Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat, please put a penny in Joe Grundy's hat. Discuss The Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

Ho ho ho! Will this thread last until Christmas?

Child's birthday and this is his contact time, but no contact over Christmas.

But why would he keep a child quiet? And why wouldn't Rex mention the child? And if he were so desperate for contact that he has to run off in the middle of the night why wouldn't he have stayed closer or at least mention the kid or speak on the phone

He's never caught hurriedly ending a call or anything either.

I can't think of anything plausible

I enjoyed the panto bits, it's way better than any village panto I've seen. But it would be wouldn't it? It's full of professional actors. :o

See how easily we are manipulated. We are all itching to know the Brighton secret.

Perhaps "Brighton" is a Wildean "Bunbury" allusion - an imaginary place rather than an imaginary person - just, for Toby, "anywhere but here" when he finds real life a little too oppressive.

Hasn't the Brighton secret got to be linked to the Jill thing?

When did the fairbrothers originally leave ambridge? Is Kenton biologically a Fairbrother? He was born in 1958. George Fairbrother was around in the 1950s. He was the father of Robin but was he also the father of Kenton?

Jill refused to accept Robin Fairbrother in the 1980s- so whatever happened pre-dated that. Is Helen Fairbrother dead? Could Toby be dashing off to see her?

PS. I know about Grace being a Fairbrother but surely that isn't enough for Jill to be a mardy old cow in the 1980s and also now?

errr... is there any chance Pip and Toby are blood relatives then? - that would have to mean David is a FB? that would explain her irrational opposition and failure to explain...

SHUT UP!! They could be related!!!!
David has to be an archer though, he has to! Is nothing sacred?!

Drug or gambling debts I think. A few months ago he was scrambling money together (with Rex's help) before a mercy dash to Brighton.
He won't be back for NYE and Pip will follow him down there where she will have a Rude Awakening.
I also think the friend whose still he borrowed is in jail and not on a gap year.

Was the panties for one night only?

PANTO not panties!!!

Panties on tonight too.

Senorita that's good to hear. What with all the emphasis on making the costumes there was always a chance people would forget the panties

The conical bra may have been one night only, certainly if lynda has anything to do with it. The panto has at least one more night when the dreaded reviewer will attend.

Surely Jill would have told them if she thinks they could be related - that would be a stretch too far. Wouldn't it.......

Although judging by the number of characters who seemed to have completely changed personality over the last few months perhaps it is a perfectly logical storyline.

Quelle surprise Pip

'I don't disagree with you'

Good woman Kaz.

I knew Helen was wavering.

yes, she really needs the Freedom Programme

Absolutely!

Jill having an affair with Robin Fairbrother's father is not a goer. George Fairbrother must have been old enough to be Jill's father. He was grieving for his deceased daughter. Why would he have sought consolation with her widower's second wife? Why would Jill, in the first idyllic flush of married life, have had an affair with her husband's ex-father-in-law?

BOOP for Kaz.

And it may be that both Toby and Justin's goose may be cooked.

Grace was born 1930 and died a few months after marrying Phil in 1955, aged 25.

Jill was also born in 1930.

Robin was born in 1953 - he is Grace''s half-brother, hence the age difference.

Shula & Kenton were born in 1958 (Robin was 5), David in 1959 and Lizzie in 1967.

Lizzie and Robin had an affair in 1987, when she was 20 and he was 34.

Rex and Toby were presumably born around the late '80s, possibly early '90s - not actually sure how old they are, but must be mid- to late-20's.

I don't think it's credible for there to be an Archers-Fairbrother genetic link, unless there are some other characters which no one has ever mentioned ever before.