Archers thread #201: Tempting fête in Ambridge? Free entry to 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 administer Bert's mucus medicine, 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/5538836-the-archers-spoilers-thread-12-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.)

There's a fair amount of stuff going on at the moment but I don't feel inspired to say anything more about any of it for now. Over to you - I hope you all have more enthusiasm than I do!

Whenever I heard Lynda talking about Monty in the past, it never once crossed my mind that he was a Doberman. They just don't seem to go together at all.

Monty (named after the Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery because he was an orphan) was introduced in 2018 as a Doberman, and thus perhaps an unlikely dog for Lynda to have fallen for completely on sight at the dog shelter; Robert was a bit taken-aback. On the other hand he ought not to have been too surprised, since Lynda's previous dog, Scruff, was also a large breed, an Alsatian cross.

Monty probably objected to being renamed after a woman. I expect his real name (in his head) was something like Fang.

Me too.

He might not want to admit to that other name now!

Elizabeth is reminding me powerfully of various historical dowager queens who were quite unkeen to give up power to their previously minor sons.

I don’t remember David seeing the offending dog running off.

I really don’t understand why Monty wouldn’t get out of the car at the fete. Most unusual for any dog and would warrant an immediate trip to the vet if it was my dog.

Also, agree Liz has some cheek separating the business from the house.

Yes, i do wonder if it's the end for Monty anyway, but he's going to die in custody rather than at home, and Lynda won't find it easy to forgive that.

Yes, the way the tiny cat who lives here is called "Deathclaw the Terrible" in her own head.

Monty might be after Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, or James Alexander Graham the Earl of Montrose, in his head.

Me too. I am currently watching Bridgerton - the last person in the UK to do so, I expect - and am waiting expectantly for George III to die, or at any rate for one of their many sons to pop up and challenge Queen Charlotte. (No spoilers please, I'm still working through series 4.)

It's ages since we heard Elizabeth and she's not improved, has she?

We need Julia/Joan, or her ghost, back to remind Elizabeth that she is 'just a farmer's daughter' and has no right to deprive a Pargetter of the Blood of his rights.

Now that really would be funny.

I would like Freddie to inherit and (once everything has been completely handed over so that there's no going back) marry Chelsea and turn the place into a massive hairdressing salon by day and a rave venue by night.

I think it’s quite a recent invention that the LL business is separate from the house - I thought the reason Freddie had been sidelined to the abattoir was so that he could learn to run a business. I don’t really understand how the business can be separate from the house. Everything takes place in the house - the business conferences, the orangery tea room, deck the hall, the art gallery (when it was up and running) - it’s not as if Elizabeth is running an entirely unrelated business out of an office in her flat. Everything she does requires the house in order to be viable.

All a bit reminiscent of the Home Farm partnership being separate from the land, isn't it.

Agree, without the LL estate there is no business.

It would have taken massive dog-washing talents to remove all civil evidence (including in mouth) wouldn’t it?
And would a dog be agitated or something after such a killing spree?

*visible evidence

I don’t think David saw the dog. From what I recall, we just heard him crying out in distress when he found the sheep. He would have mentioned it if he spotted a dog anywhere in the vicinity.

I don’t think he saw it, but he definitely heard it.

I agree with all of this and so I’m really annoyed about this storyline because it’s really unnecessarily traumatic, with no actual public announcement benefit. Not that I don’t find the public announcements, irritating by themselves.

Although Joan was a 'show girl' herself before marrying a Pargeter.

Which made the snobbery more amusing!

absolutely this
the entitlement is off the scale
poor Robert trying to orient her to reality and actually minimise the suffering of the dog
setting aside the cleaning up issue, I'm persuaded it will turn up to be the (formerly) nice boys...but I don't think we should be too harsh on them, if they are non-rural types, their thinking might have been 'let's take the lovely dog for a walk, poor thing left all by himself' and then, straying close to the sheep, I imagine it would be difficult to restrain an excited Doberman.

Lynda's deranged. That's a big powerful dog bred to guard and with a high prey drive. Being a soppy family pet doesn't negate that. I wouldn't say my Labrador wouldn't attack sheep if he was alone and they ran from him.

... and a greengrocer's daughter from Lewisham to boot!