Archers thread #194: Bottled on the Bridle Path! Discuss 75 years of 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 wishthat we'd heard the Reverend Shula preach over the festive period, 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 am all Archered out after the excitement of the 75th anniversary yesterday, the special drama (Truth and Lies), the podcast, you name it. Now it looks as if George is going to pull through, the hype seems a bit overdone. So it's over to you!

Ooh @TheUsualChaos yes i like the idea that something else went on at the Bull + that's why CCTV wiped - Harrison and Fallon had a row and someone angrily broke a glass?

There was an allusion to Harrison having had a dalliance with someone else Oop North - the Other Woman turned up and confronted him, having found out he was married, or thought she'd try for a bunk-up on the off-chance Fallon was busy?

I like this idea. Wasn’t there some secret agent in the village years ago - I’m sure I saw that in the list of Archers moments.

i think it was Mick not because it makes any real sense but because I would like him to go away. The best storyline would be for it to be an Aldridge so we can see how differently they are treated. But it is increasingly difficult to care.

I also agree that this situation is really just a mechanism to have all sorts of otherwise private things surface and accusations fly.

Lillian may have deleted the CCTV to cover up her theft of copious amounts of gin while everyone was at the fireworks.

Lillian may have deleted the CCTV to cover up her theft of copious amounts of gin while everyone was at the fireworks.

Is it theft if she owns half of it? It might not be good practice, but it's notlike if Joy had nicked it.

(I know it's not really relevant, it's just where my mind went...)

I enjoyed grumpy Brian.

Grumpy Brian hit very close to home with me today. I was very snappy with him

That’s reminded me.. I thought Georges quip when he had the altercation with Lilian was quite amusing. She reminded him she could refuse to serve him because she owned half the pub, and he replied “ Well just give me half a pint then”!

Why do they keep mentioning Brian’s angina? I do hope they don’t hospitalise/dead him before he crosses the Home Farm(house) threshold. The Aldridges together for a Home Farm New Year would have been a much nicer 75th anniversary episode IMO.

I simply don’t understand why nobody seems to be bothered that Keira ran away (half the village had been out looking for her). The police/school/social services must/jolly well should know by now, but nothing.

maybe they are all keeping quiet about it - now they realise (am I right?) she was missing around the time George was hit? Of course he will be bigger and stronger than her, but he was drunk, it was dark, she could have snuck up from behind?

Why has nobody bothered about Keira?
Why have the police not listened to the first 999 call?
Why has Alice never said anything to Lillian (and everyone else) about people deserving second chances?
Why is Joy so obsessed with Burns night all of a sudden?
Is the Rochelle storyline dead or just awaiting a court date? (Hoping it’s the former)

ThatFlightyTemptressAdventure
Wasn’t there some secret agent in the village years ago - I’m sure I saw that in the list of Archers moments.

Mike Daly. He bought (or possibly rented?) Blossom Hill Cottage from Squire Lawson-Hope in August 1952 and claimed to be there to write thrillers, had an MC medal, and was slandered about his war record by Reggie Trentham (which made me like him because Reggie was the sort of cad who cheats at cricket). It turned out he had been a Dachau inmate as a result of working for the Resistance in France. He remained in Ambridge for a while, then got a phone call from "Baroness Czorva" telling him that a certain party wanted to see him, packed his bags in March 1955 and left, never to return.

Fourteen-year-old girls are noted for their sense of proportion and self-control. They found her, so no need to trouble the filth. And despite the impression some posters on mumsnet like to give, Social Services wouldn’t give a flying fuck about a teenager flouncing out because this week she hates her brother.

Sssssh. Faith in the interest the SS and police take in small fry is what holds the country together.

At about that age, I went missing from school for at least as long as Keira was missing from home. Even the staff of the school were not that bothered (one of them saw me hitch-hiking out of town and went back to school and told the headmistress rather than arresting me herself and taking me back to the school with her!), and they didn't call the police.

that presumably was in The Old Days though

Well, yes. And then the headmistress rang my mother trying for sympathy or support or something, and was politely told that Mum was busy entertaining the American ambassador (don't ask!) and would ring her back, and when she did the headmistress got an earful about alarmist silliness, which probably surprised her greatly.

I was expelled, of course, but it was worth it.

When my sister was 13 I was expected to "babysit" her ... I was 21 and only staying with the family (not then in the UK) very temporarily. The very first time when I went off to bed I found the downstairs loo window open, the back door unlocked and no sister in her room. What did I do? Well, obviously I locked the door, closed the window and went to bed. Fortunately for her, she got back before the parents did and I let her in, but told her that next time I wouldn't. At no point did it even cross my mind to call the police.

If Harrison has been playing away, I hope Fallon finds out as she is So Smug.

And I'm not very nice.

My DAB signal went down a minute before the end. Did anything important happen?

What? I know you said don’t ask but what??? 😄

Nope.

I thought it was quite generous of Will to not remind his brother that he was happily(ish) married before Ed slept with his wife and tried to kidnap his son.

Too much focus on George being home tomorrow, he won't be. Prison storyline rehash.

I thought it was realistic that he focused on Nic. I really like it when Ed and Will are getting on. And I enjoyed Henry this evening too.

Good that Helen really was educated and reformed by her prison experience. So true that nobody deserves to be assaulted.

With a big sharp knife.