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 just can’t be bothered with George

before the sentence he was showing some understanding and I was really hoping we weren’t going to get a cartoon Nasty Nick type coming out of prison

other than going to the gym he hasn’t really changed due to the prison stint and it just seems like they’ve picked up where they’ve left off

which is disappointing because they could have added depth to his character

Does anyone think George sounded tonight as if prison had reformed him at all? Not for one second. Even when he was in prison he seemed to be taking a pride in ingratiating himself with some of the more hardened inmates (for self preservation admittedly) rather than just keeping his head down and then didn't hesitate to use those contacts to shop Marky in a bid to ingratiate himself with Jolene. I think he is being cued up as Ambridge's new villain - definitely more of a Horrobin than a Grundy or a Carter. Let's not forget too that he only saved Fallon when he realised that's who was in the car - anyone else would have been left to take their chances. I was delighted to hear Lilian giving it to him with both barrels last night - it would have been entirely unrealistic for everyone to be kind and forgiving when he came out given that his crime struck at the heart of the community where he grew up. This wasn't a random driving offence committed in another county or a so-called victimless crime. Lilian is no fool and she is like a lioness with Alice since Jenny died. Unfortunately this is only going to increase George's misogyny - it's not going to end well.

Lilian is no fool and she is like a lioness with Alice since Jenny died. Unfortunately this is only going to increase George's misogyny - it's not going to end well.

I’d say that Lilian very often IS a fool, though with a streak of low cunning that passes for intelligence in Ambridge.
Never mind George’s misogyny, Lilian and Alice ( and JennyDarling when alive) do a great job of externalising mine.

I think he said something in the episode about saying sorry, but it was clear he doesn’t feel sorry.

I imagine Emma and Ed will get him involved in the tree surgery business. It could have been a more nuanced situation if he’d gone back to Bridge Farm to ask for work, as Pat wrote the character reference but Tony is Alice’s uncle. Or if he went to Grey Gables to ask Oliver for work. If he’d been more repentant and humble it could have been interesting - do we give working class ex prisoners a fair go or are they always tarred?

But he isn’t repentant and has a big chip on his shoulder, encouraged I would say by Eddie. We’re getting a cartoonish villain story for him instead it would seem.

The SW have no clue what it is like to come out of prison and are making it far too easy. (having said that, i am always very critical of their handling of Alice's miraculous recovery too. Not how it works IME)

Esme's accent is so annoying. Pick one, lady, and get on with it.

everyone is very forgiving in ambridge though. When you think of all the things Alice did that have been forgotten

Alice has done some terrible things, but hasn't tried to underplay them. That's why she didn't dare challenge Brian when he seemed to be handing the farm to Ruairi and Adam and why she's so fearful she has harmed Martha. George has come out of prison exactly the same person he was when he went in - possibly more so. He now has Amber (who really has no clue what went on) boosting his ego. Freddie, by contrast, seemed cowed by his experience and has been working to win back trust.

When you live in Ambridge something in the water makes you have a very short memory. Sometimes, eg if your name is Neil, you can't even remember your own life correctly.
You can also explain away all of Alice's awful behaviour by pronouncing that it wasn't really her who did those things, she was controlled by her "illness".

Alice is the most self pitying character. She doesn’t own anything without whining tbh

I suspect she hasn’t finished with Brian!!! She’ll probably be making snide little digs all the time going forward

I struggle with the George sl because the crime was so ridiculous

I’m in foreign parts so not been able to catch up on the threads.

I’m sure it’s been said (shouted) how bloody ridiculous that the Brookfield Archers seem to barely know the Mulligans. A neighbouring farm would have joint boundaries for a start.

I’m looking forward to Josh and Esme getting together.

The story line with George reminds me of a Dickens story line., I can just see George with his brown teeth and suit to match ,with a short top hat,

black finger nails, accosting Lilian in her bonnet and petticoats.
Glad Lilian told him what for. Hope he gets carted off back to jail. That would show those Grundys what a little 💩 he really is.

Esme Mulligan and Meadow Farm appear to have been conjured up out of nowhere when the SWs realised they had completely forgotten about Josh, who feels even more ill-defined than Ben did when he was locked in the cereal cupboard for all those years. Now he’s back and apparently more than capable of running a farm despite having been nowhere to be seen at Brookfield apart from toying with Jill’s old egg business. Esme is of an indeterminate age (despite sounding like Zainab), presumably to explain the fact none of the other characters remember her from school - maybe she was in the same class as Amber (another recent invention). It’s entirely believable that Josh might end up with a local farmer, but not someone he’d never laid eyes on until now - I was hoping we’d at least have some presence that he remembered her from Young Farmers.

If he goes back to jail the Grundy’s will assert it is someone else’s fault. The blame never lies with George. He is horrid but so many of his immediate family have no morals, shame
and lack basic parenting skills so he’s just a product of his upbringing really.

I’d be devastated if George left as suggested up thread! He is a great, if dislikable, character. I thought Lillian, Jolene and George were well acted last night. I enjoyed the episode.

Don't know if it's been mentioned already but it turns out that a "Mulligan" is a second chance to perform an action, usually after the first chance went wrong through bad luck or a blunder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulligan_(games)

Maybe George will be given a second chance on the farm?

Or Josh will be given a second chance to have a family that loves and respects him?

I am coming back to the archers after a hiatus - who the Jeff is Amber?!

@TheBlueHotel , she's an influencer who contacted George when he was in prison, and he has asked her to marry him. She was at school with George, Chelsea, Brad and Mia, but they don't remember her. She says Chelsea bullied her.
She lived at Grange Farm until George was released. Now she lives with George at Will's house.
She has fallen out with her parents because of George being in prison.
She squawks every few sentences and is rude to Emma. She's been nasty to Neil and Susan.

See thread title! I thought it was fortuitous, given that another older meaning is apparently a stew made from odds and ends, which feels very much like recent storylines.

@NetballHoop … 😂😂

lol to myself imagining George working as a tree surgeon sawing off the branch he’s sitting on

seems absolutely OBVIOUS to me that Ed'n'Emma give George work in their business

He could always go to Timpsons

Goodness me. Like one of those women who write to men on death row? But ambridge stylee

I can also imagine George brandishing a chainsaw in a menacing way if anybody annoys him.

If someone like Amber entered my family circle, I would feel an urge to go on a lengthy expedition to the North Pole. She is extremely irritating. Very partisan. All she knows about what George did is what George himself has told her and she's decided that Neil and Susan no longer deserve to be part of George's life because they persuaded Emma to dob him in. Appalling behaviour.