Archers thread #202: How are you finding your visits to Ambridge? Fill in your feedback forms 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 think working as a hotel receptionist is a perfectly reasonable career choice for a graduate from a family with a stately home, 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-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.)

Over to you!

I thought that was very realistic. If someone has been betrayed there can be a need to know and a fear of knowing at the same time.

I dislike both characters but they both acted so well, Harrison actually speeded up his delivery and talked at a normal rate for once.

I liked how he got very spiky when Fallon said Lily was young enough to be his daughter. He needs to get used to that type of comment when it all comes out publicly. Anyway it's true, biologically she could be.

There's a difference between wanting to know and being entitled to demand all the facts, though.

Great episode.

Surprised that Harrison is paying rent at The Bull though. For some reason I thought Jolene was doing him a favour. Or Fallon.

ExitPursuedByABare

Surprised that Harrison is paying rent at The Bull though.

I missed that completely!
That doesn't seem right. Presumably he's still paying part (all?) of the mortgage on Woodbine Cottage, where Fallon has better living conditions than he now has.

For some reason I thought Jolene was doing him a favour. Or Fallon.

It sounds like he's being totally used.

We have never learned whether that drama that was on over winter with Harrison angsting over someone at work who he fancied was rooted in reality or not. If it was, and he acted on it, it would explain both his prolonging of the time up north, and his apparent abject guilt now, letting Fallon drive their inexplicable living arrangements.

They need their silly heads knocking together.

And Lily blamed for everything, obv.

Some great posts, but this is the one that sums it up for me. I would also add that we listeners witnessed how the Lily/Harrison thing came about. Fallon is no doubt imagining that Harrison had long been lusting after Lily (in much the same way Lily hoped he might have been), but in fact it was far more a case of Lily making a play for him when he was feeling lonely and rejected. She, by her own admission, had a thing for Harrison and saw her chance. Harrison is pretty devastated that its over with Fallon and would go back to her in a heartbeat as we heard last night. Fallon is doing the classic I don't want him, but I don't want anyone else to have him routine. The ideal scenario for her was him working away so she could have the house to herself - she's actually quite happy to be alone and thinks he should be too. I don't think he's paying rent at The Bull, Jolene is doing them both a favour in the hope that what they need is a bit of space.
And for @noodlezoodle: Il n'est pas le pingouin qui glisse le plus loin - which I think was demonstrated by his naming of Lily last night which will have truly thrown the cat among the pigeons (jeter un pavé dans la mare - thrown a cobblestone in the pond). He didn't have to tell her, he could just have walked out - I don't think he's thought through the implications.

Love the French proverbs @LillianGish. And yes, Lily's the one making all the running; Harrison very much took her up on the offer. Not much initiative required on his part.

I don't mind Khalil but I care not a jot about Keira; it feels as though she's been shoehorned in for a long-running storyline about some kind of Important Issue, but because I don't really know her, I don't really care. (@noodlezoodle)

Thing is, we have to learn to care about Keira. She’s part of the future of a major Ambridge dynasty. Unless she dies it’s likely she’ll be in the story for the rest of our listening lives. (The chances of her scoring several A star A’Levels and evolving out of the village are slim - it happened for Mia because she’s not dynastically crucial. Though I hope one day she’ll influence Poppy’s life for the good. Phoebe’s in Scotland but Baby Peggy definitely still has a claim on her Ambridge heritage.)

I think it was Fallon that says he was paying rent for a room at the Bull. Why doesn't Fallon move back there so Harrison isn't paying twice?

Presumably so that Jolene and Kenton can be horrible to Harrison at their convenience when it all comes out…. And probably have a ‘scene’.

Maybe they’ll side with him rather than Fallon?

Kenton is sure to hold Elizabeth responsible, though!

I have extreme difficulty coping with Keira's habit of vacantly repeating 'Whaaaaaa?' when asked a question. Now I've heard it I just can’t unhear it.

Harrison has done no running for Lily, and he was very clearly hoping Fallon would say yes when he was saying they could talk it through and work it out. But he's going to be the one getting all the blame for abandoning Fallon and running after a younger woman, and with all the upset it's going to cause between Kenton, Elizabeth, and the wider family - it's been well set up.

He is isn't he. Which is great, because he can condemn Lily at the same time.

It’s wonderfully complex. IIRC Kenton was quite keen to turn Russ inside out and fry his guts on the nearest barbecue - and was a touch surprised that Elizabeth hadn’t drummed him out of town pronto, rather than coughing up for gooseneck kettles and bailiffs’s demands. But on the other hand he’s spent the last few weeks telling the world that Harrison is like a son to him, and always will be. Perhaps he’ll conclude the poor policeman was equally ‘vulnerable’ post break-up, and that this time it was Lily who took advantage?

Wont it be hilarious if Kenton and Jolene each back a different horse? 😹

@FullOfLemons , 6 weeks. Fallon ended the relationship. She should have known that women would have been sniffing round him in no time, and normally it's someone the STBXW knows.
IME, with a newly-single woman, it's the married/LTP men that are the sniffers.

@Ambridge , I thought it was a saying not a proverb. Like 'not the sharpest tool in the box' in English.

@AgentKim , if a woman doesn't want children then the man doesn't have a lot of choice. Whether or not they intend to have children, and what happens if that isn't an option, should be discussed BEFORE marriage.
He hasn't been a supportive husband - Fallon could have died but all he seemed to care for was the unplanned foetus that was highly unlikely to have ever been a baby.

@noodlezoodle , cut and paste 'pas le pingouin qui glisse le plus loin' into and English to French translator. I could do an approximation for you but you'd need to ignore my regional accent.
Pal-a-pang-wan-key-glees-lup-lool-wan
How do you say 'Ahr eh!' in French?

I thought it was a saying not a proverb. Like 'not the sharpest tool in the box' in English

@Every1ElseInKnowsley I don’t really care how Lillian's examples are classified, I just liked them 🤷‍♀️

@Ambridge , 🙄

Gah, I hate that you're right! As well as not caring about her dreary personality, I can't bear her voice. Guess I'm going to have to come to terms with it pronto.

I hate the whining and whinging. Very unlikeable.

She'll probably be ok after a while. George seemed awful to begin with.
Same goes for many characters we have grown to love like Jim and Tracy.
I've always liked Brad and Chelsea.

But except for Chelsea none of them have annoying voices. And this is radio.

@muddyford , I like Chelsea's voice. Could disagree about one or two other ones.

We're all different!

The worst voice is Usha’s, sounds somehow blocked off, I don’t have the right words to describe it, but I don’t like it.