The Archers #93: The Flower and Produce show - who's going to get their just desserts. Freddie? Ellis? Russ? Pass judgement here.

[DadDadDad]

No, that's not a jokey exaggeration, this is really the 93rd thread in a series started by PseudoBadger five years ago! In fact, post number 90,000 in the "official" count will be made on this thread.

Lovers of The Archers welcome (along with the rest of us who have a more complicated relationship with the "TA" ).

One rule we try to stick to: No mentioning of future episode plotlines published in the Radio Times etc. However, once an episode has aired, say what you like!

What is going to happen to Freddie? And are we ever going to hear from Lily again?
I also am wondering what it will take for Kenton to apologise to Fallon...

Delurking (fellow actuary) to see if D^3 was one of the attending delegates or a no show.

witchmountain there are a few other actuary jokes but they are all of similar quality...

Please, please, please can Tom and Natasha not get together.
He drives me mad at the best of times when he makes that funny 'tw' noise for the letter 't' but add in Natasha's Welsh pronunciation with an emphasis on consonants (such as 't') and I can't concentrate on what they are saying, all I can hear is the letter 't'. Aaargh.

I really hope they don’t get together. Tom’s acting is particularly excruciating around Natasha. He sounds so weird and stilted, particularly when he says her name.

Maybe they’ll go and live in her arboretum.

As Ppeat said, she just wants to sell him juice. "Eye always on the profits" as Tom said. Tonight and her last appearance I got the distinct impression she's interested in Jonny anyway.

I've just spent a few minutes reading actuary jokes, which include such gems as

'Actuarial bumper sticker: Old actuaries never die; they just get
broken down by age and sex. '

Possibly the only actuary joke - are there others?

There's the one about actuaries being people who can't handle accountancy because it's too stimulating ...

I just don't understand the logic of the Natasha storyline. Having told Tom the problem is that the farm has got too many small scale ventures, she's now apparently quite happy with them diversifying further into dairy farming and the tree thing, and wants them to go further by branching into fruit juice? WTF?

On another note, I hope one of the hotshot lawyers will point out to Elizabeth that appeal court judges can increase sentences as well as reduce them.

First chance to get to a computer this evening, so just here to say:

1. THERE WAS AN ACTUARIES' CONFERENCE AT GREY GABLES!! WHY DIDN'T I KNOW ABOUT THIS AND WHY WASN'T I INVITED?!!

1. THERE ARE OTHER ACTUARIES LURKING ON THIS THREAD?!!! @ISeeShapes - how long have you been here? and stop lurking, and get stuck in!

Right, . I've calmed down now.

I'm actually going to a real actuaries' conference next month - 1000 of us in Liverpool...

If the dairy cows are instead of the Angus cattle I guess that's making the cow part of the mix better aligned with other parts of the business. The juice isn't diversification for the farm - she want to sell them hers.

Well, I hope she and Tom do get together and he goes off to help with her empire leaving Helen and Johnny in place at bridge farm.

There's the one about actuaries being people who can't handle accountancy because it's too stimulating ...

You can always tell the jokes that have been thought up by accountants, as a defence mechanism to knowing they're not clever enough to be actuaries.

At least, compared to accountants, I managed to read a little further down the alphabetical list of careers before deciding. (Although not quite as far as an old school friend I met at the weekend - she's an architect ).

I too thought of DDD when they mentioned actuaries!

Re the fruit juice, I took it mean the tree will be fruit trees so they can make juice from that.

Yes chem in 5 years. before then they will have to buy in.
I wonder where they could find a supplier of good quality, award winning fruit juice? Oh yes ...

Yes I thought 5 years was a long time.

Is the Tom and Hannah denouement supposed to signal Tom growing up and realising he needs to commit to one person?

Trees could be symbolic of long term investment and permanence...

It did seem very odd. Natasha has been presented as being perfectly lovely. But now we’re shown this Machiavellian undercurrent. Is this how she’s become successful?

Tom is 35, for fuck's sake!

I'm sure it's possible for a woman to be perfectly lovely but also good at business. Tom wouldn't buy her juice if it was actually going to be negative for Bridge Farm.

Maybe Nat. is in relationship or has an eye for younger men, if she and Johnny got together that would really upset the applecart (geddit)!!!

I didn’t really see the issue with her raising the possibility of the fruit juice. If there is demand for it then it’s win-win.

I also thought she perked up a bit on both occasions when Jonny appeared.

Turns out there’s a website dedicated to actuary jokes with 189 jokes on it. I didn’t scroll far enough for the lightbulb one but I quite liked this:
Two actuaries are duck hunting. They see a duck in the air and they both shoot. The first actuary’s shot is 20 feet wide to the left. The second actuary’s shot is 20 feet wide to the right. The actuaries give each other high fives, because on average they shot it.

at actuarial reference and joke! I seem to remember DDD actually posting during a conference having been stuck in traffic for some sort of food and farming show mentioned in that week's show. I believe that may have been the very moment he revealed he was an actuary with much actuarial debate ensuing. I was listening half asleep late last night and started thinking how appropriate that now DDD is FatherThread the conference should have taken place at Grey Gables - in the cold light of day I realise I have literally lost the plot. I am losing the ability to distinguish between the thread and the programme

I didn’t really see the issue with her raising the possibility of the fruit juice.

The issue is that she is supposed to be there as a Nuffield advisor not someone lobbying for her own business. She encouraged Tom to go for the fruit trees in the first place - it begs the question about the impartiality of her advice since it was going to provide an opening for 5 or more years of juice sales.

The fact that Tom still thinks from his trousers just makes him susceptible to partial advice - that is his own fault.

She’s not a professional advisor though, it’s a peer to peer thing, isn’t it? He’s not paying for the advice.

I though it was a sensible suggestion. The milk round doesn’t exist any more, does it? That’s the other place people might have got fruit juice delivered.

He’s not paying for the advice

Its part of the Nuffield scholarship stuff though isn't it? And she isn't there as Nat from down the road or social friend from the NFU. She is only there as the nominee with the Nuffield badge.

Helen was already selling juice in the shop so its using an advisory session to push her own business. I wouldn't have thought that is aligned with Nuffield values/wishes.