Archers thread #200: Trouble in Ambridge! (All 200 threads could have had this title.) 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 love to be Brian's child or stepchild, 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.)

Over to you!

It could be Amber's mother or someone she has spying on George. Maybe it's school mum stalking Helen because of Jack bullying her kid.
Maybe it's the Titcheners' spy waiting to kidnap Jack.

What do we think of George "selling" Amber to her parents? 🙃

In what way?

Lottie sounds like a cross between Pip and Alice to me...

The exposition around Chris and Lottie’s developing relationship was utterly leaden. Didn’t sound as if the SW has much faith in the audience.

When he upsold the stand at the fair to Amber's mother.

He convinced her by letting her know Amber would accompany her all day.

I am sure he knew that Am =ber would not like it...

She sounds like a child to me.

And there is no chemistry there at all.

More like a friendship or brother sister.

@MarmaladeorJam , I took it as he has no idea what her parents are really like, and that he can be bought. He doesn't seem to take what she says about them seriously.
He's young and he's always managed to manipulate his parents so doesn't realise how controlling her parents are.

The Chris and Lottie 'relationship' doesn't ring true for me either.

OMG - I was right!!!!

About Spiritual Home …

😁

I think it’s a great idea re spiritual home. And Kate definitely needs to get off Home Farm and away from Brian.

Will Kirsty and the others agree though?

God, Kirsty is beset with self centred Archer descended women! First Helen, then Kate! They’re all completely incapable of caring about her.

On the subject of chemistry (or possibly a lack of it between the woodentop actors), I happened to visit a cheese factory this afternoon (am on hols).

I watched a demo of cheesemaking (so rennet added to warm milk, left to rest, then cut and stirred and squeezed into cheese and whey. The demonstrator commented that the whey (liquid bit) can be turned into butter and/or dried into a powder that, amongst other things, is used for cosmetics.

A good opportunity for Tash (as I don’t think we’ve ever been told what Helen does to make cheese, other than swan about). FWIW the demo ‘cheese’ needed 8 pints of milk to make 500g of cheese.

I did enjoy Amber's dad telling George that the problem between Amber and her mother is basically that they're very alike. That should give George something to look forward to!

mmm, I'd been warming to Amber's dad as possibly the more reasonable of the two, but I'm really not liking the way his relationship with George is going.

hoping the SUV driver is a Titchener spy

Bill said something about which SUV to drive, so it's probably Amber's mum spying on Will's house.

To be fair to George, he doesn’t seem to be interested in Amber for the money. Given that he’s seen his own parents facing hardship, that says a lot. He’s certainly a complex character.

Interesting point.

On the one hand, I wonder if the baby is bringing out the best in the character.

On the other, I think he could sway quite quickly!

He's on a roll right now because he's busy. A few weeks ago the world owed him a living.

I could have done without Amber's dad sharing every gulp of his drink. Bleurghh.

That was excruciating. As was the tea drinking

I wish Kirsty would stop saying ouch! Everytime she is on, I keep worrying that its something to do with baby pain and she will lose it. I hope she doesn't that would be really horrible.

I went on a village oldies bus trip a few weeks ago, and one of our activities was an hour on a lake boat with a bar whose astonishingly long gin menu included one distilled from whey (is that what young Fairbrother was doing?). I had a nice (paper) cup of tea.

Which reminds me that Ambridge used to have an over 60s bus trip each summer, often to Weston Super Mare. They lost Uncle Tom on one of them.

He returned next episode, slightly muddy but unharmed, but he had delayed the bus a near-criminal offence.

We once used to have jersey heifers which we sold at around a month after calving so had to milk them, and ended up with vast amounts of milk. I made plenty of butter, but got bored with that so thought I’d try cheese making. Bought a book and realised it’s a little more complex than anticipated. Mozzarella seemed the easiest so I started out full of enthusiasm. A full Mason Cash mixing bowl produced (after scalding my hands - the milk had to be properly hot) 3 very small, hard balls, approximately 2cm diameter. I was never tempted to try again, and shocked by the amount of milk needed.