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.

Ambridge The Musical?

Did I miss a very mild ding dong?

Neither a ding dong nor, alas, a sing song. Ambridge the Musical - god! Imagine the horror that would be!

Darker · Today 18:54
Can we stop this, please?
Thanks, @Darker .

Oh give over policing a chat! It's just a bit of joshing. One person's 'just bantz' can be another person's bullying.
Can't we be one united tribe of The Archers listeners?

I like Tracy and don't want anything bad to happen to her.
Stella was well-acted today. Annoying but well-acted, IMO.

I'm all for a ram-a-lamb-a-ding-dong SL. At least it would be about farming.
Not to be confused with a david-lammy-ding-dong thread.

One person's 'just bantz' can be another person's bullying

Bullying?! Oh come on! Love and peace as they used to say in the old days of Mumsnet.

It's all felt a bit public service broadcasting. Are we having a medical bubble week, with possible dementia (Brian), mental health and breast investigations?

Plus the difficulty of getting an appointment with a GP when you are an OAP with limited mobility.

I think you just invoked Lynda Snell with that idea!

I assumed Paul’s father was Black especially as his Paternal grandmother was dying somewhere in the Caribbean (I think St Lucia but I am not sure of the Islsnd).

I have no direct experience of breast cancer but a good friend runs a support group. I was at a meeting where an oncologist explained that genetic breast cancer is really really rare. And breast cancer will occur in families without it being a genetic issue. My friend’s mum and dad died from breast cancer and she too had it. So you can see why it came up. But then I have at least 3 friends with a parent died of cancer during their own treatment. Which seemed particularly shit.
Sorry that is not cheery. But it is all a bit the Ambridge sledgehammer.
Also yes, maybe Tracey was there so Stella could have a cry but maybe it is more sinister.

We used to have supper which was usually cheese on toast, (not the posh Welsh rarebit version). Then went to bed and had nightmares because everyone knows you have nightmares if you have cheese before you go to bed. Well thats what my dear old dad used to say.

I think the only meal you can be sure about is breakfast.
Everybody knows what it means and I'm not sure there's another commonly used name for it.
I think you can be fairly sure about when lunch is (obviously, I prefer luncheon 😁) but that sometimes upsets the dinner-is-midday-ers.
Then there's supper, tea (which may be divided into afternoon or high), kitchen sups*...
I'm breakfast, lunch and supper myself but I'm also aware of the Shaw quote:
"It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him" and I think that holds, even for a Welsh woman like me.

*Which often causes a curled lip.
Right now, I'm picturing the MN Ambridge version of an Elvis convention.

Yes, I hope Tracey is ok, she is one of the few characters I actually like.

I think Tracey will be fine - the messaging yesterday seemed to be all about checking/screening. Pip being praised by the doctor for checking herself; Tracey attending for her first mammogram having been called - and the reassurance that the process was okay.

At least I hope so because then it will be done and over with because I can't bear the Archers in public information mode.

@MorningCoffeePlease Yes, I hope Tracey is ok, she is one of the few characters I actually like.

Me too - it's a smallish pool! But I love Tracy in mum/ friend/ colleague mode. Reacted exactly right to Stella, no gushing about how everything would be all right, just sensibly sitting with her and listening.

Yes, Tracy was good. But it made no difference - I didn’t believe in Stella’s weeping because I don’t believe in her relationship with Pip. There is zero chemistry between them. (I mean, the air sizzles with tension if Alice and Chris are heard standing at opposite ends of the same field. And I completely believe Jakob finds Kate an extraordinary human being.) It really is going to be a problem for me, going forward …

Agree. It would be more realistic chemistry wise if it were Stella and Ruth realised she’s in love 😆

Or I can machine Pip going to pieces for Stella and Stella being irritated because she just wants to practical.

LaMarschallin
I think you can be fairly sure about when lunch is (obviously, I prefer luncheon 😁) but that sometimes upsets the dinner-is-midday-ers.

What I really love is when someone (with an apparently straight face) informs the world that she has dinner at lunchtime.

I have completely given up on using the word dinner myself, because it is unclear which meal it means and at what time. The other three words for main meals, if you ignore tea which is a complete minefield, are clear about which meal they refer to: the one in the morning, the one in the middle of the day and the one in the evening.

Anyone can call any of them anything he or she wants to, but I'd rather that they added a time of day if they are inviting me to dinner, just to avoid any confusion.

You know, if I were Lilian I know what i would say to Alice.

"Listen, darling, I know what is bothering your father and I promise you it is nothing to do with dementia, but it is also none of your business, and you must stop pestering him and leave him alone. You are making things worse for him and I know you wouldn't want to do that."

Far too sensible.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime That's exactly the right thing to say. Of course, the result would be that the ghastly siblings would start speculating among themselves about it, and Alice would rope in Ruairi. The only way out for him would be to run off and join Johnny in his profitable Colombian drug-dealing and prostitution business.

The other possibility, of course, would be for Ruairi to do what he actually wanted to and go quietly to the police and hand himself in. Brian has not lied to them, and if Ruairi gets it right wouldn't be able to.

And with luck, George would then get done for attempted blackmail on the basis of what is in his precious recording of Brian having been threatened by George after owning up under duress to a crime he didn't actually commit.

Brian really needs to talk to Miranda, who strikes me as a woman who would Sort Things Out!

Rex a catch, haha that's a joke, he'd win the Boring Drip of the World competition. A taxi driver who lives on a boat, hardly amazing. I suppose when his father dies( he's not dead is he?) he'll inherit a good amount, that could be an attraction.

Stella and Pip, what a totally unrealistic pairing, as others have said, no chemistry whatsoever. I also thought it was dreadful of Stella to tell Tracy all about Pip's private medical details, I'd have been livid if I was Pip. Now it'll be all over the village, Tracy will tell radio Susan. It's irrelevant if it's now good news, Stella should have kept her gob shut.

I don’t believe in her relationship with Pip. There is zero chemistry between them. Same here.

The chemistry between Chris and Alice is there. Kate and Jakob seem an unlikely but believable couple. Rex and Alice - zilch but we don't want it to last.
Pip and Stella have no spark between them; other than they both work in agriculture they seem to have nothing in common.

Other couples seem quite believable. I think the issue is one certain actor.

Rex is a human wet wipe.

If everything is so great with Kirsty and Eric, and they must have been together for a few years by now, why do we never hear from him?