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, I'm teasing about Jill - just continuing the list of Archers characters who exhibit the sin of envy, and would therefore invite Vango's ire. Jill needed to have a word with herself really about all that nonsense.

I had a quick google on 'affordable housing' and it's supposed to be targeted at households below national median income and be sold at minimum 20% discount on market prices, with a cap of £250k outside london and £450k inside. I'm sure there are many more wrinkles than that. My first place cost me £83K and it was hard enough saving for that, so dunno how easy Em and Ed will find it.

I'm not sure that Emma is allowed to moan about housing. She was visited by the Ambridge Housing Fairy - she lived in Casa Nueva with Will - but decided that she preferred True Love. She made the choice.
What she needs to do is have a stern word with Ed and tell him to pack in his 'farming'. He should get a steady 40-hours-a-week-plus-possible-overtime job, not throw money away on dud Texels. Ed is 33 y.o. and should wake up and smell the coffee. He must look at Eddie and think "I don't want that precarious hand-to-mouth life for me, nor the DC".
I'm not keen on Emma because she is too self-centred and moany, although she also has good moments that stop her being too pantomime-baddie, but I think the actress is great.

I did say, in my first post, that she's beautifully acted!

Re. Jill - she hasn't taken the opportunity to moan about being "in the shadow of Grace" week in, week out. It's only since the return of the Fairbrothers that we've really become aware of it.

And yes, the turning point for me came during Emma's engagement to a clueless Will. She showed herself then as the shallow, materialistic person she's since proven herself to be. The foiled attempt to take George to France was unforgivable. Will is a different person now, largely because of that experience. I would be too.

Not keen on the selling grey gables sl. Doesn't make sense.

It makes no sense whatsoever. How come he needs money now but not in spain. I assume the buyer will be a firm connected in some way to Matt or Justin.

I think it makes complete sense to sell Grey Gables - its only breaking even, he's no interest in running it and he needs to buy somewhere to live so needs to realise some assets.

Wonder if the Ambridge Money-Lending Fairy will somehow arrange for Roy to buy GG. He can then run it with Lexie.

I'll be furious if the screw up Oxford for Phoebe.

She's got her period, so maybe it was just the public information broadcasting.

Wasn't Emma visited by the Ambridge Money Fairy when she was young, and got compensation for her leg after the road accident (which we never hear about now - Ambridge Health Fairy.) But she blew it all on her wedding to Will and honeymoon in Cancun or Acapulco or somewhere in Mexico.

Emma has grown up a lot since those days.

What cash were they living on before Caroline died?

Exactly. If Caroline has been earning a wage at the time of her death it would be different. But she wasn't so nothing has changed.

I think the pregnancy scare is an elaborate plot to get Roy to make a move on Lexi

What's the odds on Matt buying Grey Gables?

Oliver's money shortage makes no sense. What were they living on in Italy, plain pasta?
Or did Caroline have some trust fund income that dies with her? So he was a kept man all this time.

He could rent out the villa at a proper rate, rent Grange farm at a cheap rate, live for free in Grey Gables, how much money does he need?

I think the pregnancy scare is an elaborate plot to get Roy to make a move on Lexi

Obviously after hilarious confusion and frostiness as a result of Lily's on-the-spot lie.

Oliver's money shortage makes no sense.

It does in a temporary sense - he said himself it's in the wrong accounts, and if the bulk were in joint accounts, they've probably been frozen. They've been showing him as distracted by grief, so he probably hasn't done too much practical stuff yet. And to sell Tuscany now would be to lose money on it, sounds credible, if you don't look too closely at it. But I don't think he's quite at the stage if being referred to a food bank, just needs to get his head round talking to all the different banks and showing the death certificate, possibly with an authorised translation. There is a lot of paperwork round death, and having assets in two countries won't make it any easier.

It probably is leading up to him selling GG to Matt though.

Surely it's easier to talk to your bank manager than sell a hotel. I have admittedly never sold a hotel but I imagine there are more complexities to it than picking up the phone and saying unfortunately my wife died what do I need to do to access my accounts. It just seems so clunky a device in order to introduce the who will buy grey gables storyline.

I went right off Matt a couple of weeks ago when he was blatantly blackmailing Alistair: there was that scene where he was very clearly saying that if Alistair tried to stop Anisha from helping him, he'd tell her about the gambling and horse doping episode. It was incredibly cold-blooded and nasty, and I'm glad his guns have been spiked on that one.

I really hope Matt doesn't by GG - maybe this chain will take it and make lots of changes including hiring Lexi. I think Oliver just wants to be rid of anything that would cause him extra work (e.g villa) and give him enough to buy a place.

I was thinking about Emma's leg too. What also happened around that time was that Emma and Ed were getting close (not sure if they were 'stepping out together' officially or not). Ed wa giving Emma a lift and crashed off the road because of a deer, Emma's leg was badly hurt. She got a serious infection and there was talk of amputation (so she visited by the AmbridgeHealthFairy too!). Soosan and Neil blamed Ed or all this and encouraged Will and Emma's relationship and discouraged Ed. They were all very young then. I've always regarded LegGate (as opposed to GateLeg) as largely responsible for the messy triangle that was Will, Ed and Emma, and felt sorry for them all. Please feel free to correct me if any detail is wrong as it was a while ago.

That sounds about right, but I can't remember the details. Where was it in the timeline with the Grundys ending up in Meadow Rise and Ed taking up heroin?

Her leg is never mentioned now, so I do sometimes wonder what she was compensated for. It's not like she's ever talked about as limping or needing a stick or anything. (See also: Brian's epilepsy, Tony's heart attack and Otto encounter, and many other Ambridge Medical Miracles that I can't remember.)

Ah I had wondered how the Emma/Will/Ed thing had all come about. I gathered Ed had been through some hard times but didn't realise heroin was involved.