Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Radio/podcast addicts

Discuss your favourite podcast, radio show or The Archers episode.

Original poster

The Archers: The Crook, the Vet, His Wife & Her Lodger - discussion #80

985 replies

DadDadDad · 16/08/2017 13:14

In full acknowledgement of PseudoBadger's great achievement in providing the previous 79 threads over the past 4 years (and credit to R4 for this thread's title)...

Discuss TA (The Archers). New posters encouraged - it's not (too) cliquey here and plenty of regulars are happy to answer questions. Archers

One rule: no spoilers (ie no mentioning future plot teasers from Radio Times listings etc) - there's a separate thread for that.

So, is Phoebe pregnant? will Anisha dob in (dobbin - geddit?) Alistair?

PS I don't presume to take on PB's role permanently - hopefully the job of starting new threads will rotate among regulars until she returns

OP posts:
BertrandRussell · 04/09/2017 06:43

I''be always suspected that Ian is Henry's father.

TheAntiBoop · 04/09/2017 07:06

Knowingly?

ppeatfruit · 04/09/2017 08:43

Imbrolgio Adam seems to be the perennial type who's never satisfied, he wouldn't have had the affairs if he was.

R4 · 04/09/2017 09:36

I'm confused. After Friday's episode, I thought that they were going for a baby. After the repeat in the film, it didn't sound so certain. Now it seems that they have been rowing all w/e about it not happening. I really must listen closer.
Adam's an idiot. Who says "I'm going to treat you to a takeway anything you want ... except that thing that you most want".
I really wish that he would disappear back off to Africa.

ppeatfruit · 04/09/2017 09:43

Yeah and why didn't they pick the blackberries before hacking back the brambles? Was it symbolic of their relationship?

Ceto · 04/09/2017 12:32

Was it not because Lillian told Adam that he needed to find a way to prove his commitment to Ian. So Adam asked him what one thing would make him happy. And Ian told him.

Yes, but I assumed that when Adam asked him that, it was on the premise that he already knew what Ian's answer would be, he wanted to make him happy, and so he planned to say he'd changed his mind. But I guess I overestimated Adam's emotional intelligence.

birdsdestiny · 04/09/2017 15:59

I think Adam was surprised at Ian's answer but not sure the acting conveyed thatGrin

Imbroglio · 04/09/2017 17:12

Maybe Adam was hoping Ian would ask for a stargazing telescope and a copy of Astronomy for Beginners.

Minimammoth · 04/09/2017 19:11

I am with bertrand, have always thought Ian is the donor father for Henry.

TheAntiBoop · 04/09/2017 19:14

If he is knowingly his father he has been really crap

birdsdestiny · 04/09/2017 19:30

How could he unknowingly be the father?

TheAntiBoop · 04/09/2017 19:34

Some crazy story where he donated sperm in his youth and it stayed on ice until Helen came along?

I can't see how him knowingly being the father is any less crazy tbh

ppeatfruit · 04/09/2017 19:44

Yes Anti I agree.

birdsdestiny · 04/09/2017 20:14

Oh I see, I was beginning to think there was some aspect of the facts of life that had passed me by.

AuldHeathen · 04/09/2017 20:20

I suppose it might just be possible lan left a turkey baste in Helen's bag and had no idea what Helen would do with it. Grin l'd be a bit annoyed if lan was the donor as it's a rather contrived storyline - and we all know that's so unlikely in TA. Anyway she went to a clinic. I wonder how much it cost. I need to read th FT article.

I thought Phoebe and Roy's scene was good tonight. Well acted.

R4 · 05/09/2017 09:39

I'm glad that Phoebe told Roy to butt out and start treating her like a 19 y.o not a 9 y.o.

At least, rather than worrying about her sexual activity, he seemed to be more worried about her messing up Oxford. We could have done with a "if you were in trouble, I hope that you would have talked to me" but he's still a hundred times better parent than Kate will ever be.

ppeatfruit · 05/09/2017 12:17

But R4 IME there are very few teenagers who'd confide in their parents however good their relationship is.

proplapsingallover · 05/09/2017 12:36

At the time the story of how Helen got the sperm was ridiculous. She bypassed the well reported UK and European sperm shortage and got it sent within days from northern europe.

But I don't think that it was Ians or he would have gone for custody of Henry when she was in prison.

I hate Ian. He is just a moany wimp.

Cromwell1536 · 05/09/2017 15:55

Yes, I can't see how Ian could knowingly be Henry's biological father/Helen's sperm donor and leave him in Rob's custody. Why do you think he is, Bertrand?

selsigfach · 05/09/2017 20:54

I'm pretty happy generally with the way Huge Canoe has been running the ship, but where has this baby thing come from? Adam and Ian haven't mentioned children in years but overnight Ian desperately wants one and Adam is prepared to 'set Ian free' so he can go play Gay Dads with someone else. Ridiculous.

R4 · 05/09/2017 21:14

I can understand Ian's renewed longing after that picnic with Helen and the boys the other day but I can't understand why Adam's so quick to give up on the marriage after less than two years.
Adam's position does seem to be driven by the dramatic necessity rather than character. Where have I heard that before?Hmm

Imbroglio · 05/09/2017 22:03

There is a helplessness about Adam... swept along by Brian, Ian, Pavel, Charlie... but unable to commit 100% one way or the other

RolfNotRudolf · 05/09/2017 23:08

Is Charlie on his way back? Shock

Minimammoth · 06/09/2017 01:55

Adam always sounds utterly bored with his life. There is absolutely no spark or passion about anything. The herbal leys was about as good as it gets for him.

R4 · 06/09/2017 08:57

I found the scene last night between Adam and Lilian extremely painful because I don't like the characters and don't think much of their actors either.
Does Andrew Wincott think that voice he uses for Adam sounds 'posh' because it doesn't - he just sounds as if he is soulless and dead inside.
Sunny Ormonde was displaying her usual limited acting capabilities: happy? employ the cackle; not happy? employ the huff/puff/sigh. Lilian has had lots of ups and downs over the years but I don't think that I have been emotionally moved by any of them.