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The Archers: Will Pip grow or Jill blow? Lil make her vow or Justin take his bow? Discussion #83

984 replies

DadDadDad · 02/12/2017 14:06

TA (The Archers) annoys me intensely but I still have to listen
I think there is a possibility that we obsess about TA in a way that most listeners don't

If this is you (genuine quotes from earlier threads), or you're new and want to ask anything about The Archers, then this is the right place.

PseudoBadger started it, but we're going to finish it (er, will TA ever finish?)

The panto is meant to be Sleeping Beauty, but are you expecting farce (Mother Goose Pip) or tragedy (Puss Cat in Wedding Dress Boots )?

This should see us through to Christmas. Xmas Smile Archers

At the end of the last thread we were remembering recent successful marriages in Ambridge. How long ago was Ed & Emma?

OP posts:
C8H10N4O2 · 07/12/2017 19:37

No way on EARTH would Brine broach such a subject with Ian! what is going on with the script writers?

I assumed Brine was drunk. TBH I have seen people be that tactless, but I was surprised that Brine said it in public - even when drunk he generally manages to judge the situation better. Jenny shouldn't really have said anything either unless Adam/Ian were ok with it.

Vango · 07/12/2017 20:03

Emma, Cromwell, Emma.

I just CAN NOT cope with her any more. "Why should I spend another 25p on beans when I'm scrimping and saving to buy a house?". I don't know where to start with that one!!

And "My Ed should have had that job"....what, alongside all the other bloody jobs he has, and the THREE you have!!!???

No-one looks down on her. Clearly SHE feels that people who don't own their own property are inferior. I'm so cross about that exchange that I can't even gather my thoughts properly!

Vango · 07/12/2017 20:05

I agree with everything you said up there C8H10N4O2.

Gruach · 07/12/2017 20:10

Grin Funny how things hit the ear. All I hear is the SWs trying their best to drum some understanding into Johnny's head. So I was quite pleased.

And actually, I can well imagine any nice, polite, well intentioned teenage boy of my acquaintance putting his foot in it in exactly the same way. He was just being nice ...

Puremince · 07/12/2017 20:14

Ed owns his own tractor, doesn't he? He's a self-employed contractor. So what would he do with that if he was offered a full-time job? Sell it and put it towards the house deposit? What about the Texels?

Why are Ed and Emma so poor? Ed works. Emma works. They share the expenses of George with Will. They don't pay for childcare for Keira. They don't spend money on foreign holidays. They had an everyone-chip-in wedding, so they're not carrying debt from that. They're sharing the rent with Eddie, Clarrie and Joe. I'm sure that Susan isn't averse to treating her grandchildren; I'd be surprised if she didn't buy the odd tee-shirt, or bar of chocolate or slip them a bit of pocket money. Surely at Christmas there are also presents from Uncle Chris and Auntie Alice?

I would love to see the Grundy finances.

C8H10N4O2 · 07/12/2017 20:26

trying their best to drum some understanding into Johnny's head

I don't really see Johnny as being bad in that respect - yes a bit young and 'ignorant' thoughtless at times but never unkind thoughtless IYSWIM.
If Emma had said, even tersely, that it was unhelpful to agree with Keira on the beans due to cost and left it at that I'd not have thought her unreasonable. Johnny apologised immediately but she still went on a tirade at him which was but cruel and untrue.

It could be me but just recently I've seen a flash too much of Susan in Emma and Eddie in Ed which I think is lazy script writing. Emma is not fault free but I quite like that - people are not uniformly good or bad. Ed'nEmmur turning into Susan'n'Eddie for the next decades is a ghastly prospect.

RolfNotRudolf · 07/12/2017 20:42

Is being a full time tractor driver a good career move for someone straight out of agricultural college and who wants a career as a farmer? Great that he's got a ft job but is it going to develop him? Could it deskill him?

cf I think there is a possibility that we obsess about TA in a way that most listeners don't

BoreOfWhabylon · 07/12/2017 20:44

And Lexi has become the very embodiment of the Ambridge Fairy.

Wafting her words of wisdom and bringing comfort and joy to all and sundry.

Gruach · 07/12/2017 20:48

C8 I meant specifically 'understanding' that Ed needed the Home Farm job much more than he (Johnny) did. Not that he did anything wrong.

ThatsNotMyToddler · 07/12/2017 21:15

The point of the HF job for Johnny is - I believe - because after planning permission was granted the other day Justin (I think) told Lilian that PatnTone are hoping to give Jonny a full-time job with the proceeds. So the SWs are having fun setting up a HF/BF stand-off. The EdnEm entitlement is just a happy coincidence.

I agree Emma was vile today, and very much her mother’s daughter. In the food bank/moving out of Rickyard days Vanessa Whitburn famously said that they ‘wouldn’t be going down the benefits route’ for the Grundys. That’s how they’re so poor mince - they’re not claiming all the things they are certainly entitled to

C8H10N4O2 · 07/12/2017 21:19

Gruach

I see what you mean, but the way Ed talks about all his work to people I can see why Johnny might think he wouldn't want a routine, PAYE tractor driving job. From Johnny's point of view Ed runs a growing business. Even when Ed'n'Emmur were carping about the existing job Ed never said he wanted that job - he was complaining that he would have wanted it as contract work.

Ed would have to give up his business to take on the Home Farm job surely?

hiyasminitsme · 07/12/2017 23:12

Ed needs a proper job or how on earth will they get a mortgage?!

I can't imagine he's been diligently filling in tax returns all these years

BertrandRussell · 07/12/2017 23:35

That contribution was, hands down, the most insanely uncharacteristic thing any character has ever said on The Archers. And I include Lily talking about "sweet".Brian would rather die than talk about sperm motility anywhere. But in the Grey Gables dining room? At a smart dinner?

BertrandRussell · 07/12/2017 23:36

That contribution by Brian.......

StVincent · 07/12/2017 23:38

I think the problem with the Grundy finances (I've said this before) is that the men spend a lot of time doing work that only pays off sometimes/eventually. Meanwhile Emma's three jobs might add up to less than full time altogether (could be 4 x 5 hours in the caff, maybe 3 hours cleaning and is it two nights in the factory? Might only be 30 hours or so a week) and will deffo all be minimum wage.

StVincent · 07/12/2017 23:39

I reckon Emma will eventually realise it's hopeless and go back to uni part time and become an accountant or something.

EmilyDickinson · 07/12/2017 23:57

In my dreams Emma moves from being on the parish council to being a councillor and then stands as a Labour candidate for MP versus Phoebe with her PPE degree as the Conservative Party candidate. In truth I don't think that The Archers could get that political and therefore I suspect that Emma will stay safely on the Parish Council but I wonder whether it might widen her horizons and opportunities.

C8H10N4O2 · 08/12/2017 08:30

and then stands as a Labour candidate for MP versus Phoebe with her PPE degree as the Conservative Party candidate

If Emma ever makes money she will become a working class Tory like Susan. Phoebe will become a middle class Labour MP (do we have any Corbynistas in Ambridge?).

The Archers could get that political

Yes I agree, they won't go down that path. They didn't talk that much about brexit even considering its impact.

EBearhug · 08/12/2017 09:08

If Emma ever makes money she will become a working class Tory like Susan. Phoebe will become a middle class Labour MP

Definitely this.

Cromwell1536 · 08/12/2017 09:53

Why didn't Vanessa W want to 'go down the benefits route'? might have been a helpful bit of public information - at least to have Emma visit an advisor (where they still exist).

Bekabeech · 08/12/2017 09:57

Could Johnny talk to his Mum about it - maybe as part of mulling over the job offer? Then Sharon could breeze in and give benefits advice. I'm sure Sharon would know her way around the system.

ThatsNotMyToddler · 08/12/2017 11:21

cromwell I’m struggling to recall the details of the storyline. But essentially they wanted EdnEm out of Rickyard, which they couldn’t afford, whereas lots of people said they’d have been eligible for housing benefit, working family tax credit and so on. Maybe it was so they could have Emmur going to the food bank - one piece of public information instead of another? As a family they would really benefit from an appt with the CAB, but I suspect that will never happen.

Ceto · 08/12/2017 11:32

Didn't Ruth help to sort Ed out with an accounts package back in the days when he had a milk round? With any luck he's carried on with it and can therefore show an accounting record for mortgage purposes.

Gruach · 08/12/2017 12:46

I remember feeling so sorry for Ed when he realised the economies of scale that Brookfield was benifitting from. Didn't they agree to make some joint purchases of feed or whatever to help him with that? (I may have made it up ...)

Gruach · 08/12/2017 12:47

(Actually, that would have been with his dairy herd. Which he no longer has ...Xmas Sad)

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