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!

DS1 (same age as Phoebe) rolled his eyes at the radio and pointed out that UCAS operates via email in the rest of the UK and only sends letters to Ambridge

I'm afraid DS1 is wrong about this, though. In due course UCAS gets updated for Oxford and Cambridge offers/rejection but the first indication is almost always by letter or email (or occasionally phone call).

Gasp. Snap! I took an EE offer for uni & met DH on day 1 (rooms next door to each other in halls). How different life would have been if I hadn't taken the easy option and actually had to make an effort to get top grades.

Pheobe storyline only one that has EVER made 12yo DD prick up ears

'she wouldn't give up Oxford just for some bloke, would she?'

INSPIRATIONAL!

more young women getting into Oxford storylines, please

I say this as someone who would sell bodyparts to get a DD in

24 years ago (gah!) I had to wait an extra 24 hours after a-level results to hear from Cambridge - I'd done better in the subjects I was applying for but missed my other subject by 1 grade. I had a school friend who was in the same boat and we got paralytically drunk together that night whilst everyone else was celebrating. My acceptance came the next day but she had to wait another day due to the crapness of rural post (even with 2nd post!). It seems so antiquated now, along with getting professional exam results in The Times on a Saturday morning (or Friday night in London if you wanted to) compared to emails and texts.

I had a moment of clarity re storylines this morning in the car. Everything is being sacrificed for the main plots as we've been noticing. In days of yore we'd have heard the fall out of Rob's revelation at the wedding from Adam and Ian's perspective. Instead they're merely bit parts supporting the Helen/Rob behemoth (Behellrob?)... Most frustrating.

They can't focus on more than one so the Ian and Adam showdown will have to come later which is unrealistic

Absolutely RNRN - and while Rob and Helen are being brilliantly written everyone else has had their personality wrenched out of shape to accommodate their trajectory.

I quite liked seeing my name in the paper rock!!

My (Stone Age) offer news came in a letter and then was phoned through to me on a very scratchy line to New Zealand. I didn't really believe it until my dad forwarded the letter.
Didn't meet DH until 3rd year, though.

Ooh, that bit about professional exam results in the Times brings back memories. Accountancy and law students would gather outside The Times' printing works waiting for the first edition, and a couple of copies would be thrown into the crowd who would scrabble for them like a flock of vultures.

I wonder if Phoebe's going to get a conditional offer and will then be subjected to 6 months' pressure from Alex to throw her exams so she doesn't meet it?

Gruach thanks for NBS - "oh Noah"!

Ooh I also remember getting exam results in The Times! It doesn't seem that long ago but it was nearly 20 years

That would be the worst possible outcome gruntled!

Sorry for the duplicate post, trouble on t'ipad. I thought Jill had been nicknamed "Hooter" here, EBearHug, but possibly have my groups muddled.. NBS brill as usual - trevor I'd never made the connection between Roof and the Ark before! (Well, perhaps a pig ark?!)

Re Ian:
He doesn't know how Knob behaves with Helen - he thinks she loves him (he's never liked him)

Another example of SWs apparently not having a clue how best friends operate. In the real world, Ian would have been privy to plenty of opportunities to see Helen's relationship in action. It's ridiculous that he wouldn't know anything at all about the dynamics between them.

Same goes for Usha and Ruth, and Pat and Kathy. All of them have had major life upheavals and trauma but the supposed best friend, who lives in the same village, just pops round for coffee once a year?

I've been reminded of my own Cambridge admission story from nearly 30 (yikes!) years ago. A-level results came out on a Thursday and I'd met my conditions, but I was also required to get certain grades in 'S' papers (STEP) and those had been delayed. We were off on holiday the next day, so I was left in a horrible state of suspense as we set off to Norfolk, until the allotted time when we stopped at a random village phonebox (no mobiles!) and a teacher opened the envelope to read me my fate...
(what that teacher was doing lurking in a village phonebox, I don't know... ).

By the way, Cutted's post was number 39,927 by my count so just a day until the 40,000th.

And "yikes"? Who still says "yikes"?

Scooby doo. Full of yikes, yoinks and the like.

In my day people who got places, (not me), got a telegram and people who didn't, (me), got a letter the next day.

But that was practically in the Cretaceous period......

I got married while I was waiting for my professional exam results. We would phone our head office who had sent someone out to get the first edition of the Times on the Friday night. I gave my old name & was told that it wasn't there so I assumed I'd failed my final exams. Then the penny finally dropped that I had changed my name, called back and found out I'd qualified after all.

I interpreted the outcome of the Adam and Ian situation that Ian swithered about whether to marry Adam. He decided to go ahead but was quite stiff and uptight with everyone.
And he is biding his time before he says anything and watching Adam like a hawk.

So I assume Adam will find out eventually from Rob or Helen ir else it will erupt when Charlie goes.

The godparents thing though. H is related to Adam and sge knows Ian is pissed off eith her. And she is manipulative. So surely it is Adam she would go to. Hey Adam do you and Ian want to be gps? Adam would agree seeing as he knows nothing about the falling out. That would leave Adam to sort out the Ian situation for her.

Yes, I've been surprised that Helen didn't try Adam for lines of communication when she got nowhere with Ian. But perhaps she doesn't want them to discuss her, or why Ian is so angry with her.

Then again, SWs might just have forgotten that Helen and Adam are related and are friends.

If she's ever allowed to see Adam......

I thought Ian was Henry's godfather.

But sge said to Rob she wanted Adam and Ian for gdps. If she only has Ian for Henwee then surely it should be Adam this time? (I thought most people shared it out a bit)

I wonder if Phoebe's going to get a conditional offer and will then be subjected to 6 months' pressure from Alex to throw her exams so she doesn't meet it?

if they do this I'm never ever listening to TA again. This time I said the same after they did away with Matt and lasted about a month I mean it

soddit, I'm never listening to the radio again