Roy and Kirsty up a tree, K I S S I N G? Swipe right for The Archers thread and enjoy the Ambridge dating scene.

[PseudoBadger]

Stuff Lil's affair, disposing of company assets at lower than market value is very, very naughty, especially to a director of the company (which I think Brian is). Even if Brian isn't a director, Justin will be in deep trouble for doing so, whether to diddle the taxman or shareholders. So far I can't see what Justin hopes to gain from this.

I thought Brine's response "does his wife know' was quite well-judged - I could almost hear the cogs in his reptile brain turning around the question of whether Justin had managed to pull off the ultimate of being both powerful in business and managing - 'the jammy so-and-so" to have an open marriage. Or at least an uncomplaining spouse...

Goodness, I remember Scott, but thought Lil had been around for years before. My memory is all wrong, I fear. So which husband had the riding accident?

Or do the SWs assume that everyone over a certain age boils veg to buggery?

It was probably sprouts. Everyone cooks them 'to buggery' , except me of course!

I noticed the BBC site says Lilian has been played by the current actress since 2000. That must be around the time of Scott and Brenda etc.

YY to the idea that Rob will tell Miranda; I can hear him now:

'I must say Miranda, Justin's very lucky to have a wife like you who understand a chap has needs' [Beavis & Butthead huh huh style laugh]'

'what do I mean, well you know, a powerful man like him, forced to work away from his wife most of the week, has to have an outlet for his engergies...'

... and so on as we all wishe yet again Helen had pierced a bloody artery and been done with it!

I fear that the land thing may be a long term plot being set up with potential financial ruin on the horizon for Adam, Debbie, Kate and Alice and Ruari - it's all very easy to take out a £1.6m loan when you're in your 70s and it's all being agreed over some agreeable brandies and cigars; less fun when the land turns out to be crap and there isn't enough money to sustain the myriad offspring.

lf Justin isn't already planning to doublecross Brine on this dodgy deal, I bet he will if Lillian steps out of line. Brines calculations that this relationship is a good thing for him could be seriously wrong.

Sprouts cooked for 20 mins? Bleurgh

Justin isn't going to let the land sell for less than market value. Brian is being played

Lilian was a speaking character in the 50s and 60s but at some point in the 70s the SWs got bored with her and Ralph and sent them off to Guernsey as tax exiles. There were references to her occasionally in the 80s and 90s but I'm not sure she ever spoke. There was a poster on the old BBC MB whose knowledge of TA was really encyclopaedic - well beyond mine - and she was apoplectic that when Lilian returned to Ambridge with her vocal chords reactivated the BBC decided to recast. From the odd snippets of archive footage I've heard the young Lilian did not have a dirty laugh or a fearsome gin habit!

Re her first husband: this BBC webpage they say in 1970 'Lilian's husband Lester "Nick" Nicholson died in a fall while sleepwalking while in hospital with an ear condition. Wealthy Ralph Bellamy took an interest in the grieving widow.' He was a pilot. I'm afraid the cynical explanation for why he died is probably because he was Canadian. I've read somewhere in one of my Archers books that there was a a point when the BBC was hoping to sell TA all over the Commonwealth, so introduced lots of new characters from the target countries. The one that lasted was Aunt Laura, sister-in-law to Dan Archer (father of Phil, Jack and Christine), who arrived in Ambridge from New Zealand and lived in Ambridge Hall (the Snells' house). She was actually a great character. I remember her from my childhood. Very, very bossy. Every soap opera community needs one.

Death by sleep walking. Excellent sl

Oh yes - Aunt Laura. And the Colonel ... was he her 'paying guest' or have I completely misremembered?

I fear that the land thing may be a long term plot being set up with potential financial ruin on the horizon for Adam, Debbie, Kate and Alice and Ruari - it's all very easy to take out a £1.6m loan when you're in your 70s and it's all being agreed over some agreeable brandies and cigars; less fun when the land turns out to be crap and there isn't enough money to sustain the myriad offspring.

Yes, that's where I think this is going, especially as he's cashing in insurance policies.

Yes, AntiBoop, whenever I read posts here complaining about TA going to the dogs, I remember some of the stuff I've read about from the early days. You'd think just once in a way somebody would say something about Adam being kidnapped as a child, wouldn't you?

Sprouts cooked for 20 mins?

It's happened in this house, and I blame MN. Actually, the sprouts were okay, but I did do some swears at cleaning the pan above which they were being steamed, which had boiled dry.

What! Kidnapped? Bitten by a snake? At the same time?

Oh dear, financial ruin. That would provoke the most aspirated 'Oh, Brhhhinne' in JennyDarling's repertoire wouldn't it? Smug and entitled though that wretched family be, I wouldn't want to see poor Brine ruined, Job-like, in his 70's.

did he manage to bore the kidnappers to death by talking about soil?

Miranda has probably got a hot toy boy and will be glad to have Justin entertained. I bet they have an arrangement.

Spoiler Alert

He survived both. But the excitement drained him and left him in a permanent soporific state

Miranda has probably got a hot toy boy and will be glad to have Justin entertained. I bet they have an arrangement.

They definitely don't - Miranda was quite clear about that when we heard from her. She was pretty convinced Lilian was too elderly and past it to be a risk though.

I'm trying to work out what the cunning plan is behind Lil telling Justin that some member of her family know about the affair, but not mentioning that Rob knows. Any ideas?