Tis the season to be jolly, Fallon, Alan, Helen, Lillian; Deck the Hall with boughs of Holly, Lily, Will and Jill, Tilly Button. Celebrate Christmas with The Archers!

[PseudoBadger]

Thanks to SmallLegsOrSmallEggs for this thread title way back in November!

Sorry, I've written an essay

Thanks gasp. You've just highlighted to me that that was 28 years ago!

The two camps seem to be split male/female too

The Ian and Adam sl has been left until they have more time to fit it in so I would guess Ian is just brooding on it now

Obviously. Because that's just what you would do

Brava Lil'G! (from Lynda and Jim ..)

Though I hope the Adam/Ian confrontation has not yet happened and will take place on air

Sorry, Stickerrocks! I had a conditional offer from Cambridge (gulp) 37 years ago - it would have been an unconditional offer if I'd taken their own exam in the autumn and done well enough, but I'd decided I would prefer to gamble on doing well in my A levels. Called that wrong, as it happened, but ended up in a place I loved instead (and met my husband there on day 3, but that's a whole other story!).

I was out last night and didn't catch up on TA until just before tonight's episode. Ludicrous stuff about the pigs. Clarrie wouldn't believe that Eddie had stolen pigs from Tom. Years ago he might have been stupid enough to buy pigs at a knockdown price from Fat Paul without asking any questions about where they'd come from, but (a) he isn't that stupid now and (b) he wouldn't steal directly from Tom in any event.

Surely Helen must be due to see a midwife again very soon? When is somebody going to spot that she isn't eating?

Those days are long, long gone, Stickerrocks, and in any case usually followed a very good performance in the entrance exams as well as the interview.
I wonder if it was an odd way of signifying that Phoebe had got into another college, not the one she applied to? Too complicated, though, I suspect.

They don't do entrance exams any more, do they? That's History Boys era.

These days there are all those pre-interview assessments instead - TSA for PPE - interview purely on the basis of TSA score.

I wondered if Phoebe had got some sort of scholarship or exhibition. Though not characteristic for Jenny to be so muted given the run up to this moment.

33 yrs ago. Entrance exam was fun. (Apart from the shock of everything being closed at 5.30 pm.) Unconditional (-ish; needed one more C to qualify for grant.) Met ExP on the first day.

It certainly sounded that way LilG - though I don't know how things work these days.

Phoebe's letter seems very old fashioned -in 1983 they phoned people the day after interview. (I was still in bed)

That's right, Finest. I meant that the reason unconditional offers were handed out was because the university already had the evidence they wanted that the student was up to the required standard. Nowadays no matter how good the interview is they also expect top notch A levels.

My son got his offer in a letter from Oxford four years ago. I gather from threads here that some colleges/subjects email and some write letters. Phone calls are rare!

I don't know if exhibitions/scholarships are still handed out. They used to be awarded with the offer of a place but my impression is that nowadays they are awarded during/at the end of the first year.

DS2 applied for PPE 5 years ago - passed TSA & got interview (hated the whole Oxford thing though, to my intense disappointment)

Interview was early Dec, as with Phoebe, but offers/rejections went out before Christmas. I think his was only by post. (Was rejection but that wasn't surprising as he'd made his feelings clear )

In my day you got a telegram if you got in and a letter if you didn't.

I am very old.

And I don't think Helen was strong and forceful with Ian- I thought she was desperate and completely uncomprehending and insensitive.

New N B-S!

Which reminds me Muddha - the story is being repeatedly referred to on the BBC to highlight the new law. (In fact it's almost as if our dear Goverment was consulting with The Mailbox ...)

A telegram?!

(I had to Telex the news to my parents in foreignland ...)

Thanks for the Nancy link, Gruach

Bertrand, when I got into to Oxford, it was a letter, I am pretty sure. That was 1982! When did you go?

Gasp0de Reading your views on Eddie made me think of those two silents, Baggy and Snatch and suddenly make a connection I've never seen before.

Baggy!? Snatch!? Is this some long standing joke I've been missing for decades? Would the SWs do that?

Does Helen know Ian thinks Adam and Charlie were having an on-going affair because of what Rob told him? Or does she think it's just about the New Year's Eve snog? But I don't think she gets Ian's sense of betrayal, because all she can see is one of her few allies vanishing.

She does think it's about the NYE snog and she doesn't really get why Ian's so angry. I think she feels betrayed by Ian - or she will begin to see it that way.

Helen did the same to Kirsty and K castigated her roundly for it so she shouldn't be overly surprised that Ian is angry. The difference is that she told Rob about Adam and Rob stored it up to use in the most harmful way he could, implying that Helen had spread it as village gossip, so that Ian regards it as utterly unforgivable.

No one's going to connect the dots and she's never going to eat again.

I wonder whether Knob's agenda is that he drives Helen into anorexia and then drjves her into complete submission by forcing her to eat? Though that's much more likely to lead her into bulimia, unless he plans to imprison her to stop her putting her fingers down her throat.

It's probably not at attempt to make her anmorexic. He knows she is self conscious about her weight so he picks on that. The number of, often v slim, women on MN who have reported their EA partners constantly calling them fat. He also picked her up on her driving- another sore point, her parenting and her organisational skills. All things she has insecurities over.

Has he not also pulled her up about her record over previous partners?

He has her convinced she is a fat, ditzy, struggling single parent with dubious taste in friends (Adam, Emma, Susan) who cannot make any decisions without him. She needs him. Which is what he wants.

Scholarship for Phoebe, surely?!
Ian was great, but my first thought was "shit, now there's only Pat who may come to the rescue with Rob, and that's Hayley unlikely"
I enjoyed that epi, first one for ages, I have, really - it was missing Deavud, Hooter, Roof and Titchyknob, so all in all, a winner

Scholarship for Phoebe, surely?!
Ian was great, but my first thought was "shit, now there's only Pat who may come to the rescue with Rob, and that's Hayley unlikely"
I enjoyed that epi, first one for ages, I have, really - it was missing Deavud, Hooter, Roof and Titchyknob, so all in all, a winner

Hooter?

Get your mind out of the gutter nippie!
Don't the names Baggy and Snatch have poaching connotations.