Archers thread #196: Run, Rex, run! Discuss 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'd like to marry Pip, 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.)

So now we know who bonked George on the head. Will the stunning revelation lead to anything interesting or credible happening? Answers on a postcard, please!

Will Alice and Rex become an item? Will Amber come to her senses? Has Adam's constant languor and fatigue now removed his ability to speak on air?

Over to you!

I don't mind Miranda, I find her interesting to listen to and she seems to care about Ruairi.
Would be very weird for Ruairi having to live back at Home Farm with all the memories of Jenny (who I still miss).

I find Miranda's decision to buy Home Farm baffling. Surely there must be another house of the size she wants which has no tricky associations with Brian's not that long deceased wife, mother of his many children?

I agree. You'd think that all the associations would be too much of a burden.

But people are weird.
I knew a woman who lived in a quite nice but not unique house with her husband and children. The husband had an affair and for various reasons she went to live in another house in the village with the children, the husband stayed in the family home and moved the affair woman in and married her.

After some time the first wife met a new man. The original family home was put up for sale and who should buy it but the first wife and new partner who moved back in with the children.
No one could understand why on earth she would want to go back there with all the negative associations.

Rex will be able to say "Did the boat move for you, darling?" <boom tish>

I remember the utter mystification by we TA fans as to the original sale of Home Farm. It beggared belief, as did the invisible Gills. I assume it served some purpose at the time - can't remember what the 'reasons" were, and did wonder if the Aldridges would return.

Not that I think that the SWs were playing the long game. On current evidence they're not that smart.

George Grundy will blackmail Brian Alldrige

Brian owed money for polluting the Am. Rather than moving Kate’s (transient by nature) glamping business from field A to field B, and selling the valuable land where her tents are, they sold Home Farm and moved into a little house next to Roy and Kirsty. It was ridiculous.

It does, but not half as often as it happens in soapland, where contraception is almost never used.

I find it quite creepy and am surprised that Brian is moving in and forcing Ruiari to join him. It's not as if Brian can't afford the rent at Blossom Hill Cottage.

Helen was foul to Tom and about Tom last night. She has no redeeming features but is very well acted.

I wondered if something the tonnage of a narrow boat would be that affected by bonking.

I suppose it depends on the bonking. A gentle tryst or a swinging from the chandeliers.
I'm not sure that narrow boats generally have chandeliers but this is radio so I'm imagining that it does.

The whole Home Farm sale, purchase and now resale has been very irritating. As @BeardieWeirdie points out, Brian could have sold land, but didn’t want to upset Kate - nothing further was ever made of this. Brian and Jenny did a substantial downsize - nothing much was made of this either. The new owners were never voiced or even much mentioned until Joy and Mick house sat when it was revealed the house had been remodeled beyond recognition. Now, somewhat improbably, Miranda is buying the house and we are expected to believe that Ruairi - who has scarcely lived at home these past years is supposed to be moving in with Brian and his new girlfriend. I’m not sure how he can be so triggered by the prospect since the house no longer in any way ressembles the home he grew up in. I’d actually forgotten he was the bottle- wielder and George has made such an Ambridge recovery from his near-death experience it no longer feels relevant. It all feels like so much melodrama compared with George’s reconciliation with Eddie last night which I found quite touching.

Hate all the Home Farm stuff. I imagine it under Jenny as a bit Martha Stewart but much more tasteful. Very elegant and chic and with excellent quality furnishings. And the Gills have made it into Influencer Grey And Minimalist.

The George/Eddie thing was done beautifully. Which makes everything else that has been going on so annoying. When they can do that, why do the rest?

Isn't that normal? I usually regale the Fat Partner with the merits of Morning Fresh compared with Fairy.

Don't worry, Rex kept his socks on.

Alice will be pregnant too. Maybe Finlay had prepared for a booty call.

Rex is an ex-2nd row rugby player. He's a hefty strapping lad. His niece has inherited the hefty Fairbrother genes.

We need to ask Susan if Alice has inherited the Archer whopping big backside.

Hmm. A narrow boat is 12-22 tons depending on length. Not sure whether a combined weight of, say, 25 stone, would set it rocking. But prepared to be told I'm wrong, never having shagged on one. Is it a narrow boat or just a boat?

It was even worse than that! They planned to sell some land near her tents, not the land her tents are on. She didn't want vehicles from Another Farm driving past Her Yurts, as opposed to the Home Farm ones which did already, and threatened to take her one-thirteenth share of the farm which she did not in fact own because what she gets is a one-thirteenth share of the profits, not of the farm itself, and take her business (for which she uses the land rent-free) and go elsewhere.

And instead of saying "You do realise, don't you, that if you are taking me to court I am not going to subsidise you to do it? How do you plan to pay for your lawyers if I am not doing so for you?" Brian caved in because Jennifer decided they ought to sell "to keep the family together". (It didn't. Keep the family together.)

Did the Grundys go on holiday to Barry Island?

As there was a mention, I'll attempt a very bad impersonation of Joanna Page saying 'We're moving back to Barry!'

It was described on air as a narrowboat, I think, and the BBC synopsis for 27th February 2022 says "it’s a narrowboat called ‘Serendipity’".

Now Rex has indicated that he is almost certainly quite a bit taller than 6 foot (second row former pro rugby player) I can't help wondering how on earth he manages to live on the boat; there isn't usually a lot of headroom (and I seem to remember that Rex bought an old boat)

It would all be a bit like Alice in Wonderland after she scoffed the cake.

I would like to think the creative team long ago planned to have the Fairbrethren impregnate two Archers heiresses. It would make the future quite exciting, Fairbrother cousins as the inheritors of (bits of) Ambridge.

So Alice is 40?

I mean there’s a lot of drama in an unplanned pregnancy with her but it’s a bit too much tbh

it would also be nice if we had a few years before she falls off the wagon again

It wouldn’t have to be unplanned, though. If they decide to embark on a proper relationship.

Helen, on the other hand …