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 thought they were part of my dawn chorus along with a very noisy Robin. #insomnia.

Agree @LillianGish

it took me a good few minutes to work out what was going on as Amber’s parents just were not on my radar.

My first car was yellow, and it was amazing how things changed, from almost never seeing yellow cars, to them being around every day.

I can't blame John Finnemore for anything, though. He would be excellent on TA. We could have all the CP cast.

Brian has such an insufferable degree of entitlement.
And is now feeling sorry for himself.
Where are they going with this? And will Kate's new found wisdom be of anu use to him???

It wouldnt be lovely..it would be brilliant!😉

So much to say - yes, I do yellow car too, thanks to John Finnimore. The prevalence of yellow taxis in Melbourne makes this easy,

The Brine SL is brilliant, as is his acting.

I was gutted the tutorial on hospital corners was curtailed. I was taught how to do them when I was seven and made my own bed ever since.
It's elasticated sheets nowadays, of course.

Eeeee it were all fields round here once.

I can't understand how Brian thinks that Miranda would be interested in him,or about anything he says or does.
She is right to cold shoulder him.
He has acted terribly towards her and left her for no reason, when she thought that they would be together in her new home.
Im sorry all you Brian fans but he deserves everything he is getting now.
I noticed that Kate has improved a lot and maybe she is starting to be good enough for Jakob.

I also hope that Kirsty will hold her baby.

Brian has no idea - after years with Jenny who was frankly a bit of a doormat and willing to forgive him anything. Miranda really doesn’t need Brian - she can afford her own big house snd the lifestyle to go with it - she doesn’t need an irascible octogenarian who can’t even keep his own family on side. Oliver is much less complicated - and I like the fact that he and Brian are attracted to the same woman (echoes of Caroline) - he and Miranda actually seem to have a laugh together and both like riding. The most unrealistic plot development would be if she and Brian got back together. I mean why would she??

Oliver is just SO, SO BORING though. And pompous.

But so is Miranda! She has the most pompous voice of any character.

"Tell me, Kate, do I deserve this?"

YES! shout a million listeners in unison.

Brian has got himself stuck in a self-pitying loop now, so the more people (entirely understandably, imho) edge away from his irrational and deranged ranting, the more it will reinforce his conviction that he's being treated with monstrous unfairness.

But he’s always had this tendency iirc - wasn’t he like this over his negligence that resulted in the poisoning of the Am, insisting that it wasn’t that bad, or if it was, it wasn’t his fault, and so on and so forth? I've blanked much of it out but that’s my abiding impression.

Brian is pure DARVO.

I don't think Miranda's particularly pompous. She just has "that voice" of someone who was privately educated in the 40s/50s.

Brian is creating narratives around everything which he fully believes make him the victim in all of his latest scenarios. He is incapable of recognising he is at fault. As vile as Adam is, Brian has been overly irrational and reactive in his responses (like calling the police!). Because he doesn’t see himself at fault, and in his narrative, it’s all about the farm, he can’t see that his relationship and access to Xander will be affected by his arguments with Adam. He probably thinks alls ok as long as they aren’t on and/or talking about the farm.

I can't see that "not having a relationship with Xander" is necessarily a bad thing.

He is incapable of recognising he is at fault. And he is used to getting his own way. I don't agree that Adam is vile - Adam has been running Home Farm practically single handedly. Brian is too old for the job and he is incapable of working with anyone else (see Stella). He can't even instruct Ed Grundy because he no longer has a proper hold on what needs doing. After a lifetime of being forgiven for everything (Jenny really was a saint!) he expects the same from Adam when it comes to Xander. He literally has no clue that he is being unreasonable. Likewise with Miranda - he expects to be able to mess her around, keep secrets from her and that she will forget all about it. It's quite funny that Kate - who possesses similar traits - is the one pointing this out to him. To my mind, Brian is the vile one and he has got away with it his entire life. The chickens are now coming home to roost. Adam has lost his protector in Jenny, but so has Brian who now has to answer for his own actions and face the consequences.

Yup!

I recognised her recently by her voice when she was on an episode or 2 of Smiley's People on iPlayer, made around the early 80s I think.

And of course she's Celia Johnson's daughter so grew up hearing those tones.

The cognitive dissonance of Brian simultaneously making it clear Adam is not his son and he feels no familial bond towards him whatsoever whilst moaning about not seeing his ‘grandson’ Xander is mind boggling. He can’t have it both ways and Adam is 100% correct (a sentence I never thought I’d write) to block access.

Jenny took Ruairi on as her own. I know the situation was different to the current one but all 5 children were raised as a single family and Brian’s comment to Adam and Debbie, designed to make it clear that they are not on an equal footing with the other three, was extremely cruel. Apart from that I have no sympathy for A&D.

..all 5 children were raised as a single family... They weren't really, there's a big age gap between Adam and Alice. Adam was away at school then university then Africa. He was about 21 when Alice was born.
I think Alice was an adult by the time Ruairi came to Home Farm.

I meant they were raised as siblings without a distinction being explicitly made over biological parentage. For many years Debbie was clearly Brian’s favourite.

I don't think Adam has ever been anyone's favourite, has he? If I may channel Nancy Mitford for a moment: "Goodness, how sad!"

Maybe Jennifer's because he was her first. Alice was a bit because she was a much easier child than Kate, as was Debbie.