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!

I knew I was doing something wrong 😖

We had carbonara the other day. No sides at all. Yum.

Alice & Rex? Too soon.

Clive stealing? Surely all they need to do is look at bank statements?

Paying to enter the fête? 4 of us so 12 pounds in advance or 20 on the day? Much less ice-cream cakes or drink if we're budgeting. So the storyline had better involve wailing and gnashing of teeth on kow the takings are way down.

Ok but I eat pasta all year round as do people in Italy (and many other hot places) and don't have a problem with it. Each to their own.

@Brefugee the problem is that Bert likes to receive his pension in cash. If Clive is collecting the money (from the bank or PO?) with Bert’s permission, and then using the cash, there surely won’t be much of a trail?

I took a bag out of the freezer yesterday that I thought was a bolognaise sauce, boiled spaghetti, opened the bag, sniffed it and oops.

There's no reason not to eat aubergine curry with pasta, but I decided against it.

I don't know whether spag with avocado, butter and grated cheese is stodgy, but I enjoyed it.

I'm sure Bert mentioned giving Clive his card to use at the ATM.

He did. I'm not sure it's even possible to get the state pension paid in cash any more. I wonder if Bert gets bank statements and if he ever looks at them. He can't have many bills to pay living with Tracy. She and Jazzer have probably taken over paying all the routine stuff.

Yes, @CaptainMyCaptain (the ATM might be at a bank, PO, or supermarket close to where Clive lives) but the withdrawal isn’t the issue, since Bert has given him permission.

It is a bit shocking to think of Clive disappearing for a weekend of beer and shagging on Bert’s money, and then reappearing with a loaf of bread and some milk, and putting a £20 note in front of his dad.

(I bet he doesn’t even pay for an Air BnB to entertain ladies. He probably has one or two regular dates, whose houses he turns up at, with flowers and wine, regular as clockwork.)

My bank continually whines at me to stop receiving bank statements and wants it all online. I am resisting because companies wanting ID invariably want actual documents not something you have printed out on your own printer even assuming you have one.

It's possible that nobody has seen a bank statement for Bert for ages. I assume he has been returned to Ambridge because whatever funds he had in his account in addition to his pension have now been removed by Clive.

Full disclosure: I eat pasta at least once a week. Whatever the weather. I am not Italian.

I'm all in favour of Alice and Rex moving in together and - hopefully - having a baby. I hope stay together. Alice is completely over Chris.

If Alice were on MN she'd be advised to decide how much rent to charge Rex and agree a share of the bills to prevent him becoming a "cocklodger." Fortunately, there doesn't appear to be a name for a female equivalent.

Surprised that the bank didn't pick up the abnormal amounts of cash being removed from the account in an unfamiliar location.
And £5 on the day to enter a village fête? Ridiculous. The last time I remember paying for such an event was when I was about 7 and it was sixpence. Pre-decimal, of course.

Ridiculously, paying rent and a share of bills are exactly the actions that support residency rights in a property, so they’re the worst possible thing to arrange with your new beau if he moves into your property.

D’you think the SWs might be looking towards proposed new rights for cohabiting couples? (I haven’t looked at the proposals so don’t know if they encompass one person moving into the other’s house.)

There always have been ‘rights’ in such circumstances if one can provide sufficient relevant evidence - though only to financial compensation rather than in the property. But most people haven’t wanted to go to court over it.

I'm amazed Rex is so easily giving up his houseboat. While the vessel loses value year on year, the mooring is gold.

He could rent out the narrowboat or sell it with mooring rights

It would be nice, in terms of keeping the river location in the story, if he could let or sell the boat.

I’m already wondering who in the village might appreciate an independent living space …

Maybe Keira in a few years, but not yet.

Ooh! Hannah? She’ll need a home soon and is always yearning for more secure (and probably un-shared) accommodation. But she doesn’t bring much entertainment value.

Both Lily and Freddie sound happy where they are.

Probably pointless to consider Ruairi’s immediate future. If he ever comes back he really ought to be housed at His Majesty’s Pleasure. I’m so disappointed that his relationship with Paul, and Paul himself, have been so resoundingly dropped by the SWs. They would have been delightfully lively houseboat residents.

I cannot stand Paul, or his mother, and the busier the actors are elsewhere the better.

Oh - another possibility!

Zainab and Chelsea. I doubt either of their families would be keen on their living alone on a houseboat - but sharing as housemates might be brilliant for them.

You seem to be taking my comment that a meal sounded stodgy as some sort of personal criticism.

Not at all. I just think pasta is a perfectly acceptable meal at any time of the year.

I don't mind Paul but his long unexplained absence is very odd. I just listened to the new BBC adaptation of Mansfield Park. Joshua Riley (Paul) played Tom Bertram. Totally different delivery. Unrecognisable.

Talking of Archers actors in other roles, I've also been listening to an old Dick Francis adaptation on Radio 4 Extra. To my utter astonishment, the lead role of dashing jump jockey/amateur detective Kit Fielding was played by Eric Allan, i.e. Bert Fry. Especially odd because his fiancee was played by Elizabeth McGovern, i.e. the Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey.

A "kept woman"?

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - Mansfield Park sounds a good use of an afternoon!

I love the novel (which I gather is very unusual - most people seem to hate it). I didn't love this adaptation. It was all right, but a bit rushed - two hour-long episodes wasn't enough, and there wasn't sufficient exposition at the very beginning to explain that the three sisters had made three very different marriages, and that set them on their markedly different paths in life. Mrs Norris is such a wonderful character and wasn't made enough of.

Pasta is one of the greatest foodstuffs known to humanity. I'd eat it 4 days a week if I could.

Mrs Norris is superbly written.