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!

Was Anna telling Alan to get off her mother’s banking app meant to signal she thought Alan might be siphoning off funds? That’s how it sounded to me. I wonder what Alan has actually deleted.

... maul some sheep, and then sprints straight back home, and nobody sees him.
Khalil saw him and cleaned him up, and that's why he wouldn't get out of the car.

I got the impression Anna was pissed off that Carol was asking Alan to do things that it would be more appropriate for her to do, as the daughter. She was also pissed off that Alan didn’t wait for her to start the service.

I think she is just frustrated and hurt, and wants an ally, and sees Alan as enabling Carol.

Yes what did Carol get Alan to
delete?? Or was the point just to rile Anna?

I was thinking earlier that I don't really have much idea of what Lower Loxley is like. I mean, yeah, stately home, got it. But are we talking 10 bedrooms, or 50? Stables, grounds, outbuildings, formal gardens? Now that I'm typing this, I'm starting to realise that my ignorance is even worse than I thought, because I think I may have been combining it in my mind with Grey Gables into some kind of... posh supercomplex. Oh heck. What was I thinking 🤦 I must have somehow tied them together because Lily works at GG.

@PuggyPuggyPuggy ,

LillianGish · 03/03/2023 09:08
I always imagine that THIS is Lower Loxley.

Somebody posted a link to the stately home that Lower Loxley is meant to be based on but I can't find it. I think it was Hanbury Hall | Worcestershire | National Trust

My pp is not how I see Lower Loxley.

whereas I just want to know if there’s a Middle and an Upper Loxley.

Carol wanted to sort out direct debits to charities and asked Alan how to delete the ones she no longer wanted to support. I would ask a trusted ( especially ordained) friend before impatient family too. I don't particularly like Carol and think the acting is patchy, but Anna is insufferable.

Gosh where did you dredge that up? I think the photos have changed since I posted the link - definitely not giving LL vibes with the scorched lawn and pink tents! I picture Charlcote Park because I’ve been there and it’s somewhere I know.

I think Carol must be very exasperating for Anna. Anna wants to help but Carol blocks her at every turn and then tells others that Anna is 'too busy' or whatever.

Anna wants her mother to accept the help Anna thinks she needs when Anna thinks she needs it. Carol asks people she trusts. Anna can't even buy a cold drink without flinging it over the other customers before hurtling out with her 'phone. Missing the remembrance malarkey was unfortunate but to say Anna isn't 'busy' is belied by circumstances.

Carol didn't even give Anna the chance, though. If she'd said, "we're doing it at X time," Anna could have moved things round - it clearly was important to her (though I doubt she imagined it going the way of "I think you should forgive me for how we had affairs, regardless of how you were affected,") but Carol just didn't tell her - thst was sly and underhand. Anna is busy, but it doesn't mean she shouldn't even be given a chance.

thanks for those @Every1ElseInKnowsley Charlecote and Hanbury Hall have actually just made the "to visit" list now that NT are being more dog tolerant in more places. Although I never really get to see imside the properties because, dog.

whereas I just want to know if there’s a Middle and an Upper Loxley.
I always play that game when I'm driving around the countryside 😁

That was very unfair of Carol. She is manipulative.

Manipulative and mean.

Richard was Anna’s brother.

Agreed! I usually have no trouble distinguishing voices but I had to rewind that before I could grasp who was in the scene.

I wasn't listening decades ago when Carol Tregorran was a regular. Was she always like this? What a cow. Poor Anna.

I don't agree with that! Carol has point blank refused all sensible offers of help - carers, cleaner, joining groups. She made the decision some years ago to move to Ambridge which has placed her further away from Anna than she was before, IIRC. Anna is still working and has a life in ?Bristol, which is where I think she lives. It's a bit rich to expect her to drop everything to minister to her mother, especially when her mother is not particularly grateful or considerate.

I thought Carol behaved abysmally in tonight's episode and Anna was right that Alan should not have helped with the banking app. I hope Anna has made sure she has power of attorney in place so she can speak to the bank, but it would be entirely in character if Carol had refused to set it up.

(The Carol storyline is touching nerves for me, as I expect it is for several others. My mother is far more reasonable than Carol, and I'm nothing much like Anna and have a brother who is fortunately alive and well and doing an excellent job of supporting our Mum now she is in a nursing home near him, but even so ...)

Agree that Lilly and Amber sound the same.
Odd conversation - is Amber considering running off to Australia with Brad?
Why wouldn’t Elizabeth employ Lilly instead of the sainted Fallon?

I think Amber just spotted someone she felt she could connect with (youngish, poshish), asking about Australia was just making polite conversation.
Amber needs some friends in the village.

Advanced search. It was the Hanbury Hall one I was looking for. Neither of them look like 'my' Lower Loxley Hall.

Maybe the Australia interest was to make us notice that Amber has ambitions and dreams which will rear their head in a probably unhelpful way in a year or two?

Oh … @ForAmberPoster.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh!

Can’t stand Bert Horrobin why does everyone let him get away with being a horrible old man