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 dislike Jolene's the most. No Ruth's! No Pip's! So many to choose from.

Helen has a very attractive voice.

With Carol and Anna, I don't think they love or like each other. Anna has a sense of duty but feels resentful. Hence when she said "I just want my mum," it didn't ring true.

Pat's voice. I loathe it. urgh. (followed by Debbie)
And then Jolene's coming very close behind.

I like Alan's.

The rest? well i can't tell Lily and Amber apart.

With Carol and Anna, I don't think they love or like each other. Anna has a sense of duty but feels resentful. Hence when she said "I just want my mum," it didn't ring true

@BeatriceBatchelor I think Anna’s wish is to have Carole as the kind, loving mum she needs, and time is running out. There is a deep, deep hurt in having a mother like Carole.

I hadn’t considered that, @Darker - thank you.

Through all the ups and downs of a mother / daughter relationship, (including all the years when we lived on different continents, contact was difficult, and we saw each other rarely) my overriding feelings are of deep joy and gratitude for having had my mother as my mother. And I may have another thirty odd years to reflect on that.

Poor Anna may be facing a very different prospect if their entire relationship was fundamentally unsatisfactory. She’ll have a long time to sit with those feelings after Carol dies. It’s not a pleasant thing to think of.

Somebody mentioned ages ago something that I'd forgotten, but I hope the SWs haven't - Harrison arrested Freddie for peddling drugs at an event at Lower Loxley and of course Freddie ended up in prison. LL had some licensing issues as well, IIRC, and of course this is why the trustees have not handed over control to Freddie at the expected time. All of that was entirely Freddie's own fault, of course, but I wonder how he and Elizabeth will feel about his twin sister taking up with Harrison. He could have turned a blind eye or just had a quiet word, but did the principled and professional thing and handled the incident by the book, in a way that he hasn't always acted since.

I think the only other time Harrison handled an incident by the book was when he arrested Fallon's father, also at Lower Loxley and also for dealing drugs. Mostly he has been a truly poor policeman in almost every respect, and I can't think why his boss has continued to put up with him all this time.

And one of the times was not quite by the book, either, given that Harrison was off-duty, at a party and drunk when he arrested Freddie, I seem to remember.

It has been cunningly plotted - I’ll give the SWs that.

im only half way through the omnibus today but the Carol/Anna story is feeling very close to home for me. I can imagine people looking in on my conversations with my dad at points and wondering if i even liked him - i loved him immensely but was wrung out at dealing with the bizarre behaviour, the anger and cantankerousness as he declined, dealing with multiple doctors and medical appts, social services… and he hadnt always been the best parent so it was sometimes conflicting. Someone mentioned up thread that elder siblings tend to be the most involved and therefore the most grumpy which was certainly true with my siblings - i always felt they did the fluffy emotional stuff while i was stuck with the paperwork and driving around… some little moments are particularly well drawn - as someone mentioned upthread the mix of guilt and relief when someone else like alan turns up to take a little bit of slack is an odd feeling to sit with.

so much as to say I think its very well done all in all, and kind of thereapuetic to listen to. Perhaps it would have been better to have this storyline done with Jill and Brookfield, but i wonder if this is just a way of SWs containing the angst a little into a smaller set of characters rather than splitting all the stress across the entire clan which might be a bit to listen to on an ongoing basis.

The 🔮 suspects that Anna will distract herself from her woes by falling in lurve with Stella. Who will reciprocate, thus banjaxing the Brookfield nuptuals.

Bring. It. On.

I haven't been listening, but if this happens and makes Pip unhappy so that she leaves Ambridge for New Zealand or somewhere, I am all for it.

And if Anna and Stella then also leave Ambridge my grief would be containable.

I’d be quite happy if Anna & Stella stayed on as the next iteration of Lynda and Robert!

That slot isn't available. It's reserved for Ick and Oy.

Good! Jolene.

Now magnify that disgust and scorn for application to Lily and tell everyone in the Bull.

It's excellent, because even if Lily dumps him by Tuesday, which it sounds as if she's going to, both of them will be on the bad people list and he'll have extra heartbreak.

Should have kept your pants zipped Harrison.

Lily wanted an illicit thrill not a relationship.

And she could have had that, but choosing a small village setting where she's related to a couple of dozen people including her target's wife's stepfather, and connected to many more, was really dumb.

Oh, tonight was 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

But @Every1ElseInKnowsley I am not amused.

So in Jolene's book, conspiring to do someone out of their rightful share in a house equals showing "hospitality". Right...

🤦‍♀️ Harrison - Friday you were trying to give it another go with Fallon and now you ‘sure’ about Lily - just go back up north.
Although not impressed with Fallon either tbf

Obviously men rebounding into the nearest sentient female is a thing.

But it wasn’t Harrison who decided the marriage was over. It’s patently ridiculous for Fallon to feel she has a right to control his interactions with other women going forward. And forcing him to ‘confess’ to her mother? Frankly weird.

Loved Jolene's Peggy Mitchellesque "get out of my pub".

They have all been behaving badly, but Harrison seems the most straightforwardly biology-driven. Fallon likes living alone, Lily is a thrill-seeker, Jolene likes over-dramatising situations. None of them have a clue about themselves.

He just needs to remember the thing about zips.

@TottersBlankly , I don't think anyone could fill Robert and Lynda's shoes but I like Hoy Jorville. I also like Stella and there's her link to Justin to be revealed.

Hope the BoreBall is right. 🔮

The BoreBall (love it!) aka 🔮™️ also predicted on the last thread that Lily and Fallon would both turn out to be upduffed