We never thought we’d feel sorry for Will. Although of course it should have been Pip! Discuss The Archers here (Titled edited by MNHQ)

[PseudoBadger]

Welcome all! I was really touched by the potential for Ed and Will to reconcile. But wonder if Will can accept Ed’s support.

As ever, no spoilers here (there’s a thread for that) - discussion permitted as soon as the pm episode is broadcast.

Elizabeth has a heart defect, hasn't she? And one of her partners has been Roy...

Has anyone read The Silmarillion?

Yes?

Out of interest do you think Elizabeth is?

Well there is the heart defect. Cameron Fraser. Being widowed and left to run a business and bring up two young children. Being portrayed as the Archer brat when she is probably the brightest of the four of them. A son dealing in drugs.

How many do you need?

Yes! A long time ago. Can remember very little about it except that I enjoyed it very much at the time. Fantasy is a Marmite genre, though.

Women on TA have to be defective or unlucky or have awful partners. Or all three

Ruth isn't - nor is Pip. Pat has had her share of troubles but they were equally Tony's troubles.

Lynda isn't. Elizabeth was widowed but otherwise- no. Fallon definitely not.

Fantasy is a Marmite genre, though.

I like fantasy - and marmite. The Silmarillion defeated me.

I’ve read the Silmarillion, but only because it was before I decided, on my 40th birthday that I would never wear high heels again and I was allowed not to finish a book I wasn’t enjoying......

Has anyone read The Silmarillion?

Naturally ... I think at one stage I probably read everything of Tolkien’s that was available for pocket money or borrowing. Was a very long time ago. Moderately enjoyable.

Though I didn’t think he had a SOH until I came to reading aloud for the next generation.

Oh, the joy of the moment when one realises it is ok to throw the unfinished book across the room and never look at it again.

I ploughed through what felt like aeons of Dickens before I discovered this simple truth. But it was Gibbon’s Decline and Fall that was the turning point. Didn’t actually throw it anywhere - a nonsense of red leather and gold tooling - but, my god, the relief ...

I have never got through an entire book of Dickens. That is my shameful secret.

I’ve never read Dickens, either. My shameful secret is that, despite that, I wrote an essay about Great Expectations in my Finals.

Why on earth did Brian dismiss Ruth's suggestion of looking into those waste dumping brothers? Surely he is savvy enough to know that he was only going to make Ruth suspicious by refusing to engage. All he had to do was smile and nod and say he was definitely going to look in to it, and Ruth would have gone away satisfied and probably let it drop...

Oh Dickens is no problem. Bleak House is brilliant.

Bert!

I have read part of the Silmarillion...

Dickens and Jane Austen are my favourite novelists. Little Dorrit may be my favourite Dickens novel, but Bleak House is right up there. Our Mutual Friend and David Copperfield also contenders. And that's without even considering Great Expectations, which is unfairly tainted by having been a school set book.

Jane Austen would have made a brilliant Archers SW. Much better than Dickens for this purpose because of her preference for life in the country and small towns or villages over cities. He would have gravitated towards EastEnders because writing about London life is what he did best.

Has there ever been a Book Club in the Archers?

They are rife in my rural area. A bit strange if they don't have one.

And also bridge and tennis. It's not all horse riding & village cricket.

I can't be doing with Dickens, to me his characters are two-dimensional cardboard cutouts.
My favourite Dickens is Bleak Expectations.

Wasn't there a book club that Usha and Jennifer used to go to? And some sort of amusing story line about a raunchy book written by a local author? It's right on the edge of my memory, so may have got this totally wrong!

Has anyone else thought that Alice sounds exactly Kate before her reformation? A lot of the time I think she’s reading Kate’s lines, if Kate drank alcohol.

*Lass" I did try when I was a 14 year-old Tolkien geek. It cured me.

Has there ever been a Book Club in the Archers?

Yes. It was mentioned earlier in this thread or its predecessor (can't be bothered to check exactly where.)

Lilian It is in RL that the younger generation are encouraged to stay, or return, to the family farm because they will inherit it and ,hopefully, run it. it's not a punishment for being a successful woman fgs.

Iris Kate IS a piss artist , one of the best scenes between her and Noli was her pointing out that most wine is not veggie.

ppeat I don't think I was suggesting it was a punishment at all. I was just making the point that they have to be in Ambridge to be properly in the story (send them too far away and you have to bring back Ambridge Extra )

Yes sorry Lilian it was Brenda who suggested Alice is being punished.