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!

Sharon Richards, whose son John was called "Rich" because of his original surname, married a man called Eamonn Phillips; Rich then took the surname Phillips.

In those days, Rich was a bright lad who wanted to be a vet and was interested in studying sciences and playing cricket. Then he came to Ambridge at sixteen and had dyslexia so serious that he could hardly read. And then he changed his name to "Johnny" in order to please his granny Pat. He also didn't play cricket any more, I think; but I could be wrong about that.

Well it might be useful for ruling some people out of suspicion?

All CCTV footage from everywhere in the country would do that, wouldn't it. Everything would have to be done on the basis of eliminating people because they were absolutely elsewhere at the time of the incident – always supposing they know exactly when George was hit over the head on an unlit footpath with no CCTV. If they don't have an exact time for that, he was less than five minutes walk from the Bull carpark and anyone seen there on CCTV wouldn't have an alibi anyway.

Thanks, @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime ... I'd forgotten he was called "Rich". I wonder if Pat (and Tony, though he probably has no say in the matter) has made any sort of provision for him in the divvying up of BF. I do hope he comes back with a gorgeous South American wife and gets a third - just imagine the rage!

I don't dislike Esme as a character, but her glo'al stop is so annoying!

I thought it was Amber for the first few seconds!

Surely they must have made provision for him in their wills. When he came back to Ambridge pat and tony thought he was the absolute greatest thing ever, the living reincarnation of the saint that is John.

But despite that he has hardly been mentioned again after going to sea, most tellingly when his name never came up once in the family conversation about their anniversary celebrations.

Where I live they'd pronounce that glo'oow.

Kenton would not do such a thing

You’re probably right, @SisterTeatime , but for the wrong reasons. Kenton wouldn’t do it because of a total absence of guts rather than presence of ‘morals’.

I thought Esmy was Amber too at first.
I know Amber is a bit silly but I think she is not silly enough to get pregnant, its an annoying story line and very lazy on the SWs part. It's not the 60s or 70s is it. There is no need for Amber to be up duffed, being in a relationship.
Unlike Chelsea which was a drunken accident.

Why does everyone keep telling Esmay she’s doing so well. This cheerleading really grates.

David was really fawning over her - it led me to idly speculate on whether IRL he would have a bit of a crush on her and they might even have a bit of an (inappropriate) fling. He sounded very bitter about the way Ruth and Pip have eased him out of main farm business the other night and would be flattered by the way Esmay acts as if he is a farming deity.

I like Kenton because he is the only person in his generation who has been exposed as owning books and reading them for pleasure.

It would be very very very funny if David had a late fling with Esme leading to divorce, marriage, and ultimately a few more potential Brookfield heirs.

I caught up on the Harrison / Fallon / CCTV episode this morning when scrubbing the bathroom. I had to pause to exclaim ‘I’d rather be pregnant with George Grundy’s baby than married to Harrison’. I really can’t stand him. The patronising way he calls her ‘love’.

My DH has his failings but he’d help me bury a body and make a bloody good job of it*

*not that I’ve tried to murder anyway.

Ruth was a member of the book club, I seem to remember. So presumably she read the books for that. Mind you, is she of Kenton's generation? She's ten years younger, and the gap between 1958 and 1968 is one of the largest ones culturally for a very long time, if not ever.

And we were not told what the books were that Kenton read for pleasure; just reading is not in itself a good character reference, to me. The Gor books, Fifty Shades of SM, Jack Reacher? Jeffrey Archer? The Da Vinci Code? He needed a bookcase (we were not told what size) when he moved into Kathy's house; how much of it was filled with Reader's Digest or The Dandy Book annuals?

Anyone else think that Amber's dad is the one who clobbered George? It would explain the fast car seen outside the pub on New Years Eve and finding out about her pregnancy would have given him the motivation.

I don't think I can face a repeat of the Will, Ed, Emma love triangle though. I really hope Emma supports Amber in getting an abortion and history does not repeat itself.

Perhaps Fallon & Harrison's relationship starts and ends with her arrest.

Amber is hopefully too smart to see a baby as insta fodder. As Brad said, they're too young.

I think of Kenton as the Ambridge village idiot.

I can’t imagine him having read much beyond some Boys’ own adventure type books as a kid and maybe the Jungle Book. Shula probably helped him with any big words.

Looking forward to him being locked up for bashing George.

I have a feeling that Flandry was mentioned as someone Kenton read about.

(employs search engine)

The Dominic Flandry books by Poul Anderson seem to be about the adventures of a sort of interstellar James Bond. Except Bond started two years after the first Flandry.

Come to that, I can easily imagine Kenton reading Bond, and he's about the right age for them to have hit him in adolescence.

That happened quite recently in my rural, Archeresque village - a man of 70 ran off with a 35 year old and a baby was born not long after.

I do feel for Esme with the TB testing, it’s a horrid time, and after we had a few reactors my son decided farming was not for him.

please no

surely Esme has more self respect

At least that would be more real than storylines about random attacks, gangsters etc

Chelsea is adorable. I know she should end up with Freddie for full-on shock value but she'd be the making of Brad.

?! Chelsea and Brad are siblings!!

Chelsea is Brad's sister, so being the making of Brad wouldn't mean she can't end up with Freddie.