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 actually found it quite refreshing to hear Amber concerned what the scan might show when it’s so often treated as a lighthearted bit of entertainment or just an opportunity to find out the sex.

who cares anyway because the Irish are inferior and undeserving of respect, and the only point of noticing they have names at all is to laugh at them

Oh dear god, some people go in search of things to get offended about! I'm starting to think this might be a wind up.

Don't go @Bruisername - we can just call him Bryan's son.

Did Tony and Pat abandon their plan for a passivhaus?

"MySon" is the traditional name for Siobhán's child, I believe.

My sainted Ma used to say "There's them as could have a quarrel in an empty room". Mind you, that was before mobile phones existed....

I've never had to go in search of people being offensive about Irish names, I grew up in England and had the misfortune to attend primary and early secondary school there. An unpleasant experience, once the bullies (adults or children) knew what I was called.

That must have be quite traumatic as a young child DeanElderberry and I can see why it's a sore subject for you.

Am I the only one here who likes Ruairi? 🤔
I don't excuse him hitting George over the head but he sounds quite lost in life.

"MySon" is the traditional name for Siobhán's child, I believe.

I thought it was Rob's son aka Gideon aka Henry.

Ruairi will henceforth be Bryson to me.

Am I the only one here who likes Ruairi

I liked him before he was a prostitute then gay*. He's been unpleasant for a while but I have hopes for him.

• before anyond accuses me of being homophobic, I just don't like him and Paul as a couple.

And I don't know why my asterisk is showing up as a bullet point!

BeatriceBatchelor
"MySon" is the traditional name for Siobhán's child, I believe.
I thought it was Rob's son aka Gideon aka Henry.

Ruairi came first by about eighteen years. The nicknames says "[b]Myson[/b]: Ruari Donovan (Brian said "but he's my son!") (trad., anon.)" Trad anon means the person who collected the nicknames in about 2011 didn't know who coined it. It was in the BBC Nicknames list back when there was a BBC board.

And I think you mean Jack, not Henry: I am waiting for Henry to exercise his right to discover who sired him through AID.

Oh yes, I meant Jack, not Henry!

I wrote a really long reply based on my own experiences of misgendering/my name being turned into swear words in the Anglosphere, which basically sums up as "chill out, the stress isn't worth it", but deleted it on account of being German and therefore unqualified to comment on anything socio-political ever for the next millennium...to take cum grano salis, please!

I had assumed that Ruairi moving in with Alice was so that she could find out that it was him who bashed George over the head, with dramatic consequences.

the convention of having an 'i' before a vowel that has an 'i' after it is too quaint and hibernian to follow

I suspect most people don't know of this convention. I didn't, and I'm interested in languages and learning a celtic language (though not Irish,) and a lot of people don't come from that starting place.

Plus plenty of native English speakers are rubbish at spelling English, let alone other languages. <looks pointedly at colleagues>

I don't particularly like Ruairi currently, but i think he's an interesting character who could develop in various directions, so it will be interesting to see which path he takes.

Despite having a grandmother from Dublin, I hadn't heard of the convention either. My maiden name can be spelled with almost any vowel, in the two places there is one, without changing the pronunciation very much. It's English, originating in the north. I found mis-spelling vaguely irritating but nothing more.

the convention of having an 'i' before a vowel that has an 'i' after it is too quaint and hibernian to follow

How does that work with "Ruairi", then, given that the letter "a" has an "i" after it but not before it?

It's only a matter of time before he breaks down and tells someone. If it's not Alice, it'll be Paul. Brian should have the sense to see that.

Does Brian have any sense?

@Bruisername please dont go. I enjoy your contributions on this thread.

I am genuinely sorry if people have been offended by comments re spellings of unfamiliar names but I think we have to remind ourselves of one of the key principles of this great and long standing thread.

We are here to comment on the storylines of a soap.Often ( daily!) we spiral off into other topics which personally I find amusing and informative even if I dont always agree. But we shouldn’t lose sight of what it is.

I can always remember when the Helen/Rob storyline was on one poster saying if Helen was her real life friend shed do anything to help her, but as a fictional character she was driving her mad. I understand entirely what she meant . She wasn’t saying anything about victims of domestic abuse but rather than the way Helen was written and played was irritating (in her opinion).

Lets enjoy our ponderings about an entirely fictional world, sad gits that we are!

Well said. At the risk of fanning the dying embers of this spat, I would also add that if any of our regulars were racists, xenophobes or prejudiced against Ireland and the Irish, it would be obvious in other ways than making a throwaway comment about yet again having forgotten how to spell an unfamiliar name of a minor character in a radio soap.

Glowing as shorthand for pregnancy: not the first trimester, surely! Women often feel much better in the second trimester, though. I certainly did. I was fortunate that the nausea and vomiting stopped by week 13 or 14 on both occasions. Blooming is the usual word for a pregnant woman, though, I'd have said.

I was quite amused by Tracy's sycophancy towards Helen audibly faltering when she realised there's a good chance they will soon be next door neighbours.

It’s going to be delicious. Poor Tracy.

Ruairi, Rory, Roary, Raiuri..... In the words of the kids, it's not that deep.

Please don't go @Bruisername. I enjoy reading your comments.

Helen glowing can't be early pregnancy surely? Perhaps just happy after her time with Finley?

How do people know how Ruairi is spelled anyway? It's radio so you won't know unless you read the cast lists which I don’t. *autocorrect just put a y in it but I spotted it in time to correct it.

This thread is usually a beautiful haven in a world that has gone utterly mad but then it occasionally tips over the edge and goes utterly bonkers for a few pages! Usually over a disagreement that is spelling/language based and often requiring an element of expertise in Welsh/Scottish/Irish placenames/dialect or pronunciation!

Please don’t anyone leave when these spats break out! Just scroll on by for a few pages for, like the heavy rainstorms in the new Wuthering Heights, they will pass eventually……

I mis-spelled 'consonant' as 'vowel'.

So it's just as well that I have been repeating that mis-spelling doesn't matter, it's singling one name out from and treating it as more complicated than, for example Freddie/Freddy Lynda/Linda Lilian/Lillian Lawrence/Laurence Carol/Carole/Caryl Philip/Phillip.

Thank God Ambridge doesn't have a Geoffrey/Jeffrey.

Lets enjoy our ponderings about an entirely fictional world, sad gits that we are!

😂 sad gits indeed.

Thank God Ambridge doesn't have a Geoffrey/Jeffrey

Or a Rachel/Rachael ...