Is that a ferret in your (Gr)undies or are you just pleased to see me? Discuss The Archers vermin (so many possibilities!) here.

[PseudoBadger]

I'm not sure that ferrets cannot through a thumb sized hole - rats can, and mice can fit through a pen sized hole. But I know the SWs will have researched such a statement carefully

Hasn't Lilian already had a face lift in the past? In pre/ early Matt days? I can't imagine her being very coy about some Botox although I do think it s a it incongruous with her pleading poverty.

And it doesn't 'do' anything to your face. Just means that when you smile you don't get loads of crinkly creases around your eyes etc. So absolutely nothing 'shocking' or obvious. Big error on the part of the SWs (unless she has had loads of fillers and other work done and is lying by claiming it's just botox, but didn't sound like that…)

I think it was Jolene that had something done - Lilian encouraged her.

Yes, Jolene had an eye lift. I remember it well.

Must say I'm heartily sick of the SWs' repeated, sniggering denigration of any Ambridge woman over 30 who attempts to upcycle her appearance.

Surely we raised some protest over Susan's hair? But now, again, we're supposed to laugh at a grown woman making a perfectly ordinary choice about her own body.

I'd actually always assumed that every single time Lillian heads into the sun with Mandy What'sface or whoever they're actually having something "done". And before the new poverty she was a regular at beauty salons from Felpersham to Knightsbridge. It was no secret. So this is a stupendously clunky way of signalling that she's "lonely and miserable" - I think they could have relied on listeners to work that out for themselves. Deserted late middle aged woman has Botox is simply not comedy.

It might not be comedy - but it is light relief from: soil erosion, possible affairs, domestic abuse, hardship, flooding, money worries etc. I think it also shows us what "poverty" means for Lilian. Although James might have "treated" his Mum.

Ah mummytime I have to disagree. I'm pretty sure "light relief" shouldn't involve the raising of my blood pressure!

"Jenny wants a new kitchen." Ho ho.

"Lillian has Botox." Ho ho.

"Susan gets her hair did." Ho ho.

No. Not funny.

Jenny finding herself alone in the lambing shed and safely delivering a dozen lambs while simultaneously lecturing Kate on the phone - that might be funny.

Lillian being hit on by an arrogant young man and deftly flicking him away - that would be light relief.

Susan roundly beating Jim in a pub quiz. I'd pay to see that ...

(Slight conflation. I'm still cross about the kitchen saga ...)

I can tell. The problem I feel is that these are all half-thought out filler ideas. Which are outside the experience of the script writers (or maybe they don't have the actors to do it properly).

The bad hair could have been great but: a) Susan should have been wailing to someone about it (I phoned my bf of the time about it when I had one), b) it was unrealistic that emma would have let her mother leave the Salon with a disaster - she'd have got something done about it.

The Kitchen could have been good: but it needed time, Brian's moaning about the cost was okay, but then the delays should have been subtle at first, and built to a real disaster!

Lilian's Botox should have been her showing off proudly or being so nonchalent - and just Brian puzzling about "what was different" and then gossip.

Do they do solo scriptwriting still? A US team approach would tighten up these areas.

But these kinds of stories could be good - as afterall it is what everyone gossips about.

But I agree Lilian has been having Botox for years!

Didn't HWNMNBM visit a doctor fairly recently BYOS ? and there was a conversation about the fact that Amb. hadn't had it's own medic. practice fora while (though I c an't remember who said it).

Surely botox or skin "refreshing" (sorry I can't remember the word) leaves you with tiny needlelike pricks all over your face that make you look bright pinkish and you'd need sunglasses. Maybe she's had more done than she wants to admit to . IMO Brian only said she looks wonderful so she'll take up with some unsuitable bloke and leave his house!!

What irritated me about the kitchen saga was Brian's helplessness and the fact that he allowed himself to be blackmailed into paying for the kitchen when JD used starvation tactics. If he had any sense he'd have gone to restaurants, got himself some microwave meals, imported someone to cook for him - or even had a go at shopping and cooking for himself.

PussCat's facelift is also classified information.
I can't find any terrible pictures of a face post-botox (big red spots?)
What do I google for to see an example?

ragged sorry it's after a 'facial peel' that you get tiny little pink pinpricks all over your face I saw it on telly so it must be true

Hello, everyone. Back after a few days away, have now caught up with TA and this thread!

Re GPs: after the Ambridge surgery closed (because Shula drove Richard away, as Susan was not slow to point out at the time), the NHS refused to fund a surgery in Ambridge any more, IIRC, so half the patients were transferred to a practice in Borchester and the other half to a surgery in Hollerton.

[Vast amounts of other useless Ambridge trivia available on request.]

Yes, v irritating and sloppy writing re Lil's 'Botox'. From Brine's reaction I immediately assumed she'd had some sort of surgery, or a robust facial peel at the very least. Hint to SWs: something visible

And yy to Lil having been no stranger to discreet non-surgical makeovers for some years now. She's always written as being extremely high-maintenance and it's inconceivable that she wouldn't have been onto all this ages ago. So it shouldn't be any surprise to any of the family.

Sometimes I do wonder if the SWs actually bother to listen to their own programme.

Were the Hathaways - Tim and Siobhan after of before Dr. Locke?

I thought the surgery closed because Dr. Tim left the village, closely followed by the female vicar, but I could be wrong.

Did Susan have a job at the surgery - receptionist?? Think of the gossip potential!

I think you're right on the timeline & sequence of events and who got off with who, OnBlue.

Did Richard Locke have that kind of accent before? I don't recognise him at all. I thought he sounded alright before & now he sounds whiny. Why did Shula LIE about talking to him (date-making) on phone??

I can't stand hearing Rob - I'm waiting for Helen to LTB and in the meanwhile I've been looking at Lowfield and reading the posts here to keep up with things.

What with the vet gambling and loosing tens of thousands meaning Shula having to remortgage, his trips away to "conferences" and other shenanigans with Dan's female contemporaries, who thinks Saint Shula will take up with Richard again?

Also, does no-one remember that Shula and Mark "lent" 50k years ago to Kenton to set up in the antique trade with Nelson Gabriel - what happened to that money?

You're absolutely right, OnBlue, it was after Tim left, not Richard Locke. Mea culpa!

Re Richard's accent - it's the same actor, and I think the same accent, but it was all a very long time ago!

Kenton and money - I assume his family have simply written off all the money 'lent' to him over time. His inheritance from his parents was reduced to reflect the times they've bailed him out, after all.

It's a fake accent though, isn't it, so he's probably forgotten exactly how it went before. He sounds quite old now - not sure how old he's meant to be relative to Shula. Perhaps the regenerated Lillian will make a play for him too!

The actor is 61 this year so if RL is supposed to be the same age that's 3 or 4 years older than Shula. I wondered if he'd had a bad throat at the time of the recordings as I don't think he sounded like that last week.

And only 6 years younger than Lillian...

IcimoiI think there are men who are completely helpless in the kichen (or whose wives make them that way) remember he's getting on a bit . You often hear about widowers in RL who are totally adrift once left alone.