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.

I really hope that Adam will live to regret that stupid over-sharing. Argh! What am I saying???? What I really hope is that he'll not live that long.

Go Emma, I say. George really will have to get his temper under control if he wants to stay in his child's life. I question whether he will be able to.

He could barely keep it together when Emma was trying to give a nuanced response to his question about being a good dad.

Enjoyed Robert joking that the budgie wasn’t planning to come back because he’d packed his favourite bell. An actual joke!

I'm a bit confused. Adam is going to get the Home Farm land. What about Brian's 3 children - do they keep their shares or whatever?

Not to mention Debbie. Like Adam, she is not Brian's child but I would expect her to be treated equally.

I don't remember the detail, but are the shares in the Home Farm business, entitling them to a share of the profits rather than the land? Because all five of them, I think, own shares. Plus Brian, obviously. I wonder what happened to Jennifer's shares when she died. I'd suspect they went to Brian, to ensure he still had a majority, and the kids got cash legacies to fritter away.

We need a poll! I vote "Who cares?", regardless of the question.

It doesn't seem that long since Brian was telling Alice a similar story - that she was the one he wanted to take over Home Farm. That all came to nothing when Ruairi pitched back up of course. Adam needs to confide in Alice so she can tell him not to get his hopes up until he has something in writing. In any case I don't think Brian's going to die any time soon - he'll probably spend the rest of his years promising the farm to this person and that person, rather like Logan Roy in Succession, with everyone thinking they are the chosen one. To my mind, Adam is the most deserving heir - he actually works the farm, he got the soil back into great shape, he didn't hesitate to come back after Stella's departure (with no promise of anything, just for the love of the farm), he was happy to work with Ruairi and attempt to train him even though Ruairi has never shown any interest in the farm and is a total beginner. I'm reluctant to get too invested because recent inheritances have been treated so disappointingly. Peggy's, after years and years of build up, came down to a family holiday that wasn't even executed according to her ridiculous specifications. Brookfield seems to have been done and dusted in five minutes with Josh disappearing in a huff mainly because Angus Imrie is around too infrequently to actually play him.

Thanks

I’ve had the odd less than perfect birthday - but none quite as bad as George’s.

Just imagine being told by your mother, on your 21st birthday, that she fears you’ll kill or seriously injure your baby in a fit of temper, and probably spend the rest of your life in prison …

But yes, @LillianGish - I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear that the creative team have been studying the Succession scripts with eager attention.

I wonder if the Brookfield succession will be thrown up in the air if it turns out Pip does have cancer? Or even if it doesn't - surely they are going to need a Plan B in place?

In which case can we have Tom and Cousin Greg as characters please? You can't make a Tomlette without breaking some Gregs

Well, if you were George you'd imagine it and get into a temper (as he did), but imagining it is what you'd have to do, because that was not at all what she said. She said that she was afraid that if the baby wound him up the way he said Keira does but it wouldn't know it was doing, he might lash out as he said himself he sometimes does at Keira.

Nothing about killing or injuring it, nothing about prison. Nothing, in fact even about physical violence: "lashing out" can be verbal just as much as it can be physical. George has form for both, it's true, and Emma knows about the verbals because he has several times lashed out at her in a truly vile way, but so far the only person he has hit (twice) has been Ed, and I'm not sure Emma knows about both those times. (And if she knows he has hit Keira I don't know what she thinks she is playing at allowing George to get anywhere near her daughter! Good grief!)

She told him the truth: that she is not sure he doesn't have anger management problems. And that is a truth he clearly knows already, and badly needs to address.

They are going to have to cope when Elizabeth finds that David has given away the cottage which WAS TO HAVE BEEN HER INHERITANCE (halved with Shula) from Phil and Jill!

You’ll have to forgive me for preferring my own interpretation of what I heard, @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime.

Interpretation... Yup, you are certainly entitled to prefer yours. I would ask again, though: If Emma fears that George is capable of doing serious or fatal damage to a human being who "winds him up" unwittingly, what the blazes is she doing allowing him anywhere near her daughter, whom he has admitted he has previously lashed out at because she wound him up? If Emma is even remotely afraid he might kill or injure his own baby, should she not be afraid he may similarly do serious physical damage to Keira?

I agree with @TottersBlithely . I don’t think Emma would be as worried as she is, ensuring sleepless nights and fearing the worst, if her concern was about George lashing out verbally. Most parents will have shouted aloud in frustration when a baby has cried incessantly etc and that doesn’t (generally) cause any lasting damage. Emma knows that.

I think she’s very concerned about him losing patience if something doesn’t go his way and physically harming the baby. The fact she knows about his abuse of Ed is precisely the reason she’s so worried. I’m also not convinced he hasn’t physically lashed out at Kiera. It is quite unusual for a child of her age to bar her own brother from her birthday party. She also cited George’s behaviour as the reason she ran away which is quite an extreme reaction if he was just ‘winding her up’ verbally. No-one in the Grundy family appears to have followed up with her about running away.

It doesn’t appear as if George is ever left alone with Kiera since she won’t even remain in the room as him at the moment. He currently lives with Will so I doubt she spends much time around her brother without Ed or Emma present. Emma might be engineering that exact scenario as she is concerned about his behaviour🤷🏽‍♀️

I don't recall Emma being instrumental in George causing Will to evict Hannah and move into 1, The Green with Poppy and George.

Wasn't George going to anger management sessions with his counsellor?

I think there was that theory. Sort of like Ed's compulsory "thinking skills" sessions after he was found guilty of burglary.

I harbour the unsettling belief that Emma is a little bit scared of George.

Their birthday conversation was very lighthearted and jokey but with a troubling undercurrent.

With good reason. George has been violent to Ed and has expressed a lot of hatred to Emma.

Yes, I think she is afraid of him; he is extremely volatile, as she discovered the moment she didn't tell him that of course he was going to make a good father and he started to bully her about it and demand that she tell him what he wanted to hear. And he has gone for her before now, more than once.

I still don't believe that she told him he might kill his own baby and go to prison for it – mostly because she didn't say those things. Of course, this omission might have been because she was afraid how he might react if she did.

I interpreted it as Emma being worried George might give the baby a shake or be too rough, when angry or exasperated.

How does he get on with Poppy? He lives with her so she’s more exposed.