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

[DadDadDad]

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.

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

Oh come on Bert I remember being very amused at JD's reaction to Alice's marriage; not only in Las Vegas but to Chris Carter FGS!!!!! They were going to be related to the CARTERS!!!!!

Jenny's mother was a barmaid and her father the drunk son of a farmer. Her wealth came from marrying Brian. She has nothing to be snobby about and usually she isn't this bad.

My mother's Bulgarian cleaning lady has a degree in pharmacology. I bet Lexie has higher education qualifications that put Jennifer into the shade.

She's got a good heart, but is often snobby IME. It can be the nouveau riche who are the worst Abraid

I have just been struck with a thought. If the surrogacy story has legs (two only please, no multiples) then they will need a surrogate, but not any surrogate, someone known, someone recommended.

Who better then ,than Helens former cell mate, who, grateful for the small kindnesses shown will return, ovaries a-quiver to offer her womb to Helens gay bestie.

She - I have forgotten her name - will then, like an insect that has deposited its eggs to ensure the continuation of the species, shrivel up and die, or rather return to her working class/chicken dippers for tea existence never to be heard of again.

UNLESS the baby needs a kidney.

It could work.

I have forgotten her name

Cas?

I was really angry with Helen planting and then watering and feeding that seed of doubt in Ian's mind about adoption not being right for him.

I'm sure that Helen was only saying it because it would add validity to her decision to do similar in Ian's best interest.
I loved how Helen, like Kate, was telling Ian all about baby-making despite simultaneously ignoring said DC (she didn't have the time for Henry - Tony did the school run whilst Helen did the urgent task of cheeseturning - but did have time for a coffee with Ian).

Oh come on R4 I would've jumped at the chance of my df (who never showed the slightest interest in his grandchildren), sorry bit personal there , collecting my dcs. She hasn't got a partner remember, Tony no doubt loves to do it!

It all seemed a bit weird. Helen was busy (for a change) but organised it so that she finished work just too late for the school pick-up. Then, later on (so Henry was home by then), she ran that important piece of paper round to Johhny, not Tony.
Doubtless done by the SW to engineer conversations but it all seemed a bit weird - Tony does Helen's tasks and Helen does Tony's tasks.

Thinking about it some more: Helen had to hand-deliver a piece of paper to Johnny that he then scanned over to College. That's bizarre.

Must remind self not to over-think these things.

This is all gearing up for Henry to be one seriously fucked up adult

Oh come on! There are plenty of reasons why Henry may become a seriously fucked-up adult but let's not claim - on Mumsnet fgs - that that will happen because his mother's a working woman and his grandparents help out with bits of childcare .

Yes the main one being he was the witness of his mother trying to stop kill his father who was threatening, him, not much of a reason

Well that's what I meant - Helen being emotionally distant from him is perhaps another signal!

And I'm a working mother so no hang up there

Henry has a while list of hang ups - including being left with his abusive step father while his mum was awaiting trial. And his grandad being gored.

I've always thought she was emotionally unavailable for Henry during the abuse and after. So I predict mother issues

Tony and pat probably make up for a lot of it though

And don't forget Volderob put Henry's cuddly toy in the bin for eating some chocolate. Scarred for life!

Yes Anti and dad not to mention his mum coming home from prison (or wherever he was told she was) with a baby brother fgs.

It's remarkable he hasn't had counselling of some form.

On the plus side, moving back to bridge farm must be a positive for him along with having positive male role models to try and undo the bad work rob did

On the plus side, moving back to bridge farm must be a positive for him along with having positive male role models to try and undo the bad work rob did

Living with Tone the moan? he didn't exactly do a good job on his own selfish , immature, spoilt offspring did he?

prolapsing I don't subscribe to the total 'blame the parents' philosophy of child rearing. We have three completely different children (who have grown up unalike as adults) they were bought up the same way in the same house. This is true of my siblings and myself. (though we moved about a lot).

Henry may turn out to be a solid type or completely off the wall! Time will tell.

Sometimes people are better grandparents than they were parents

Given Henry's early experience and the fact it seems to be being dealt with by ignoring it leads me to think he will have some issues

It makes more sense for him to have issues than Gideon. Unless they want to push a nature over nurture narrative

Listening today, I hear nothing but doom from Adam. And what is the.....'well after what happened before' story, was this before Ian met Adam?

So weird the way Ruth tried to defend adult Pip in a row with adult Josh, you'd think Pip was 13 and had a job delivering the local free paper. The fussing over her is ridiculous.

^ YES! And then she even had to tell Pip after Josh had gone how she'd tried to stand up for her.

It's lucky for them the music came in when it did so we couldn't hear what happened next ... it was clearly going to be either David or Ruth saying 'Please, Josh, don't interrupt! So your machinery's been stolen, big deal. Go and sort it out like an adult. Can't you see we need to talk to your sister about not taking on unpleasant responsibilities?!'

Poor Adam. He was so positive about adopting an older child. Though why he thinks a newborn will be harder than an adopted child I don't know!

And what is the.....'well after what happened before' story, was this before Ian met Adam?

I've found an old Telegraph article, dated 2006.
"What happened before" is that Madds got Ian all excited about the idea of bio-fatherhood ... then blithely bailed on him. He didn't take the disappointment well.

I don't get the unconditional fawning that Pip gets to the detriment of Josh either. But no one can say that she isn't working very hard to make up for cock up she caused.
Though they don't know quite HOW guilty she was, perhaps the unconditional over the topness will disappear when they find out , maybe the SL is leading to the discovery?