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.

Stella/Lucy Speed is in Grace tonight.

Brian will be dedded before he gets to solicitor… 🔮

@Cantsleepdontsleep I think she could well be buying into the family life idea as she gets older and more worried about being lonely and this would explain the disproportionate response as she saw that slipping away.

Ha! I can't imagine buying into Brian's family life.

Very happy for Adam tonight, and for Khalil finally (eventually) getting a pet. About time!

Much as I don't wish Brian dead, I'm hoping he carks it before signing a new Will (or anything else) in Adam's favour.

Before writing a new will and without making anyone else aware of his wishes having sworn Adam to secrecy. No wonder Adam sounded doubtful and disbelieving. It’s not going to happen is it? What was the collapsing church all about - I can’t believe the SWs have swerved a perfect opportunity to bump someone off!

collapsing roof = fundraising campaign? A new project for Lynda now that Robert is doing cricket?

Poor darling Adam … You could literally hear him thinking Yeah … But no … But is this just until the next time you change your mind? And I wonder what Ruairi’s done? And should I even bother to tell Ian, when I know what a snake Brian is? And, oh God, the hope. The hope is the worst part …

So, thus far, keeping Ruairi’s NYE bottling secret has led to:

Brian ‘confessing’ to George and making himself a target for blackmail.

Brian inadvertently finding out about Ruairi’s former life as a sex worker.

Brian and Miranda breaking up.

Ruairi officially (but not publicly) losing his position as frontrunner in the Home Farm inheritance stakes.

And not quite a quarter of the year done …

WTAF, BUDGIES?!! Khalil needs a sharp lesson about animal husbandry and the irresponsibility of making a gift of animals to people without consulting them first. Never mind his tender rescuing feelings. Slap with a wet fish urgently required here!

This. Absolutely.

Thinking of budgies, when I was a child in the 60s, they were a common older person's pet, invariably called Joey. The fact that many Australian baby animals are called a joey is a whole other thing. One day I encountered a budgie called Chloe, and it has indelibly marked my perception of the name when I met human Chloes in later life. Still does. And the perfume.

I was also a child in the 60s - but in Hertfordshire elderly people retaining any vestige of free will kept parrots. They invariably taught them to swear and then pretended to be shocked when the parrots repeated all they’d learnt in front of visiting children …

Owning a budgie in your retirement years clearly indicated that you were under the thumb of your determinedly respectable offspring.

Yes, I hope he knows not to count any chickens till Brian is 6 feet under and the will has gone through probate.

I think a few weeks ago there was some chat about Alan looking very tired and we assumed he was ill - now I think that the church roof is going to collapse on his head. Perhaps Brian will be passing by, try to dig him out, and have a heart attack.

Nonsense, obviously, but no more so than many of the actual storylines!

And also Bryan doing the same thing, but actually worse, than Emma by hiding his child’s (arguably worse again) mistake.

How old is Khalil? If he's under 16 he's broken the law, buying a pet.

And how flipping big could this birdcage be to be so much better than its previous abode. Lynda and Robert’s didn’t express any angst over manoeuvring the thing, or where to place it.

Canaries are far superior to budgies…

Brian saying to Adam he will make him his heir is the first genuine evidence I have heard to support the theory he has cognitive decline…Adam inheriting HF is never ever going to happen - but he has yet to work his socks off for several years more before he realises it.

I so want to take this all seriously and sit with the thought that it was the sex work rather than the bottling that shocked Brian to the core regarding Ruairi.

But given weeks written by is it two, or three writers, and deliberate retconning of not insignificant inheritance matters - I don’t feel it’s safe to invest much emotional energy in anything I’m hearing right now.

I think Brian has realised that he is disappointed in Ruari.

He has always had a difficult relationship with Adam, and hasn’t been supportive of his ideas. He hasn’t felt proud of Adam.

But Ruari was MySon, and treated completely differently. Expectations were stellar. And Brian has finally realised that Ruari is not Mini Brian. He’s a vulnerable young man who makes poor choices.

My feeling is that Brian knows Ruari’s secret will come out if Ruari stays in the village because he’ll crack and say something. Instead of helping Ruari get proper help and owning up, he is going to go full Brian Aldridge and set him up somewhere a long, long way away.

I didn't even realise it was still a thing having pet budgies and surely someone who's meant to be keen on animals would think twice about getting a caged bird? Also has he paid for the cage and everything as well? That's quite a lot of money for a 15/16 year old to spend surely?

Quite. It almost seems like something from a different era and is cruel.

I hope Adam makes an excuse (' sorry Brian, but I'm still rattled by poor Mulligan's sudden and unexpected death') and gets a management transfer, if not an actual ownership transfer, set up and legally stamped and sealed immediately, before Brian wanders off and has some other ridiculous ideas.

He said it was a rescue budgie which he had taken away from an unsuitable environment. The original owner was more cruel than Khalil; and having once rescued it, what is the boy to do? I suspect Azra wouldn't let him keep it, and he can't very well release it into the wild.

I didn't hear yesterday's episode but what gives Khalil the authority to take people's animals away even if he does think the animal is being badly treated?