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'm also not sure why it has to be done by April, by which I assume she means the end of the tax year on 5 April.
Of course in real life they would have already discussed it over the years, in conjunction with their accountant and financial advisor.

The idea of David as nearly 70 has blown my mind. Somehow in my head no one in The Archers has aged since about 2001.

They'll probably leave Josh a hen-sized field, Ben a £100 Underwoods gift voucher (with instructions not to spend it all at once) and the remainder to Pip.

I seem to remember ( but could be totally wrong) that when Phil and Jill were sorting out inheritance of Brookfield there were all sorts of arrangements with various types of shares divided amongst the 4 siblings, didn't some have more rights than others, it certainly wasn't done in 5 minutes like Ruth is implying it will be.

Well its obvious that they’ll end up leaving it to Markie, Joy and one of the Maliks as they are all longstanding characters and part of Ambridge history…oh,hang on…

The Brookfield Inheritance issue was described by Keri Davies here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fblogs%2Fthearchers%2Fentries%2F05f5cdc6-d5c2-34b1-ad8d-a2784debf828

Perhaps Shula’s (silent) Xmas in Ambridge reignited the discussions?

I have a very distant recollection of Elizabeth losing it big time.

Have we discovered who wiped the CCTV recording at The Bull and how?

The Brookfield inheritance will be complicated by the matter of the entitlements of Kenton, Shula and Elisabeth. Presumably their rights will be passed on to their children in due course.

As an aside, I had forgotten about Kenton’s child with Mel in Australia….

Nope.

Have the SW's forgotten that Akram's son, Khalil, was being set up to become the next Ben Fogle just a few months ago? Since the only form of public transport appears to be Rex's taxi and the school bus, I feel confident that he and Henry (15) would happily put in some shifts for £8-£10/hour (or if they didn't, they might certainly know some kids who would).

It will also be made more complicated because of Pip's relationship with Stella. David and Ruth were married with children so appeared stable( can't remember if Ruth's thing with Sam(?) was before or after but in any case I don't think Phil and Jill knew), but what's the situation with Pip and Stella? It doesn't seem like they're a solid truly committed couple( or at least that's the impression I get). Presumably things are factored in to cover the situation with the farm should a couple split up.

Thanks for the welcome 👋🏼
it was the George/Emma storyline that got me hooked - the dilemma of reporting her own son to the police. I’d always been aware of the Archers but never paid much attention. Then I caught a few episodes and just had to keep listening.

i don’t mind Joy, mainly because I love her accent.

But I’m hoping Esme is a temporary character. She is so wet. And I’m not convinced that growing up on a farm and then doing an (unspecified) desk job qualifies her to take on sole management of a farm.

I like Esme. I am hoping she will succeed. I am wondering if there is a long term plan for her to highlight the struggle of the small farmer… I can’t imagine it’s economically viable for her unless she specialises or diversifies the way that the other farms have. Perhaps the inheritance planning at Brookfield will prompt John into a move, or Akram could come with a proposition.

When Pa Malik asked what the job was (after turning it down), I got the feeling his son would end up doing it because they're determined to push the Maliks on us.

Remember when Justin wanted to buy the farmhouse and land for £7 million? Could they get that now? If I were one of Jill's children or Ben and Josh, I'd be agitating for a windfall rather than it going to TWFL and her fat kid.

She was said to be ill. Presumably this was a real and possibly serious bout of some utterly foul lurgy.

Thanks, I don’t know how that bit completely passed me by 🤷‍♀️.

Right? Absolutely everyone punished except the person Will is angry with. What a twonk.

If the SWs plan at all, then they presumably are looking to have him go back to the land.

Ah yes, the land, which is not wearing and tearing at all 😆

Back at the time of the original Markie events at the pub, I said that I thought the storyline was a proxy for travellers. Our local rural pub has had trouble with them.

I got shouted down though, and will no doubt have to change my user name again! But it's the only thing that made real sense.

Forget that Jolene supposedly knew him, that's a ruse. What happened was that travellers came to the pub, caused trouble, did illegal dog hunting, etc etc.

EdgeOfThirtySeven
Back at the time of the original Markie events at the pub, I said that I thought the storyline was a proxy for travellers. Our local rural pub has had trouble with them.
I got shouted down though, and will no doubt have to change my user name again! But it's the only thing that made real sense.
Forget that Jolene supposedly knew him, that's a ruse. What happened was that travellers came to the pub, caused trouble, did illegal dog hunting, etc etc.

I am of the opinion that is too convoluted to have been the way the editorial team had it worked out. Also, I can't see the editorial motive.

And it doesn't actually make sense unless we assume that everything except their presence in a pub car-park didn't happen on air at all – only it was on my radio. Vince discovering who they were and where they were from, for instance.

Also, the incidents we've heard since haven't borne that theory out. And there has been no "illegal dog hunting" as far as I remember; just a single dog who attacked Kenton while Jolene was ringing the police (the sensible thing to do in the circumstances) and didn't realise he had stupidly gone outside.

Why do you want them to have picked on travellers? Because you had some at your local who made trouble, clearly, but why else?

I thought it was a good storyline because it actually happens. They were there in the pub carpark, with aggressive dogs, doing goodness knows what, at night.

Perhaps it was just too realistic for the scriptwriters 😆

Seems more likely to me that the idea of denigrating a minority didn't even occur to them, what with them working for the BBC and all.

Does George really think that everybody is going to forgive and forget? Is his humility actually supposed to be a genuine change, because I don't for one minute think it is, certainly comes across as fake. He's a cunning, manipulative person so I think he's trying to pull the wool over people's eyes.

Surely people aren't all going to believe this guff? Maybe Alice does because she fervently believes that people can change and should be given multiple chances, due to her own behaviour, but in real life people often don't.

Jesus Christ.

So a skilled Pakistani man comes to live in Ambridge, and ends up as an outdoor skivvy to Archers?

Okay then.

And also apparently thinks it's his dream come true.

Akram - Mad outcome, but I knew it was inevitable.

His theme song:

]

Alice has quite forgotten that rushing around telling everyone how sorry she was buttered precisely zero parsnips, and got her a serious rebuff from Ruairi more than once.

This would apply especially since George, like her back then, shows lots of signs of insincerity. Asking Kenton to intercede for him with Jolene, forsooth! And asking Alice to intercede for him with Brian is nasty too. No, George, if you want to apologise to people, do it yourself. Will he apologise to Harrison, or has Harrison not got anything George wants from him?

I can't remember: did he apologise to Chris for the hell he put Chris through by causing Alice to feel suicidal? Or does Chris too have not a lot George wants from him, like, no job to offer?