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 also lol’d at Joy, as I’d just jokingly predicted it to myself. She really is the Miss Rabbit of Ambridge.

Woodbine does need to be sold, sooner rather than later. I hope Lily laughs Carpet back to Yorkshire, she definitely doesn’t want to settle down and that conversation was utterly cringe. Weird that they don’t have Alice in the cast for this storyline, isn’t she supposed to be Fallon’s best friend? It would be on brand for her to offer Rex’s boat to Fallon. Actually, now I think about it, the soapy way to go is for Rex to offer it to Harrison and Alice to offer it to Fallon 🙄.

Elizabeth is a disgrace. She took Fallon’s ideas, didn’t keep her in the loop, then pressured her into taking the job on crap terms, with a resentful Freddie thrown in for good measure.

Also this shitty little job she has got is paying her a pittance,Why?. How much does she expect to be payed when everything is up and running in January?
I bet Elizabeth will not want to pay her very much at all.
Wasn't there a storyline where people got 'jobs' at Lower Loxley as guides then realised they were going to be working as volunteers? Proper entitled Lady of the Manor stuff.

There was. I thought it showed Elizabeth up as not just exploitative but borderline corrupt. Makes me wonder why she is so keen to avoid the turnover to Freddie with the scrutiny of records that will come with that.

Mention of Elizabeth’s volunteers reminds me that I recently spent a day here, primarily for the White Cube exhibition - and found Lower Loxley constantly in my thoughts. The house was very much how I picture LL - though without the busy theme park endeavours across the grounds. And no dedicated art gallery: the painting and sculpture seemed to rise organically out of whichever space it was in. But it was fabulously well curated - I don’t see how Fallon is qualified for this, in terms of scholarship, or connectedness, or pulling power. She’d surely have to engage a curator for every separate event.

The volunteers were very lovely.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/oxfordshire-buckinghamshire-berkshire/claydon-house

Oh @DeanElderberry- you are a genius! That would be such a brilliant plot twist. That the Lizard has been embezzling for decades and has run the estate dry leaving Freddie and his new wife (Chelsea?) to figure it out. She could end up being led away in handcuffs by her son-in-law (who still won’t have been promoted to inspector) and we would see the humbling of the House of Archer in a way that has (thus far) never been achieved. Just glorious! Well done - especially given how early it is!

I have just listened with increasing horror to Carol speaking to Leonard about the watch. She seems to be a narcissist to me. She has people running around kindly for her and if things don’t quite suit her she will lash out and be cold and cruel.

I think it has touched a nerve as I have a very elderly person in my life who operates just like this. Lots of unsuccessful tasks set and never quite right. I felt this scene deep in my gut.

Totally agree that Elizabeth seems to want staff to work for a pittance and they should just be grateful to have the position. Much how it seems the Royal family operate with staff so I have read. Entitled Elizabeth not needing to care how anyone would survive on her measly terms and conditions.

I think rather a lot of us on this thread have (had) elderly relatives lose their sense of tact or “self edit before speaking aloud”. It is as if some revert to the thought process of a toddler as dementia begins to hit.

I’m an episode behind, but I’m going to cut Carol some slack. Being unconscious in a graveyard with a broken hip and then general anaesthetic won’t have done wonders for an elderly brain.

I wonder what the weekly rate in The Laurels is these days.

She'd be quite hypocritical if she did as she's not unfamiliar with other people's husbands - Fairbrother Senior springs to mind alongside Roy. At least Lily waited until Harrison and Fallon were formally separated!

About half a mil, @Madcats?

I agree it would have been better for the Carol storyline to be a well loved elderly member of the cast. Someone like Jim potentially getting dementia and all the changes in personality etc would be a really good way to show how the personality changes impact family and friends. I do love Jim though so for his sake I’m glad he’s in Provence!

The Harrison/Lily stuff has turned my stomach a bit this week. It was such early days and now Harrison is broadcasting it round half the village. It feels a bit like he’s trying to trap Lily - as from Lily’s perspective it could have been a one night stand. Instead now it’s a relationship and will soon presumably be known by the whole Archer clan when Kenton gets back. Now she’s going to have to stay a bit. And that does feel a bit like the power imbalance with Russ.

I very agree about the Harrison/Lily thing, Throwaway380
I'm sure she never really saw it amounting to anything and now it's the cause of a massive amount of disruption. She'll feel horribly trapped.
When I started a relationship with DH we were part of a large group of friends, so decided to keep it quiet until we had a better idea of where it was headed.
H & L isn't even a relationship so far; it's not much more than a one-night stand.

And I think Harrison should move back to Woodbine quick smart. It makes much more sense for Fallon to move in with her mother.

It's a thing though, isn't it, for men to find another woman pretty quickly? I've certainly seen it talked about in other parts of MN, where a newly separated ex-husband seems to be in a relationship/moving in together before the dust has even settled. I don't know if that says more about the men looking for a table to get their feet under, or women who'll scoop up an available/eligible man at the drop of a hat.

CaptainMyCaptain
Wasn't there a storyline where people got 'jobs' at Lower Loxley as guides then realised they were going to be working as volunteers? Proper entitled Lady of the Manor stuff.

I am almost entirely certain that the guides at Lower Loxley have always been unpaid volunteers; there was a comedy SL in 2007 about someone (Bert Fry?) being bought a blazer for the job, or some such. And at a later point there was another comedy storyline in which Neil and someone else were put through interviews as if it were a job, but the joke was that they were volunteers not paid staff.

(Put "comedy" into as many inverted commas as seems right to you. Neither SL made me laugh even slightly, but I think they were meant to be funny.)

I don’t think Carole has dementia does she? She’s just incredibly rude and direct. She certainly hasn’t been portrayed as confused up to this point - in fact my main objection to her is that she has been played as being far too on the ball for someone of that age to the extent that it has sometimes been hard to distinguish between her and her daughter. Frail yes, demented no. She was incredibly rude to Leonard, but I think it’s a rudeness borne of being sick of other people trying to do what’s best for her. She’s not particularly likeable, I’ve no idea whether she ever was which is why this storyline would have been better with an old person we actually know. Instead she feels a bit like a caricature (as does Joy - agree with the pp who compared her to Nessa in Gavin and Stacey).

@BrightYellowDaffodil , Very much so. The usual pattern is the woman gets resentful of the man treating her like his housekeeper-nanny-fuckbuddy and dumps him only to find he's taken up with a close friend or neighbour pdq.

@LillianGish , Frail yes, demented no. She was incredibly rude to Leonard, but I think it’s a rudeness borne of being sick of other people trying to do what’s best for her. Yes, and the filter is no longer there because she's old and out of her comfort zone.
She was rude to Leonard but it wasn't anyone else's watch to fix.

The story of Carol keeping the watch is a very faint echo of one of the most affecting things I've ever heard on the radio. I know there are many other John Finnemore fans here. Series 9 of his Souvenir Programme is completely different from all the other series, probably because of lockdown constraints. There is a scene in episode 3 where the character Jerry, who's had a stroke and has many difficulties with finding the right words thereafter, is told by his children that they've helped him by tidying up and getting rid of things he doesn't need. And then ...https://jfsp9.neocities.org/ep3

Myra:
Okay, Dad, come through. Careful. Now, open your eyes.
[several at once]
Ta da!
Jerry:
Oh, my word! Haven't you done well!
Deborah:
So, that's all the bike stuff, in those boxes.
Jerry:
Yes, yes!
Benji:
And all of the manuals are sorted into "definitely throw", "probably throw", and what did we decide for the last one, Russ?
Russ:
"Please throw, but we know you won't throw."
Deborah:
Oh, and, Russ has also completely cleared the shed.
Jerry:
Oh!
Russ:
Yeah. I've just laid everything out here for you to check. Oh and word of advice, Granddad, if you're worried you don't have enough space, maybe don't store your beach inflatables blown up.
[several laughing]
Jerry:
What-- what have you done!?
Russ:
It's alright, I've--
Jerry:
Oh, you... cockers!!
Deborah:
Oh... Dad.
Russ:
What?
Benji:
Dad, I'm sorry, we can, we can put it all back.
Jerry:
No, not the books, the lino!
Myra:
The lino?
Deborah:
What lino?
Jerry:
The lino, the... the pool raft thing-- not lino.
Myra:
The lilo?
Jerry:
Yes! The lilo! I was... Oh... [long pause] [sigh] I was keeping that up.
Deborah:
Dad, what do you mean, keeping it up? Talk around it.
Jerry:
No, no, that's what I meant to say. It's all right, though. I'm– I'm– I’m so sorry, I shouldn't have sworn at you. Wilkos, I'm so sorry.
Russ:
Granddad, the lilo's fine. We just deflated it. I can blow it up again.
Jerry:
Yes, yes, I know. It's, it's just... well, it's just... your grandmother blew it up before. So it's... her...
[several one after the other]
Oh.
Benji:
Oh, Dad.
Russ:
Granddad, I'm so sorry.
Jerry:
No, no, no, no, nonsense. How could you have known? I, I should have said.
Deborah:
No, we should have asked.
Jerry:
No, of course not. "Oh, Dad, just before we deflate this, are you keeping the air for anything special?" And anyway, what was I keeping it for?
Russ:
I feel terrible.
Jerry:
Please don't! Oh, you, you've done me a favour. It was ridiculous of me. Wilkos, bunch! [hugging noise and sighs] Half a glass, eh? Half a glass.
Benji:
[laughing] Yeah, half a glass.
Jerry:
And you must please forgive me for swearing like that.
[several at once] Oh, of course.
Jerry:
Oh it's aggravating though -- I got through two years of national service and 20 years of parenthood without swearing and now I blow it on this.
Deborah:
If it helps, Dad? You really didn't swear.
Russ:
Yeah. Well, "cockers" is not... I mean, what is that?
[laughing]
Myra:
The worst you were doing was calling us spaniels.
[all laughing and agreeing]
Benji:
And we were. We were complete spaniels!
[laughing]

I think Harrison is a bit predatory tbh. Fallon hinted as much in the middle of their argument when she reminded him of the circumstances under which they met. The speed with which he has steamrolled and love bombed Lily into a relationship is awful. She’s directionless, quite vulnerable and now half of the village will take against her. Harrison will try to coerce her into a ‘us against the world’ cocoon. I hope someone (Paul, Freddie?) quickly brings her to her senses.

Who was it who suggested the ghastly Horville and sidekick as likely takers over of Ambridge Hall? 😡 I’m sure I heard groundwork being laid today - her savings invested in her house, his dog park idea … Bet they swap houses with the Snells.

that's lovely Gaspode

Lily invited him to a tango class, not a church choir rehearsal. He could have said no.

But Lily was the one making the running, bringing a man into close physical proximity. No reason not to, if she enjoys that sort of thing, but Harrison was not the person who set it up.

Thank you for transcribing that, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - I think I remember listening to it at the time. But it’s good to see it written down.

Not my transcription! The person whose website it is presumably did it.

Thanks for the transcription @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - very apposite!
I loved that series.

I think it might have been me. I said it as a joke, but I too fear it might become real.

I don't understand why Lynda and Robert have to give up Ambridge Hall anyway. I presume they own it outright so no mortgage, I don't for one minute think they just have state pensions, they will surely have decent private pensions as well. They must have made decent money from a successful B&B business so must have good savings. Why can't they afford to live there without the B&B?