OK - odds on for Helen to murder Tony.

[seeker]

Or vice versa?

Which would you rather?

I reckon something will happen to Helen and Pat & Tony will be left to bring up the baby.

Sadly don't get to listen to the Archers as much as I'd like any more (toddler and new baby), but there was one the other week where Pat and Helen were discussing names ... Helen told Pat her choices and then it was tum-ti-tum-ti-tum-ti-tum ... at the time I thought 'not much of a cliffhanger ending' but maybe it was significant?

By the way, who is the father of the baby? I must have missed some important episodes - one minute Helen was told there was a shortage of donors or something, and they all had to go through checks and tests, next episode I hear and she's being inseminated

I assumed she'd talked Ian into it, as he was all set to have a baby with that girl a while back, but he doesn't seem to act like dad-to-be ... as I say though, I don't get to hear it much :(

Don't forget that in Daily Mail Land, Clive Horobin will definitely be released in time for Susan's "nibbles". (Oh the drawing back of mumsnet skirts at the use of that word!)

All violent criminals spend 6 weeks in a centrally heated cell with wall to wall running Sky TV, and are then released to live in the house next door to theie victim. Which has been bought by the taxpayer, natch.

Brilliant thread, love the predictions.

Helen was dull-oh when young, I think. I remember Kate in her druggy days calling her "wet" because she thought "Take That" were cool & Kate was into, er, some other kind of music that I didn't know & don't remember because I was never cool.

So, 2 story lines. I hope for 'skating rink carnage' (TM SpringheeledJack I think).
Lizzie - gone. Huzzah. But: Nigel emoting, however, might be more than civilisation can bear.

I don't want baby-related gloom cos I want to gloat & ooh & rush on here to revel.

And 2: Pip has been a bit too saintly for her own Archers-good lately. But: cue months of "Ohh Noooo".

Or: Daniel? Cue months of Shula & God?

Can you tell I'm supposed to be packing?

I really, really don't want somebody's child to die - just too awful. THe episode when John died was heartbreaking. The thing is - whatever they do you will feel like you are there and it's happening right in front of you because they are bloody good - so if it is a death it will be dreadful.

Neither do I really - but I would make an exception for Jamie!

And possibly Daniel. And Lily.

Oh, and possibly Josh. And George.

And Ruriadh obviously. And Phoebe.

Hellin can't die. She has to give birth and find MN. I would so enjoy her posts

By the way Zen Hellin used a sperm donor.

NorthernLurker, you're right about somebody's child. The scene where Tony finds John was heartbreaking & so would any scene with Pip or Daniel be, regardless of how annoying Ruth and Shula generally are.

Lizzie, however...

Pat is welsh,thats one reason why Helen wants to call the baby Megan if its a girl .She was quite a shock to Ambrodge when she forst arrived becasue she was quite a radical feminist and too forceful for the locals.She camped at Greenham and did a course in womens studies at Felpersham!The whole organic farm business was her idea and she drove it through.

When Helen was a baby she had a hip problem which meant that she spent the first 6 months of her life in plaster,Pat has always been rather overprotective of her .

After John died Pat had a nervous breakdown and she has never quite got back to her old self,Tony worries about her having a relapse

who was John and why is he so significant?
sorry only been listening in the last couple of years

My God Mrs woodentop, do you keep notes? your recall is amazing. maybe you worked on the show?

John was Pat and Tony's son - so Tom and Helen's brother. He died in a tractor.

Sad isn't it ,started listening really in my university years,although it was often on in the background when I was growing up,I think you just absorb this information.The amazing thing is you can have several months or even years when you are not listening and then one episode and you are hooked again!

You can also get recordings of some of the early episodes ,once had one which covered Jenny's years with John Tregorran etc when she was an unmarried mother!

Not so good on some of the stuff a few years ago like then kathy rape etc and the Greg stuff.I sometimes I've stopped because I just find it boring ...the whole Emmer and Ed and Will stuff was enough to make one ill!

I've been listening for about 25 years I think but my recall isn't as good as yours.

I'm quite dreading this big event - hated John's death and even Mark Hebden's. Couldn't quite get so worked up about Greg though because he was such a miserable, dull git

I can't remember not listening to the Archers as my grandparents who were farmers always listened after lunch - was much more agricultural stuff in those days though.

My favourite storyline was undoubtedly Brian/Siobhan/Jennydarling - got that was gripping.

I do think its going to be lower loxley as deaths/financial implications could go on for a long time.

Really hope its not Will going mad as too dull and also always feel a bit sorry for him. I mean his brother did shag his wife and plot to leave the country with his child but the scriptwriters have just turned him into a caricature which is sad.

Also feel that way about Linda who can be incredibly sweet and thoughtful but it seems easier to ridicule her.

I actually dislike Jill whose so opinionated - god she'd be a nightmare mil.

I've been listening nearly 35 years. My favourite episode is the one, about 10 years aog, where Jennifer goes upstairs and finds that Kate has come home.
That whole storyline when Kate went missing, including identifying the body that wasn't her, was one of the best in the years I've been listening.

We need to do a thread of Helen's posts on MN.

"AIBU to think that MIL shouldn't ignore her grandchild just because MIL is non-existent, and also that if he stops ignoring her grandchild and actually gets off her backside to do something that is because she thinks I can't manage alone and she has been Against Me From The Start for having AI."

I definitely think it has to be a LL thing - they've been building the whole 'insurance, H&S aspects' all through November...and the gathering of the clan there on 2 Jan just ups the stakes big-time.

As long as it isn't like the David-crushed-under-a-cow storyline which finished on a massive cliff-hanger and then pretty much had him all fine at the start of the next episode I'll be happy.

Part of me wonders if they could have the big death storyline play out 'off-stage' with something happening with Kate in South Africa; they've been dropping hints that all isn't well back home for ages and the PharewelltoPhoebe just cranked up the potential irony. Perhaps she'll crack and kill whatsisface father of Nolly and Sipho and then be back early with more kids for Jennifer to raise and blood dripping out of her suitcase!

Agree that LL has been highlighted lately. The whole 'Rick Turnip' debacle will take on a tragic cast as the hay rustler dons Kenton's costume and turns nasty. The whole thing is captured by the waiting photographer from the Echo.

Kenton jumsp out from behind a tree, in Highwayman costume, Lizzy takes fright and drops down dead due to weak heart.

Vanessa Whitburn has said that one of the Big Stories is going to be a storyline already in development, the other will be a surprise.

My money is on the following scenario for the developing story:
Deeeevid goes out to challenge hay rustlers with Wor Ruth and Pip. The rustlers set one of the barns on fire and Pip is trapped inside while trying to call the police/analyse the component reeds of the hay sample. Deeevid runs in to rescue her but is killed in a poignant reminder of Grace Archers sacrifice to ITV.

If Helen died that would be a foreseeable "tragedy" not a "shock", so I don't think Hell will top it.

Shock stories:
David gets stabbed in the street after unexpectedly meeting his hay thieves;

Jamie has developed a drug habit and gets shotgunned trying to burgle Oliver & Caroline;

Emma loses her baby and goes off the deep end, snatches Helen's baby (why has nobody else suggested this?);

Roy and Kate get back together;

Frida Frye actually speaks.