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 sorry I seem to have quoted the wrong post. I meant to quote this;
Gonners
As an aside, what young man of 20 (going-on-21) calls his grandmother "Nana"?

Brian is definitely a single malt man.

Not like me, getting though a bottle of blended whiskey every five years or so, mainly for hot toddy as a cold cure or for baked bananas (I prefer it to rum).

I think it's quite different if your children ask/want you to call their children by a particular name; I'd certainly go along with their wishes.
My DC asked me what I wanted to be called.
Although, the elder DGC is at the moment experimenting with a mixture of Grandma and my first name, so it could turn into something different yet.
ETA Although, some people seemed to think "Nan/na/y" is the desired name. A friend I'd not seen for years asked, when I mentioned the DGC, what I was called. I told her and she said "Oh! Not Nanny?". Not wanting to say I'd chosen not to be called that (didn't know what she was called and didn't want to offend) I said the other grandmother was "Nanny". I got the sad face, head tilt and long "Awwwww..." like someone had died 🤷‍♀️

Different topic: like PPs I was amazed to hear Brian having to nip into the local shop for a bottle of whisky and asking Susan for a recommendation!
I half wondered if he was going to offer George a drink but wouldn't know what the lower orders drink.
But he'd have bought beer/cider in that case.

Though half way through breakfast preparation I remembered the awful revelation a few decades ago that he mixes whisky and ginger ale, so maybe he isn't such a connoisseur after all.

Up there with the little gold chains on his shoes as a character surprise.

I’m assuming he’s evolved since then. 😄 We were all young once!

But I do feel an ongoing yearning for the days of the Home Farm shoot, Jenny’s lunches, and spreads in Borcetshire Life. The era when their friends and colleagues demonstrated allegiance with gifts of cases of wine, and rare single malts.

I remember when the new wine fridge was installed, I was puzzled because I’d imagined an actual, well stocked wine cellar at Home Farm, with perfect temperature control. I know Brian doesn’t live quite like that now - but have all his associates deserted him? Immediately after Christmas he should be swimming in decent whisky.

@DeanElderberry

I've been wishing they'd bring the Laugh reaction back but now I need a whole new one: 😲 perhaps.

@DeanElderberry .... Ewwww! I have heard tales of such things, but never known anyone actually DO it!

i thought Rauri was unbearable. I loathe him anyway - he is an awful snob. And of course George reacted - he immediately caught it and apologised. Rauri just sneered and he has NO business thinking he is better than anyone else. He was a prostitute.

(I say settee, sometimes sofa, and Grandma)

I liked what Brian said. It was fair, and George summarised it correctly as: I understand why you are apologising, and if this is a real step in the right direction at some point we will be good. That is gracious of Brian, i thought.

Kate really triggered something in him - and yes, she was ABSOLUTELY correct and said something i write at least once a week on X: why do men have to be told to imagine a woman is somehow related to you before you see them as a person who has been harmed? women are autonomous beings and not to be defined by their relationship to some man. But i also thought she was quite gracious in saying that she can live with now-Freddie, that it wasn't instant, and George should use that as a template. So good for Kate.

Alice has slightly too much empathy, and that is understandable. She has been the apologiser, and she (IMO) has also expected the healing to be too fast. George is 20, they are impatient at that age.

So all in all i thought that was a good scene - except that Brian needed to have slapped Rauri down much better than that.

Also agree that he surely has a few bottles of Jura etc in his cupboard?

DH is a bit of a whisky man (or rather we amassed a good gallon of the stuff when we used to travel abroad a lot). I suspect he’d nip to the Coop to buy a bottle if he had a hunch that guests would ask to add ginger ale; he buys Grants or Famous Grouse for his parents!

I must try making bramble whisky (we usually use gin or vodka with blackberries/blackcurrants).

Good summary.

gosh my dad was a real connessieur (sp) of Whisky. He invited someone round once, who claimed to be equally expert at whisky, and gave him a glass of Macallan 25 year old, and then snatched it away and replaced it with Teachers or Bells or something when the chap asked for ice...

In the 70s I used to drink whisky and coke which was a very popular drink, then I drank Whiskey Mac which was whisky and Stones ginger wine. Then we would drink Southern comfort and lemonade. I wouldnt touch whiskey now if you paid me. I used to love a drink but now I rarely have one.

So true. I miss those Home Farm days and agree Brian would definitely have decent whisky in.

I can't imagine him buying a bottle from the corner shop, and what's even more unbelievable, getting advice from Susan, if he'd been at Home Farm with Jenny. It's as ridiculous as when Lilian bought wine from there a few months ago, when she and Justin are bound to be fully stocked by a good wine merchant.

It's probably yet another facet of the SW's ridiculous desire never to show that anyone has any wealth or privilege or knowledge of the finer things in life.

There's a convenience store in Cambridge near the bus station, that sells sweets, crisps, vapes, Monster and malts. I assume in case some Trinity don't feels the need for Lagavulin with his Twix.

TBF, I interpreted Brian's question to Susan not as a request for advice, but simply asking what she has in stock. Given they do carry some produce from local farms, I suppose it's possible that they carry other "artisan" products that they think there might be a call for...

Goodness me, what a thoroughly nasty bit of work Clive is, to be sure.

Lagavulin is my favourite but it's so expensive. My cousin gave me four different miniatures for a birthday a few years ago, though.

Why did Chris engage with Clive? Extremely bad move. What an utter pillock.

More to the point, what's in it for Clive? He never does anything that doesn't have its roots in self-interest. Maybe he's hoping they'll give him money to go away.

How did Cloive even know about George's little contretemps with a bottle? I can't imagine that any of the Ambridge Horrobins bothered to tell him, bearing in mind that Bert is entirely silent.

(Oh, and very much "Yes!" to Lagavulin ... though I haven't had it for years, it used to be the evening tipple of choice back in the 80s.)

It'll be all over the socials

Of course! As someone who doesn't "do" the socials, that hadn't occurred to me. (As an aside, I wonder whether not participating leaves me open to all manner of rumour, abuse and invented scandal, but if so that's okay.)

Chris has been getting very "emotional" lately. What's going on with him? I thought his chat with George the other day was a bit OTT as well.

Don't really understand the purpose of bringing Clive to Ambridge other than a device for SW to mess with George even more? What would be the benefit for Clive? Or is he such a loser that he's got nothing better to do? George is the only one that gives him the time of day so maybe he just sees it as a way to weave himself back in?

It could be the start of a county lines story line, or just Cloive hoping to get booze or cash from his dad or George.

Chris only received about 1% of votes in my who dunnit highly scientific poll.

But now I’m wondering…

Nah! Chris has the physique to have done a proper job of it. He just seems to fall apart at anything even possibly involving Alice - however remotely - and could probably do with either therapy or a good bash on the head to sort him out.