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.

Nick Warburton?

I might have to relisten as it was all a bit busy in the kitchen yesterday. Didn't really catch what was said between Brian and Adam either. Brian seems all over the place at the moment. Shame he doesn't seem to confide in Debbie much for some support.

Last time he saw Debbie she threw a really horrible and very insulting hissy-fit at him, accusing him of tupping Joy shortly after Jennifer's funeral. He may have concluded that Jennifer's daughter by Roger Travers-Macy has become deranged. In which case her advice wouldn't be worth the air it was breathed on (it rarely has been in the past either, but that's a different argument) and she would be unlikely to provide any meaningful support.

Oh 😬
I'd always imagined she was the sensible one of the family. I can't really remember that incident. Poor Brian, they're a right lot aren't they but partly of his own making!

Hell's teeth. Whatever were Linda and non-Robert maundering on about? Khalil is mid-teens; just tell him the truth! He's not a tiny needing to be humoured. Utter tosh. Think Linda is following Brian.

It's starting to feel like they're setting up a mass emigration from Ambridge to The Laurels.

Jennifer's clothes and bits-and-pieces were sent to a WI jumble sale or some such, Joy bought a scarf, Alice saw her from behind wearing it and thought she was Jennifer, so Joy took it to Brian to explain she couldn't wear it and Debbie walked in and found her in Blossom Hill Cottage and did her block. There was a piece of jewelry involved too. Anyhow, Debbie accused him of giving her mother's clothes and jewelry to his fancy woman, and Joy was very upset indeed.

Synopsis for Tuesday 21st March, 2023
There being a wrong end of the stick available, Debbie has grasped it firmly and is berating her father and accusing him of having refused to eat out with her because Joy was coming over; no wonder Joy behaved strangely round her at the shop! This part of her tirade completely bewilders Brian, who has no idea what she is talking about. She asks whether this is a new thing, or has it been going on for a while? She refuses to accept that he and Joy might just have been talking, and tells him she has seen it all before. Brian can't believe this sort of thing would even cross her mind: he is grieving for her mother and hasn't the slightest interest in Joy, or any other woman. At this critical moment Joy comes back in, clearly having heard that a row is going on, and says that if this is about Jennifer's brooch, she will give it back – which naturally Debbie assumes to mean that Brian is giving away her mother's jewellery. When he says she doesn't understand, she says coldly that she thinks she does. He really doesn't change, does he? Don't touch her! Poor mum, she sobs; what did she ever do to deserve this? Thank God she doesn't know.

Goodness, that must have been one of the (very many) scenes that I have totally erased! The ability to do so is a gift, I suppose. I remember Jenny carking it, and I recall some hoo-ha about Joy buying what I remember to be her scarf at the village jumble sale, but nothing about a brooch or about Debbie being involved.

My immediate family is fairly unemotional about such things. My sister was a bit cross when our mother's diamond engagement ring vanished in a care home, whether before or after her death we don't know, and I was presented with a brass monstrosity with a bit of green glass in it. Think Woolworths, circa 1960! But Mommie Dearest was perfectly likely to have swapped it and, as I pointed out, sis's own engagement ring was identical and she hardly needed two.

Ah yes! Thank you, yes remember that now. Was all a bit mad. Although in Debbie's defence I suppose she was always waiting for Brian to betray them again. They all need serious therapy!

They have all needed a slap with a wet fish for many years, but I fear it is too late. Because when it's got to the point where Kate is the calm, sane and sensible one ....

A lot of people end up with some animal or other hanging around the place that they are just not really interested in, or that turned out to be more work than they had realised, and can be fairly easily talked into giving it up. Khalil might have done just that, and then found himself with a budgie that he isn't allowed to keep.
I've known two dogs that have gone to their forever homes in a similar way. One was passed around various family members of someone who died, because no one really wanted her - eventually a family friend took her in. The other was basically living in a cage because he was more lively than his owners had anticipated, and someone else volunteered to take him off their hands.

Now that they seem unable to give up the budgie, I hope Lynda and Robert decide to go all in, build an aviary, and start a budgie sanctuary 😆

But Adam and Debbie are not of his own making. The farm/ money should go to his legitimate children and the one he can be (reasonably) sure of the paternity of.
Debbie’s supposed omnicompetence after what, half a degree in French and sitting on the occasional tractor, has always pissed me off.

I liked the pet name bit of today''s episode. I'm sure the SWs had fun. Good Aussie ones at first - Barry and Bluey, then the "Porridge"-based Fletcher and, to me, Ray Reardon's Elgar. Though the fictional feline Elgar would very likely have scoffed the TA Elgar in a trice.

Ed Reardon?

I wonder if Chris is thinking about Alice tagged!
strange lack of reaction from George to his confession he’d reported him for his behaviour.

I was left wondering about Chris and Esme …..

I dislike Debbie, voice and all, but always remember that she was wronged by a Simon, often a cause of trauma for Ambridge women.

I love seeing Kate slowly evolve into a wise and dependable matriarch.

That reminds me (because I was thinking A welcome to Esme? Why? She grew up there. And why from Chris - he isn’t a farmer?) doesn’t Neil own some land that used to be for raising pigs? It’s the land they built Ambridge View on, isn’t it? But then Rex moved his pigs to Lower Loxley. And Neil now manages Berrow Farm and doesn’t seem to be involved in pig rearing on his own behalf any more. So what’s going on with his land, and will Chris and Emma inherit any?

Chris and Esme? 🥴

Now that's an excellent idea (the budgie sanctuary). Would be all of a piece with having llamas and assorted other wild creatures. I'm probably on my own here, but I enjoyed hearing Lynda talking to the budgie.

I'm thinking about the elaborate plan to explain away Elgar/Fletcher: a budgie smuggler!

Google it, though you might want to bleach your retinas.

@echt you have no idea how hard I've been working on suppressing that term tainting my imagination since this story started (was it only Sunday?).

The obvious thing (if they can't just tell the truth) is to say Lynda has discovered she is allergic to budgie feathers. Perfectly plausible given her constant sniffing

Have they bothered to tell us how long George is meant to be wearing this tag?

As we approach the summer surely he might want to wear shorts and then the bloody thing will be obvious to everybody.

He should wear it openly, with pride, to show that 'e is well 'ard, innit?

Perhaps he persuaded the owner to give it to him? Someone who isn't looking after an animal properly wouldn't be bothered about giving it away.