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 -->

I don’t know why Josh stays.

Free accommodation, free food, free storage and workshop for all his tatty old bits of farm kit he sells on - he wouldn't be able to afford posh cars if he had to pay for all that.

If I were Josh, I'd walk.

Is there any chance that the Home Farm pollution could have something to do with Rob? All the high drama will come to nothing- they won't let Home Farm go bankrupt, just like they were never going to move David and Ruth up North; but there has, surely, to be some point to the SL?

Are we ever going to find out who ran over Matt

Hey that's not fair, pip makes a cracking tuna bake. I never knew tuna bake could be so amazing but the dopeys reaction assures me that pip has a future career as a top chef

“I don’t think her situation can be compared to Adam and Ian’s. I’m pretty sure they’ve had conversations about childcare before now but they’d be jumping the gun a bit if they had any concrete plans at this stage.”
Really? They both work crazy hours, and presumably have a mortgage. Surely they should have discussed who was going to look after the baby? Presumably Ian will take a career break or something, but shouldn’t he have talked that over at least in theory with Grey Gables- what with their plans for building him up as a named chef in their advertising? Like “ You know I might not be here next Christmas to make the Peter’s Pockets?”

I' d like to hear an in-character Pip strop when David and Ruth break it to her that Jill is not going to be her full-time Nanny. But I have a depressing feeling that it's going to be Saint Pip saying that she was just aiming to make Jill feel wanted. Because of course Jill would otherwise be twiddling her fingers with nothing to do and feeling like a spare wheel.

Omg Jill needs to get rid of that chip on he shoulder RE the fairbrothers, it's getting tiresome.

I also wondered if Jenny sounding so dozy was linked to Mike’s lurgy and the poisoning. Or was Adam waking her up first thing?
I loathe the way Lexi as the surrogate mother is referred to as ‘the host’. I assume that’s the term used irl - very Handmaid’s Tale.

I loathe the way Lexi as the surrogate mother is referred to as ‘the host’. I assume that’s the term used irl - very Handmaid’s Tale.

That is horrible and entirely the wrong term. Lexi is the 'surrogate'. Ian and Adam are the 'intended parents'.

Ah, thank you, Buxbaum. Just checked, Ian and Jennifer referred to Lexi as “the host mother”.
More inadequate research by TA?

Tobes will eventually have full custody of Pipbot as Pip can’t cope . Will insist it is a Fairbrother at which point Jill will explode and contaminate the slurry pit.

I wasn't sure, Elle, so I have consulted my friend.

Apparently 'host' is sometimes used when the surrogate has no biological relation to the embryo but the term 'gestational carrier' is preferred. This is the Phoebe from Friends model of 'their bun, my oven', if you will. Apparently many surrogates and intended parents dislike 'host' because of the sci-fi horror / parasite connotations...

I am glad somebody else heard shades of the Handmaid's tale there too!

DadDadDad are you in the line up for a new thread title ?

Ooooh - like what you did there 0630!

Timetogetup, Gruach - I sense I'm missing the joke here...

Interesting that "gestational carrier" is the acceptable term - it sounds hideously detached to me and so dismissive of the woman who is doing all of the hard work.

Yes, I find both ‘host mother’ and ‘gestational carrier’ awful. Women as vessels.

I believe Pip can also make chilli.

Ah. Philip and Kirsty.

St Smugula will be consumed by jealous rage.

What's wrong with "mother"? Especially in Ian and Adam's case, or "birth mother" if that's upsetting for a heterosexual/lesbian couple.

The thing is, she isn’t the mother in their arrangement (although she will be legally until the parental order is signed). I can kind of understand why ‘mother’ isn’t used in a case like this when currently UK law favours the birth mother rather than the intended parents.

It’s distasteful to think of the pregnant woman as a host or a vessel but that’s precisely what she is in this arrangement.

Possible thread title “ What’s your poison? Alice is legless, the fish are lifeless and Pip is clueless”

love that title!

MrsGrindah that's excellent!