Quelle surprise! Rob hasn't FOTTFSOF and is in fact hiding in the bushes at Henwee's school. Discuss the latest unlikely Archers events here.

[PseudoBadger]

What do we want?
Realistic storylines!
When do we want them?
As soon as the writers see this!

I don't really see why the Stella thing would keep giving rise to Toby needing to find substantial sums of money quickly. I guess she may have problems with her dealers or something, but surely if she exists then helping her to pay them off is not the way to go?

And I don't really buy the phone out of charge excuse either. How likely is it that, if he didn't have a charger with him, he couldn't borrow or buy one, or indeed borrow a phone? Plus there are still public phones around.

If Pip has any sense, she'll tell Toby that she'd rather her money was returned on the footing that she'll arranging any payments he needs as and when they're required.

I'm also a Christian and:
I don't like sex on the archers/the radio much - maybe I'm scared from when guys at Uni hang a speaker outside my window and played pornography into my room?
(Oddly enough my teen DC tend to fast forward through bedroom scenes on TV.)

I don't condemn adultery as much as some on MN - just go to relationships and you will be eaten alive for allowing it has any shades of grey.
I don't think from what has been said that Miranda and Justin do have "an arrangement" - and I think she would have been around more if she'd thought Lilian was a threat. And I do find it unlikely that "all those in the know" would just gloss over it quite so easily (actually Tony was quite good on this when Lil told him, only calming when he realised that Rob would have wanted them to fall out). I think if Susan and Tracey knew what was going on rather than gossiping, then they would be very censorious.

I'm way behind again and from reading all the above I might just skip forward, I just can't be bothered listening to Pip and Toby and Ruth. It's like listening to teenage relationship angst. I'm just hoping one day in the next week they'll all grow up and get some self respect.

I also find the Lilian/Justin thing on the seedy side. Don't mind anyone on the radio having sex, at any age, but would prefer them to hint at it, in the ancient Hollywood having-to-leave-a-foot-on-the-floor way rather than actually to hear it.

Vango, I agree. I think the little surprise is going to involve Henry AND Jack. Maybe Rob kidnaps Henry, and does a terrible Sophie's choice on Helen where she has to either let Henry go or exchange him with Jack.

Wait, wait - did we hear them having sex??? Did I miss an episode?

When I heard him again just now Toomuch I concluded that he was reassuring Henry that he loved him because he was only planning to take Jack. He knows he's not entitled to have anything to do with Henry but, in his fevered brain, Jack belongs to him.

And is that the best they could come up with for Toby? Good grief.

They could have gone far more to town on the guilt: Tobee bought Stella the stuff with which she OD'd, and she ended up badly brain damaged. And every now and then becomes severely ill and her parents call him and he goes down. In that scenario I could entirely get the shame and guilt not wanting you to let anyone know what you'd been party to.

I am hoping that this is not the beginning of the sort of process that the late lamented Mrs Antrobus and our beloved Lynda went through.

😁 Kronut. No. After all that. No-one had sex.

Yes, Vango, I think Jack is the ultimate aim.

Have to rush for school run so I don't have time to compose a proper apology without probably digging myself in deeper. DDD has already done a good job of explaining what I meant anyway .

Sorry if people misconstrued my comment. I didn't mean that I had some kind of ethical superiority to other people. I meant that, as DDD correctly interpreted, I had wondered before today whether the SW depiction of an affair being completely acceptable and a bit of harmless fun was the more widespread belief in society in general and that I was the one out of touch with the mainstream. It was really more of a sociological point, that I was interested to see what other people's views were.

And it's got nothing to do with their age or how much of the detail we hear on the radio (I could do without any of the characters attempting a 'sexy voice', mind, like Lillian or Pip in the past week, but that's not a religious thing, it's just that I happen to think they sound ridiculous).

Lillian might be gleeful, but she must know that Justin is using her. He dropped her like a hot potato over Christmas, and this assignation, which she was looking forward to so much, ended with her leaving by the back door in fur coat, too big wellies and no knickers. She doesn't know how long Miranda's latest visit will last. She knows Justin won't hesitate to drop her again.
It feels to me as though the SWs are setting up an "adultery doesn't pay" storyline.

Gently plodding through this lovely new thread - Thanks, Pseudo - and I'd just like to remind glowfrog that one day, if lucky with your health etc., you too will be old. If you also have a partner it's unlikely you'll still be boaking at the thought of 'old people' wanting to have a sex life. I did find myself idly wondering how much Viagra Justin takes each time and whether Miranda will notice his priapism. Not out of disgust, but interest BTW. Out of curiosity, what age are you, glowfrog? How long till you are 'old'?

I too dislike - and I am a total NonChristian! - the adultery SL. Have jsut heard the episode - as I fell asleep at 7.04 last night - and i think JD knew fine what was going on. But she has fairly low standards regarding infidelity.

I am hoping that this is not the beginning of the sort of process that the late lamented Mrs Antrobus and our beloved Lynda went through.

Am having a week where I miss all sorts of obvious stuff (I blame Trump) - what things are you thinking about here, Toomuchtea?

But how do we know that Miranda doesn't suspect Justin of having affairs? Looking at some of the posts above, you would have the impression she thinks Justin is faithful. In fact she does suspect and has confronted him about Lilian. And yet she's still with him. I'm assuming they've had a long marriage, he must have been unfaithful before. So why does she stay with him? Dare I say the lifestyle helps? Surely she must have suspected something yesterday.

If anything it's Justin I condemn as he is the one that's married, not Lilian. If it wasn't Lilian, I'm sure Justin would have found someone else ( not quite sure who in Ambridge though- can't quite imagine Jenny or Shula obliging 😀)

And agree with poster on earlier thread that it's great to hear Lilian's dirty laugh again.

Thanks for new thread Pseudo

Sorry Gasp0 - I meant the process where a character arrives and is either a hate figure or a figure of fun, and then morphs into something really rather good.

Mrs A, when she arrived, was a tad on the sharp side. And Lynda can still be, well, Lynda-ish, but she's a world away from the just-out-of-Sunningdale snob she was when she arrived in the transformative world of TA.

I assume Henry will be asked to bring Myson to Knob because 'the bad lawyers have stopped me from seeing him each week and you know how much i love you both'. But I can't work out how. Henry is in FT school - so will Friday or Sunday be Saturday in Ambridge? I assume Helen has the baby sleep in her room at night. In the day maybe he sleeps upstairs, and Henry is to let Knob in the steal the bay while everyone is in the kitchen or out? But that sounds too risky and implausible. In this weather would Myson be sleeping outside for his naps? Who knows.

BTW I was just having a laugh about the Christian view on here. I accept Fink and DD weren't taking any moral high ground. However, if you are a long-term non-religious person, you will have had years of some religious people claiming the moral high ground and implying the non-religious body have a poorer moral compass. It's just something that is out there. Mostly i let it wash over me, as I am sure others do too. You really do have to choose your battles. So, glowfrog, how old are you? BTW the only bit I recall from my secular registry office wedding was 'loving and cherishing to the exclusion of all others' - something v important to me and the heathen I married.

DDD obvs

mummytime it wasn't clear but I meant 'arrangement' in a broader sense really - in the sense that all relationships are 'arrangements' - and the extent to which the parties involved have the same idea about the terms of the arrangement can vary unfortunately!

I did think it had been implied that Justin and Miranda had an 'arrangement' in the narrower sense though? Justin seemed to imply that as long as Miranda wasn't publicly embarrassed then she would turn a blind eye? Which could of course just be his view rather than a shared aspiration for their marriage!

Quick thoughts:
Also felt grimy listening to Justin and Lilian, bleurgh.
Toby is a big fat liar, but Pip is a dick for believing him every time, so they deserve each other.
Is Nob going for a Coronation St Richard suicide/murder scenario? Or just swiping Jack?
How old is Jack anyway? He's got to be almost 1yo so why was he eating rusks the other day? Hellin doesn't seem the type to give rusks. They're not organic for a start.

Puppet

"and I'd just like to remind glowfrog that one day, if lucky with your health etc., you too will be old. If you also have a partner it's unlikely you'll still be boaking at the thought of 'old people' wanting to have a sex life."

Quite possibly, but it doesn't mean I'll get annoyed if some people find the thought distasteful. In fact I quite like the thought of shocking some young 'Uns.

"Out of curiosity, what age are you, glowfrog? How long till you are 'old'?"

I turn 40 at the end of March so I guess only 8 weeks or so??

glow old at 40 I'm not old even though I'm much older than you

I'm sure you can get organic rusks, although why anyone wouldn't just give toast fingers is beyond me.
Surely Henry is too young to bring Jack to Rob? And not reliable enough to sneak him into the house? I could imagine him meeting Rob unsupervised (he already took that card didn't he) but I agree that Jack is the real prize.

I think until you actually are at the age when people start to write you off as past it it's difficult to know how you'll react. I'm on the verge of it at 55 and it seems rather less amusing now than it did a few years ago. However, I hope to be like Barry Cryer on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and able to withstand jokes about my age for a good deal longer. Being patronised, not so much.

redshoe

My husband is 10 years older than me. So you see, some of my best friends are old -