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’ve listened to that bit 5 times now - it’s brilliant.

Me too! Saying what we’ve all been thinking - brilliantly articulated. Right, I’m off to listen one more time…

If they sell the farm doesn’t that liberate some of the shares to David’s siblings?

I’ve always found the treatment of Josh really disgusting and dislike David and Ruth immensely for it. I don’t think pip marrying a woman is his issue - I think it’s a typical golden child dynamic and he’s had enough.

I don’t think pip marrying a woman is his issue - I think it’s a typical golden child dynamic and he’s had enough. In a nutshell.

I feel for Akram. Tom is a rubbish manager. Pulls an inexperienced new employee from job to job with no proper explanation of what needs doing. couldn’t even be bothered to walk down to the polytunnels with him.

Akram is acting like a 16-year-old on work experience though. It would drive me up the wall. Tom did issue instructions quickly but that sometimes happens in the workplace. He really should just say to Akram that it’s not working out.

Asking him to fix the tap while paying him the minimum wage seemed a bit cheeky given his day-job but may be Tony didn’t think of it that way.

I think Tony asked him to fix the tap to defuse the situation and remind Tom that they are lucky to have Akram, which they are. No one else wants to work there doing backbreaking work for minimum wage.

I haven’t been listening for a while because I’ve finally lost patience with the pitiful SLs, but I nerved myself to catch up with last night and couldn’t believe Akram's utter cluelessness. Who can't tell the difference between a tulip and a salad crop FGS? They don't even need to be flowering, surely! And before someone says ‘he’s not experienced', this is the person who’s been going on and on about how much he misses working on the land and how he yearns to be a farmer. Plus, don’t they have tulips in Solihull or wherever they lived before? He must have seen one!

However - yes, go Josh. Pip is a horror. Golden child personified (I still haven’t recovered from 'Jooooooooooooood' 😱)

Akram said he'd planted some tulip bulbs recently so he should have known.

Henry is 15 and it is half term. Why on earth aren’t they paying him and his friends (assuming that he has friends) a few quid to help with the veg boxes?

Equally I expect that there are some students at Felpersham Uni who would jump at the chance to earn some cash if somebody collected/dropped off the carless.

Has Helen moved out yet?

God no! And we been deprived of any bust ups between the sisters-inlaw.

I don’t get why they contrived this, frankly, ridiculous living arrangement and have done nothing with it

So stupid of the SW, there are 3 opinionated adults and 4 children in a 4 (?) bed house. No way has that not caused problems. If they don't have the imagination to think of a story with the adults surely they could at least mention 15 year old Henry still being forced to share a bedroom and being pissed off about it.

Is it not obvious that a couple who have bought their first home together and had big plans for it would be pissed off that the previous tenant, despite familial ties, hasn’t left after a year? Why do the SW find these things so hard!!!

It's so unrealistic...

Actually Tom and Josh can join the mutual support group as both suffer from not being the golden child

Tom's instructions were fine, Akram even repeated them back to him. I don't think Tom could have anticipated that he would start pulling up tulips!

Have Tom and Helen's respective families really been house sharing for a year now? You'd think Helen would be desperate to get her own place. What are the arrangements? Does Helen pay them rent?

"Does Helen pay them rent?"

I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to charge them rent.

No rent and she probably eats all their groceries and uses Natasha’s best shampoo!

I feel like the list of totally ridiculous SL is completely drowning out the very few interesting ones

It's ridiculous that there hasn't been much said of it, I'd almost forgotten that they were still sharing.
They owe us a Helen v Tom/Tash showdown!

I don't even know if she's still meant to be with that tedious new hotel manager either 🤷‍♀️

If they want a Succession compare and contrast SL, Helen and TomnTash would have been far better than Snap, Crackle and Pip. Not sure where Long John Sailor would fit into it.
The Bridge Farm actors seem so much better.
Josh and Stella are good but Pip is awful.

I don't care about Amber, Akram or Esme. None of them gel as characters with me. The accents seem all wrong and they seem inconsistent.

Last time we heard the houseshare weren’t Helen and Tom having a jolly old time getting drunk together?

They probably get most of the groceries from Bridge Farm.

I'd imagine the shampoo would get used and it's probably not Your Local from the Village Shop.
Wouldn't Bridge Farm sell organic toiletries?

Tom's instructions were fine, Akram even repeated them back to him. I don't think Tom could have anticipated that he would start pulling up tulips!

IRRC it was vaguely "on the left hand side.... right, i'm off to see..." which could have been completely misinterpreted.

If you give instructions - you give them clearly, and make sure the person you are instructing understands (by telling you what they are going to do). Or is it only in the Army you learn that?

Bungling Akram story? get in the sea
Stupid Brian Golden Boy Progeny story? get in the sea

I'm ok with Lynda trying to make the village safer. I'm ok with Pip getting all the farm because she is the one working it, and i am ok with Josh being miffed about it. That was great. I am not ok with Josh whingeing that David and Ruth didn't get a pre-nup. That is up to them.