Archers thread #195: Run, Amber, run! Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

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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.)

Emma spoke sense to George and Amber tonight. Goodness only knows where this storyline is going. I can't see George being Father of the Year. Oh dear.

Over to you!

But why does anyone have to answer the door to him at all? Open an upstairs window and tell him to go away! Add that if he continues to be threatening, or annoys her again in any way. she will call the police, and she wouldn't see him for dust even on as rainy a day as yesterday was round here.

That's why I thought there were three separate door-banging incidents, but I think I was probably wrong.

1. The beer-delivery man, with doorbell then banging (because he wanted to get on with his next delivery), chez Jaz'n'Trace.
2. George, wherever he was, banging on the door and shouting "I know you're in there" in George's actual angry voice.
3. Someone else (sounded like Dayveed to me at the time, or Chris in posh-mode - but perhaps it was George, upping his game when faced with an angry Lil?) actually being let in to The Dower House.

Whatever. This whole storyline needs putting to bed, or perhaps putting to sleep with a humane injection. Send for Jakob!

Noooooo. He's fibbing

Definitely fibbing!

But protecting … ?

Brian is sooooo manipulative

No no no; I’m not buying it!!

Hmm maybe but it does kind of make sense?
I feel like I need to go back and LA to the “Apology to the Aldridges” episode.

Where was Ruari NYE, with Paul?

And why is Amber so keen on gaslighting him (exactly the right term, used by a PP)

Great ending to an episode!

Well i wasn't expecting that, but think Brine is protecting someone?

It's not Brians modus operandi though, smacking someone over the head with a bottle.

It can only have been Ruairi - smelling of Brian’s aftershave - surely? Not Alice or Kate. Not Adam. Not Miranda. Unless Chris was in the house with Martha and one of them accidentally knocked the bottle over?

🤯

Was Debbie Still There???

George was reminded of the aftershave when he was playing with Martha?

I seem to remember that Brian was wandering around with a bottle of aftershave in his pocket on NYE (was it a gift)?

Yes there are some spritely Octogenarians, but I don’t think that Brian (with his dicky heart) would trail after George down a bridle path in the dark at midnight. He’d be more likely to knock him off his bike whilst driving, if anything, to avoid the likelihood of being thumped back.

Chris and Neil were hurtling around Ambridge looking for Keira at the time, weren’t they?

Anyway George keeps slipping out of his accent to my ear. It’s very confusing.

Maybe Chris had been cuddling Martha, and she smelt of his aftershave?
so an 80 pd year old man goes after a strapping young one in the cold, dark night and risks getting beaten up if Georgemhad heard him and turned round? Could Brian creep up on him like some paintball commando without being heard, without puffing?
'do me a favour', as someone once said .

I don't think Brian did it. It isn't his style. It is inconsistent with his current health issues, and age. Also incredibly risky, if he'd been spotted and got into a confrontation with George he would have come off worse.

Plus an empty bottle! He was lucky he knocked George out, he could have ended up in a fight, and someone could have been glassed.

Brian isn't this stupid and he isn't normally violent.

He must be covering for someone

Okay, I admit, that was a clever last twist.

But I suspect Alice sometimes spritzes on daddy's aftershave.

Brian must be very fit to have cracked George's skull with a single blow with a bottle (we all heard it being a single blow, and we were actually told on air that he had a cracked skull).

Funny; I don't really associate angina (usually caused by restricted blood-flow to the heart, which tends to make exertion difficult) with the person suffering it being very fit. Quite the opposite, in fact.

@WorriedRelative I wondered whether it was someone else speaking or whether the abrupt change in tone was because George wasn't expecting to see Lillian there.

Excellent call there!

So George is planning a little blackmail? I do hope that when he approaches Brian, someone is around to record him doing so. In fact, Brian's very improbable confession would be a great way to set up George for a further prison sentence.

The aftershave Miranda gave him which was said to be pretty strong…
Maybe Ruari did it then Brine came across the scene and tried to revive George and made the call.
Yup, that would all figure.

Just caught up. Well, I was NOT expecting that! ...is this going to be how Brian gets written out? Off to prison for attempted murder? He didn't sound very well...

Or is George just going to use this as blackmail? Is he still on the path to follow in his uncles footsteps after all?

Gonners
So George is planning a little blackmail? I do hope that when he approaches Brian, someone is around to record him doing so.

Mastermind George recorded himself suggesting that Brian ought to give him compensation in exchange for George keeping quiet. Let's hope he thinks that Brian's reaction to that was so bad for Brian that he doesn't notice he has recorded himself committing blackmail.

Now all we need is for Brian to have been with another person, or better yet several people, from the moment George left the Bull until the moment George was discovered unconscious. Brian can say that when George made the recording, George had put him in fear and he said whatever he thought George wanted to hear in order to get George to go away. Elderly man with a heart condition shies away from violent confrontation with criminal who states he has a grudge against him....

I do like the thought of Ruairi finding out his own father was the culprit and that George has the evidence. That would wipe the smile off his smug entitled face.

Am I the only person to think that a drunken Brine absolutely could have taken an ill advised swing at a drunken George and got lucky?

I feel that Brine and Justin both have that specific type of stupidity that comes with being old white rich dudes used to getting their own way, and particularly Brine with his farming history, after a few drinks is the perfect candidate to forget the he isn't as strong as he once was.