Archers thread #203: It's Affair Cop! 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 would love to attend Pip's wedding with Natasha and the starry twins, or other unusual views.

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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.)

Starting the new thread a bit early as I'm not sure I'll have much internet access for the next few days. Fill up the old one first. And then - over to you!

(Credit for the thread title goes to @TripleSulko.)

Yep, but apparently "showing young people the consequences of where their actions might lead" is now subject to massive guilt complexes...Ruth et al. aren't really behaving like "country folk" in this respect, it seems to me.

We know that Alan wasn’t doing anything devious - he was spending time with an awkward old woman who no one else had much time for, consoling her in her final hours, trying to help her build bridges with her daughter. It’s quite scary to see how Anna is trying to misconstrue things - insisting on that ridiculous pagan funeral for her mum and wanting to accuse Alan of embezzlement even after he offered to pay the money back, though quite frankly why should he if Carole wanted him to have the money? This story appears to be a PSA about the possibility of vulnerable people being conned out of money, but also about the danger of being accused of doing so by being in proximity to a vulnerable old person and trying to help them out. It does appear that the extra £6,000 was paid after the repayment for the flowers - which was not how we heard it.

Yes I think Anna is going to make a formal complaint

Two things that I am questioning but is probably down to me missing an episode but I don’t recall Anna telling Alan off about banking/helping Carole before Red money ?

Also are we really supposed to think that Carole only had £6K in her account ?

I do recall Anna telling Alan off about helping Carole delete some things off her banking app, but in fact the only reason Alan was helping her was because Carole herself never had time and never made time. I always got the impression Anna found her mother a burden and was only too happy to have others step in to help out.

As much as £6000 is a useful sum of money, and may have been the only money Carol had (my parents each left about enough to cover their funerals and no more,) it's not the absolute fortune Anna keeps going on about.

Good to see AI getting a mention on TA.

If anybody missed it, there was a really rather informative programme on R4 yesterday about AI and farming.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0032qny

I wonder what the big news from Josh is ?

What is this “deleting things off the banking app” ? The only things I can delete are payees that I no longer use. You can’t alter your banking history.

I think it was some direct debits that Carole wanted to stop and charity donations. Not changing her history - just doing some banking - though personally I find it hard to believe that someone in their nineties would be using an app for their banking.

My Dad did until he died at 92.

My Dad used online banking but only on his glacially slow desktop computer. He never had a smartphone. My Mum refused to do anything online except Wordle. A great shame, as WhatsApp would have been really useful as a way of keeping her connected to the family, showing her pictures etc.

This is the whole point of Anna’s anger though, isn’t it really? She didn’t really like spending time with her mum towards the end because Carol was awkward and snippy and inconvenient and resentful of the things that Anna thought were helping. So she avoided that contact. She was in the classic busy-child-as-carer situation of wanting (and to some extent feeling obliged) to be Carol’s primary source of support but every contact being something of a disappointment or, worse, outright conflict.

Finally she had some positive news for Carol, having visited The Laurels, and Carol finally being ‘compliant’ and agreeing to a respite bed. And just as Anna was looking forward to that pleasant, exciting, forward-looking conversation Carol went and died. And who was there with her? Alan, again.

When Anna was cross with Alan for helping delete the DDs there was a very clear undertone of “I should have done that but mum didn’t ask me because she doesn’t trust/like me enough and is instead relying on the Vicar”. This payment is the same - when Anna said “she wouldn’t have made a big donation like that without telling me” the unspoken bit was “but she couldn’t tell me because I wasn’t there”. It’s all guilt.

Excellent post @Prestissimo. Though I am slightly wondering now how Carole could have afforded The Laurels if she only had £6,000 to her name. In fact I'm now wondering how Aunty Cardboard is paying the fees after Peggy's death. Obviously the answer is the Ambridge money fairy.

Anna is upset because Carole wouldn’t have told her about the donation whether she had an opportunity to do it or not.
Carole was horrible to Anna and lovely to Alan. Alan could speak from the heart about enjoying his time with her, which Anna can’t.

I really feel for Anna. But she should stop now. She could even give the money to the church bell fund as this is what her mother probably wanted and as a thank you to Alan, who did his best in his own clumsy way.

Surely Carole was of sound mind when she transferred the money to Alan? Alan has been breathtakingly (and quite unbelievably) dense in not knowing there was an extra £6000 knocking around in his current account, but apart from that I don't believe he's done anything wrong. Carole could do whatever she wanted with her own money.

I had a friend who did until he died at 97!

I'm quite sure, if online banking means you don't have to trek to a branch in town... or these days, the next town over or somewhere far, especially if you no longer drive and are reliant on the onebus a day - online banking is probably seen as a great boon to many elderly people. Not everyone is a technophobe.

im also surprised at Anna considering £6k to be a lot of money. Depending on her specialism that’s about 3 days work to a decent barrister. And yes, how can The Laurels have been a possibility if Carol was so hard up? This whole storyline is annoyingly holey.

That’s a bit unfair on poor Alan @Patriciastaser

I only check my current account once a month. And similarly, have no need for a phone app !

I think it is wrong to conclude that online banking is great for oldies now that so many banks are closing their branches, that is a conclusion that would be drawn by young whizz kids inventing banking apps. The truth is that people are forced to bank online because there are fewer and fewer branches and for many of Carole’s generation it’s not an easy switch to make (hence Carole needing help from Alan). And don’t get me started on NHS bots- a fabulous time and money saver in theory, but hopeless when the intended user is in their 90s, slightly hard of hearing and trying to book a cataract operation - and is then made to feel helpless and hopeless at having to ask for help when they could easily have achieved the task for themselves with a simple phone call to a human being.

My late 80's/early 90's in-laws have managed to get to grips with online banking (though it took a while and it took DH's intervention to rationalise their many bank accounts), but the NHS app still confuses them. It probably helped that the family is spread far and wide (so they were early adopters of email and Skype etc).

Thinking back to Carol.... She was twice widowed to wealthy husbands (and presumably the main beneficiary). Surely she wouldn't be down to her last few thousands (particularly if she had been renting a little cottage from a friend for many years)?

I'm not an oldie or technophobe and hate online banking. It is convenient in that I don't need to leave the house, but the process is slow. I could leave the house go to the bank and walk home and it wouldn't take much longer.
Would not apply if I lived rurally.

Pip said 'lay awake'.

I’m also getting tired of Anna’s hysterics especially as she is directing her bile at Alan who has gone above and beyond for Carole. Never has Oscar Wilde’s Bon Mot been more apposite. Like others too I am perplexed at a barrister calling £6000 “ A FORTUNE!”. With my late Dad who had dementia I have had to walk the delicate balance between gratitude, wanting to keep people on side while getting frustrated at some less than helpful inputs, but I hope to God I never came across like Anna.

Usha was way too gentle when she spoke to Anna. She should have pulled rank a bit (lawyer to lawyer) and said what the hell do you think you are playing at? Throwing allegations around about Alan exploiting the vulnerable could be very damaging indeed to both his reputation and career. Anna may be bereaved but she’s not the first person in the world to have lost a parent. Her behaviour towards Alan has actually been unforgivable.

Ruth is so stupid to be creeping around Azra. IRL a farmer like Ruth would have moved on very quickly and wouldn’t have given Khalil’s second-hand trauma another thought. Ruth seems to have form for developing these intense female friendships with younger women though- first Stella and then Azra. She’s a funny one really. I don’t think anyone who is unrelated to her actually likes her. Josh is the only sensible one at Brookfield.

When is The Wedding?

I think Ruth is well respected in the Ambridge community but I agree her sucking up to Azra is bizarre. Unlikely a real farmer would have done that after their herd had been savaged and a young, non farming newcomer had come over to rant at them about the dog’s fate ( when it wasn’t even put down).