Brian is over a barrel, Alice has drained the barrel and Shula has given it to Alistair with both barrels - The Archers is not exactly a barrel of laughs at the moment.

[PseudoBadger]

Thanks to @LillianGish for the thread title.

Faites vos jeux !

That was exactly my reaction - nothing like a sodding great hint to end an episode.

I think TB could well be a good spot, although more likely to be Tony who catches it.

Maybe Olwen has got IBR.

Wasn't there a thread last year where somebody's son started Maths A level from scratch only a few weeks before the exam and passed? If he could do it, surely Freddie can.

Wasn't there a thread last year where somebody's son started Maths A level from scratch only a few weeks before the exam and passed? If he could do it, surely Freddie can.

Yes, but he showed aptitude and determination and slogged at it in that short time.

I think we can be clear that Freddie isn't doing maths, whatever subjects he'said doing.

I think that entails can be broken if you spend a lot of money in it and there's a reason for it. I think it was done on the estate I grew up on, because the son ran away to the Moonies or something, but it was before I was born. I don't actually have the slightest idea, it's just something that was alluded to over the years.

Still not sure it would be so impossible to get at least a pass in A levels by slogging your guts out for 8 weeks. I have to admit that stems from my own experience of somehow getting a 2:1 in a compulsory subject at university that I utterly detested and did minimal work for. In fact when it came to the exam I had done so little revision that I had to answer the last question on the basis of something I had mugged up from Cole's Notes 10 minutes beforehand I had to make my writing extra untidy to make it look as if I knew oodles about whatever it was but sadly had just run out of time.

I think Freddie could "pass" his A'levels but a couple of Es isn't much use really. I thought he was doing French for some reason? but at my DDs college I would have received letters etc. warning me about disappointing effort and preparing me for underperformance (and probably invitations to meetings on how to turn things around a bit if he was willing).

I do hope Lily goes somewhere like Edinburgh or Manchester or...

Exeter, Bristol, Aberdeen as the wild card. (Though I can see the SWs knee-jerking St Andrews.)

How far in is Phoebe? Is she still in her first year of PPE?

Phoebe is in her second year

I predict marital meltdown between Pat'n'Tone. Seem to remember he had major issues with Olwyn back in the day - bad influence and all that.....

Another bloody caricature “feminist”. Really pisses me off.

I predict marital meltdown between Pat'n'Tone.

Well, we've had Lilian and then JD so it's got to be Tony's turn now.
The SW do seem to have it in for the married folks atm.

So Olwyn is a genuine returning character rather than someone who has been invented and given a back story for this plot line? Interesting.

About Freddie and Lily:

Aghast that Freddie gets it all as the "heir". They are twins if nothing else, it's not like he's substantially older. Mumbles about day and age.

Can someone remind me where "the money" came from for Lower Loxley? Was Nige mega rich? Did they buy it together?

Nigel inherited it himself Rula- he was Landed Gentry.

Nigel's dad was landed gentry. His mum, Julia, was a greengrocer's daughter who then became a chorus girl, if I remember correctly, and was absolutely furious when her sister arrived at LL and let all this slip! Her sister was Rosemary Leach, I think. Julia had changed her name from something more humdrum and had trained herself to speak in an accent almost as posh as the Queen's but it all slipped when her dear sister re-appeared.

I'm fairly sure Olwen is not a returning character. If she was ever mentioned 30 years ago in Pat's feminist days, it was in passing. Never voiced. The main thing I remember from that time was that Pat came very close to having an affair with her evening class teacher. Can't remember his name or whether he spoke, or just got spoken about. Poor old Tony.

Nigel inherited. Property rich money poor landed gentry going back ages. Not sure what happened to his sister- she hasn’t been mentioned for ages.

Olwyn is a genuine returning character

Wasn't she a silent? I can't remember - I would have been listening, as TA was always on (well, R4 was,) but if it was Greenham Common time, I'd have been around 10, so probably not actively listening.

Thanks Jessie and Gasp0de, this thread is a fountain of knowledge!

I remember Julia, did we "know" Nigel's Dad too then? Was LL always in it? Sorry for so many questions.

No, I don't think we did hear him - was he called Gerald? We heard a lot of Julia. She was a magnificent character, much missed (by me, anyway).

Oh yes, Bertrand, I'd forgotten Nigel had a sister. Camilla? Also, is Lewis still alive? Have the SWs forgotten him, if so?

And now I’m hoping Nigel’s sister inherited enough (cash or whatever) to not hate Elizabeth ...

(Perhaps she married exceptionally well?)

She’s certainly not the most attentive aunt towards Frilly.

I thought Camilla married money but grew up expecting to do that whilst Eldest Son inherited the pile?

It wasn't on a good footing when Nigel married Lizzie - it was Lizzie's drive that turned it into a successful business, in spite of all Julia's objections about her home being opened up to common people, like greengrocers and chorus girls

I thought I'd do my plug for Academic Archers.
They have issued a call for papers here
Next year's conference will be in Sheffield on the 6th April, it might extend into a weekend one with a dinner on the Friday and a Sunday morning session. Full details to be confirmed, and booking is not open yet.

It is unlikely Nigel or Freddy inherited Lower Loxley outright. It is more likely it is held in a discretionary trust.

I don't know about English entails but suspect they might not be quite the thing they once were as in, for example the fiction of Austen or Dickens - certainly Scots and Irish law no longer have them.