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.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g my DS is same school year as Henry so I’m alert to random inaccuracies 😅

That’s a good point about when Easter is early some schools take the school holidays later. Maybe Khalil and Henry will be on holiday next week 🤔

That would have been during the short-lived attempt to make 6 terms of equal length. It didn't really work.

Most schools in my neck of the woods broke up on Maundy Thursday (which surprised me). I think some schools run revision bootcamps for GCSE’s (but they would probably pick a 5-day week, not one with bank hols).

I am approaching this week’s omnibus with minimal enthusiasm. I’ve only encountered one family who kept budgies/canaries in my 6 decades on the planet. Plenty of hamsters and guinea pigs, but not birds!

Yes, in London it would only have worked if it had been enforced across all LEAs and all independent schools so all the pupils and staff would have had the same holidays.

When I was small I always used to smile at someone's home-painted sign above his garden wall in Hirwaun as we went past, advertising budgerigars and canaries for sale. I assume he was or had been a miner.

Talk of school holidays has reminded me of the memorable summer long ago when my ex picked up his 3 boys (aged 7, 10 and 13) for the weekend, as usual. They were all at expensive public schools in London (his US employer paid), so this was the first Friday in July.

The next morning his ex-wife phoned from the airport to say she was on her way home to visit her family on the other side of the world and would be back at the beginning of September. (Awful, but I really have to applaud her for this!) He immediately assumed that I would take the entire summer off from my job. What he didn't know was that I had quietly bought my own flat a couple of months earlier and had been getting it sorted out. So I just went home. 😅

<on edit> Sorry to go so very off-topic!

Please God spare us this BC storyline or any more scenes that involve Pip and Ruth.

I think I’d rather have Joy.

Talking of Joy, wouldn't she be the go to person for this mental health stall thing, after all she did for Josh.

I think I’d rather have Joy.
Please don't say that!😱

I'd love an Ambridge Extra! So long as it does not involve Joy and Muck, Pa Malik and his insufferable offspring (Azra is lovely and I don't know what she did to deserve them) or Paul and Denise. I'm sure there's others but those are the main ones I'd happily see ejected from the village with no explanation required.

Going back to Emma's chat with George. I felt that was one of the best and most genuine scenes so far this year. You could hear how anxious Emma was about broaching the subject but that she strongly felt it needed to be said.

With regard to George actually seriously harming the baby, yes I think that's what she was implying really but couldn't say that as she knew that would be pushing him too far.
He lashes out, sometimes in a physical way. And with babies, that is so dangerous. I'm thinking shaken baby, or a rough throw onto a bed or a sofa that goes wrong. Sorry for the grim Sunday morning subject. But I think these are very real fears going through Emma's mind. With Keira I think he could we'll have done more than say nasty things to her, I'd easily imagine he's shoved her out of his way etc in a rage. He tall and full of muscle, I'd imagine he's quite intimidating when he loses it. I don't blame her for not wanting him near her.

Our schools broke up on Maunday Thursday too. Easter already feels like it was an age ago 😩

Grim indeed, I hope we are spared that
Maybe Emma should be talking to Amber, I hope she would take steps to protect her baby at the earliest sign of danger and not allow things to escalate

I don't think there is any need to wonder why Khalil was not having an Easter holiday from school last week if we remember that last week was written by Nick Warburton. He was on the radio during the past couple of days, or maybe on the podcast, saying that as a writer, he felt it was the business of the production team to deal with it if he took the writing too far, and I expect details like school holidays are also the business of the production team to sort out as far as he is concerned.

One of my colleagues lives in Market Harborough and the dates for his children’s school holidays are completely different from mine in London.

Friday’s episode was so dull I nearly turned it off. Breast cancer should be a serious topic but when it’s acted by Pip and Ruth, interspersed with a budgie, I just can’t listen properly.

Was that Adam's realisation that IF Brian has dementia he may be seen as not having capacity to write a will?

Caring Adam there, desperate for Brine not to have dementia. Nothing, of course, to do with the fact that that would mean Brine can't validly alter his will ...

Bert!

Why does anyone over about fifty who disagrees with his children about anything have to have dementia according to those children?

I think Kate is being dead cunning: if Brian's new will isn't to her liking, she can now contest it on the grounds he had dementia when he made it and Adam exercised undue influence on him.

Not a long term listener - have we heard Tracey’s dad previously?

No. If we have it will have been ages ago and a different actor.

Just so! Back in 1984 he was in the cast-list during three weeks, played by William Eedle.

Having dementia doesn't mean a person doesn't have capacity, in legal or medical circumstances. Capacity is tightly defined and can't be thrown in the mix by a relation miffed about a will. If Brian has any sense, or Adam tells him what's been said, he'll get that sorted with his solicitor.

Excellent to hear Bert at last ... and lovely Tracy calling him out on his bullshit. The idea that he went to church (for the first time since, presumably, his own wedding) and was injured by falling rubble, and nobody noticed, is prime male Horrobin nonsense! If being a complete idiot is genetic, you can see where George gets it from.

Don’t forget this is The Archers. The creative team are old hands at bending reality.

So that will be something to add to the list of consequences coming from Ruairi’s New Year Act of Violence - Brian being declared incapable, and Adam losing his inheritance.

Just hope it’s all properly resolved and wrapped up by the end of the year.

@TottersBlithely Just hope it’s all properly resolved and wrapped up by the end of the year.

End of the week, please!

Interesting to hear another scammer in the village that ISN'T Eddie Grundy!

I really like the way they write George, it's far more nuanced than they manage for anyone else. Just when you think he's reforming a bit you hear some menace or 'everyone's against me' - like when he was talking to Alan - and you realise that underneath it all he's still the same George.