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.

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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!

I thought this as well. That said, although my first child was a big ‘kicker’ (and her kicks were almost like clockwork, every day mid afternoon and then again early evening), my second child barely seemed to move at all. Perhaps Kirsty experienced the latter with Wren and so isn’t used to all the movement.

I didn't know George had a dog. It's rarely (if ever) mentioned these days.

Must say, I too feel unfamiliar with George’s dog. I don’t remember him saying he missed the dog while he was incarcerated; I don’t recall any Grundy discussion about who should look after it during that time.

So it was a surprise to me when the animal was brought into play to harass Kenton.

I don't even recall that ... maybe I missed the episode/s, or maybe my brain sent it to autodelete. Anything involving Kenton and/or Jolene often has that effect on me.

I was just musing on the Archers this morning, as you do, and thinking that they are a bit rubbish re police careers. So Harrison has been away for quite a while working on a massive investigation as part of a big team, probably a major drugs bust or OCG or counter-terrorism op. If I remember correctly, “Ma’m” seconded him to it as a bit of a reset/last chance saloon after he made a string of terrible decisions that blurred his professional and personal life. By all accounts he liked the work and it did the trick for him in terms of drawing a line under past shortcomings. And now suddenly we learn that his “dream job” is to be a rural crime officer? Really? I suppose perhaps his major op experience taught him that major ops was not the type of police work that floated his boat, but that has never been mentioned, and now he is straight back into a situation where he has to go and deliver difficult news to his friends and bump into his wife while doing so. Come ON. It’s so bloody plot-driven it’s painful.

Someone else like Asking will probably remember that Harrison went for a rural crime job before and either didn’t get it or got it and was bad at it, the details escape me. I also don’t know if he is from the city or the country in Lancs, but he’s always struck me as one of the characters who cares less for the countryside anyway. Can anyone remember how/when he first came on the scene, was it in his professional capacity to investigate a crime? I know he did arrest Fallon once.

I could have sworn Monty was a German Shepherd!

I remember this; only because I was sufficiently annoyed at the time to post (many threads ago) about the ridiculousness of the geriatric dog terrifying Kenton. After much to and fro'ing with Google AI it has conceded that the dog in question was "Holly".

Ed gave the labrador to George in Christmas 2013, apparently, and everybody had forgotten about it for the past 5+ years until George went to prison.
It shouldn't be confused with Will's puppy (Baz or Jip, depending on the SWr), that Ed had shot a few weeks before.

Where is Kenton, BTW?

Holly was George's Christmas present in 2013. It was a special PSA for how a dog is for Christmas, not for life. From what I remember, she's a Labrador cross. It was Emma who gave the dog. Ed shot Baz.

Harrison is from Bolton (not rural) IIRC.

Monty is definitely not a GSD.

I find the continued mention of Wren as a half-brother to the twins and Kirsty’s unborn child mawkish and bizarre.
I don't understand it at all. They don't need to know.

They might need to know about it when they're older - it would be unpleasant for them to hear from someone else.

Rochelle was the most disappointing SL in a long time. Disappointing is not the word I'd be thinking of.

Well unless George's dog is a Labrador crossed with something with a longer lifespan, she's likely to be on her last legs paws by now.

Wasn’t Scruff a German Shepherd?

We’d be no good as witnesses to a murder investigation would we?!

He was a mongrel, possibly a GSD-cross.

@Gonners , exactly. She'd be old at nearly 13.

My first Labrador died in 2005 at 13 and eleven months. Second died in 2021 and was nearly 16. On that basis current boy will be 18 or 19 when the time comes. All different breeders.

@muddyford , I bet you don't let your dogs get fat.

I hope that Monty is found to be innocent and that Harrison is hounded out of the village by the dog lovers.

I would love it if it were Monty. The Snell is so smug and superior and this would be a brilliant way to bring her down a peg. Unfortunately I agree that it is probably impossible that Monty could disappear for an hour or so without her noticing.

The Anne-Marie/Susan scene in the shop was very boring. Would Susan really have been so meek and sympathetic to AM after she had accused her of stealing the cot?

I don't let them get fat! But they have all been the cobby working type not the lurchery-looking one with narrow heads too often seen today. So like my late DH, a Royal Marines officer, stocky and extremely fit! They don't wear his green Commando beret, though it's a thought for Armistice Day...

@muddyford , I knew you wouldn't. I'd ask the dog if he wants to wear the beret. Sorry for your loss.

@JoelenesParrot . Anne-Marie is what Susan thinks of as socially superior to her, and she doesn't want to upset things with George.
I don't find Lynda smug, she's just Lynda. I find Pip smug.

Someone else like Asking will probably remember

Not seen Asking around these parts for a while.

I was wondering where asking was!

Asking is around just seems to be posting less frequently.

I would like it to be Monty to demonstrate that even much loved pet dogs that wouldn’t harm a fly can worry sheep. That said, we’ll need a convincing reason why Monty was on the loose and why Lynda didn’t notice. I’ve picked up every reference since the attack because I’ve been listening out for it, but can’t remember if there was a random mention of Monty having wandered off before that.

Aah I always forget that sarcasm doesn't come across well in writing. I didn't think George's dog menaced Kenton, I just used the word to exaggerate because I was annoyed at yet another instance of the SW being so utterly weird about anything involving animals. Kenton runs a village pub, he sees dogs every day. At the very least, he would have already had numerous run-ins with over-friendly dogs long before the SW remembered George's dog (I also didn't know he had a dog until that episode). I don't buy it that he's going to suddenly be alarmed by any of the usual dogs that have been mooching around the village for years just because some scumbag has set his dog on him, it's as absurd as George developing a phobia of bottles.

Someone said upthread, none of the SWs can have any kind of experience with anything other than a goldfish. I would go a step further - none of them seem to have ever even met someone who knows anything about animals. Budgies hiding in wardrobes and life-long horse people being downright shocked when a horse so much as spooks at its own shadow, and don't get me started on the vets who always sound like they have just googled whatever condition their patients present with 😆

I have gone down the rabbit hole of dogs in the Archers, George's dog is a border terrier, Ruby a dachshund, Bess I assume border collie as she's a sheepdog, Meg a working spaniel, Monty a doberman, Cleo a terrier cross. Furthermore Scruff was a GSD cross and of course Jack Woolley's beloved Captain who apparently was a Staffordshire bull terrier but in my mind was a red setter.

Ruby a dachshund 😱

Jack Woolley's beloved Captain who apparently was a Staffordshire bull terrier

My namesake. (It's what Jack said when poor Captain died. Not a reference to the poem)