Why is Lillian allowing this to happen?

[PseudoBadger]

FFS Lil, he's just a bit on the side. If he pisses you off just bin him. Don't start sounding so downtrodden.

I think someone mentioned early on in the thread that the flat was rented.
I'm sick of the soggy sobbing too.

if Paul's family hear the messages, and work out the purpose of the shagnest flat, they will be even more annoyed about his attempts to interfere with the wedding arrangements.

Once Lil is under the patio, Matt will have a vacancy. Maybe he will hit it off with Paul's ex-wife.

Also, why would Celia go to the funeral? What's the etiquette on going to your Ex husband's funeral?

I suppose Celia might go to support their children?

Can't find a "wry-but-humorous-snark" emoticon but I think it's unlikely that the producers would hire this particular former Eastenders actor, set up an "explosive" funeral plot - and then not write said actor into that story.

But I could be wrong.

I would agree with you but the SW have form for setting up "explosive" scenes and then not following through. Anita said that she was in six episodes - has anyone been counting?

Have we had the reading of the will yet? Do you think that he disinherited the children, as threatened, and left it all to Lillian. That would take some explaining to Matt!

Sadly I fear they'll do their usual trick and just drop this SL like a ton of bricks, as others have predicted. It seems to be their invariable way of resolving anything they can't quite get out of.

We have weeks, if not months, of nerve-jangling tension, then the next minute it's all resolved somehow, at a stroke. Like Amy and her married man, Chris and the 'life-threatening' accident/Alice going to Canada, Adam and Pawel.

Or David and the intimidation thing against the farm. Couldn't believe my ears when after refusing to 'bother' the police about it for months, next thing it was 'oh yeah, the bad guys have been put away for a Very Long Time, so it's all OK now! Hooray!'

Lill & Matt will probably come back from Montenegro and she'll be telling J'lene that it's all fine now, she and Tiger are all lovey-dovey again, and Paul is a distant memory

What do we want?

1. Celia spilling the beans and being stepped on by a gallant Matt.

2. Matt and Lilian returning from Montenegro as Mr and Mrs.

3. PigletJohn's never-really-dead Paul ascending to wreak havoc in their lives.

When do we want it?

Not long after 7pm would be a good time to start....

Those would all be good something but I fear for today's episode as they mentioned something about a sleepless night for Eddie . Surely he cannot be kept up by the crass sl that is the espionage about floral contest.

Massive FAIL!

What ARE they playing at?

I would rather listen to Lillian wailing on forevermore than here one more word about the flower festival.

I'm hoping that somehow Lillian twigs about Matt.... I've missed a few episodes but if I've got this right, following Matt sending in a heavy to scare off Paul, Paul drops dead - and now Matt has pretty much forced Lillian to go to the funeral - he's really turning the thumbscrews while playing Mr Nice. I've always thought of Matt as a rough diamond but now he's being a totally sadistic bastard

I thought that Matt was on top form. Just when you are thinking that he is almost being considerate, he then drops in a "didn't I tell you? [innocent face]"

Yes, it was telling that he knew all along that Celia wasn't going to the funeral.

@CashmereHoodlum

I would rather listen to Lillian wailing on forevermore than here one more word about the flower festival.

Cashmere I am with you
I didn't think anglicans went in for saints and the blessed virgin

I agree, Brillig. Not to mention Jennifer taking on the unspellable one and no-one batting an eyelid. And now they have to remember to mention him twice a year.

I though Matt was really hamming it up tonight. Lilian most def doesn't need him and, as she's not stupid ( Matt notwithstanding), she ought to twig that he's found out.

But she won't.

What with St Hellin of the Immaculate Conception bringing forth Henry the Holy Donor-Kebabby and now Twittering Jenny about to break out the Rosary beads, I am transported back to the convent school of my youth. Roo-arrr-ooo-arrr-i will no doubt turn up for the summer hols chanting the catechism next.

Although, looking on the bright side, perhaps there will be a stoning of Lilian on the village green when her harlotry is revealed in all its squalid splendour.

Ian could go all Ian Paisley, booming at Twittering Jen about "papists" taking over the village and throwing the idolatrists out of the church, along with their floral tributes and water features.

Oh I'm loving all the flower festival stuff, especially Clarrie with her "...supposed to be the patron saint of milk, not orange squash!", and recruiting Jazzer (Jazzer!) as a double-crossing spy.

I'm going to wager that:

(A) Paul isn't really dead, and this might be as much to do with losing control of Celia as with Matt/Lillian. But I think it will be ages before we find out; and

(B) something dreadful is going to happen to Nic's baby, and somehow Emma is not going to look good when it happens.

This evening I actually wondered whether Clarrie is showing the early signs of some mental deterioration. Obviously I'm reading too much into it (erm, I hope) and the script-writers are probably chortling away thinking it's highly amusing, but to me this SL is grim and starting to get distinctly creepy.

It's not normal behaviour, is it? Even Eddie & Saint Nic seemed taken aback by her plans to recreate the Trevi Fountain in white roses and 10,000 sprigs of gypsophila

Brillig, the SWs have form for making the women of the village behave in odd ways over utterly pointless village activities like this. There was a weird storyline a few years ago about the growing of giant vegetables for some competition (probably the Flower and Produce Show), and Jill became unhinged and crept into Lynda's garden at dead of night to check the marrows. Or something like that. Sadly, I think the SWs think it's all thigh-slappingly funny. I don't and would rather hear Brian, who is genuinely witty, or Matt being sinister, or change-counting in the shop, or lovely throwaway lines like 'I came late to avocadoes' or 'Tea must be available at all times!'

Does anybody else listen to The Archers in the hope of stuff like this even though we only get what we want every five years or so?

Oh yes! Change-counting! Avocadoes! Tea! And I'm vaguely remembering something about chrysanthemums or dahlias??

And it's about time Brine took his tasselled loafers out of the wardrobe again too. Maybe the new herd manager woman will put a spring in his step.

I want some more of Lynda being sniffy about the Highland Games. She does sniffy so wonderfully.

I love the way that this thread has morphed.
We are all so fed up to the back teeth with the Lillian storyline.

Oh yes, Lynda's sniffs are a great pleasure, Grimma.

Inspired thinking about the herdwoman, Bore. I think you're remembering Shula being in two minds about forsythia, because it's yellow and she wasn't sure it could be used in the church flowers in Lent.

R4, yes, utterly, utterly fed up to the back teeth with Lilian, but I did wonder tonight if Brenda might whack her over the head with the office stapler (large, heavy-duty model) and bury her in the foundations of one of Amside's many projects. Not a court in the land would convict if they heard just a fraction of the snivelling and wailing we've been subjected to these last few weeks.