Archers thread #199: Kaboom! The Aldridges are self-destructing, and it's GLORIOUS. 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'd drop everything to help Helen create a new cheese on national minimum wage, 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.)

If you haven't heard last night's episode (Friday 22nd May) you really must. It's episodes like that that keep me addicted. Funny how often they involve the Aldridges, the most dysfunctional and also by far the most interesting family in Ambridge. Also very well acted on the whole. How lovely to hear Tamsin Greig in TA, but I wonder if we ever will again.

Some cracking posts towards the end of the last thread, which is here: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/5518503-archers-thread-198-josh-sent-to-patagonia-pip-stays-put-wrong-way-round-discuss-the-archers-here

Over to you!

@EBearhugthat would be a sensible reason but yes, we all know it’s cost cutting. We will have weeks of Esme talking to her cows to make up for episodes with a good number of established characters in them.

can the writers not write ONE storyline that doesn't have another "compare and contrast" storyline??
Not just me then.

She was also right that it was ultimately Brian's fault for burying the chemicals in the first place. It wasn't Brian's fault because Brian wouldn't have done it. It was the SWs.

How can you not like Debbie’s voice? Quite. Same with Helen. Both excellent actors.

Adam in particular isn’t great. He often sounds like he’s just ‘reading the script’. Totally disagree. He's consistent and an excellent actor. The script reader is David.

@DeanElderberry , Adam was at boarding school (Sherborne, I think) then went to the Newcastle University to read Agriculture.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g , It amuses me that the SWs have never risked specifying where in Scotland Phoebe lives.
North of Glasgow and presumably near a loch (see how specific they really are there)

When they went to Castle Traitors McSpreader, they drove past where Finlay stays which seems at odds with the north of Glasgow description.

There is no way they can afford to privately educate the twins. Would it be much more than nursery fees? (They're currently with a childminder IIRC)

I'd much prefer to hear Kirsty explaining being a high-risk pregnancy to Erik, rather than a random midwife. Same here. They are both good actors and it would come across as a conversation not a PSA.

What happened to the £900k BF pocketed from Justin? Wasn't it invested in the business/gobbled up by Helen's trial costs?

I loved Kate’s excitement over Kirsty’s baby. Me too. I was almost welling up at Kirsty and Kate was typically Kate.

I miss background music. A lot of listeners don't like it as it's harder to hear vouces. I don't like jingles on podcasts - they're often louder than speech and are grating.

“What happened to the £900k BF pocketed from Justin? Wasn't it invested in the business/gobbled up by Helen's trial costs?”

I can see Natasha using this as an argument for more land to be sold to pay for school fees. In the interest of fairness.

I thought they re-mortgaged to pay for the family court proceedings?? Helen was in receipt of legal aid for the criminal proceedings. She had to make a contribution but that was refunded when she was acquitted.

Adam is going to pay this lawyer how? Poor Ian.

@RuairiDonovan There is no way they can afford to privately educate the twins. Would it be much more than nursery fees? (They're currently with a childminder IIRC)

There's a government subsidy towards nursery fees for working parents: it covers up to 30 hours per week for 3/4 year-olds. No such subsidy for subsequently sending them to a private school, though!

I know that but isn't childcare £££ anyway, so going from nursery to school might not seem like that much more? (Natasha's voice and inflection required for the that much more)

I don't know much about it, being deliberately childless, but there is a nursery school next door (it was a fee-paying private infants/primary until Ofsted closed it down on the utterly unreasonable grounds that no longer had even one qualified teacher) and they advertise 30 "free" hours, i.e. hours that the government pays for. I think that would work pretty well for Tom'n'Tash, who never seem to do much work anyway.

When my children were young there weren’t 30 free hours and it wasn’t much difference to pay private school fees if you were used to nursery fees. It’s my understanding that private school fees climb fast as the child progresses through the school though. What is affordable in reception can vary quickly become out of reach. There’s also the impact of VAT now.

In fact I’m surprised Tom n Tash didn’t talk about reduction in childcare costs being on the horizon when they were discussing the loss of Helen’s rent. The 30 hours is term time only and nurseries charge top up fees for meals and activities. If the twins have a full time place they will still be paying a fair whack.

I don’t understand why they had a storyline that put Paul and Ruairi together, just to then need to improbably send Paul away for the length of the storyline.

And speaking of Paul, what happened to Denise and Alis-stair together? What was even the point of that whole storyline.

Dunno about the older pair but maybe this is what’s keeping Paul in (was it?) St Lucia?

https://www.westendbestfriend.co.uk/news/interview-actor-joshua-riley-the-mousetrap-west-end

I wonder if Adam’s legal challenge will result in exposure of the deceit over what happened on NYE….

If Ruari is happy now it’s only because he’s shutting out reality while he can. I don’t think it’s going to last long.

I can’t understand how Adam, or Lilian really, think it’s never going to be uncovered, especially when making moves like this, yes!
but also sidelining the part it’s played in Brian’s actions.

Oh Adam, love, of course the lawyer says you have a "really good case." Win or lose, he'll be quids in.

I hope Alice and Kate turn on him and he loses big time.

While DH was in hospital recently, I overheard a mental capacity assessment taking place (the curtains didn't prevent sound carrying). The bar is pretty low, as it should be, though one question had me stumped - today's date? No idea, especially after some weeks in there. I don't think the noxious little turd has a chance of proving Brian is mentally incapable unless we have the twisted Borsetshire legal system.

@muddyford , .Your post about Adam
I don't see him like that but I can think of one or two characters that fit that description.

Well, I do but I agree there are others equally deserving of the epithet!

Must've missed Anna being a lesbian. Is there something in the water (other than residues from Brian's scheme)?

@muddyford Those mental capacity assessments can be bizarre. MrG passed with flying colours until we went back (at my insistence) and it was revealed that although he could confidently and rapidly count down from 100 in sevens, and draw the hands on a clockface, he didn't know the name of his only grandson.

At the other extreme, my mother (batshit crazy) pulled the wool over many people's eyes, memorably the geriatrics consultant who phoned me to say she was perfectly sane and had been telling her all about her very interesting life, travelling the world working in military intelligence. When I laughed and said she hadn't worked since her marriage in 1949, the daft woman didn't believe me.

I would struggle to count backwards in sevens with any speed. I freeze when confronted with anything numerical. I learned my times tables and got an A at O-level through sheer effort, but have surrendered myself to the convenience of the calculator and excel to do the maths as soon as I could.

"noxious little turd"
actually that's how I see Brian, for the way he treated his wife...

I would struggle to count backwards in sevens with any speed.

We were both taught to do that (and a lot else) early on in primary school. Take off 10 and add 3! Sometimes being old has its benefits.

I’d be ok counting backwards in 7’s. I’m good at maths. I’m still proud of my ‘A’ at A-level many decades later.

If they asked me what I’d come to get from my kitchen / hall / bedroom I’d be foxed 🤦‍♀️.

And yes, no way would Brian meet the threshold for lacking capacity. 🙄

@TottersBlankly we went along to Hungary not long ago! I don't remember many trips where the listeners actually travelled along though, and I've been listening since 2009. If anything, I feel the characters have gone beyond the bypass more than usual recently? Ian & Adam went to Ireland over New Year, Robert visits his offspring in London now and then, Kate is regularly in Scotland, and Helen went on holiday to France last year I think?

I'm more annoyed at the characters written out by means of travel or work and then never mentioned again - Jamie, Dan, Johnny and now Josh. Though perhaps they'll be like Kenton to Oz/NZ, and Adam vanishing to 'Africa' (did they ever mention a country?) for years, and returning once relevant. (Edit: do the women get send away too?)

I would quite like Tom n Tash to eventually end up with a type of debt solution that causes a proper storyline with farm/house drama/the twins being forced out of private school. Not as a 1 week PSA about dodgy debt management companies, though.

I was thinking more of the 70s, 80s, 90s, @Agapornis! 😄