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!

I disliked Helen even more than usual this evening, and was delighted to hear that Henry is coming round to my way of thinking.

He only thought he was.
Emma had been with Ed even before the actual wedding, iirc.

My father's firm had got us a house in London, and it was the very last few years of a lease on a house in a terrace in Regent's Park.

The American ambassador, whose embassy is in the park, was trying to get everyone to sign a petition against the building of a mosque just off the Outer Circle.

My mother, in the nicest possible way, was opposing this petition, and as part of her campaign against him had invited him, and a bunch of our most articulate neighbours who also felt that a mosque with a gold dome would absolutely suit the Prince Regent's vision of what architecture ought to be like, to come to dinner. She pulled out all the stops. I don't suppose he knew what had hit him; I wish I had been a fly on the wall. But I was busy not running away from school, and rather a long way away.

The mosque was built, and a very handsome building it is, too, or was last time I saw it.

Shades of old American war movies in which if someone starts showing other members of his aircrew photos of his wife and baby, and talking about only one more mission to fly before he goes home, you absolutely know that's the plane that is going to be shot down.

She is such a prig, with no self-knowledge at all. A bit of an awful warning.

I don’t think it’s part of the brief of Remand to educate and reform, it’s to ensure the accused turns up in the dock.

I slightly sympathised with Helen, even so: if I were her and with her history of interactions with George Grundy, I would not want to employ him and have to see him at close quarters every day. Why on earth should she?

You think her insight into the impropriety of violent assault is the result of a personal revelation?

or that there was an unspoken 'except by me' . . .

ghastly woman

I haven’t heard this episode yet, @DeanElderberry , but given it’s Helen, I would take ‘except for me’ as read.

mens sibi conscia recti with knobs on.

Since when were Henry and Kiera friends? Anyway, perhaps she will confide in him about what exactly has been going on with George. I don’t think we are any the wiser as to why she ran away. Ed and Emma seem to have forgotten the whole incident.

Ed said to Amber that he didn’t know who to worry about more, meaning George or Keira, and that’s when Amber said she thought they should be worried about Will. Where was Emma supposed to be though? Maybe I missed it.

I don’t think Henry is particularly friends with Keira, but came up with a way of getting one over on Helen (which to be fair she took with good grace) but they’re at the same school and the families know each other well.

To be fair Helen and Emma used to take Henry and Kiera to pre-school groups, the park, karate together when they were small.

My DCs still get on really well with the offspring of my school gate friends despite them all being much older now.

They probably go on the school bus together, though that definitely doesn't guarantee friendship as I remember...

The problem with Keira is she doesn’t really exist yet - we still don’t know why she ran away though there was an implication she was scared of George to give Ed a reason to stop covering for him. She also gave everyone a reason to be out and about searching on the night George was attacked. That hasn’t really been followed up so I can’t decide if she was just a plot device for both those things to happen or if she could in fact be his attacker. Was she also a device to get Henry over to the Grundys so he could then visit George in hospital? I guess we won’t know unless she suddenly starts to be voiced. She could be like the culprit in Midsummer Murders who is always the least likely person (to the extent that DS and I always challenge ourselves to spot them before the first ad break) until everyone else has been ruled out.

I think it's been brewing for while for Henry to rebel. All the Rob trauma will start coming to the fore. I think if Helen tries to intervene, it will just push him away even further and she probably knows that.

I think it's pretty fair that Helen wouldn't want George in their lives, especially her easily manipulated son. George would simply see Henry as a useful ally to use as a way back into Archer territory.
And to be fair to Helen, the situation with Rob was hardly comparable to George's attack. I don't blame her for what she did, I think Rob would have killed her eventually, probably Henry as well.

Perhaps a Henry and Kiera romance in the future, that would complicate matters somewhat!

and not listening to girls who talk about their experiences of abuse leads us where we are today...

But Keira doesn't even live with George, does she? I thought he and Amber were at Wiwyum's place and she's with Em'n'Ed at Little Grange. I could understand Poppy running away, but not Keira.

The Henry actor gabbles and talks so fast. Enjoyed the coat discussion on TA after reading about teenagers and coats on here yesterday.

I like that Kiera and Henry have a relationship - and it was good to be reminded that Henry and George have a history, and that Henry is old enough to do what he likes so his family need to work with him on that, and making good decisions.

I too ran away from (boarding school) at the time the school closed to boarding about years later i still held the record for getting furthest. The school called the police, the police eventually picked me up (and locked me in a bloody cell...) until my dad came to get me. And took me right back to school. Ho hum. (I did subsequently get expelled but not for that...)

IIRC, when Helen was pregnant with Henry (her first) she explained various things about pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and childrearing to Emma, who was pregnant with Keira (her second). Emma was not amused.

Grid reference?

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime that story sounds like a Malory Towers plotline!

Those two girls always seem interchangeable to me.

What with Amber changing character and moving houses while George was away, I suspect that the SW’s also lost track of who lives where!

It would be nice to give “Keira” a voice now that Mia is at Uni. There must be quite a few drama students within a fairly easy commute of Pebble Mill who would love an intro into Radio.

Joining the gang please…
i’m a relative newcomer - started listening in summer 2024 so I loved the backstories in the Truth and Lies episode.

i think Jazzer didn’t do it but had found George earlier, called the ambulance but didn’t stay because he suspects Brad.

i think Fallon didn’t do it but suspects Harrison or Kenton did so that’s why she deleted the cctv footage.

i think Amber did it. And that’s why she’s now desperate and feeling guilty and trying to make George ‘remember’ that it was one of Marky’s gang.

I’d love it to be Esme so we can get rid of her and her wandering accent.

I think Amber would be too worried about breaking a fingernail. Have we considered the possibility that it was Jill?