Ambridge is in the doldrums. When will Pip pop? Does anybody even care? And Anisha’s off, leaving Rex in the (pig) trough? Discuss the Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

Sorry about the title, nothing particularly inspiring in the storylines currently

No spoilers please, there’s a thread for that.

Robin is indeed proper posh. His father was the Squire of Ambridge back in 1951 when the programme started. His daughter Grace married Phil as his first wife and the ingrates at the BBC killed her off in a fire on the first night of ITV to steal ITV's thunder. Robin was her much younger half-brother who moved away with his family when the Farebrothers sold up. Half their estate went to Lilian Bellamy's first husband and the other half to Home Farm, I think. Something like that, anyway.

(Namechange here.)

You sure D0do? The BBC says George Fairbrother bought half of Squire Lawson-Hope’s land, and the Bellamys the other half. Or did that Fairbrother become Squire of Ambridge subsequent to Lawson-Hope?

I dunno ... Pretty much the only thing in the world that was before my time. Am too full of ice cream (gin rather than champagne) to reach for the Ambridge encyclopaedia.

Lost marbles with my old name, Gruach! Yes, of course, I was getting confused between the Lawson-Hopes and the Farebrothers. Can't lay hands on my own Ambridge bookshelf at the moment either.

Gin ice cream sounds good!

Don’t tell Toby, he’ll be getting together with Helen.

Didn't Anisha reply to an advert for the Newmarket post?

No, her friend Dolly(?) works round Newmarket way and told her about it.

I think seeking out the advert and responding to it is still pretty active in terms of looking for an alternative to the partnership.

I was neutral about Anisha previously, primarily because she's never been around long enough at any one time to establish her character properly. But the Newmarket thing is very poor conduct on any interpretation.

Shula has messed up badly imo.

Topper was 'not himself' for some time but she only called in Alistair about 12 hours before he died, used the visit to needle him about the divorce, and then failed to tell Alistair why she was calling.

Alistair is going to be so much better off without her (provided he hasn't gambled everything away).

Shula has messed up badly imo.

Maybe, but Alistair won't come out of this smelling of roses. To the outside world it will look like the moment Anisha left, Alistair's incompetence became visible because he was instrumental in the death of a horse.

If he has only started gambling now, what were all those 'conferences' about?

I don't think it was suggested that Alistair has only just started gambling - it's just that last night was the first time he accepted that he needed urgent help.

Alistair won't come out of this smelling of roses. Of course he won't, because Shula will stick the knife in.

She is furious that she's dumped Alistair and that it didn't get more fun and spontaneous, but that there are real, actual consequences for HER, like having to pay vet bills and having to think about carving up her assets.

And that Alistair has had a shag when it was supposed to be HER that was fighting off an army of buff 50 year olds.

Taking bets for Shula making a tit of herself over Robin, if anyone's interested.

On the Anisha debate, my contribution is that misogyny has such deep and wide roots in our culture that it is more likely than not, on the balance of probability but not beyond all reasonable doubt, that some responses to her are the fruit of such roots, but are not recognised as such by the view holder.

(can a root fruit??)

Taking bets for Shula making a tit of herself over Robin, if anyone's interested.

She was so preoccupied with talking to Lizzie about Topper and Frilly that his presence barely registered. She was very rude. However she may have inadvertently done the 'treat them mean to keep them keen' routine and piqued his interest so we'll watch this space ...

Thank you so much Bore and Gruach* Very kind .

I must say ref. Robin the roue I was wondering why he was referring to cremant and champagne in the same breath, they are most certainly NOT the same. I speak not as an alcoholic but with a dh who likes a tipple and we have cremant at christmas because it's the only 'bubblyish' alcohol which I can drink, I even find Prosecco too strong!. Champagne is NOT good stuff, expensive, yes , worth the price, no. There was a very interesting R4 Food Programme about it fairly recently. I won't go on any more

Well she knows Robin and Elizabeth have history and saw Elizabeth getting all tiddly and flirty.

Shula disapproves. She has no place in her life for fun.

The SWs seem hell bent on making Shula into a miserable grump , as if she's totally regretting instigating the divorce but is refusing to admit it to anyone. She can't admit it to herself either. Just is being a large P in the A.

I'm not sure about Harrison's stripogram/Chippendale type past. He'd be a good dancer wouldn't he? I haven't noticed it being mentioned (but I may have missed it).

ppeat According to Keri on twitter it was Cramant not Cremant. Bit silly really, they might have expected people to be confused.

Bit silly really, they might have expected people to be confused.

The trouble is that you don't know if it the SW messing up or a subtle indication that Robin is BSing. Turns out it was neither: it was the listeners' cloth ears!
There is, indeed, a village called Cramant in the Champagne region. (Thank you, GoogleMaps.)

I'm with LassWiADelicateAir on the assessment of Anisha's character. Her dealing with the drinking game at the start was nasty. I'd have thought the same if a man had done this (but then I don't like the way drinking to excess is so normalised). Where I really started disliking her, was her bullying A. into spending a fortune on doing up the surgery. Having said that, he was shown as being exceptionally weak in not standing up to her.

As for Harrison's stripogram story. Yes, brilliant, tell your murky secret to the son of the village cryer, who's already shown himself incapable of keeping confidences.

Please....what is ‘pidding’? The thing that Lily didn’t want after dinner, can she not make a u sound?

Are you implying that Lily is non-U?

It can't be a coincidence that Robin has turned up just as Lily is on the point of confessing to her mother about her affair with Russ. I'm slightly indifferent to Anisha's departure - she's been around such a short time and her character so thinly developed that I'm left wondering what was the point of her? It now feels more and more inevitable that Pip will end up with Rex. I've been away so just caught up with the film and thought posting would have been off the scale now Pip has popped. Interesting that no one is really that interested. I'm wondering about the implications of Alistair's gambling - is he going to bankrupt himself so Shula will get no money in a settlement? I'm still baffled by her indignation that he might have been having a relationship with Lavinia - isn't the point of splitting up that they can pursue other avenues? I feel as if the SWs are giving us a series of plot-driven dramas where character plays second fiddle - I care much less about this. Interesting debate earlier about not being able to separate character from script-writing, I think that point is that good script-writing should make the way the characters behave feel inevitable - when it doesn't the listener stops believing and that's where I am at the moment.

R4

I too am convinced that Rex and Pip are Meant To Be. However, the scripties can't possibly rerun the two brothers fighting over the same woman s/l, so Mystic Bore™️ has consulted the 🔮, and...

It has been revealed that
TOBY WILL DIE

(probably on a Friday. Possibly at Christmas/New Year. Place your bets)

But Rex is so ... not wet exactly, and we know about the rugby and he coped without panicking when Pip was in labour - just so unexciting.

Whereas Toby ...

And poor Tobes is trying his best. He doesn’t deserve the sink hole.

He's more exciting than Pipsquawk, Gruach

Anyway, the Fates have spoken. The die is cast.

'Twill be afore the Ides of March (nice little Easter s/l?)