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.

Re Alice having a shoe mishap and Rex not waiting for her, and then sharing rowdy rugby club skiing holiday anecdotes - are they rewriting him to show he's not as nice as Chris? He might be a little too safe, but to make him a dickhead? I want him to still be nice and eventually shack up with Kirsty.

I wouldn't mind Lottie marrying into one of the main families to make Ambridge a bit more multicultural (the actress is black), especially if they have a baby (I can't see any Madikane kids making an appearance any time soon).

To be honest I’d have expected Chris to be just the tiniest bit Laurence, so I’m surprised he’s gone out with Lottie. (Not from any specific recollection - just the fact that, apart from maybe visiting Alice in Southampton (?) and their American trip I’m not sure he’s ever left Borchester. And the only people he’d have heard discussing politics would be the Reform leaning horse owners to whom he tugs a forelock in the course of his profession.) Susan too - just because she’s quite a reactionary sort of human. Not Neil - too nice, and thinks for himself. And not Emma - all her antagonism is entirely class based.

But it seems the SWs have taken him in the other direction - he slept with Amy, didn’t he? 🤷‍♀️

...I’m surprised he’s gone out with Lottie. We don't know that he has.

And the only people he’d have heard discussing politics would be the Reform leaning horse owners to whom he tugs a forelock in the course of his profession. He doesn't strike me as a forelock-tugging type. I'm not sure that horseriders/owners are necessarily Reform-leaning.

Chris had a dalliance with Amy so doubt he’d object to Lottie based on her race (if that is indeed who he went out with) and presumably saw her picture on the dating app.

I do know a woman who supports Reform and is married to a Black man. Her husband is, of course, “not like those immigrants”.

Reform MP Suella Braverman is the daughter of immigrants.

Anyone else finding Bert Horrobin really annoying..

He'll probably calm down. George Grundy seemed like a moustache-twirling pantomime villain to begin with.

😂

I don't why anyone would assume Chris would be racist.

Me neither. I don't think any of the Carters would be. I don't think Neil or Chris would be particularly forelock-tugging.

I don't think the people of Ambridge are racist. The ghastly Lawrence is but he's not from Ambridge.

Susan was religionist about Usha marrying the vicar, and her comments about it to the Borchester Echo reporter, as quoted in the paper, were definitely seen by Usha as being racist.

(We know how Usha took them because she went round to Shula's place of work and in a loud voice accused her in the middle of the yard of vile racism, on no evidence whatever that it was Shula who had said what Susan said. The comments were printed as anonymous.)

Anyway, I wouldn't be too sure about Susan not being a racist, like her friend Betty's husband Mike, who certainly was.

🍏 / 🌳?

Gosh, I don’t remember Mike being a wrong’un! Only his son.

I was thinking of when Kristiffur had a girlfriend called Nisha but she was actually one of Alice's friends and called Venetia.

Mike and Roy aren't really Ambridge any more.

I just find the "And don't get me started on people calling their evening meal "supper."" comments baffling.

It's just a turn of phrase, dear, and shouldn't cause you to be baffled.

Don't call me 'dear'. It is patronising.

Would you prefer hun?

Can we stop this, please?

Calm down dears..

Little and all as I like Pip, I'm glad we aren't getting a breast cancer story. At least I hope we aren't, I was not best pleased at the insertion of Tracey.

I'd say Ambridge, which is a small rural farming village, is pretty multicultural already. Usha has been there for years, Amy was mixed race, the Maliks are Asian, Denise is black so Paul must be.

In my village of about 3k inhabitants, which is near a multicultural city, there's only one non-white family as far as I'm aware.

@ExOptimist sure - but none of those are married with kids into the main, long-term multi generational families (Carters/Horrobins in this case).

I know it's not necessarily representative of actual stats - my home village of 250 inhabitants is similar to yours.

Tracey was there for a reason.

I think Paul's father is white but I'm not sure.

When I was at school there were I think 6 mixed race pupils in a school of about 1200. 4 had far eastern heritage and 2 afro-caribbean heritage.

Roy only took up with the racist Craven and Spanner because he thought Mike would approve, since Mike agreed with them. And Mike was angry with him about getting caught, but not about the racism of Roy's college friends. Betty was the one who was shocked and angry over Roy being "like that".

Oh give over policing a chat! It's just a bit of joshing.

I was starting to feel relieved that Pip had been given the all clear but then the consultant raised the issue of genetic testing and the "implications." Hope the next SW forgets about it as, much as I can't stand Pip and Ruth, I don't want them going down that road. Nor Tracey.

Did I miss a very mild ding dong?

Autocorrect pleasingly thought I meant sing song there, which would have been nice 😀