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!

@Bruisername , Alice is 37.

yep

Whaaaaaaaatttt!

[That's my best Alison Steadman impersonation. I haven't seen more than the first two episodes of G&S, so really only know this from the trailer the BBC uses at every opportunity. 'Lovely part of the world' is my favourite bit of it.]

I only know it from the trailer. Not seen G&S.
The trailer that annoys me is the Radio 3 Unkind one.

I also don’t believe in shagging rocking a narrowboat. I’ve never once seen any of them move when tired up except possibly if someone heavy is getting onto the boat. Walk past your local canal and see if you can tell if the inhabitants are walking around just by looking.

If a narrow boat was that unsteady it would be very awkward living on one with it rocking everytime you moved around.
I think Adam was a very eagle eyed if he saw the narrow boat rolling and dipping.

I need a boot room. I've got a shoe rack at my front door full of shoes. I keep putting them away but they keep re- appearing.

Me neither. Narrowboats might sound small - narrow, in fact - from the name but they’re pretty sturdy things. I’ve had canal holidays with family, 4 people aboard and while admittedly no shagging going on (as far as I know 🫣) a couple of energetic yet heavy-footed children racing up and down at top speed didn’t succeed in budging it.

Unless Alice and Rex were being particularly, er, athletic (sorry, have the brain bleach).

Am I missing something? Why would the incredibly busy, award winning and well respected business owner Helen want to leave her business where she has autonomy and a cacophony of foot soldiers (including parents on tap to step in with both business and children when she is being incredibly busy elsewhere), to run a start up? Ok, remuneration might something (but I got the impression finances weren’t an issue in the house hunt) but this would indicate the job will be very stressful/long hours and hands on. Will she oversee her dairy at the same time and be in direct competition with herself? Her business isn’t in trouble, the job is about as secure as it can be (unless the audit tells us it’s a massive drain on bridge fam and the cause of all their money worries, in which case she’s clearly inept and should not be considered for the little Croxley position…).

She’ll be less likely to inherit the farmhouse if she steps away too….

This was my feeling too @Cantsleepdontsleep - I mean she’d actually have to work, dancing to someone else’s tune rather than being her own boss. I don’t see what the attraction would be.

A friend of mine had a narrowboat, it was lovely. Also it was very stable, no rocking at all!

I don’t understand it either.

And not nearly enough build up to the introduction of the concept of Celia Sparrow’s superstar brother. Have we ever heard of him, or his band, before? Were they mentioned during the preparation for Loxfest? (Surely that wasn’t really 2014, in my mind it was centuries ago?)

It does seem an unfriendly act, to set up a rival organic dairy with - presumably - unlimited financial resources. I wonder if offering to employ the owner of the business you’re about to destroy is a deliberate strategy - a performance of non-hostility?

Poor Helen won’t have slept last night …

And not nearly enough build up to the introduction of the concept of Celia Sparrow’s superstar brother. Have we ever heard of him, or his band, before? Were they mentioned during the preparation for Loxfest?

The SWs have surely got to be thinking of Alex James of Blur - cheese-making ex-rockstar….

That rather goes without saying, no?

Nevertheless I said it 🤷‍♀️

Agree re the lack of introduction to Celia and her famous brother @OrphanBlankly. Apart from anything else, Helen just doesn’t need this level of melodrama. What is far more interesting is her relationship with Tom as they try to run the farm together. Compare and contrast her criticism of him earlier this week and refusal to cut him any slack with his willingness to excuse her anything and make allowances - from taking the blame for her driving all those years ago to allowing her to stay on at Beechwood. And yet this unusual living arrangement has hardly been explored at all in favour of invented dramas like the silly holiday to Scotland and now Celia’s celebrity brother. Never minds Celia, where is Natasha? I feel the same about Ruairi as the cuckoo in the nest of an already complicated family - so much to unpack there after the death of Jenny, who was more of a parent to him than his actual father. So many possibilities to explore with his relationship to the various Aldridges, but instead we have prostitution to pay his way through university and now the attempted murder of George. It’s just silly when it doesn’t need to be. I sometimes feel the SWs are writing a series of six week dramas rather than a long, slow arc (perhaps sometimes a little pedestrian, but all the better for that) to last for perpetuity.

What shocks me is that Ruairi really needed his dad to exercise backbone in the bottling situation (if we must have it). How are we in a situation where Susan Carter and Emma Grundy get to display moral fibre whilst Brian is sneaking around, hiding a serious crime committed by his child?

How can the Home Farm clan ever, ever look down on the peasant class again?

(Brian needs a chat with Henry Muck …)

I agree @OrphanBlankly - it’s drama for the sake of drama. A compare and contrast of committing a crime, covering it up and making someone else take the blame. George’s crime was more understandable - trying to do a good deed for Alice which went awry - Ruairi’s doesn’t make sense to me except as a dramatic device.

I assume Alice will find out. She seems to have made peace with George (where others haven't) and I dont think she'll be impressed with Brian and Ruauri.

oh god i was ROLLING MY EYES so much at the hints that Celia's brother is a Britpopper who makes cheese. The only one i know of who would be any way near going back on tour is called Alex. Grrrrr. That was so bloody annoying.

ETA: ah see that someone else has mentioned Alex.

also will ask my friend who lives on a narrowboat about the... er... movement.

I’m kind of assuming the audit will say the cheese business is a drain on the family and Helen will realise she can leave - she’s got the tempting offer from last night but also the tempting offer of Mark Bonnar and his dog.

I can’t picture her really leaving Ambridge at this point - she wouldn’t leave the boys - so I’m not entirely sure what they’re setting up here but is it some kind of mid life crisis storyline?

That would be the cheese business that not so very long ago was said to be Bridge Farm’s most profitable line or wtte? Wish I could remember the context.

I stil honestly do not understand why Helen is living with Tom and Natasha and didn’t move back to the (presumably quite a bit bigger, so more space for everyone) farm with her parents. On what planet would it be less stressful to stay put and have 2 toddlers in the mix too.

Well it needed saying to me. I am not au fait with the cheesemaking habits of former popstars.