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!

If that should turn out to be true, I will personally smash the Boreball to smithereens. So tell it to think on.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g , I was referring to the quote.

She sounded utterly deranged.

I wish Harrison had replied "no problem. I'll just move back into my house. Fallon, luv, pack your bags. You're moving in with your mum."

When Plod briefly floated the idea of a reconciliation with his apoplectic wife I did think a Pargetter-Burns baybee might be an entertaining third party in their revived marriage.

Both women pregnant might be a bit much.

Like Rhett Butler, I wonder what a decent interval is in Archerland.

Fallon and Jolene are bonkers.

I thought she sounded perfectly normal for someone who had offered her home to her very recent ex son-in-law, only to find out he'd been fucking her husband's niece.

In real life 6 weeks after separation is incredibly soon to start a new relationship, and if people do it they're frequently criticised, told they're on the rebound etc.

It's normally acceptable to wait until you're actually divorced for a start.

It’s six weeks… but he was away for a long time and had turned down an opportunity to return much earlier. They have been growing apart and living apart for a long time.

Also, while things can happen off screen, they had dancing + kiss in a bar, then a discussion to have nowt to do with each other, then moving chairs and shagging. That's when you're thinking, this is fun, might go long term, but way too soon to tell, not telling everyone you're in a relationship and you're sure.

I really think he ought to do this. It makes perfect sense.

I thought she sounded perfectly normal for someone who had offered her home to her very recent ex son-in-law, only to find out he'd been fucking her husband's niece

She didn't sound normal by any standard.

And she didn't offer a room to be kind - she was doing it because her daughter didn't want to be the one to move out.

Another Team Harrison. I thought it was so insensitive of Fallon to say he was old enough to be Lilly’s dad (isn’t the age gap 15 years) when she knows he was desperate to be a dad. Agree with someone who said she’s a spoilt madam. And as she’s a professional cook why does she think its odd to have a fire extinguisher in any kitchen?

I think her reaction was normal. I'd have said a hell of a lot more to him.
Whatever her motives for offering him the room she didn't have to do it yet she chose to.

Having found out about Lily I don't see why Fallon should be remotely sensitive to Harrison's feelings. He deserved everything he got from her. I hope he and Lily have a very hard time over their unwise liaison. It was true anyway, he is just old enough to be Lily's father biologically.

Lily’s feet are getting cold

My flabber is somewhat gasted that, in a scenario involving both Lily and Fallon, it’s Fallon being described as the spoiled madam.

I think Jolene was hoping that by giving the couple space, the relationship would recover. But more cynically she wants her daughter to have the house if it comes to it.

Not if I get there first 😂

H sounded a bit clunky when he said to L that this could be ‘long-term’. I don’t know anyone who would say that after a couple of dates, a few White Russians and a shag. That was v unlikely. He is a copper and supposedly lives in the real world yet he went along with F’s ludicrous instruction that he confesses all to Joelene there and then. And then allowed J to harangue him. He is being far too decent a pushover and really needs to toughen up and stop being so mousey.

I wish he had told J to back off and said he was moving back into the cottage and calling an estate agent in the morning to get the place on the market. Or he could advertise on the station WhatsApp group and get a lodger in to keep the mortgage ticking over if F moves out. There is bound to be a new PC looking for digs out there. He may even be able to pay F off and keep the cottage if he had a lodger. He has made sound financial choices and didn’t his parents help him with the mortgage originally so may be they could help again? Police salaries are not negligible so I actually think he could make the sums add up so he can stay. This is Ambridge, not Fulham, so how much can a two-bed cottage actually be?

I really should get on with the rest of my day and stop speculating on H’s financial position in such detail…ridiculous!

I thought Harrison's "this could be long term" was very on-brand. He's not really a player; he wants a wife and family. I don't think he really wants it with Lily though, he's just lonely and very much on a rebound. I've always thought he was a bit of a nob but I'm feeling a teensy bit sorry for him at the moment.

I wonder if Fallon will try and refuse Harrison access to his own home now she is so obviously pissed off.

She needs to tread carefully as upsetting Lily could well cost her her lovely new job.

I can't see the Harrison/Lily relationship being one term. They have virtually nothing in common and she will be bored senseless before long.

Harrison is being very flaky. Suggesting getting back with Fallon then telling Lily he sees their relationship as long term and calling her sweetheart. Making my toes curl.

But I agree, he and Fallon haven’t been on the same page for a long time and I’m sure something went on whilst he was up North so I don’t necessarily see it as too soon to get involved with someone else. But maybe not Lily 🫣

I agree. And I'm now thinking that when she said: "This is nothing like Russ", what she in fact meant was that Russ was a long and serious relationship whereas this is just a bit of fun. What's astonishing to me is that I genuinely don't think Lily was on Harrison's radar, but after a kiss and a shag he's now thinking long-term. That's some rebound. Jolene's reaction was entirely predictable and I'm not sure why he didn't see that coming. He really isn't the sharpest tool in the box and for that reason alone I can't for the life of me see why anyone would find him attractive.