DumTeeDum - A show about BBC Radio's 'The Archers'

Not Guilty?

This week’s podcast is presented by Stephen and Jacqueline.

We hear from:

· Tracy from California, who has plans for George;

· Globetrotting Richard who has further cyber thoughts;

· Laura from Bedfordshire, who asks a question about Joy's past;

· Katherine, who has quite a few questions about Mick;

· Brian, who is hoping that the truth will come out soon;

· And finally Witherspoon, who gets all medical.

We also have an email from Val.

Plus: we have the Week In Ambridge by Suey, a roundup of the Dumteedum Facebook group from Michelle and the Tweets of the Week from Theo.

Please call into the show using this link:

www.speakpipe.com/dumteedum

Or send us a voicenote via WhatsApp on: +44 7810 012 881 (07810

012 881 if in the UK) – Open the WhatsApp app, key in the number and click on the microphone icon.

Or email us at dumteedum@mail.com

How to leave a review on Apple podcasts: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/podcasts/pod5facd9d70/mac

***

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Duration:: 59m
Broadcast on:: 23 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 up front for three months plus taxes and fees, promoting for new customers for limited time. Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month slows. Full turns at Mint Mobile.com. This is a Roy Field Brown production. Find others on Apple Podcasts. [Music] This is Dunty Dun. A weekly podcast about the archers and the goings-on of Ambridge. I'm Jacqueline Bertho. It was had her reset button pressed without doing anything embarrassing. And I'm Stephen Bowden, and my first priority for survival is shelter or possibly strong coffee. And then as you are lovely Dunty Dhammers, eating donuts and watching cookery shows whilst thirsty, pour sports drinks down your necks. Welcome to Dunty Dham. A place to talk about the things that are happening in our favourite boss at your village. This week's scripts were written by Kerry Davis, and there were definitely a few of his signature furshes. Coming up we have calls from Tracy in California who has plans for George. Globe-tropping Richard, who has further cyber thoughts. Laura from Bedfordshire, who asks a question about Joy's path. Catherine, who has quite a few questions about Mick. Brian, who is hoping that the truth will come out soon. And finally with a spoon who gets all medical. We also had an email from Val. Plus we have the week in Ambridge from Sui, a round up of the Dunty Dham Facebook group from Michelle, and the Tweets of the Week from Theo. But before we start talking too much, let's remind ourselves what happened over the last seven days with a round above the week in Ambridge from Sui. Hello, lovely people. It's Sui, Queen Hotel here on the Twitter's, and as a round up of this week in Ambridge. It's been an odd one. Paul has had a lot of insect bites and had to drop his pants for Dr Azra to show her his itchy bits. Later she gave him a gentle lecture on safe sex. They obviously wanted to get their money worth out of her because she saw Alice a bit later on in the week, but more of that in a moment. Fallon apparently did some wrapping at the club dancing on the bar and they got thrown out. She nearly threw Harrison out when she found out they'd been praying with Alan in the church. Oliver's horse, Duke, needed an emergency tracheostomy. Justin promised to be discreet about appointing a new at least temporary manager since Alice might be going to prison and is certainly going to have a criminal record. Jakov managed to let the news slip after Alice showed up on ink specked totally. She was drinking in the police station for he looked to keep her going and that Adam was proper miffed with her. He tried to go to some help from Azra, which ended up with him squashed in the back of his own car while Azra prescribed her as a pam. Tenny got grumpy with George while it's about blooming time. George had a kid against the bales and is in proper trouble. It is beginning to sound guilty. Joy and Mick took a trip to the spa late at night dodging the CCTV and nearly got caught after a ring was lost by a guest and the plan was to review the CCTV. He got a talk into from Oliver despite having found the ring. He is just too scruffy. Joy has solved that by ironing his work clothes. In an act of domestic goddessness, she will do his washing weekly. So Mick sneaked her into the Grey Gables roof, which he's almost certainly not allowed to do. A lovely time has had the rewilding with Fallon and Joy, journeying Kirsty for a spot of survival tactics, including lighting a fire with friction. And then we found out about the other friction in Joy's life. When the camper van is rocking, don't come and knocking. That is too much information, Joy. George Arsalis about her pre-court case. Fallon and Harrison made up after the baby loss certificate arrived. Alice did not plead guilty, as expected, and Harrison received death by chocolate the sun year from Fallon. Well, we'll just change end to the week that was. Let's see what happens next time. Thanks for that, Sui. Good round up, as always. So, Stephen, how's your week been? Well, if you remember last weekend, I was in London, and then I went on to St. Albans for some friends, 60th birthday celebrations, which had been postponed from some time ago. So they were really closer to their 61st birthday. Who's counting? Unfortunately, when I got back, I discovered that Tangle had somehow managed to lock herself into the cellar while I was away and had had nothing to eat since, I think, Thursday morning. She'd eaten, said nothing to eat all Friday, Saturday or Sunday. And she was in a pitiful state. Well, she claimed she was in a pitiful state, but she wolfed down her food late on Sunday and was absolutely fine, curled up, went to sleep, and has generally not shown any sides of being any of the worst for wear. So, I don't know how she got in there. She must have snuck past me when I wasn't looking, which is a bit odd, but never mind. She's learned her less than I hope. No, I don't think she will have done. I think she'll sneak in another time. Cats are amazing like that, because my mother-in-law once lost her cat for three weeks, and she was closed into the conservatory, which is at the end of the building, as it were, then it was only used on high days in the holidays. And she'd gone into water plants. The cat must have followed her in. And, in fact, only a week after she'd been missing, her and my mother-in-law and I was standing by the conservatory windows, and we obviously didn't see this cat scrambling, manically. The releasing blind, because she damaged all the releasing blinds. But no water, nothing to eat. On her two little poos, dried up on the floor, but she was absolutely as right as nine poons after us. It was very strange. So, I think they've got survival instincts, cats. I think she does, even though she's not that feline. I mean, she's a bit generally a bit heavy on her feet, and content not to go very far. Anyway, how about your week? Oh, I've had a wonderful break in Paris. So, I went to Paris for three days with my daughter, who works at the V&A, as I've said before. And she has collaborated an exhibition that we went to see it all set up. Very proud owner of a book about Renaissance art, which has lots of her writings in it. That's a big fact. My coffee table is now piling up with books written by Dr. Sophie Morris. May many more come along. Where was the exhibition? It's the Hotel de la Marine, which is an old palace that has been re-done up his necks to the carry on, overlooking the Comp Place de la Concorde, which doesn't look like the Place de la Concorde, because they're setting up the arenas for the BMX and skateboard competitions in the Olympics. Yeah, it was very exciting. I do feel that Paris is a one-way system always, but even more so at the moment. And lots of things are coming together. It's definitely not as chaotic as it was when I travelled through Paris on the way back from the academic gardens. I know it came. But it is hot compared to here. Hot! God. I spent the whole three days just walking around in a funk of clammineness. So I was quite glad to get back to fresh old Britishity. Boom. Anyway, I think that's more than enough about us. So let's go on to that important bit, which is you, our lovely cholo inras. After the tone, we will hear from somebody who hasn't called in for quite a while, but it's back and that will be Tracy from California. All right, push cap. Hello, Tracy from California here. Been busy, so I haven't called in a while. But I know people are saying that they want George to convince everything. And honestly, I don't. I want him to not confess. I want him to let Alice get sentenced and go to jail for like two weeks. And then be found out. And I want him to be found out by Harrison. And then Harrison has to go and give the information that's going to free Alice and release him from all this anger towards Alice, even though he'll have it towards George. And then Emma will have to eat crow and George will get the book thrown at him, which will hopefully scare him straight after he goes to jail. And then Alice will have an experience that scares her out of drinking further forever. So that would be an excellent way to sober her up in the storyline with a good harsh wake up call, which would be super realistic. Because a lot of people have those wake up calls when something extreme happens. Also with the Harrison storyline, I know people have said it, but I'll add my voice to it and just I'm shocked at how rigid people are about the storyline in terms of not letting him express feelings or feel a connection to the being that someone was carrying, but also recognizing that, yeah, you can make agreements before something actually happens. But when it happens, it's totally different. So I'm just hoping to see an even healthier response to this situation, because life is just not that cut and dried, even in the archers. So anyway, that's my two cents. Hope y'all are well. Toodles. Toodles to you, Tracy. And thank you very much for that call. It's good to hear from you again. And I think that your cunning plan for George is quite a good one. Though I suspect we've just heard that Alice has decided to plead not guilty, which means that there'll be a trial. And there may be time between now and then for somebody to work something out, because I think she'll need some help from her solicitor, Harriet, and from others to mount any sort of defense against the evidence. And as Adam pointed out, her gut feeling, which you wouldn't just wouldn't do that sort of thing, is not going to be enough to get past all the physical evidence. But then there's going to be a question about whether George will actually be called as a witness, which presumably he would be if the police are relying on his statement, which of course they must be, at which point he might break down. So I think we could be heading for some sort of dramatic court proceedings, but I don't know how long that will be. And on Harrison and Fallon, I think that since you called in earlier in the week, we've had a bit of development. And I think we are actually beginning to see proper signs of the two of them coming together. What do you think, Joellen? Yeah, I definitely feel like Harrison and Fallon are starting to communicate, whether it was her bush course or whatever anyway. But I felt a bit sober for Harrison at the end of the thing when he was told who he had to eat a chocolate lasagna. It made me feel quite poorly. But oh, chocolate cream and peanut butter. Well, yeah, quite sickly. No, not for me, thank you. But I think what Tracy was referring to is, especially on the Facebook page, people have been quite vitriolic about Harrison and his reaction. And I agree with her. I think people have been slightly unfair about Harrison, where they've been saying he shouldn't be so emotional about it. If you're emotional about something, you're emotional about it. There's nothing you can do about that. You can take control of yourself perhaps. But one of the things that do believe people across about as well, and in person, it's something that I didn't like about Harrison's side of that story, was that he doesn't appear to have taken into account that Fallon nearly died. As we said last week, we were the ones. We were the only ones that know that she was in a complete and absolute panic in that car filling up with water, which makes me sure to just even thinking about it. And I think that's why people have been crossed with Harrison, as much as all this ridiculous stuff about Asian tap feelings, because I don't believe that at all. So I agree with Tracy to that extent that, yeah, I think people have been very harsh about Harrison. And Harrison is one of those characters that people love to hate, isn't he? I normally quite like him. I just found his constant references to our pregnancy. We were pregnant as being very off-putting. And I think that if he'd used more sensible language, it might have been better. But I completely agree with you. The one thing that he was missing, and I think he still hasn't really come to terms with, and does need to, is what happened to Fallon. It's all been about what happened to him in a sort of... I just did air quotes there, which for an audio medium like a podcast really doesn't work. I was about to say Stephen's air quoting, but well done. So who's calling next? Next up, we have globe-trotting Richard. Hello, Richard, calling in from a boiling hot cracker with his 30 degrees here. And few thoughts. One is coming back to Stephen's dismantling of my lack of faith in the cyber backups. He might be right, but he might be wrong. Sorry, Stephen. If the Varus was a world of designed one by professional hackers, it could well have lain dormant for a day or two after Brian clicked on the mystery link, making sure that it was backed up into the servers. Hackers know about backups and viruses take advantage of the fact that they can lie dormant there. So I'm sorry, I'm not convinced that they're all right. And again, who sent the Varus to Brian and what did they want in return? It's not obvious that that issue has been addressed. And no one's been in our bridge, has ever been properly trained in cyber security awareness, as far as I know, in the time I've been listening. A couple more points. I wonder if George's sleeplessness was not to do with the stupid horse, but to do with the fact that on Friday, honest is going to be him being charged. And will George be required to give a witness statement at this stage? I'm not quite sure how the legal system works in the UK, but perhaps he's worried that he'll be on the record on Earth, perhaps getting into more trouble if he confirms an untrivational event, or maybe Alice will have a memory triggered by the presses, or maybe, maybe George will see the light and confess and go back on his previous version of Ants. Last but not least, who on boarded Mick in his probation? Would he really be lurking around? The season of history of Blaine thinks him entered his run by Oliver Sterling. Jasmine Tracy wasn't it. Bye! Thanks for that, Richard. Yes, they're lurking around at great gables with Mick and Joy and the security cameras. This is an old trope. I'm sorry, you've used this before. As Richard said, it was Tracy and Jasmine, and the spare room, the empty room, getting caught. I don't know, and I haven't liked Oliver in the way he's been with Mick. I understand that he's trying to get Mick to pull up his socks, and he's on a probationary period. But it looks like Joy is going to save Mick from that anger of Oliver, but Oliver sounds more and more stressed. I've now been saying this for months, because I thought he'd sold off a large part, so he didn't have to be so stressed. But it would appear that he's still going strong and he's there all the time, especially as Roy's away. Again, we've heard about Roy being away. We've got another call about the situation at great gables coming up later, so I won't say anything more about that. I did want to comment on the other two things that Richard mentioned. The first is the hearing on Friday. That was just a plea hearing. Now, in a magistrate's court, plea hearings, if you plead guilty, they can go straight to sentencing, or more likely the sentencing would be postponed until they had pre-sentencing reports from the probation service. So there was never any possibility that George would be asked to give evidence then, but now that Alice's plea did not guilty, the case will go to trial, and the police case is going to include very fundamentally George's evidence. He will have given a statement to the police, a witness statement that says that he found Alice passed out in the driver's seat of the car, and he will then, I suspect, be called up to attest to that statement. If Alice's lawyer has got any sense, she'll make sure that he's a witness in court. He'll have to testify on oath to that, at which point we don't know. This is where he might break down. No, but do we really think he's losing sleep over his guilt about Alice? He is very focused on Alice. Every time she appears, or he hears anything about it, he's always asking about it. So I think he's worried far more about her and feeling pangs of guilt. It's not really like him. It doesn't feel in character, but it certainly seems to be what the script is telling us, rather than barflipy. Yeah, George, I can't believe that he can feel that guilty. Maybe he's worried that she'll remember something, or it'll be found out that his involvement wasn't heroic. Yes, I think it's far more likely he was worried about being caught than he's worried about actually what happens to Alice. But again, the way he's expressed it has been concerned for Alice, and it sounds a bit as if that's what he's feeling, but I think it's far more likely and far more in keeping with him that he might get caught out. Yeah, we don't like him, do we? I don't think anybody does, really. And I did want to pick up on Richard's point about the cyber attack, just to say that in the course of the last week, I happened to come into contact with several very senior people within the National Cyber Security Center, such as the circles within which I occasionally move. And I asked them about this, and the first thing they said was that they had no idea that there was going to be a cyber attack on the archers, or that the National Cyber Security Center would be mentioned. There certainly hadn't been any pre-recording contact with the NCSC from Kerry off from anybody at the archers. So it came out of the blue. Kerry might have spoken to the NSU about their cyber guidance, but he didn't go back to the source of it. In terms of how sophisticated the attack was, I think it's highly likely that what we're looking at is an opportunistic ransomware attack. And so, yes, some of those can be quite sophisticated, but equally they can be fairly straightforward and not lie dormant so that they get backed up into the cloud or anything like that. It's a possibility either way, but I completely agree with Richard that there's no sign of anybody in Ambridge has ever taken any serious cyber security training, except for Robert Snell. But there's no evidence that he has been advising anybody at Home Farm. And the person at Home Farm, the only person at Home Farm with a sense to do any of this sort of stuff is Stella, and it clearly wasn't her because she went into the panic. So I completely agree with Richard that it's not a great coherent storyline, but since they didn't talk to the National Cyber Security Center, I can't provide any secret backgrounds to how the story emerged, or whether it was supposed to be something more educational. Yes, well, which is, as you can tell, that Stephen knows far more about this than me. So I can't even decide how we spell 'cyber', kind of decide whether it's our 'E' or 'E' or the 'E'. So there you go, that's how good my cyber security is. It's some 'Cedar' in French. 'Cedar', yes, it is. It's spelled the same way, C-Y-T-R. It is exactly, but often words that spell the same way are pronounced differently. It comes from the ancient Greek word for a helmsman, and it's actually the same word that gives us a governor. Good, gracious Stephen, you're a font of so much knowledge. I don't know why you're doing this with me. Go on, play the next call. Next up we have Laura from Bedfordshire. Hi, Dumpty Dum, it's Laura from Bedfordshire here. I hope everyone's well. Just a quick question I was thinking about after just two Wednesdays, episode was Nick and Joy. But who, Joy was first introduced to the village? Why don't you all remember this? We found out anything about this, where she came from in terms of finances. I'm assuming, I don't know, I don't think of Joy as being significantly old, so I'm assuming she has retired for a job, because I don't think she has a paid job in Umbridge, does she? She just volunteers at the village shop, I think. So she's not getting an income from the air. But yeah, I was just thinking about it because when they were chatting, Joy were chatting in the camp of Ann about how she had done it to do in the morning. She just made me think about where exactly she's getting her money to survive on. And if we ever got any insight into that when she came into the village, she just, I appreciate people listening to pensions from previous jobs in from their working life, etc. But yeah, she seemed quite a young guy, always picked to Joy to be a bit younger, to be able to survive just off the pension book, so it's okay. Anyway, thanks everyone, bye. Thank you for that Laura. I think when Joy first arrived, we worked out that she was in her mid to late 50s. She hasn't had a memorable 60th birthday that I can recall. So she's probably now late 50s. She might be 60 any time. We think that she had a business which she sold up. And so I think she was able to effectively retire on the proceeds of selling up a business that she had owned and run. And she's been through a divorce and we know that much about her. Whether or not she ended up financially better off or worse off after that divorce, we don't know because we know nothing at all about her former husband. But she's definitely is living off the pension or the proceeds of the sale of her business. I think that's what we know about her. Does that fit with what you remember, Jeffmine? Yeah, I always say, Jackie Lye, the actress is exactly the same age as me. So I always think Joy is exactly the same age as me. That's why I identify with her for one of the many reasons why I identify with her. And I didn't know, yeah, you're right about the birthday because if she had had a six year birthday, we could have, would definitely have heard about it. So then she might have any private pensions clicking in at 60. Yeah, she came out having sold a business. Now I didn't remember that side of it at all. And I was wondering, I'm assuming that she bought the house that speech would. Yes. Yeah. She always had enough money to buy. And I don't suppose that in your late 50s, it's very easy to get a mortgage. So probably an outright buy. So she did come in with quite a bit of back-up income. A lot of other people, if they've sold the business, do manage to retire pre-60s. But of course, she's not yet 60. So at least another seven or eight years before her state pension clicks in at 67. I suspect her state pension is probably a fairly minor part of her income. It's not a huge amount of money. And I think that she will have sold up in Shieldfield or whatever the place up North is that she comes from. And so she will have had the sale proceeds from the house there to buy another house. Again, we just don't know enough detail about it. But I think that she is fairly comfortable without being rolling in money and certainly retired. Yeah, definitely retired. She has no other job, as you say, about the platform she volunteers at the shop, as we were mentioned. But yeah, it's a mystery. Joy is a mystery. But I'm wondering whether the communication with Mick that we've just been hearing this week, following on from the contact in Rochelle disaster a few weeks ago. Hang on a second. Didn't we just celebrate Joy's birthday? Was it a surprise party for Joy? Was that for Joy? Maybe I was. I confused myself. Oh, my goodness. There have been too many birthdays. Yeah, it's always the case. Yeah, there's always a case of too many birthdays in the arm bridge, I always feel that more people get to celebrate their birthdays and people take cards to them. Oh, it was Linda Star's birthday as well, wasn't it? Lots of birthdays recently. I occasionally post them on the Facebook group that have been a bit lax at that. And I just went through and realized how many birthdays I'd missed, including some fairly significant ones. Oh, dear. Yeah, so yeah. But good question, Lord. It's made us think about Joy and it's made me think a lot about her backstory, and I think we're getting to a crescendo where she's going to share with Mick, if unless Mick turns out to be a badan. Yes, we'll finally find out the truth about Rochelle. Oh, who knows? Keeping us hanging on a thread there. Our next call is from Catherine. Hi, it's Catherine. And why did the whole Mick think so slightly worrying? And I'm sure I'm not alone in the only person who's finding the Joy Mick's sex life thing a bit gross. Anyway, where did he come from? Apart from she met him at some sort of 80s music revival. Why is he in a motorhome? What experiences he got of security? Was he an ex-army or something? Sorry, I'm suddenly a bit croaky but he's woken up. And I'm just a bit confused as his sudden sort of arrival and why he's so important. The whole Grey Gables thing continues to baffle me. This was going to be the poshest, most amazing ground breaking type of hotel with experiences, community feel all this. It sounds like it's exactly the same with these kind of weirdos incredible suits sorting out exactly the same kind of thing. And I think that Roy's been mentioned more. So that obviously gradually easing us into that. Thank goodness. It gets a bit of a long time. They've left Roy bearing in mind. The actor must have died well every year ago. But yeah, basically Mick, what the hell is going on? And usual caveats for all the employment law procedures being broken as usual in the arches. I must get Kate to find in. She's HL. She'll be able to give us loads of good tips. Thanks everyone, bye. Well, thank you for that, Catherine. Yeah, Kate, HR. We need definitely lots of information from Kate. Please get her to ringing. Or as you have done many times before ringing together, after a night after the pub, that's always very informative for the rest of the world. Very entertaining, certainly. Yes, indeed. So Mick, yeah, kind of, there's something about him that kind of, you use the word gross. It's not a word that I would use normally, but he definitely grosses me out. There's something about him that I don't like. He's creepy and dirty. And I always had the impression that it was a disheveled roadie when Joy first met him. And then there was the hot tub scenes, and it was all a bit fruity. And then this week with don't come knocking when it's rocking. Oh my goodness, Mick. No, sorry, sorry. We don't put signs up in camper vans like that. Yeah, where's he from? Well, he sold up. Oh, no, he couldn't afford to rent his house, rent his flat. So he bought the camper so that he could work. It was too far to travel, wasn't it, to go to start working at Grey Gables. So he bought the camper and moved there, because I think he was counting on living at Joy's. Now, Joy had no idea about that. That's why she was so shocked and upset, wasn't it, at the party when he announced that? And apart from the contacting Rochelle thing. But yeah, I don't know. We don't know much of his background. Did he have children? Has he previously been married? Is he ex-army? Yeah, it was the job at Grey Gables just because it was the job at Grey Gables and near at Ambridge. Who knows? We don't have a lot of information. They're a mystery couple. Yes, I think we know that he's got a brother. Ah, yeah, yeah, that's true. So he's got a brother and yes, he was a roadie. He met Joy at that food and the music festival in the summer of a couple of years ago when Pat was selling orchard fresh stuff. Yeah. There. And Natasha took the booking and then couldn't do it. So Pat and Joy went along and, well, Pat was failing to recognize Toya Wilcox. Joy was hitting his off with Mick. And he was at that point just a sort of friendly, slightly comic character. But the point that started this was Catherine talking about Grey Gables and we have had earlier comments about Grey Gables because it was supposed to be this extraordinary different country house hotel with huge amounts of money being poured in by the mysterious stakeholders and Ardill responsible for developing the whole thing. And since Ardill has disappeared, it feels like it's gone all the way back to exactly how it was before with Oliver doing the hands-on management. No sign that it has changed. It's gone back to being a sort of traditional, rather Tweedy, undramatic hotel that is capable of employing people like Mick with what was clearly no proper onboarding as I think Richard was commenting on. No serious background checks, no training, no corporate grip on it from the owners. And we thought that it was part of perhaps a small chain, not an identity chain of hotels, but of a small group of unique properties. But that sort of hotel chain does tend to focus a great deal on standards and so forth. Yeah, uniforms. The security officers would have the same uniforms, so it's very much how those kind of small groups work. And also, one of these that amused me this week, there was a panic over a woman who lost a ring or a bracelet. A ring. A ring. And last week, it was a bracelet. So I think they've got a very strange group of visitors because they're always losing jewelry. Surely that can happen every week in a hotel. Maybe it does, I don't know. And you said the security guards were in uniforms as if there were more than one of them. And yet, the only one we hear doing anything is Mick. Yes, I was assuming that there'd be 24-hour security units. Sometimes, even the concierge in a hotel is plus the night security and there'd be another person, maybe, with them. So that's what I was imagining. But you're right, we only ever hear. It's only ever Mick that is on call to Oliver. And Oliver, if there was a head of security, Oliver would talk to the head of security, not, darling, it's Mick and he would have that arrest. And there would be some structure to this probationary period. Yes, exactly. HR problems all round, plus just the whole bumbling along, as you say, grey gables has definitely not improved. It's not new and improved. It's gone back to being exactly as it was after the death of Carolyn Sterling. Yeah. So, there's our first few calls and there are some more to come. Now, if you'd like to join us by calling us yourself or dropping us a line by message or email, Stephen is here to tell you how and all the details are also in the show notes. The first option is to record a message or a plot prediction by going to www.speakpipe.com/dumbtdumb. Alternatively, you can send us a voice note or a written message via WhatsApp on 07810 012 881. And if you're calling from outside the UK, start with +44 and drop that first zero. Please keep your call to a maximum of two minutes. Or finally, we have an email address you can contact us on. Again, if you'd rather write to us with your views, with a maximum of 250 words, please. And the email address is dumtidum@mail.com. And to bear in mind, you need to be at least 18 to contribute. This podcast is brought to you by eHarmony. The dating app to find someone you can be yourself with. Why doesn't eHarmony allow copy and paste in first messages? Because you are unique, and your conversations should reflect that. E, how many wants you to find someone who will get you? How are you going to know who gets you? If people sing you the same generic conversation starters, they message everyone else. Conversations that actually help you get to know each other. Imagine that. Get who gets you on eHarmony. Sign up today. We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature, whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to, or the succulents that adorn our homes. Nature makes all of our lives well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With all trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently. With offline maps and on-trail navigation, download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails. Millions of people have lost weight with personalized plans from Zoom. Like Evan, who can't stand salads and still lost 50 pounds. Salads generally for most people are the easy button, right? For me, that wasn't an option. I never really was a salad guy. That's just not who I am, but new work for me. Get your personalized plan today at noon.com. Real new user compensated to provide their story. In four weeks, the typical new user can expect to lose one to two pounds per week. Individual results may vary. Who's our next call as Steven? Next up, we have Brian, yet another returning from a bit of an absence. Hello, it's Brian. Meanwhile, it's a phoned in. I thought I'd wait until after we knew the outcome of Alice's hearing before I phoned in. I'm glad she has, please, not guilty. A, because she isn't in terms of the charge. And B, that we might actually get some sort of resolution sooner. What I do wish, and my wish is all work, wish this all along, is that it could have been solved by some proper police work from Bucharest's finest. They don't seem to solve anything as such, but just go with obvious scenario. Would have been nice at some point, just come with yourself. All this doesn't quite work from something wrong with this scenario. I know in reality, when I pass out in a car, obviously intoxicated, most likely she has driving the car, now he's in real life. That is probably what would happen, made this assumption that she was driving, but it would have been nice if police actually solved something properly. But there we go. So now we're left for, because please, I'm going now, I'm going to investigate the crime anymore, because David Fiverr, they know it's been solved. So, we're going to have Adam as Hercule Poirot, now to winkle out the real evidence, perhaps. I don't know, perhaps I'm still better at George, where eventually break, but I'll leave it there and switch again. But thank you for that call, Brian. I can't quite see Adam as Hercule Poirot in these circumstances. If it were some legal drama, then Harriet would be the one going out and doing the investigation. But as Harriet is, I think a silent character, that's going to be a bit tricky. That leaves the most likely scenario, as you suggest, being George breaking down on the witness stand. And as I mentioned earlier, now that we are going to trial, George will be called, as one of the few witnesses, the other obvious person who calls the witness would be Mick, who was driving the other car, who can attest to what actually happened to cause the crash. And then George will be called to testify that he found Alice passed out in the driver's seat of her car. And that's more or less all that they need, along with the forensic evidence and the medical evidence demonstrating how much alcohol Alice had in her system. Unless somebody says, wait a moment, she couldn't possibly have been driving like that. She couldn't have got over that bridge with that much alcohol in her system. But as I think was discussed on the Facebook page, there are cases, I think the highest recorded level of somebody done for Trump driving was five times the legal limit. Alice has four times the limit and has been an alcoholic for quite some time. So they could argue that she had developed a sufficient tolerance to alcohol to enable her to function with that much alcohol and therefore to have been driving, even though she will be arguing very, very strongly that she never drove when she was able to limit, she would put the keys on the glove box. I wonder whether Adam will help her because he was completely shocked that she put in that not guilty plea, wasn't he? But afterwards, when they came out of the court, he's obviously trying to be as supportive as possible. And he probably is being the most supportive member of family, given like Kate is very silent and Brian's off on holiday with Miranda. But I just wondered whether maybe Kate will come to the rescue because Kate with all her, what do we say? Alternative views might have an alternative view of looking at it. If she sees that her sister is so determined that she's not guilty, she would never have done it. It's not in her psyche to have done that. She puts the keys in the glove box to stop herself from driving, so she wouldn't just set off. And she sat there, drank the bottle and was quite determined to sit it out. I wonder if Kate would suggest going into hypnotism and having to see if she can regress and remember something about the accident and that would happen. I'm just thinking of alternative things that Kate, so that might bring the sisters back together again. So rather than just being Adam with Alice, just an idea. Who knows? It will be fun if it were the case. It's a pity we didn't have Kate this week because it's a carry we and Kerry does get so well. He does indeed, absolutely. Adam doesn't fit the Hercule pack parable, but sometimes I think when he's talking, he sounds more like, "Damn, I've forgotten the name of him. Who is it that has his wife Steve?" - Oh, Paul Temple. - Paul Temple, yes. But Adam is much rather Paul Temple character to me rather than make your parrot. No moustache drilling. - The other person to solve this, of course, would be Joy, Channely Vera. - Absolutely. That would be perfect. Perfect. Perfect, perfect rounding of corners for me, that one. - Shall we have our final call? - Yes, who is it? - You'll know who it is from late starts. - Y'all know how this goes. Hey, baby, I hear the blues are calling toss salads at scrambled eggs, sir. - Greetings, Jacqueline, Steven, and all of them two dembers around the world. It's with a spoon andangutagus here from a very hot New York City, pushing a happy summer solstice, mid-summer, mid-summer, or whatever those of you north of the equator celebrate today. Speaking of mid-summer, I was reminded of mid-summer murders in today's goings-on and ambrage. Alice changed her plea to not guilty. Now we can have a real investigation. I'm calling upon Sister Boniface to lead it, as she's an expert in forensics and is always in her lab figuring things out. Let's talk more about Alice. First off, she's suffering greatly and it's odd for Adam to be the only one in the family offering support right now. In addition to struggling with alcoholism, she's very depressed and up until today was blaming herself and beating herself up for the accident. Alice was an active member of AA for two years. She would have learned that relapses are far from unusual and that what you can do then is start working the program again, 90 meetings in 90 days, or as I mentioned a number of weeks ago, going back into her residential program with emphasis on dual diagnosis. Short of that, how about regular psychotherapy and an antidepressant which I would have started her on. Not to say it's the magic bullet here, but it could have helped to stabilize her. Adam convinced Alice to go see Azra, kudos to Azra for going to the car to talk with her, but she should have tried to get her back to the office for a more extent to the evaluation. She had no idea about how much and how frequently Alice was drinking. She didn't ask when Alice's last drink was. She didn't take her blood pressure and pulse. She didn't ask about signs and symptoms of withdrawal. So did I think giving her day as a pan in this situation was a good idea? No, no, and no. Did I say no? It wasn't exactly being used as an outpatient detox, but to curb her desires. Not an indication for using day as a pan, which in itself is risky. An alcoholic needs to be very closely monitored in that situation to make sure they're not drinking and to follow their vital signs. That's why most detoxes are done as an inpatient. Mixing alcohol and benzodiazepine like diazepam can lead to death secondary to suppression of respiration. In this situation, there were very limited options, but I would have chosen naltrexone, which has approved for reducing cravings for alcohol, as well as opiates. You have now received one continuing medical education credit. Congratulations. Talk to you soon. Wow, blinded by science. Thank you very much for that with a spoon. Yeah, I was impressed by Asra and the fact that she adapted to the situation. She was very different. She couldn't talk to Adam, but when she learned that Alice was in the car in the car park, yep, she went in and accepted that Alice wanted Adam with her. Now, Alice this week, since she's come back, has been talking in a very panicked way. She's definitely panicking. She's definitely not that even when she was drinking at the beginning of the with the Harry periods and everything, she was always came across as being very calm to me. Whereas this week, she's come back frenetic and she's obviously very fearful. She's obviously confused still about what happened on the night and why it happened. So she's asking questions of herself. But yes, I agree with with a spoon's professional assessment that she's depressed. And so giving her an antidepressant, I actually thought that as a pan that it was an antidepressant, so that's how much I knew. So it's only him talking about it. And now I did look something up about the other drug, because I can't remember the name of that he talked about. And here in France, that drug doesn't seem to be available, but there is another one called baclufen, which may be one that isn't able to be given to people now in the UK. But it's used to suppress the urge to drink alcohol for people who have been heavy drinkers who need to stop drinking, who can actually still take it with alcohol, but apparently it reduces the urge. Whereas if you're an alcoholic, that really would stop you. I don't know, but might do something crazy to your body. I have no idea but being non-medical. I thought I'd check on whether Mel Trexone, which is the one that with a spoon recommended, was available on the NHS. And the short answer is yes. It's one of the four drugs that the International Institute for Health Care and Excellence recommends for treating alcohol misuse. And as with a spoon said, it blocks receptors in the body. It stops the effects of alcohol. The one that you're talking about, I think, might be similar or the same as now morphine, which is another one. And that one is used to prevent or relapse. And it can be offered as a possible treatment if somebody is still drinking more than seven and a half units a day or five if you're a woman. And no, a day or a week. This is for somebody. This is just to manage it. And it's not one way you need to achieve total abstinence or anything like that. But the other one that is available is disulfiram or anti-abuse, which is the one that Adam was talking about. So, well, asra said, we don't prescribe that anymore. It is still on the list of possible treatments from NICE. And that's the one that actually gives you nausea, chest pain, vomiting, and dizziness if you drink alcohol. So the idea is it's very much a deterrent from drinking. But you need to be seen every couple of weeks if you're taking that one. Now Trexone, which with the spoon recommends, you need to probably be on for about six months. And there's another one called Comprosate, which is, again, it's working well with counseling to help reduce cravings. And it helps do that. It seemed to me that that would be the one that might be the best placed for cake. So there might be the best suited for Alice. But what you need was a prop in depth diagnosis and understanding of what Alice's current behaviors are and how much she's drinking and all that sort of stuff, which are brief consultation in a car in the car part with Adam unhelpfully butting in all the time from the back seat in a really irritating way was helped. So I think that what she needs once she's ready for, it is a proper assessment. And as with a spoon said, that's probably best done in a house as an inpatient residential place. Yeah. Money though. Money, yes. And she's already spent a lot of brands money on the first spell. Yeah, exactly. I whether with Miranda in the background with Brian, whether he will be as willing to invest, if we'd like to put it that way, in Alice again. Interesting. But tell me just my curiosity, what is Dyer's opinion? Dyer's opinion is valium and it is an antidepressant and it's also a muscle relaxant. When I put my back out a few times a couple of years ago, Dyer's a Pam was one of the things I was prescribed. So Dyer's a Pam and then plus cocodamole for the pain. But actually it's Dyer's a Pam helps relax those muscles. It seems to have lots of different effects. But as far as I recall, it is valium. And yes, it was an antidepressant. A tranquilizer, which and antibiotics. Yeah. It's a whole new world out there. So glad we've got a medical expert like with a spoon. What else did you do with the spoon talk about? He came up with a detective as well, didn't he? Sister Bonnie Face. Sister Bonnie Face. Yeah. From I believe the sister Bonnie Face mysteries, which I have not read. I've never read them either. And I'd be assuming they're on TV as well in a series of sounds like the kind of thing that would be. I don't know. I don't remember having seen them on TV. But who knows? Who knows. But anyway, good detective. Lots of detectives that we could apply to this, I'm sure. Those are all the calls. Thank you so much for calling in. We always say this show is about you and what you are. Sorry, Stephen. So those are the calls. Thank you so much for calling in. We always say this show is about what you the listeners think. So please do tell us how the week was for you in Ambridge and call in next week. Now, let's look at that email that we received. Yes, just the one this week. And it's from Val with the subject line trees exclamation mark. And it goes like this. Hi guys, it's Val. At work, we need a tree surgeon to cut back one of our trees. If only we could contact Little Grange tree surgery. Love Val. Yes, if only Val. Nice to you. I still don't know whether I'd trust them near any big trees near my house or near an office. It needs a bit more practice than them. But we'll try and get to the number for you eventually. Yes, they're doing their apprenticesing with this other local tree surgeon, or at least they're getting work from him. So they're getting a bit of experience. So maybe in a few weeks time, they will be highly skilled and much sought after. Yes, you never know. As we've mentioned a few times now, Patreon backers have dumped a dump. Now get an ad free version of the podcast. After positive feedback from our patrons, we're now aiming to make the Patreon version available at around about 6pm on a Saturday. This is not however a guarantee. There may be weeks where other demands on his time mean that Stephen can't do the edits until later. I guess it'll be more in the rugby season that problem. Patrons also get a weekly email about them to dump and the archers. And we're looking at more special features for those of you who are willing and able to support us in this way. If there's anything you think we might be able to provide as a bonus, particularly if it will make the difference between backing us or not backing us, please, please do let us know. All the money from Patreon goes towards covering the costs of making the podcast, including the subscriptions for the virtual studio and the editing tools that I use. We're planning that any extra will go towards a dumpty-dum get together, so the more of you who sign up, the quicker you'll be able to put a get together together. And patrons will have priority access to tickets. And let's move on to our Facebook page and give a warm dumpty-dum welcome to the following people who've joined this week. Rachel Simons, Rachel De Mann, Jane Neal, Michelle Lancaster, Jane Royal, Deborah Green, Louise Clark, Sue McCabe, Fabulous Adam Richard, and Jen Rig. And as ever, there were also a few other people whose membership requests we had to decline, because they didn't answer the questions. So let's hear what's been going on in the dumpty-dum Facebook group this week with a roundup from Michelle. How are you dumpty-dummers? Michelle here. Sunday started with Snoop Dogg. Then on Monday, some sensitively positioned bites for Paul Paul, and I genuinely wondered what we had in store for the rest of the week. Fortunately, we have the solace of each other on the Facebook page. As Sarah Ferguson commented, "Dear all of us, I can only see say, as we are amongst friends here, I can only but wish that the stupidest thing I have ever done is get kicked out of a club for some rapping." Sarah Siegel came to the rescue, thought of, by copying the lyrics to Fallon's chosen ditty "in full" in the comments. I'm not reading them out. But my fellow mid-linder, Andrea Twelves, I think spoke for most of us when she replied, "Sarah Siegel, how can you print such filth? Nick, your feet!" That's going too far. The line, "Can you wipe me down?" makes me think of Fallon in the tea room with a damp cloth and board expression. Any chance I'm not the target audience for this song? I don't think many of us are, but hey-ho. In addition to one of the cringiest visits to the GP in Archer's history, there was more pain for us Archer's listeners, as Alice finally returned. It was the effect on a very tired George that seemed to provoke some wishful thinking, with Glenys Goodwill wondering, "It can't be conscious keeping him awake at night. Surely?" Speaking of Alice's return, it was great to see patient, kind, and caring welcomes from Adam, Lillian, and Jakob. Or be it perhaps Adam's keenness for easy fixes, and Jakob's proper foot-in-mouse moment haven't necessarily helped. At least their hearts were in the right place. However, we can't say the same for Justin. As tea-brown art of his CA reflected, Justin Elliot needs to have some Christmas goats or something to visit him. What a cold-hearted curmudgeon, with Charlie Bird imagining him, twisting his moustache. I'm now imagining just that, plus him sitting in a chair, slowly turning round to face us, with Hilda Ogden purring away on his lap. That's enough from me. Take care all, to our bits! Thank you for that, Michelle, and thank you so much to everyone on the dumb-to-done Facebook group. I was quite disappointed that nobody called in about Justin this week, because he really was having a blow-fell moment, and you've absolutely pictured him correctly in my book, Michelle. If you'd like to join us on our Facebook page, please do, but don't forget to answer the membership questions, so that we know that you're a real person. Now we're moving on to Twitter, where you will find us at Dumb to Dumb. Make sure you include the archers hashtag using a capital TNA, so the visually impaired who use screen readers can enjoy any archers-based tweets. As well as at Dumb to Dumb, Stephen can occasionally be found at Wenlock House. And we can both also be found with the archers friends on Blue Sky, where I am at Wenlock.BSky.Social. And I am at jberto.BSky.Social. So let's find out who's won the Twitter medals this week. Tweet tweet tiger. Hello Jacqueline, Stephen and Dumb to Dumb is Everywhere. It's purple pumpkin here with tweets and skits of the week, and my thanks as ever to everyone who tags at Dumb to Dumb to make sure we see all the best ones. This week on Twitter and Blue Sky, a number of people were commenting that Azra Malik's GP practice is not like any anyone else has ever attended. She and the receptionist both allowed the wrong person into an appointment. She had time to go to the car park and prescribe a potentially addictive sedative to an alcoholic who's currently drinking. Where is this place? Sarah Maddox @ Sarah_Maddox noted that the GP crisis has definitely not reached Ambridge. Pickwick the Dodo @BlisleyHustler said, "I'm not sure a doctor prescribing Diasopam in a car park to someone who admits their drinking is out of control is considered good medical practice." While Ian @WisterYokoal hopes Azra's professional indemnity insurance is up to date. For most of this week, Team Fallon and Team Harrison were as far apart as ever, each berating the other side in the marriage. Was Fallon overreacting to someone saying prayers about her? Was it time Harrison got over himself? Either view was joined by a large number of people who were simply ready for this part of the story to be over. So we can but hope. Meanwhile a special mention must go to Brian Holding at Buggy Swires, who managed to post an image of a sign that said don't come knocking if the campervan's rocking, asking how long it would be until this was in the window of mixed campervan, a day or two before it appeared in the script. Well done for the accurate prediction, Brian. I'm now resurrecting my prediction about Fallon and Harrison's reconciliation. But now it's time for this week's medals for blue sky skits and ex-posts, all of which we continue to consider as Tweets of the Week. In Bron's position, it's Olwin @ambridgeolwin.bsky.social, who has Oliver saying, "Your tie is crooked and your suit is a disgrace. You look almost as bad as Boris Johnson." [Music] The silver medlist is Rainbow Warrior @Rainbow_Warrior. Is it too much to hope that Justin isn't in git mode just for once? I fear it is. [Music] And the gold medal goes to Miranda @appleandroidapp who reassured us that she is not in Minorca with Brian and says, "Start talking Joy. We want to know about Michelle and we want you to exercise your flashback and remember the sale of the cider to George. It's time. Go for it." [Music] And on that hopeful note for Alice's defence, that's it for this week. I hope to see you all on #TheArchers on Twitter or Blue Sky next week. Thank you for that, Theo, and congratulations to all who were mentioned in this week's roundup. And don't forget we're on Instagram @dumptydam where we are starting to be a bit more active. On that note, please send any The Archers or podcast relevant photographs to the Dumptydam email and we will publish some of the credits to you. It's dumptydam@mail.com and we did receive a night camera photo of a badger from Vicki, proving that there is wildlife out there. So I'm going to try and get that onto the Instagram page today. Badger! We will back once again next week and recording at a normal time of crack of dawn on Saturday morning. So please get your calls in by midnight on Friday, UK time as usual. And as we come to the end of this episode, we need to say thanks to all our wonderful contributors and to the team of Dumptydamas behind the scenes. And we need to say a great big thanks to all of you who are listening to us too. We love making this podcast and sharing our love of The Archers around the world. And we must say thank you to Kim Durham and Sunny Almond for their voices and our podcasting parents, Lucy V. Freeman and Roy Phil Brown. Thank you so much for listening and joining us today. We are now off to look after Joy's Garden. So it's goodbye from me. And it's all a vlog from me. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]