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%.

OBLIGATORY PODCAST PLUG

Ed is now colluding in his own abuse, even to the point of saying that it didn't happen, and George is of course blubbing to get sympathy.

Where have I come across "We'll keep it our secret" before? Isn't it what a majority of abuse victims are expected by their abusers to agree to?

I really dislike this storyline.

It’s awful. Who would on earth will stage an intervention and rescue Ed? Emma is blind to George’s misdemeanours. Won’t Will notice his brother has suddenly become suspiciously accident prone?

I’ve always thought it inevitable that George and Ed would come to blows - but I never imagined it would be like this.

It will be Brad or Tracy. Or Neil.

Although Joy was good with Ben when he had his psychotic episode. Maybe she'll be dedded.

I'd quite like Jacob to see it and save Ed. Kate would swoon and propose though, and I don't think I could bear to listen to a wedding with Kate in it.

They put George and Hannah in the same room recently didn't they, and you could tell he still resents her. I wonder if it's going to be her that he hits - or maybe she will see him at least threaten Ed again on the job and she'll come to the rescue. He'll give her a black eye and that will be what offs him back to jail to complete his villain arc.

I'm still slightly resentful of George's actor admitting that while the character had been in jail he hadn't a clue what happened in Ambridge because he doesn't listen. AIBU to expect cast to want to keep up with what's happening in TA?

Ignorance of what has happened when your character wasn't there might be said to be a form of method acting?

Sure. But when he was on the podcast it really didn't sound like he was doing that. I can't recall his exact words but it was very much a "TBH I never have any idea what else is going on in Ambridge, I don't listen, never have done"

Angus Stobie is a young man who is unlikely to fit the listener demographic for TA. It doesn’t really matter if he doesn’t know what Joy and Mick are up to. It’s more of a problem that the SWs don’t seem to keep abreast of things from week to week.

I didn’t realise until we heard about the bruise that George had punched Ed in the face. Violence against Ed, who we know would be able to handle himself if he fought back, is a horrible but brilliant twist to the story.

I might have missed the episode but there's been another "incident" after the stairs thing, or it's just showing up as a bruise now?

You’ve missed an episode, @Lalgarh - I think it was Thursday. Worth listening, if you can.

@Lalgarh , Alistair has seen the injury from the stairs thing and said Ed's wrist needs attention.
The bruise is not from the stairs thing.

Gosh: a quick google reminds me that Ed had a massive barney with his brother 12 years ago in the run up to Christmas: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/dec/10/radio-review-month-in-ambridge

Is the timing just a coincidence? I suppose it must be.

@Madcats , no coincidence. Christmas is the same date every year.

People wanting to punch Ed in the face seems to be more of a movable feast.

Hey, maybe George is finally retaliating for Ed having shot "George's dog" (Will's really) n a fit of temper.

Was the dog Boaz/Baz, and wasn't it suspected of sheep worrying?

Christmas usually has 'doof doofs'. Often linked to a birth or death.

Just done some tractor run research. REEsearch, even.
Many many many fairy lights, and a great deal of noise, but the odd inflatable reindeer/santa is as thematic as it gets. Something oddly moving about it, but I can’t see it working on radio. Certainly not with this bunch of clowns.

ThreshAcre
Was the dog Boaz/Baz, and wasn't it suspected of sheep worrying?

Yes it was, and no he wasn't. Baz was a not-quite-fully-trained gundog, and Ed had a concern (stomped on by the vet but Ed wouldn't listen) about a case of neospora in his herd having been caused by random dogs on his land (not actually his land but details) rather than having arrived with the cow when it was bought; he saw a dog running loose, on Shoot land adjacent to the land he rented from Oliver, and shot the dog at close range in the dusk, claiming afterwards not to have known what dog it was.

It was done in temper, and not reported (as is legally required) to the police within three days, and he made no attempt to repay Will the eight or nine hundred pounds his little hissy-fit had cost his brother. But he did get a dog as a Christmas present for George, so that made everything all right. Or made it even more wrong, depending how one feels about dogs being given to small children at Christmas and the buyer then not bothering to house-train them while living in somebody else's house.

I was angry enough about it to stop listening for several months, which is why I remember it so thoroughly.

And Ed telling George his anger issues are not his fault because he has been through so much trauma over the last few years is a bizarre rewriting of history. George is not the victim and anything he has been through is his own fault. He actually seems to recognise this but his idiotic family (apart from Neil and Chris) keep telling him he just made a minor mistake and mustn’t blame himself.

This. George expressed full knowledge and sorrow for what he's done, and his family don't help, however well-meaning. He's hit twice, and he's big strong lad after all the gym work, so plainly it's not going to go away any time soon. Unlike Alice's alcoholism.

I like this storyline, uncomfortable as it is, not least because it keeps the George actor front and centre. I wonder how the SWs will play this out, unless the actor gets snapped up.

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...

Didn't Alice leave her daughter for a life of boozing in London?

George did a Bad Thing. A Very Bad Thing but prison served no purpose other than to ruin a young life. PP who said it gave the community the opportunity to heal. Well, clearly it didn't as Mick threw a hissy fit when he came across George trying to do a spot of volunteering and Gangsters Moll Lilian threw her weight about when he tried to get a pint/job.

Anyway, BOOP for Ed last night. And BOOP for the George actor who at such a young age is far better than Susan and Ian.

I think the main reason he got a custodial sentence was because of the perverting the course of justice charge. Googling suggests it mostly leads to prison as a deterrent to others.

@Trixibell1234 agreed, if he’d come clean about it all straight away I very much doubt he would have got a custodial sentence, particularly given his rescuing of people and the fact that Alice was trying to open the door.

yep - i want people in prison for peverting the course of justice, that is a pretty big crime.