Can I PLEASE just have 13 minutes? 13 measly minutes to myself to listen to The Archers?

[PseudoBadger]

Come and enjoy awkward dinner parties galore!

haha basketz. my uncle's response at 14 when he found out my grannie was pregnant again was "uuuuuuuurrrrrrgghh"

i make it almost exactly 12 weeks, though obviously we don't know when ruth had her LMP

Agree - the interesting route to take would be having her decide not to go through with the pregnancy, on the grounds that her family feels complete and the disruption would be too great. But tbf, it wouldn't really be very in-character for Ruth, would it? And can't imagine the scriptwriters going down that road. On another note, poor, poor embarrassed Pip, Josh and Ben ...

There are 18-21 yr gaps from oldest to youngest kids in my parents' families, so I don't get the embarrassment angle, sorry!! Is this cultural? DC would half love me to have another (even the teenage DC).

Pip was 21 in Feb btw (somebody asked) & Ben was 12 last week (being a haymaking baby)(shudder)

Did Josh do GCSEs last summer?

It was all right at the end of the epi so just heard shocked announcement followed by "what will Daveeed say?" and then dum-di-dum-di-dum-di-dum....

Looking forward to tonight's instalment!

If Baby Amber does appear in September then it will crank up the 'how will Brookfield support everyone' tension for years to come. They all seem to have their heads in the sand anyway about that - I think they hope Pip will marry watsisface-the-arable-farmer and be happy with his farm, Josh is supposed to support himself with his hens and then the farm can support Ben and Ruth & David's retirement. Another baby would definitely be a spanner in those works - plus David was saying to Kenton that Ruth was 9 years younger than him so there's plenty of scope for him to be unhappy that he's too old to be going back to babies again.

It does seem bizarre that they've done the same plot as with Vicky again so soon after, especially with the same set up of excessively tired etc. Yes I know that that's how lots of people feel and babies in your 40s aren't that rare but in a population as small as Ambridge with so many other big plots they could do this seems very odd unless they're going to take it off down other angles...

Given the shudder-making 'excuse me while I snog my wife' comment at the party there is of course the potential for David to perhaps go all Lord Flashart when he hears the news isn't there .

I brought up the lambing/pregnancy problems issue days ago when most of you were still thinking Ruth was ill.

It occurred to me the other evening that the lurking SWs do take note of some of our comments - so, putting together our collective disgust at food chomping and kissing noises, they inflicted the Kenton and Jolene choco-slurp on us.

Back in the mid-50s when the BBC top brass were wondering how to scupper ITV's first night on the air, they decided a good way to destroy the party atmosphere would be to kill off Grace Archer, Phil's first wife (this was at a time when more than half the UK population listened regularly). Just to make everybody feel even worse about it, Grace had told Phil either that night or earlier in the week that she was pregnant.

Now, if Sean O'Connor wants to make national headlines.....

Point scoring?

Ahem. Some of us have been writing endless and interminable essays on Brenda as the spiritual spawn of Lillian ever since she stepped on the plane to Russia... (Although it's entirely possible that this unashamedly brilliant prophecy was first aired on an AMEX thread.)

But yes - definitely scope for her to be a thorn in "poor" Kirsty's side for decades to come.

ErrolThe lol at the 'choco-slurp' but you missed that it was an 'alcho-choco-slurp' Gotta be the best

Now, if Sean O'Connor wants to make national headlines.....

I'm not sure TA has quite that much pull now. If they really wanted to be ruthless I suppose they could have her faint in front of Sir Bradley's high speed bicycle.

Sadly, no, not as much pull as that, but 5m regular listeners is a pretty large regular audience in the fragmented media world we're in now.

I loved that alco-choco-slurp moment! But then I think Kenton and Jolene are a terrific couple.

Well TA does have MN aristocracy listening to it; welcome Sarah BTW ! How's Olivia and the L.Os these days?

holidaycriminal i think it will depend on the teenager, but i suspect there is a 'yuck' window for many teenagers where the idea of their parents having another baby (and therefore having sex) is revolting. after that they're more mature about it and pleased about about the idea of a new baby sibling. i would have been thrilled as a teenager if my mum had announced a pregnancy my mum far less so she sometimes has nightmares about it even now

errol i could imagine an 'online affair' type thing between tom and brenda (possibly rather one-sided)

poor kirsty. i think she is genuinely nice and he is such a mansplaining dick

"mansplaining dick" - so true!

In my head he is a gingerer even more weasely Ian Beale-alike.

"It does seem bizarre that they've done the same plot as with Vicky again so soon after, especially with the same set up of excessively tired etc."

^^

Agree with this. Naughty, lazy SWs!

See, Kirsty seems all together and self confident most of the time (dealing with Kenton when he ran Jack's and the like), so why does she not see that she can do better than self-absorbed twat Tom? I know she does challenge his idiocy from time to time but now she seems to have gone into pathetic girly mode over the wedding plans.

MrsDV - are you thinking shades of Midwich Cuckoos? Strange distant children who grow up and take over Ambridge?

Welll....pregnancy only has so many symptoms and pregnancy in the over 40s is not rare. The situations are totally different. For Mike and Vicky the choice was I think much clearer - Bethany was basically Vicky's only chance of having a child of her own ever.
For Ruth and David the situation is much more complex. It will be interesting to see how far along she is. We assume 12 weeks or less but I know somebody who'd got to 20+ weeks and finally went to the GP because they felt so worn out. Was quite a shock. Not only pg but about 4 months to go not 7-8!

yes stealth... perhaps mansplaining was the wrong word - more like just old-fashioned patronising, but kirsty sort of enables it (i'm thinking about the public service announcement stretching scene last night)

i wouldn't be surprised if she were insecure about the relationship though because of how tom treated her last time

Maybe Ruth will decide not to carry on with the pregnancy and Jill and/or David will be horrified at her plans thus putting the whole women's right to choose in the spotlight? Can't wait to see what David thinks .....