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!

I can't recall there ever being a pet dog at Brookfield. The sheepdogs have always been regarded as part of the farm working team, so maybe R&D don't really understand how much a pet dog means to someone. They're pragmatic about their animals, they don't grieve when they go off to the abattoir.
i've had dogs all my life, spaniels and terriers, all much beloved, and I think if one of them had done what Monty had I could never feel the same way about about it again. Poor Lynda and Robert.

Oh well thanks for that.

My point still stands about what it means.

Grey Gorbals - love it!

I just re-listened as I was also baffled.
Apparently the police send out "have you seen this person" photos to businesses showing persons of interest to them.
Mick thought he recognised a face as a Grey Gables visitor and Lily found him on CCTV.
In other words IMHO just an excuse to get Harrison and Lily chatting?

And there was a definite spark …

Imagine the creative team plotting:

Lily marries ‘Arrison.

The trustees put her in charge of LL. (🙄)

PC Plod throws up policing for the stately home lark - and becomes Fallon’s employer.

Decades of entertainment guaranteed …

That would be shark-jumping on an unprecedented level. Add in a Jewish girlfriend (or better still, boyfriend) for Khalil and ... Bingo!

I was hoping Azra would go round and throttle Ruth.

Actually, I'd be happy for anyone to throttle Ruth.

Lily shouldn't be subjected to another massive age gap relationship, Harrison must be 15 years older than her. She needs to get together with a nice heir( possibly titled) to another stately home, much bigger than LL, whose father dies quite soon so she can really be the lady of the manor. How anyone could bear to listen to Harrison's voice droning on and think it's attractive I don't know.

Khalil barged his way, uninvited, into the Brookfield kitchen. He was very aggressive and called D&R liars in their own home. He was lucky to get away with just being shown the reality of what had happened. He's 15 not 5.

This.

Has Lynda still got the llamas? I wondered if she’d be comfortable having Monty around them? I think Lynda has been played well through this storyline.

Good point about the llamas.

Plus he has expressed an interest in rural life and animals. Most farming children by this age would have a pretty good idea of just how red in tooth and claw the countryside can be. I expect Henry could tell him a few stories.

Couldn’t agree more. His behavior was unbelievable as was his ignorance about dogs. It’s ridiculously that Linda didn’t immediately understand that Monty was potentially capable of savaging sheep.

He also must be pretty much the only 15 year old boy in Britain who hasn’t seen hideously gruesome stuff online at some point.

It’s odd that this seems to garnering more objection than when David (?) posted pictures of sheep attacks on all his footpaths. To be honest, I’m surprised they haven’t done this again. And Khalil and Azra need to man up if they are going to live in the countryside. Life is not sugar coated. Watching an Attenborough documentary might be a start.
I think Ruth and David will be more pragmatic about animals, but that they are very capable of loving them as pets as much as any non-farmer. Anthropomorphalising animals does them (the animals) no favours. I’m sure Monty was a very loveable, cuddly bedhound, but he has big teeth, a big mouth, an instinct to hunt and kill and therefore poses a potential risk. As was then proved. Owners have a responsibility to mitigate that risk, whether that’s by the breed they have, the exercise and mental simulation they give the dog, the environment in which they keep it etc etc. Lynda and Robert are clearly not bad owners, but they failed in this task with devastating consequences (for Brookfield, for the sheep, for Monty, for Lynda and Robert and for Khalil). All but Khalil seem to recognise this.

@ExOptimist , Oh, I don't know. Brian is single as is Oliver. Either would be preferrable to Harrison.

@Abra1t , the most 'red in claw and tooth' stories would have been from his own home at the time.

@Gonners , the BBC wouldn't go there. They might pair Khalil with a Welsh or rich Christian boyfriend.

I fear The Archers has jumped the bark for me. The sooner this horrible Monty SL is over the better.

Last we heard one of the llamas had died and the Snells still had one.

They were Robert's llamas, not Lynda's, originally. She gave Wolfgang and Constanza to him for his birthday in 2003, and Salieri was born in 2007. Wolfgang died young in 2013 of old age and influenza; Constanza at 23 is coming towards the end of usual life-expectancy for a llama, I think.

and this @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime is why I love this thread. Always a definitive answer. Thank you!

That was annoying. Khalil is 15, not 5.

Right, I now have a theory!

Lynda & Robert left Monty in his kennel. Khalil, who is always welcome Chez Snell, came round, found them out and decided to play with Monty in the garden. The guest children came out and joined him.

Khalil then left the guest children playing with Monty and went off to do whatever. When their parents called them in for some unspecified parental purpose, the children left Monty in the garden. Cue escape through the broken gate, sheepicide, and return to be hosed down by the boys.

So wotireckon is that Khalil's distress is down to his part in the whole sorry affair ... because if that's what happened, it's technically his fault.

@Gonners , I was wondering something similar. In any case, I don't know any farmers that would have responded as Ruth and David did tonight.

As I said yesterday. And I can't imagine any livestock farmers (round here we have many!) apologising in such overblown terms. Khalil may be 'a child' but I bet he's a hulking great teenager, like the ones round here, and he shouldn't have been in their house anyway. Grrr.

It’s frustrating that I can’t see any recourse the Maliks have in law, regarding another adult showing their fifteen year old child graphic images of savaged animals. Because I’d very much like to see Ruth forced to defend her actions in public, under threat of punishment, reprimand, or at the very least, community opprobrium.