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!

Brian expects far more of his children than he does of himself.

None of the children are perfect but he has taught them that they have to be selfish and occasionally conniving to survive. He keeps them dependent on him with homes and jobs and incomes, that he can vanish away again when the weather changes.

Academic success is great because it gives you more options in life, but you need far more than academic ability to become successful in any chosen career. Personal qualities are enormously important. I see this in my extended family. The most successful and highest earners are not the ones with the brilliant degrees. What they have in common is being really good at communicating and getting on with people, highly organised, very hard workers, reliable and resilient. It also helps to enjoy what you do. Alice clearly didn't enjoy her previous career. Of course she limited herself by deciding that she had to stay in the Ambridge area to be close to Chris and his business.

I can’t remember, but did Brian stay schtum about Adam popping his fingers in the till to pay for the unnecessary rewiring?

Lilian now needs to turn up.

A chat between her and her favourite niece would be interesting.

Has Ruari already gone off to that residential job thingy?

Regarding the home farm partnership which I confess I don’t fully understand, should the land not have been absorbed into the partnership/limited company with shares allocated accordingly (or equal for ease), then everyone takes a share of the profits if there is one after all expenses have been paid, including a very healthy salary for Adam, the Farm Manager. This would avoid IHT (I think), allow Adam free rein to manage as he wishes - with oversight from the others - and the incentive to make as much money as possible so they all benefit from the profits.

I've been awake all night.

Kate was great. And Brad worrying about his lap top and scoring book. Has he drawn the lines himself?

Didn't Alice have an engineering-related job offer in Canada at some point? Sadly she couldn't escape the force field, or perhaps was afraid to. It strikes me that many of the Ambridge offspring aren't terribly good at completing the growing-up process.

He doesn't have to: he kept re-employing him.

Yes - but iirc then Chris got kicked by a horse and was badly hurt. She decided to stay to be with him.

I think Debbie is the one who has most successfully developed her own life, independently of the family, though I think the businesses are linked. And she gets an income as a partner. The others have all relied on Home Farm and family assets more directly for their home, their job, or land. This keeps them dependent and in each other’s pockets.

I can see why Adam might have felt morally entitled to some ‘lending’ for the work on his house, which he has to pay market rates for, when Alice and Kate have cottages. Wrong of course. But there are so many blurred lines.

Whilst it was awful of Brian to come out with the "not my children" line, not to mention dumping Ruari on Jenny back in the day, I'm still rooting for him. He did give Adam and Debbie a great start in life, he did treat them like his own kids, and they have done nothing but whine. Adam is nearly 60 years old, FFs, and still expecting his (step)father to give him everything he wants...... he's a horrible man.
So I'm very much Team Brian (and I love Charles Collingwood!).

I'm wondering if Clive's attendance at yoga classes is a forerunner to him having become fully vegan and having nothing but herb tea around. In which case Bert will be back on Tracy's doorstep within a day.

Just bookmarking and saying how pleased I am to find this thread. And, yes, Friday's episode was brilliant!

I was wondering something similar! Adam could have been the director and taken a larger share, or an equal share plus a salary. The rest are shareholders so still have stakes.

Did you miss the previous 198 threads, @ThingsAreNotWhatTheyWere?

If so, welcome!

(If you’ve been posting for ages just ignore me …)

I dont understand what you mean @echt? But yes I thought Brian had never told anybody about Adam’s theft but I cant remember why. But Fridays argument was the perfect opportunity for him to have said it in anger.

But aren’t you still upset with Brian for dumping you?! 😀

Recaps on Alice - though one can’t expect the BBC to be at all bothered about keeping the website up to date:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/32fHR6CBT7K1zGPV9JNf6ct/alice-carter

The Pip v Alice article is worth reading.

I didn't see those, no, but thank you for the welcome!

Anyone else going to any of the live shows this summer? We're going to the Nottingham one - looking forward to seeing "Brian" (and the others - although I have already seen Sunny Ormonde live before) in the flesh!

I don’t like either Adam or Debbie and they aren’t his children. However, he has been their father figure for - what - 50 plus years and they have both done infinitely more for Home Farm than any of his actual children. So it was a shitty thing for him to say, particularly when we know what Jennifer did for Ruairi, who similarly wasn’t her child.

So it was a shitty thing for him to say, particularly when we know what Jennifer did for Ruairi, who similarly wasn’t her child.
Hardly similar. Adam and Debbie were children from previous relationships, Ruairi the child from an extra-marital affair.

I'm not sure that Jennifer had a "relationship" with Paddy Wossname. More of a roll in the cowpats.

What's the 'groups' thing about then? Apparently I'm one of the first people to see it. Are you put in a group because you post frequently in a thread. I'm happy enough to be in an Archers group but wouldn't be so happy to be in a Greek Toilet Paper group.

Oh I agree. My point is that Jennifer did everything she could for Ruairi and was as much . Remember how Ruairi wanted her there for his mother’s message to him when he turned 18? She

Butter fingers! Jennifer was as much a parent to Ruairi as Brian (more so, possibly).

Yes, but Brian willingly took on being a stepfather, Jennifer didn't choose to be a stepmother.

Again, you’re right. But she did it, brilliantly. Which is why Brian’s “you’re not my children” feels unforgivable.