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!

I really dont like how the SWs have it in for Brian at the moment. If this were real life it would feel like he’s being bullied.

Well, exactly. It's a bit rich David accusing someone else when he must have had months to do something about the lack of signs. Though I suspect the reality is that signs make very little difference, anyway.

Surely everyone knew they had sheep, given the way they bang on about lambing every year.

I think we’ll never know whose dog it was, the plot point is that David turns against Brian and also starts believing that he’s lost it.

Okay, I confess that I have a tendency to tune out pretty much everything Brookfield-related and only the annoying stuff goes into even short-term memory.

I've been behind, both with listening and this thread so I hope there's not a big discussion along these lines that's been and gone ... but you have reminded me of how everyone in TA keeps saying everyone's adresses all the time! I have never heard a real person do this. Maybe something like "remember when we lived in Church Street and there was that mad bloke living opposite" but absolutely nobody says "oh, are you going to Whatsit Cottage?" instead of "Are you going home / to Aunt Margaret's / wherever"

Sorry but I found that excruciating. Pip and David are both so unconvincing, and then the wooden PC turning up didn’t help. Jolene’s overacting had already irritated me! Painful PSA and another cog turning plot device to isolate Brian further. Also what WAS he blathering about on holidayed with Miranda. Is he actually showing signs of dementia that people here have suggested?

I loved the telling silences from Alistair and Jolene whenever Brian stopped blathering on. 😂

Thinking of Brine, in the previous episode where he seemingly made no connection between his disowning of Adam, yet still expecting to be automatically welcomed to babysit Xander was merely a sign of his lifelong egotism.
In today's he named himself a victim. Classic DARVO, and very much him but I think the SWs, in seeking some kind of resolution for this very high doh storyline, might overreach. Will Brine think Adam is involved? Just saying
I still don't think he has dementia, just not coping with circumstances while utterly convinced that he is.
David's lashing out at him was probably because he, like everyone else, knows about the farm not being managed as it was, when such an attack might just be horribly bad luck for the farmer and the only blame is to be laid at the door of a feckless dog owner.

I fast forwarded through that. I can't bear animals being hurt.

Me too, it was awful.

It was harrowing but it was also very much old school Archers with actual farming detail and drama. I also wondered if it could possibly be Cleo - that would be ludicrous, but would also be a great catalyst for driving a wedge between Stella and Pip.

I'm sure there was a storyline a while back of someone (David?) putting up signs about keeping dogs on leads that featured very harrowing photos of injured sheep on them, and J%y and M%ck went for a walk and she was very upset by them. I hope that was a storyline because if I dreamed it then I definitely need help.

No, I remember that too, @noodlezoodle.

But was that about dogs, or the effects of fly tipping?

It would take quite a dog to do that kind of damage.

What breed is Cleo?
A Doberman could do it but I don’t think the SW would complicate things by making it Lynda’s dog.

same dog that attacked kenton?
george's dog (which was described as vicious)

but if they havd seen a dog they know they would have said

sadly not.
sheep, when chased, can just drop dead from shock. there will be a few with bite wounds, but most might 'just' have died of a heart attack.

The oddest thing atm for me is that Adam, Iain, and indeed Brian, seem to have forgotten that they know the real reason behind Brian’s odd behaviour, ie covering up for Ruari!

I fear the reason is that if they brought that up directly it would become absolutely necessary for Ruairi to be heard in person. But the actor seems to have been very occupied elsewhere, so the SWs are probably working around that:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5168709/

David described horrific wounds.

Yes, this!

My family of farmers always did that, I suppose because of farms having names, but my mum would also talk about "no 7" or "Bridge Street" meaning her family home.

You're talking about Roger Allam, but the posts you're responding to related to a podcast where the comment about being a singer not an actor was addressed to the Jazzer actor.

That was my first thought.

I thought Cleo was some sort of smallish breed. If she was big and fierce, she surely would have savaged Row Zee by now. If I were a dog, I know I would.