The Archers: Discussion #84. New Year and some of us are still listening even if we don't know why.

[DadDadDad]

New posters welcome - with your fresh views and burning questions.

Old posters welcome - with your jaded views and knowledgeable answers.

But new posters feel free to be jaded, and old posters feel free to ask questions!

How is the Pip storyline going to play out and do you care?

As usual, if you want to mention the advertised storylines for future episodes, there's a separate thread for that - no spoilers here, please.

Just imagine we're all sitting round a table at The Bull -->

To be fair to Pip [shudder], she often sounds just as exasperated at the way her parents treat her as we are!

Oh, and thanks for the new thread Dads

The Agronomist give advice on crops and weeds/pests etc. https://www.basis-reg.co.uk/About/Careers-in-Agronomy it is a more 9-5 job than being a farmer. So for a fee they give advice.
The problem with Brian is he isn't looking at the full picture, he's just looking at maximising yield, not maximising yield in relation to inputs. So (as Brookfield are trying with their cows) you can increase profit by reducing inputs (fertiliser, pesticides etc) which cost money and this out weighing a drop in yield. This is even more likely to pay off over a long term, although Brian is seeming like a very short term focussed farmer at present.
Now I'd like to hear Adam suggest aboriculture to help the soul in Brian's mega fields.

Brian was talking about planting more trees in a copse that was on the land they bought recently to mollify Jenny about the environment. he's all mouth though. They are doing some things to enrich it though around the lake, where the deer are etc.

OK. I have a confession to make. I want, really really want , to hear the scene when Pip tells Jill she is carrying The Spawn of Fairchild. and I want it to have shouting, flapjack throwing (thank you continuity announcer for that idea) tears, unforgivable truths spoken in the heat of the moment, all past injustices on both sides rehashed and given new life, door slamming, passionate vows of eternal non contact and possibly threats of exclusion from wills. I want volcanic rumblings of a familial rift to rival any Victorian melodrama you care to mention, yea unto the twentieth generation of familial rifts.

And if the SWs chicken out and make Jill all caring and compassionate
I will not be responsible for my actions.

I'm still waiting for them to make good on an elder abuse sl which Jill is the obvious contender for as they are halfway there with the domestic servitude

Maybe she will go ballistic and Ruth will kick her out - the rest of the family won't take her in b cause she upset saint pip and she will end up sleeping under a tree on the green

Viques, oh, I so want that as well. It has been quite dull of late, and we deserve a good tempest.

Brine is going to be insufferable, Adam is going to mope, stress and seethe, and Ian is eventually going to lose his rag with Adam because he is distracted from The Precious Baby Project and their relationship will, yet again, be thrown into question. We have been here sooo many times before.

I really, really hope Lexi doesn't reconsider the surrogacy.

Fairbrother I mean, not Fairchild.

The Antiboop, sounds good to me, except she would probably get swept up into the generous bosoms of Peggy and Aunty Cardboard and they would spend the rest of their days cackling over a cauldron, I mean casserole , of vitriol and sticking pins into wax models of Tiger and Tobes.

I’d very much like Lexi to be Ian and Adam’s surrogate. She’s one of the rare, warm, strong characters I’d like to see sticking around. I thought Roy’s conversation with Ian last week was outrageous. He had no right to discuss the subject with Ian without Lexi’s permission - he reminded me of Rob. Roy’s in a newish relationship. Lexi is perfectly capable of looking after herself and of making her own decisions.

To echo Pip.....whaaat?

What happened tonight?

I think the parallel storylines between Pip's unplanned pregnancy and Lexi as potential surrogate are getting tedious now.

Isn't that the 3rd episode in a row which has focused on this?

Only 167 babies were born to surrogates in the UK last year. The chances of this happening in Ambridge are infinitesimal.

Anti Pip told Jill....Jill ran off...Jill had a chat with Peggy.....Peggy remembered single mum Jenny....Jill told Pip “of course she would support her” (to which Pip, unsurprisingly exclaimed “whaaat?”).....happy tears. All is well. Pip is still the centre of the universe.

And Lexi is researching surrogacy. Roy is annoyed.

Sounds crap. Not feeling sad to have missed it

Very disappointing. I suppose they probably feel they ‘did the drama’ when P & T first got together.

Oh crap.

Vango you just had me trying to work out what was the scandal when Pat and Tony got together....

The penny has dropped

Pat n Tone - what happened?

I am a very unhappy Bun. Jill is an inflexible old besom, remember how snotty she got when there was a female vicar ?No way would she roll over and play nicely after 60 years of Festering Fairbrother hatred. I can only hope that she is biding her time before she can push Tobes under some sharp moving machinery and death stare the baby into turning into a ha tom pregnancy.

Phantom.

Ugh to Roy’s whingy voice and attitude tonight. Why not have a proper conversation about it 🙄

Aaah, Pip & Tobes not Pat and Tone

Jill is an inflexible old besom, remember how snotty she got when there was a female vicar ?

Wasn't that Peggy?

I don't like the way Roy speaks to Ian and Lexie about the surrogacy but I also think it would be weird to be in new relationship with someone who had a baby in those circumstances. I also think it would be weird for her daughters, especially if Lexie stayed in the UK to do it.

I think both men are treating lexi appallingly. It's really uncomfortable listening.