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'm not sure I agree Brad is a drip.
He is socially awkward, a bit shy, but has a kind heart, and isn't afraid to push back on George if needed. I think he will mature into a lovely kind man.
More and more teens are living at home due to costs and other factors.

I agree though he needs to be destined for more than 'just' Ambridge. However Ambridge seems to have some pull on graduates that often stops them progressing or they disappear hardly ever to be heard of again.

Christmas tractor runs are all about the fairy lights, surely Joy isn't putting one on in daytime?

The SWs really don't understand our traditional rural ways at all.

The side comedy spin-offs would be all about late deliveries of extra lights and all the shops running out of batteries.

No I think hers is evening. Ours is daytime (see video above) because it goes all around the villages and our market town.

Ours drove through the town on Saturday evening during peak shopping hours. They've shifted it to Sunday this year.

Life wasn't easy for Freddie post prison either.
Despite the class difference, both George and Freddie were fortunate enough to have a home to go to and to be supported by their families.
I doubt Kate feels positively towards Freddie but his crime( whilst potentially harming anyone who he sold drugs to) did not have such a huge impact on a large number of villagers like George's did. Freddie wasn't welcomed back with open arms as far as I remember. He was definitely persona non grata for a long time, really until he saved Lynda from the fire.

Freddie has had to deal with not being able to take up his rightful inheritance, which presumably he had been counting on his whole life, and like George, found it extremely difficult to secure work, ending up having to work in an abbatoir.

The huge difference in Freddie's rehabilitation has been his attitude. He didn't try to put the blame on someone else who could have gone to prison, unlike George. On his release he has been genuinely remorseful, he didn't have the massively entitled attitude that George has, he and his mother didn't go round everywhere banging on about how everyone should forget his crime because he's done his time, he didn't expect to be welcomed back like George did, he didn't expect it would be easy to secure work, he wasn't aggressive, he was quiet and humble.

Also George has never been a character that many people in the village particularly liked in the first place, he's always been a bit of a shit even as a child. Freddie has always been portrayed as dim but fundamentally a pleasant person. Makes a difference in how people are treated.

‘…come with’? Alistair wouldn’t have adopted this new abbreviation. Jim certainly wouldn’t approve. I am no linguist but hear this more and more these days and it jars.

I think a crime that involved an innocent woman with a serious addictive illness potentially going to prison and leaving her small daughter without her mother is about as close to violence as you can get without actually being violent.

Tony's and Hannah's float themes are going to be the same, aren't they? How we'll laugh.

Am I the only townie who can't get my head round this tractor run at all? I must follow the YouTube link above, I suppose.

I wonder how merry Christmas will be at Grange Farm this year.

Agree. I've only started to hear this phrase in the last few years, and presumed it was a regional thing. I always want to add the rest of the sentence

They must have imagined it would be merry - when George was soon to be out, rather than actually out …

Poor all of them.

Of course he wouldn't be talking like this. He's an educated man in his sixties, he talks properly.

My (middle class, North London) family have always used "come with". My grandma used to say it!

@FizzingAda Hannah Fry is 41, so hardly a girl, and I think we might be a bit shocked at the age gap. Maybe Amber is a secret genius and will quietly do an access course or A-levels and end up a researcher or professor.

@DeanElderberry , Susan probably has a stash of fairy lights in the village shop stockroom at Ambridge View.

I don't literally mean Hannah Fry! Just someone like her with an outgoing personality who also shares his maths passion, and would bring him out of his shell. He needs some fun!

Does anyone know whether offenders out on parole have someone like a probation officer overseeing them? I'd have thought it could be really helpful for someone like George to have someone pushing him to look for work outside the village where he claims everyone hates him, and to have a realistic talk about the effect on relationships of leaving prison.

I knew you didn't literally mean her, @FizzingAda . She'd be a good cameo.

@GoodQueenWenceslaus ,Getting parole: Overview - GOV.UK

Our tractor run is on 13th December this year. Always a huge event, with nearly 100 tractors. Here's a link - always at night, always very sparkly, and loud, and snares up the traffic for miles. Like miles.

Thank you. I now have a better idea of what's going on. Not my sort of thing, but I can see why some people would like it.

What happened to the great Ambridge switch on where all the houses round the green switch on their Christmas lights for the first time one after the other? Can't remember when we last heard about that.

Oh crikey we have in our village, one in the next village (summer) and one in the village on the other side. I am talking about 50 tractors, fairy lights, effigies of hated characters (local and national), drunk people hanging off tractors, all of it.

I've been living under a rock! To be fair, there aren't too many tractors and quad bikes in my inner London borough.

Does anyone know whether offenders out on parole have someone like a probation officer overseeing them? I'd have thought it could be really helpful for someone like George to have someone pushing him to look for work outside the village where he claims everyone hates him, and to have a realistic talk about the effect on relationships of leaving prison.

I think George does have a probation officer as when he was talking to Ed about how he would be better off back in jail he said he would only need to tell Reg about him pushing Ed down the stairs and he (Reg) would sort the rest.

Ed’s patience with George must put him in line for a sainthood.

Ed’s patience with George must put him in line for a sainthood. I'd say he was an idiot.

This has essentially become a domestic violence SL with Ed as victim. I guess they thought they couldn't repeat having a woman as victim so soon after the Helen saga.

Nah, I expect he’ll get around to belting Emmur one eventually, particularly if she is daft enough to reference her little chat with Amber. I can’t wait say I’d mind very much.