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!

Absolutely.

I agree but I also think Pip and Stella are not getting married. There’s Something Brewing. The script is putting too much emphasis on how much they are looking forward to it etc.

That would be highly unlikely though?
To have both Ruth having early beast cancer, and David whose family have hereto not shown signs of early cancer (in any Archers, Jill, siblings) turning out to have the gene.

Pip could be clear, Ruth have the gene, and then one of Ben/Josh have it and implications for them in future (eg needing ivf for fathering children).

Could there be a small but very precisely-targeted meteor? Yes please.
Bonus points if it takes out Helen too. Absolutely not. She's too good a character and actor.
But I'd be happy with just Pip disappearing in a puff of smoke. I'd be happy with a personality and actor change.
No, because if Pip has it and Ruth doesn't Pip has inherited it from David. Which affects Lizardbreath, Lily, Meriel, Shula, Dan, Freddie, Josh and Ben.
Have David and Ruth addressed what will happen if Pip inherits the farm and predeceases Stella? Or, more likely, Stella divorces Pip? They're not the Dopeys for nothing.
Stella and Hannah are both Brookfield tenants. They're not. Stella is a tenant, Hannah is Stella's lodger.
I am SO BORED of Pip. Her character has no redeeming features and the acting is not good.

I wondered if a coach crash is brewing as they are making so much of the trip to the T20 cricket. I believe Amber and George and Pip and Stella are waiting to confirm their sea

Hopefully just a jolly advertising the cricket near Ambridge.

Pip to get hit in the head with a well struck six resulting in a 40 year coma.

Ooh! A clean sweep! Like Emmerdale 20 or 30 years ago.

Ooh, I loved Brian telling Adam to get off his land. What a vicious little toe rag Adam is.

Oooh!

Looks more like a clean sweep of the senior residents - first Bert, now Jim.

Such a shame we’ve been deprived of all the fun and drama we might have had in preparation for this trip: Alistair wringing his hands in horror (and probably ringing his sister to back him up); Jakob being the voice of reason; residents accosting Jim to offer unsuitable travel gifts; Brad and Chelsea setting him up on TikTok … Don’t know if the actor has been ill, or just too busy to record?

Ho hum - I guess we’ll never hear from him again.

Shabby end for such a high value character.

The Home Farm thing is now beyond silly. It sounds nothing like The Archers.

Opposite reaction from me! I heartily dislike Brian (while admiring the actor).
Contrast tonight with not so long ago, when he was relying on Adam to the point that the latter had to give up his job at Bridge Farm.

Definitely team Adam here. They are both at the point of no return.

Brian is wrecking the business.

The thing is, Brian (quite justifiably) no longer cares. The land is his, and he can do what he likes with it ... including selling it and spending the proceeds on fine wines, women and aftershave. Team Brian all the way here!

Adam could have said no and Brian would have had to recruit a new farm manager. I think even then Adam was looking at the big prize, if only he could get rid of Brian. Adam is a snake in the grass.

I'm broadly on Adam's side.
He really cares about the farm.
He knows it backwards and wants to continue his stewardship of it.
He is a farmer through and through.

Brian may not have dementia, but he is erratic, hasn't thought through succession, is old, isn't up to speed, and is in danger of destroying everything he built up with Jenny by his side.

As a person Adam is annoying, but I am more on his side than Brian's.

Brian has shown he is impossible to work with. His own family, Stella, BL… only Jenny was willing to put up with him.

My only criticism of Adam is that he should have made a start elsewhere when he came back from Africa.

But Brian might have turned the place into a stock car racing circuit or destroyed it with poor farming methods. It’s always been Debbie and Adam who looked after the land.

The last person I remember bouncing around and boasting how very well he'd done in the dementia tests is Donald Trump.

I would expect both Brian and Adam to be wary of solicitors promising victory.

Me too.

Nope, sorry. In my view, Adam has zero going for him, is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, has a horrible voice and should be taken out and shot. Perhaps a job for one of the Grundys?

Jim is late eighties isn't he? My mum is 89 and fully healthy mentally and physically, lives on her own and runs a large house and garden herself, still drives etc.

However, if she announced that she was going to go travelling alone, with apparently no plans of where she was going I'm sure all her children would be very concerned. We certainly wouldn't be as blase about it as Alistair appears to be.

I wonder if, in a few months, it will be announced that Jim has either bought a home in Italy and is staying there or has died abroad.

…and wasting the rest!

Agree completely.

Sounds like a job for George, then he can feed adam to the christmas turkeys.