Archers thread #193: Christmas in Ambridge! Don't expect any wise men (or women). Discuss The Archers here.

[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 a couple of acquaintances to clean and tidy your house without your permission, 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/5457344-the-archers-spoilers-thread-11-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.)

What do we think - best Christmas ever followed by a nice quiet New Year? No, me neither. We have the tractor run to look forward to , and then whatever they've got lined up for the 75th anniversary of the first ever episode - New Year's Day 1951. I can't imagine that anybody involved with the programme then expected it would still be on the air 75 years later. I wonder what they would make of the current direction. The lack of farming content would be a surprise, given that was the whole reason for devising the programme in the first place.

Over to you!

That's amazing to see @Ambridge

I've tried to make a clearer screen shot for you

Yes you're right @TottersBlatantlyTowardsTheBaileys , the farms do all seem relatively isolated from each other but probably that's fairly realistic with how modern farming is now sadly.

All the talk in the podcast and elsewhere about who’d been given a bottle either for Christmas or to celebrate The Bull being pub of the year…
are we supposed to believe that no household in Ambridge ever usually contains bottles?

Thanks @Ambridge and @TheUsualChaos for those screen shots. I liked the Farrows advert too!

As for all today's Archers items - more red herrings than a far-left fishmonger's. I've decided to stop speculating and just "go with the flow". A bit disappointed to hear of Harrison's goings-on up north though.

I think it was just to emphasise that almost anyone could have been out with a bottle, because if it had been any other night when when Sabrina Thwaite had been the only one to pop in and buy a bottle to take home for dinner, then it wouldn't have been lining up every single person in Borsetshire as obvious suspects. Generally many people aren't often walking about outside with bottles, though most would have some at home, but NYE would be more.

I don't drink, but I reckon a bottle of EVOO or cider vinegar would do as well as a wine bottle.

I do actually have a wine bottle in currently as I won it in a tombola. Guess I'd better be on the suspect list.

I thought Jazzer might have been smoking weed or inhaling nitrous oxide (at a stretch, he seems too old for nos). I like his redemptive arc and don't want to go back to his previous version

Unless the technology has moved on, being a nanger is very very noisy and impossible to keep secret. I camped next to a bunch of nangers about six years ago at a music festival. They never stopped, unsurprising as the effects soon wear off. To be fair they looked after each other and had an excellent playlist.

It was the last time I camped at the festival, preferring the gated community of the shipping containers. The drugs are quiet there.

A bit disappointed to hear of Harrison's goings-on up north though

It's so out of character, though leaves a get-out clause for his marriage. What am I saying? For the SLs.

Oh that was awful. Jazzer acting like a zombie, Neil stuttering and dragging it out and Emma weeping and awailing.
Thank God it was only 12 minutes.

I don't think what we heard about Harrison was out of character. It isn't clear it was an affair, but we know how much he wants a family. No pre existing friends up north, so spending time with a colleague is plausible, and then maybe getting closer by accident.

I really liked understanding Hannah and Brad more.

It was interesting that Brian leaped to Adam for 'your son' not Ruairhi (sp?). And to hear his view on Kate.

The Clive bit was downright weird.

But presumably the weapon was a specific bottle of Chardonnay - the very type the Bull had won in the pub of the year awards and had been giving away. Any old random bottle would have been more easily linked to a specific person (a bit like George’s fruit cider bottles after the crash - though I seem to remember that link was not easily made then). In any case I’m now thinking that the use of the giveaway Chardonnay tends to rule out Keira, who would not have been given a bottle.

In the Podcast they included Brian’s aftershave bottle from Miranda, precisely why would he be walking about with that on NYE?!

They ignored Amber’s existence too. 👀

yes why would Clive have been staking out the village and multiple photos of Soosan?! That was def a bit trippy, meant to point to it being all happening in George’s head?

excuse typos

They ignored Amber’s existence too. 👀 It’s because Amber has no hinterland. The purpose of the Truth and Lies spin off was to set out the complicated histories of long-standing characters and their relationships to one another. Anyone tuned in to the current storyline already knows everything there is to know about Amber - she only came into existence when she started writing to George (though we are pretending, for plot purposes, she was at school with Brad, Chelsea and George).

Amber has probably flown out to Dubai for a bit of New Year content creation. This is incomprehensible to the rest, who never leave Borsetshire, so they've ignored it. He'll come back next week and ask if anything has been happening.

Thanks @TheUsualChaos, I enjoyed reading that.

I thought the whole spinoff was odd, especially the beginning and end, as if it was a dream. I thought Brian was going to collapse.

I agree that Jazzer was behaving strangely but Harrison did seem to have a strong motive. He said the accident and miscarriage nearly broke them and then there is the affair which he may also blame on George. Or did the red mist descend for Ed when his daughter was missing because of George?

I predict weeks of finger pointing and allegations that split the village and maybe some relationships, after which it may be discovered to have been Markie, but the damage will have been done.

use of the giveaway Chardonnay tends to rule out Keira, who would not have been given a bottle

Not necessarily: hadn’t Saint Fallon taken a bottle/bottles to the Grundys?

I hope whoever did it drank the contents first. I suppose a full bottle would provide a more effective weapon, but I do hate waste.

Very much my own thinking!

Was the podcast worth a listen?

Much as I loathe the thought, it all being in George’s head does make some sense. The inspector kept saying he’d ‘done his time’, which we know is a common refrain from George. Adam being the son Brian leapt to first, Brian would NEVER but George might. And Harrison’s affair - I can well imagine George fantasising about that. The Clive bit was so weird whether in George’s head or not!!

The ‘all in the head’ theory doesn’t really stand up. How would George know about, e.g., the bint oop north? But neither does any version of ‘not in George’s head’.

As for beaning someone with a bottle: use a full one, which is unlikely to break, strike straight, leg it home, wipe bottle thoroughly, drink contents, chuck in the recycling. Although if you’re unlucky enough to get blood on the label, you might well still be screwed.

Chuck it in someone else's recycling, perhaps, just in case?

I think it was Harrison, and he took the broken bottle back to The Bull to be disposed of.

He saw Fallon, who dealt with the bottle, cutting herself in the process.

This is why Harrison wanted the DI(?) to be gentle with Fallon - he’s worried she’ll crack under pressure.

Could it be Ed? He was furious about whatever it is Geowurge has done to Keira, and nobody could raise him on the phone when they were all out looking.

But Ed loves his whole family - and he knows he’s not smart enough to get away with murder. So he wouldn’t do something that would actually destroy the people he loves.

Has anyone outside the UK managed to find the "Truth and Lies" thing yet? I'm quite grumpy that I've not found it: I had dinner guests when it was on.