Archers thread #197: Runs, Ambridge, runs! 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 find it credible that Kate, who changed continents twice to get away from her own children, has now morphed into Grandmother of the Year, 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.)

Well, Finlay may have made good his escape, but we're all still stuck inside the Borsetshire forcefield. The cricket team is rising phoenix-like from the ashes but will now be The Bull's team, not Ambridge's. Will Alice and Rex make a go of things? Will George cope with a month off the booze? Will the real Brian Aldridge re-appear? Will we hear a bit more about farming? We did get a lambing scene the other night, which was good.

Over to you!

P. S. The pointless new AI title generator MN has introduced in spite of absolutely nobody ever asking for it wanted to call this thread something like Discuss The Archers here, no spoilers. I won't be following its suggestions.

Why would Miranda have been envying Jennifer over the years, when she only met her about half-a-dozen times during two years or so, and didn't live in Ambridge for more than a couple of months during 2016/17, avoiding the place as "parochial" even before her divorce from Justin because of his affair with Jennifer's sister, and then went silent again and never came to the village until 2024? Miranda is a recent blow-in, not a long-established character.

(Though mind you, the Fairbrothers gained the status of "long-standing Ambridge family" on the basis of one of them having moved there in 1951 and sold up and left in 1959, and his son having been born there in 1953 and learned to walk in the village. I suppose Robin may even have gone to the village school for three or four months. The re-writing of history by the editorial team is nothing new.)

Miranda is a recent blow-in, not a long-established character. This! And really not Brian’s type at all - and let’s face it, we do know what his type is having seen various examples over the years. Miranda sounds as puffed up and pompous as Justin - I can imagine how the two of them might once have been married, but not how Brian might be interested in Justin’s cast-off, even to wind him up.

I wondered if Miranda is now starting to regret not having a family in her later years and sees herself slotting in to a ready made one. Not because she cares that much about not having had children but maybe can see the advantages of a family when you get older. The way she tries to be all concerned about Ruairi comes across as quite manipulative to me. I mean she barely knows him surely.

I don’t think Brian is getting into cognitive decline. He is just a very selfish man.

He’s currently a very unreliably written man …

In our house, if we want to raise a potentially tricky subject, we say "hey, chief... I might be wrong, but..."

I was fascinated to discover that Crew Resource Management is an actual thing. I thought JF had made it up!

JF's father was a commercial pilot, so he had an expert on tap.

I suspect the whole Home Farm issue will resolve one way or another fairly soon when Ruairi takes himself off to the police station and Confesses All. If they deal with it realistically, he'll be remanded in custody, so the issue of Brian living with him to provide support won't arise, and maybe Brian will then move in with Miranda so she can support him.

Hats off to Charles Collingwood for the ability to make Brian still a nice guy whilst doing absolutely twatty things.

Yes! Brian is so awful but somehow I still like him and don't want anything bad to happen to him!

Goodness - the writing really was on the wall from the start of the week, wasn’t it?

Seriously, seriously, what on earth is in this relationship for Amber? Even if George (!) were the world’s greatest lover, they’re in a room next door to both Poppy and Will. And George has an ankle tag. And, and, and …

🤷‍♀️

They have never really explained how Amber and George got together in the first place. I can only assume she just wanted to do the opposite of what her parents would want.

God, it’s painful listening to the travails on Millionaires’ Row while the 19 year olds stumble joyfully into their future …

(For ‘painful’, read ‘hilarious’.)

Re Ambers attraction to George.

I think she was initially in a fantasy about George, but then she moved in with the Grundy’s and found a very different dynamic from what she has experienced. she sort of fell in love with them.

I think she knows deep in her heart that George is not the right person. Otherwise what was the Brad episode all about?

She is now pregnant and can’t see a way out, so she’s determined to see the best in George and make it work. She is deeply in confirmation bias… And to be fair, George can show up well. I don’t think Amber has seen much of his dark side and anger issues.

I have no doubt she will, in time.

I think Amber is buying to the big close family situation. She doesn't get on with her parents (is an only child?), and is lonely, so a ready made bunch of substitute parents/grandparents/cousins that seem to like her is blinding her to George and his (dodgy) qualities.

And also the dodgy qualities of the rest of his family, excepting Clarrie. Neil and Susan are not Grundys, after all.

This is my problem - and I can’t move beyond it. Apparently they’d been corresponding - though I’m not sure why or how, George was hardly in prison for any time, not exactly a death row prisoner looking for a pen pal. She’s subsequently had a total character change from being a beauty influencer who had transformed herself beyond recognition to anyone who went to school with her - so I’m thinking trout pout, puffed shiny skin, fake tan, lots of make up, hair extensions... What happened to her Turkey teeth and attempt to foist similar on Emma? Since George got out of prison she’s been replaced by the voice of reason working in the farm supplies shop - she doesn’t feel like the same person. This is to say nothing of her earlier apparent clear preference for Brad. I don’t think the SWs know what to do with her and keep changing their minds. Apart from anything else her appearance has stopped the misogynistic/incel George storyline in its tracks which I think is a pity because that was a great and believable storyline developing slowly in real time and I can’t believe that this could be so simply overcome by the love of a good woman.

i think it’s very possible that George’s misogyny will resurface at some point. Amber is carrying ‘his’ baby. Esmee is giving him a job. But what if Esmee doesn’t agree to the sheep…. the cracks could start opening up very soon, once he starts feeling more secure. It doesn’t take much for him to start feeling entitled… look how rude he was to Brian.

How long did he last at Berrow before he started to argue the toss with his boss at every turn, and then ignore biosecurity so that he was sacked?

I think Amber has a sister. Didn't Amber tell her about her pregnancy and the sister told the parents. Gina? Ginette?

Cousin, I'm fairly sure; the person Amber told, told her mother, who told (her cousin? ?sister?) Amber's mother. Amber called the tattletale "aunt something", I think, which suggests mother's sister.

If the person Amber told had been her sister, wouldn't she have had at least one of the same parents as Amber?

I like Tracey's reality check for Helling. The latter is so oblivious, so entitled.

But little is making sense right now.
Josh scooting off to Patagonia leaving his hens behind. Sudden reappearance of Carol T. Absence of Jill, even in mentions.

Amber's personality change. Brian's personality change. Ruairi's personality change.

Brian offering George a measly sum to keep quiet, and trying to dictate what he spends it on, yet apparently willing to spaff multiple times that amount to compensate Miranda for the loss of her deposit on the house he suddently doesn't want to live in and which it made no sense for her to buy in the first place.

And the usual Archers compare and contrast going on with Helen buying a house at the other end of the market. George thinking of acquiring a rare breed just at the time Tony is being bullied into giving one up. As a PP explained, they're rare for a v good reason!

The cousin is Lola and the aunt Aunty Val.

Thanks. So she does have family, at least one of whom she likes well enough to confide in.