The Archers: Will Lillian decide what MATTers JUST IN time? Discussion #82

[DadDadDad]

Discuss The Archers here, the long-running thread series started by PseudoBadger. Maybe my puns will tempt her back to take the reigns?

I think Sleeping Beauty references can wait until the next thread which will probably cover much of December.

Lurkers de-lurk! New to The Archers? you're welcome here; the friendly crowd will answer your questions.

Matt sunning himself somewhere

I have a terrible feeling that Matt won't survive his injuries. And if Lillian is his next of kin might she not also be the beneficiary of his will? (Assuming the police fraud investigation focuses on Hugo Melling).

Yes I'm imagining him dead in some grotty airport hotel in Quito

That wasn’t too bad an episode. It was good hearing lan being a bit more like his old self, and the GG staff having a laugh.

Pip moved on fast

Utter nonsense that the Melling Equestrian fraud would be all over the papers and radio news. It’s not remotely newsworthy and in any case it’s only just been reported, no way on earth would the police have been able to do a proper investigation and conclude definitively it was fraud to the extent that it could be reported as such. Just nonsense.

Hmm, I'm not sure what's happening with Amside. Wasn't Justin trying to get Lillian to sign some papers (with some urgency) so that Amside "came under the Damara umbrella", and does that mean hat Lillian may have relinquished control over Amside? I don't know how these things work!

That storyline was such a load of rubbish. In real life Damara and Justin will have amassed a property portfolio by buying at the right time at the right price. Things like buying agricultural land or inner city land at its current use value knowing it would rise or buying up land where the seller has over borrowed on it. They will do the sort of deals that at the time seemed fine but with the benefit of hindsight the other party will in the long run think "I could have done better" but they will not actually have ripped people off or left them penniless.

They would not however have been persuading people to sign on the dotted line with no understanding of what they were signing for or in exchange for nothing or significantly below open market value.

They would not be doing this without due diligence and board approval for what they were doing and with solicitors involved on both sides. They would not be doing this on the basis of "just sign this darling, this just puts Amside under the Damara umbrella".

Pip moved on fast no, she's still here.

I bet Justin, with his connections to Hugo and Latif, has meddled.

Oooh! What do you mean Mini? Do you think Justin's invested some money?

Or, more excitingly, wouldn't it be great if Justin was actually secretly The Godfather, at the top of the Melling scam and others. Now afraid that it's finally all going to be uncovered? Perhaps that's why he was so annoyed that Lillian contacted the police. And maybe he had found out that Matt was ripping him off (buying the cheap horses), knew Matt was leaving the country so 'arranged' an accident that night. Etc etc .

Well if the fraudster demara is a little hint...

The fraud thing is ridiculous as you say - they were either total amateurs or the police were on to it already for any of this to make sense.

They should really steer clear of storylines outside of farming because they don't seem to have the first clue

Given the intense frustration the SWs caused when both Roy and Hayley effectively lost their jobs (with no more than a five minute con with Usha ...) after the Elizabeth business , and the fact that they still refuse to reveal the financial repercussions of Tom and Kirsty's new-build palace and aborted wedding - I'm not planning to hold my breath over Matt's fraud or Damara's apparent diminisment into one old man's folly.

Is that a new Elizabeth? She sounded really odd last night.

Sorry I've not read back. I flounced left these threads months ago

What are Justin's "links to Ambridge"? Was an ancestor turfed off the land? Is he determined to destroy the Archer family?

Didn't his dear old apple cheeked mum grow up in a honeysuckled cottage beside the Am? Or something?

Yes! The old ruin that he showed Lillian. Of course! Could they have been evicted and he's here to wreak revenge? (Buying up land (Tony/Jenny), planting Latif to destroy the reputation of the stables, fleecing Christine, acquiring the Dower House leaving Lillian without her home, flooding the village (having given us Rob in the first place)). Could it all have been some great master-plan, adapted along the way? Was he even married to Miranda? How come he knew no-one in the Ambridge set with all his connections. What's going on? Why is he here?

they still refuse to reveal the financial repercussions of Tom and Kirsty's new-build palace and aborted wedding

Don't forget the IBR cost. Sorted by letting Rickyard for a couple of weeks.

GG staff clueless as to why their bookings might be down ...

They call guests spoilt and tell them to wring out their own swimsuits when they complain the dryer isn't working
Burn guest's mouth with too cold then too hot food
Recently had a spate of car keying
And a fight in the car park
And all the suspects in an ongoing attempted murder case were guests at a GG event
Also, given that the fraud is now in the news, GG was recently the scene of a loud and disruptive scene in the lobby involving one of the main suspects and previously hosted the area's largest investment event connected with the company.

Apart from that, and the strange fact that it is apparently run by five competent people and a few quiet ones who can't so much as boil an egg, it seems to be doing well. No idea why customer numbers might be down. Maybe its silent manager and owner might know something.

I really enjoyed that ep.; restaurant critiquing is one of our hobbies. !! We used to go to a place that is desperate for it's 2nd Michelin star, and it's too bloody fancy, the chef is soooo stressed (they used to be local to us and were fine then).

They serve too many unasked for courses. It's ridiculous esp. when you think of the homeless. Good that Jill and Kirsty were there to collect the waste, we should ask what our place does with theirs!

What we really want to know, l think, is whether Peggy will start to refer to him as Elliot if it turns out he is a really bad baddie. When did she decide Matt was just plain Crawford?

Vango’s theory of Justin being on a revenge mission appeals. Maybe he’ll turn out to be the love child of Jeck Archer, so half brother of Lilian and sibs. That would mean the marriage is off. Peggy will be upset. I don’t want him to be Phil’s lovechild because l think Jill has suffered enough, and l don’t think l like any scenes these days of her children and partners discussing anything much. Well, l quite like Alistair, and
Kenton’s okay if he’s just talking to punters. Elizabeth is okay. We don’t want much of Brookfield anyway.

If the last five years turns out to have been some warped sl with Justin as puppet master I will be most upset.

It would be the most parhetic sl in a soap since Bobby Ewing had a shower

I won't be pleased if Noli is scapegoated and deported in disgrace. Freddie can ride out any storm ...

Yes yes Vango I think you’ve got it. It’s a very long term plot and all Elliot’s fault, the bounder.

I'm currently in Birmingham for an actuaries' conference (yeah, Zurich, Brum, ... I'm living the life), and only two miles from Pebble Mill which I believe is where they record TA.

Maybe I'll bump into one of the actors, although I don't think I'd recognise most of them.

You might want to wander round to BBC Birmingham at The Mailbox if you're feeling the need for Archers proximity D3. (Unless something's changed in the past year?)

I think there is now an Archers exhibitions in Brum?

Noli and Freddy need to be done for their drug dealing - maybe Harrison could catch some criminals? I’m not sure if we are being set up for a Aunty Christine dies leaving a fortune story, she seems more worried about looking like a fool than the loss of money.