hear a huge twist in the tale.

I might be alone in this but I’m starting to feel sorry for George. He sounded so pathetic when trying to convince Bill that he’s good enough for Amber and then asking him to deliver that message to her mum. It’s quite sad that he came away from the meal clearly thinking he’d made a good impression.

I don’t think everyone in the village should just forgive and forget but how exactly is he found to turn things around if he cannot get a job and be accepted as part of the community again. The alternative is he turns back to a life of crime and ends up in an endless cycle in and out of prison. Complete waste of a life.

I don’t think everyone in the village should just forgive and forget but how exactly is he found to turn things around if he cannot get a job and be accepted as part of the community again. The alternative is he turns back to a life of crime and ends up in an endless cycle in and out of prison. Complete waste of a life.

But isn't George reflecting exactly why recidivism is so high? This is what often happens if you don't have a Freddy-style safety net of family and fortune to protect you.

@TottersBlithely ,I didn't hear contempt, just some acceptance and exasperation that Kate is very Kate. The mother-figure in Phoebe's life growing up was Hayley.

@Bruisername , What because they have low education and are working class?
Because George would be delighted that he had proved his virility, and Susan and Clarrieluv would like a mini-George.

@MinnieBaldock Why, prey tell wasn't Kirsty at the inspection as well as Rex. Cast numbers for the week?

New thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/5444662-archers-thread-192-village-of-the-dammed-discuss-the-beavers-here-throw-in-the-odd-word-about-the-archers-if-you-must

@EBearhug , but George has the safety net of a close family around him.
His family is far more supportive than Freddie's, and has Freddie a fortune?

Freddie proved himself and has shown contrition. George still blames others and thinks the world owes him a living.

🔫Trigger warning 🔫
Back to the non-Ambridgian mince pies - how many do I need to feed HCat?
The little blighter has pinched a tray of Sheba and hidden under the sofa to eat it, and has egested on the hearth.
Sheba is for DCat; (HCat gets Go-Cat but he's not getting the hint.)
I now need to find the remains of the tray and disinfect the hearth, but I think it might be permanently stained.

@ChersHeart ...maybe time to re-home the Other Cat? Surely he's allowed a Saturday night treat.

@EBearhug , but George has the safety net of a close family around him.His family is far more supportive than Freddie's, and has Freddie a fortune?

Freddie might not have a literally fortune - I suspect LL is asset rich and not very cash poor. It helps that Elizabeth knocks about with business owners like Vince, who can give him a chance, whereas Eddy has Baggy & Snatch (and George doing anything with them would slmost definitely be criminal.).

In the Grundy households, they can't afford to have adults out of work for long before things will start getting tight with a risk of missing bills - especially as Will no longer has rental income from No 1 the Green. LL can afford to support someone without work for a while, and will have access to many more sources of credit, if need be, plus there is the extended family of Brookfield, the Stables etc, business and asset owners, who may not be emotionally close but can and will support Freddy as needed - he stayed with Aunty Shula when he wasn't allowed at LL. George could probably stay at Neil and Susan's, though Neil might not be happy, but I don't think Tracey would have him.