Archers thread #192: Village of the Dammed. Discuss the beavers here. Throw in the odd word about the Archers if you must.

[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 you'd love to have Kate present as you give birth, 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.)

I'm more excited about the arrival of the beavers than anything else going on in Ambridge at the moment. I hope there will be a webcam.

Bets on how much of next week is set in the castle or on the way there/back? I'm bracing myself for at least 50%.

I was sure of the same as you, but someone found the episode on youtube and posted it elsewhere, and we were both wrong.

I agree with this, but I don’t think George will see it that way. Emma should have talked to George not Amber.

She has tried talking with George, and it goes nowhere. And Amber was prepared to consult her, which George hasn't done.

If only John Finnemore could be persuaded to take on the writing of The Archers. His latest email is about a woman in his village called Joy who is organising something festive in the village. So, so much more subtle and entertaining than the stuff inflicted on us.

https://johnfinnemore.substack.com/p/the-unbearable-torment-of-bear-bear

That made me laugh!

But I will resist the impulse to pay for more. For some reason, unfinished substack stories always seem unmissably urgent, until I hand over my card details. Then they’re just more bumph in my inbox and I automatically delete them, having forgotten that I’ve paid …

I just wonder which of us on here would be happy with our mother advising our partner to break up with us - however right she may be? Or would any parent of a young adult intervene in this way - I wouldn’t dream of doing so. Emma should be telling George that a bit of space might be good for both of them and that any hiccups are better ironed out now rather than after tying the knot - using her own experience as an example since it’s not exactly a secret to George. What she’s done looks like going over his head and behind his back - however well meant - and I’m sure he will see it this way.

I think she was caught on the hop by the question. I heard it again while driving this afternoon and still think the same. I don't blame her, she told the truth. Marrying Will wasn't good for him or her or George really. She realised how similar George and Amber's situation is. One of the better story strands recently.

Who on earth wrote all those pleeeeeases. FFS

Agreed, not that I ever have paid for any. The free bits of his substack are in his fairly regular emails, which I really enjoy.

'Please please please' reminded me of a woman who enquired many years ago about the Master's course for which I was the administrator. She didn't meet our entry criteria but she really wanted to do the course anyway, which would have been a disaster on every possible level (it would have involved working with mentally ill offenders in secure units and she had no experience or relevant knowledge at all). She actually said those very words to me when I told her that she wouldn't get a place. Astonishing behaviour from an adult.

Our course attracted a lot of nutters. Fortunately most of them were eliminated before the interview stage. Unfortunately some had made it onto the academic staff, but that's another long story ...

😂😂😂

Would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh!

(At tonight’s episode.)

So, Bramber!

Isn't that what Wilde said about the death of Little Nell?

Yes, ”Blimey”

So happy Bramber is going to be a thing

Have to congratulate the story creators. George and Brad; Brad and George - we’ve never really known one without the other.

..........unless George murders them both..........

The 🔮 predicts that there will be Running Amok and a festive Hostage Situation.

We never saw that one coming, did we? Oh yes we did!

I was cringing at the Bramber exchange.

She sounds so grown up and he sounds so ... Brad!

Based on Old Amber (when they were already setting this up), I can't understand what he could possibly see in a squealing, shallow, rude bully. Based on New Amber, I can't believe her personality transplant, and don't know when they are meant to have seen enough of each other for this crush to develop. Is it just supposed to be teenage hormones?

She's pretty. Men often aren't more complicated than that.

On the other hand Brad has actually had a long term relationship - ok, while he was at school, but he'd have learned a lot from that. George? Amber was the first 'proper' gf wasn't she? And that began in prison.
Brad also has prospects - tho I'll concede the point that the scriptwriters will probably quash them and have him stay in Ambridge squandering his degree.

I'm Team Bramber all the way, and have been for weeks!

She's confident, pretty and interested in him. He has been kind to her.

Brad has grown up a bit though. As well as having a previous relationship, he has (despite the SWs’ best efforts to erase it) a life (and an intellectual life) outside Ambridge, which is expanding his experience, as opposed to George’s spell in prison, which constrained his. And I imagine part of Amber’s attraction is that she’s shown some vulnerability with him (which she usually disguises) and he gets to feel protective around her, which is something he would never have felt with Mia.

Although switching the actress (and thus altering her character) was a mis-step. Original Amber was brash - to my ears she would have reminded Brad strongly of his mother. New Amber doesn’t have that quality so it’s harder to see her specific attraction for him.

Unless, of course, he was always psychologically fated to find this particular way of destroying his more outwardly dominant ‘friend’. Now he knows George has (what might be perceived as) psychopathic tendencies he will feel less bound by loyalty towards him.

https://blackandbeech.com/collections/jumpers/products/scross-stitch-jumper-ecru I saw this and thought of Shula (ecru) do you reckon she’s got in with the radical feminists up north?

And George has been thr one causing this. He can't deal with the emotional stuff, so stonewalling Amber when she tried to talk about it, and sent Brad in, instead. Obviously there was not so much choice while in prison, bit there is now he's out and Brad is a sensible choice in a lot of ways - he accepted that whatever he felt, Amber was with George, so he hadn't brought it up at all. But it did mean Amber got to see Brad as more caring and emotionally mature than George when it comes to difficult feelings. George won't see anything but betrayal, though.