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!

Keira was weird: "As long as you don't disappoint me". Or is it the SWs? What teen speaks like that? She came over as creepy and manipulative.

Strictly speaking the sheep would be the mothers of the lambs - they won’t get sent to the abattoir. The lambs are a different matter. But in any case they aren’t mauled to death. I think Monty has to die for this to be a proper PSA. Surely the point of the story is that even the loveliest pet dog and one that you know personally can savage sheep and that if that happens then said dog must pay the price, the idea being that this will remind dog owners and dog lovers like Khalil of the importance of keeping dogs under control at all times in the countryside. If David and Ruth just went “Oh alright then, we know Monty wouldn’t hurt a fly usually” the point would be slightly lost.

So it was definitely Monty that mauled the sheep? I get that having a sheep mauled by local dog SL is a necessary public service announcement but I’m upset that it’s Monty. I’d rather it was some arrogant walker who refused to leash their pit bull.

And Keira? I’m behind on listening but what’s up with her and Amber?

She knows about the kiss.

I’d rather it was some arrogant walker who refused to leash their pit bull. But that would not work as a PSA - who would identify with an arrogant dog walker or compare their pet to a ferocious pit bull? This is message to ALL dog owners to keep dogs under control on a leash and to ensure they are secure at all times and can’t get out on their own. We are supposed to be upset it is Monty - he is supposed to feel like our dog so we make sure this can never happen to our dog (if we have one - and even if we don’t, if we should happen to be in charge of someone else’s dog).

One thing about this storyline is that it's (finally!) bringing me round to the side of NuRobert, who sounds increasingly irritated by Lynda. It's only a matter of time before he snaps and announces that he'd rather go and live with Cardamom or Asafoetida than spend a minute more listening to her.

Well, that's the reality of being a farmer, and also of living in a country where the great majority of the population choose to eat meat as part of their diet. The UK has some of the strongest protections for farm animals in the world, I believe, but there's no getting round the fact that if we're going to eat meat it has to come from a dead animal, so there have to be abattoirs. I am happily omnivorous and have no problem with this.

I venture to suggest that a good many humans would be happy to have a good if short life and then be swiftly and humanely despatched before their quality of life deteriorates. I know I would.

No need to lecture me. I know Ruth is a farmer. I know the realities of farm life including that of a dairy herd. And what happens in an abattoir. Don't fool yourself the slaughter process is humane and, for the love of god, don't turn this thread into a discussion on that. I do find it ironic that Ruth described the lambs/sheep as innocent.

If they'd wanted to do a PSA, Lynda should have witnessed the mauling rather than the cock and bull story about the funeral going guests. I saw near miss whilst walking in the Lakes. One terrier disturbed a whole herd of sheep and, fortunately, its very fit owner managed to run up the hill and catch it before it did any physical damage. Obviously the pillock should have had it on a lead.

I'm going to fast forward through any more Monty stuff as he's clearly going to be destroyed. I hate Ruth anyway but she should have gone for the community resolution. She's being vindictive because she knows Lynda and Robert wouldn't let him do it again.

Is it possible another dog mauled the animals, then monty just turned up and thinking someone had left meat out, ate some? It's just the way Khalil was so hysterical, is it because he knows the real culprit but doesn't want to grass it up? Did Monty witness the carnage and was then wary when he saw the perpetrator at the pet show?

Ruth and David were so self righteously true to type, I'd love it if some dog at least vaguely related to them was guilty. Stella's perhaps?

Amber has put her entire future in Keira’s little teenage hands. Big mistake. Huge. She really should mention the kiss to George herself as I wouldn’t trust K to keep quiet about it forever. I think G would be able to get over a one-off snog ok (though sex would be a different story). He might kick off initially but he would soon calm down once the baybee turns up. If she keeps quiet, and it comes out years later, then that could be problematic.

I think she and Robert have apologised, via Harrison? She hasn't had any opportunity to apologise direct as she wasn't allowed to contact anyone at Brookfield.

I’m wondering why Ruth kept incredibly distressing photos of the dead sheep on her phone. They will have been automatically uploaded to the Cloud so no need keep
the images on her device. It’s not the kind of thing you’d imagine anyone would want to keep to hand.

@Scotiasdarling I was waiting for Khalil to reveal the real culprit, it sounded as if that is where his hysterical intervention was going.

I hate Ruth anyway but she should have gone for the community resolution. She's being vindictive because she knows Lynda and Robert wouldn't let him do it again.

It's not just her decision, it's David's also. I'm on their side with this. Lynda and Robert can't guarantee that he won't do it again unless they are going to be on. 24 hour guard, or keep him locked indoors. I assume there would also be conditions around muzzling him and keeping him on a lead for exercise, so it would be a pretty miserable life for him anyway.

the point about keeping your pet safely locked up is that Monty was in his kennel and locked in, the little scroat guests let him out.

Agree. Once a dog has gone rogue once, it can never be trusted

Returning to Lower Loxley, what exactly do we think happens when Freddie finally inherits? Will he have any work to do (unrelated to Elizabeth's precious business, obviously) and if so, who has been doing said work since Nigel's sad demise? Will it provide Freddie with an income? I honestly can't remember what Nigel used to do that was separate and distinct from Elizabeth's precious business. Its all feels a little .... unexplained.

I don't think it was quite like that. If I'm remembering correctly (and I can't be bothered to check, I'm afraid) the garden gate was not properly closed and the Snells knew that, but had gone out and left Monty anyway. The boys may have let Monty out of his kennel but they didn't know the garden wasn't secure. They later found Monty returning to the garden and cleaned him up. (That's the iffy bit, of course, but we'll have to accept that's what the SWs have decided happened.)

Didn't they run it together? Nigel recruited Jessica the falconer, IIRC. He may also have had the idea of a vineyard.

Since Nigel's death there used to be someone called "Glenn" who was employed as the "manager", and I don't think he was managing the business because there was also a manager of the business at whom Elizabeth threw a snit and she resigned. I think she was called Geraldine.

At one point Elizabeth proposed to sell some of the Lower Loxley Estate land to pay for her business to turn the (suddenly invented) Old Dairy into accommodation for conference and wedding guests, presumably part of her business and not the estate, so the division between estate and business was non-existent then. Estate land being used to benefit the business is no sort of division at all, and nor is selling property from the attic of the house – even if there would have been nothing up there after the dry rot and the death-watch beetle had each in turn required the roof to be rebuilt and the attics cleared so that could be done. And the interior fixtures and fittings (paintings and furniture and staircases and everything else the public pay to come and look round) are surely part of the Pargetter estate, not the property of the catering and conference business.

It was definitely Monty, the DNA test and the B &B guests proved it.

She wouldn't need to look at them on her phone unless she chose to, presumably kept them because of the ongoing case.

None of my photos have been uploaded to the Cloud, they're just on my phone, I've never saved any document or photo to the Cloud, so maybe Ruth is the same.

I think they said it was Doberman dna. In my mind that leaves room for doubt that it was Monty.

They knew it was doberman.
So they tested Monty as he was the only doberman in the village, and got a match.

On I see! Disappointing.

You've jogged my memory! Roy was a manager, of course. But he seemed to work very closely with Elizabeth (too closely at one point).

But who's managing now?