The Archers #96: Is that a rat I smell or the whiff of Snell? In Chaucer’s famous Tale of Two Torsos, Brian’s ‘still got it’ and Poldark is searching for scything opportunities in Susan’s kitchen.

[NotdeadyetBOING]

Welcome..... I'd concocted a longer title with all sorts of references to bitch stitching and pasta bakes, but was thwarted by the pesky character limit

He sounded desperate to get Lily out of Ambridge and back to Manchester

What's going on?

The longer she is there the more likely she will see him as everyone else does. He has no glamour as far as Shula, David and the Brookfield bunch are concerned- he's just a sad, pretentious, snobbish, unemployed old lech.

I assume he is broke but if /when they go back Lily's allowance will be treated as a communal pot.

He is clearly worried she won't go back and the gravy train derails.

Re the gravy train hitting the buffers do we know if the lease of the flat is in joint names or just Lily's? If joint names can 1 joint tenant end a lease in England? ( in Scotland one joint tenant could do that but in a spectacularly ill- thought out change in 2017 if Russ and Lily were joint tenants in Scotland Lily is stuck with the tenancy until Russ also wanted to end it)

@TheSilveryPussycat
we have never heard anything about them having a cleaner or gardener.

I am fairly sure that Betty Tucker used to clean at Home Farm, that was what gave Brine the opportunity to attempt to have his wicked way with her.

I have what most people would consider a pretty large farmhouse kitchen. And I can't fit my food mixer on a worktop permanently - it has to live on a shelf in the utility room until it's needed.

Yes, Betty was the cleaner for a bit. Then I think there was a long period when there were references to a Mrs Something, who was a silent character, IIRC, but cleaned for them for years. Something of a tartar.

(I hope I haven't imagined that.)

No memory of them ever having had a gardener, which does seem a bit unlikely. Ambridge would be very likely to have a jobbing gardener doing the rounds of the better off residents' gardens.

Another farmer here who can't fit my food processor on the worktop despite what's most people's idea of a mahoosive kitchen.

I think we're being set up nicely for a huge inheritance struggle between Adam and rurai (sorry can't spell his name!) it's ridiculous how many partners that farm has. Likewise bridge farm.

My mother in law reminds me of jenny. When looking for a smaller house to downsize and retire to she was told by the EA that he wouldn't be able to help her because what she wanted didn't exist. She wanted small and manageable but it had to have at least 4 bed (for 2 of them?!), a kitchen diner, a dining room (despite the fact she would be entertaining less) an every night room and a drawing room!!!!!

Some farmers get v used to space and don't know how lucky they are!

I suppose it could be changed to Hannah, but what a tosser.

I so want Lee to be a good bloke.

What was the financial settlement between Roy and Hayley?

I don't think we were ever told.

I remember thinking the house would need to be sold but somehow Hayley was able to move back to Brum with Abbie and find accommodation she could afford on a relatively underpaid career, all without Roy having to sell up and split the proceeds.

I am fairly sure that Betty Tucker used to clean at Home Farm, that was what gave Brine the opportunity to attempt to have his wicked way with her

I think also that job was to help with the holiday cottages - I always thought that was the primary cleaning job for Betty and Mrs Tartar but Jenny has done it for a very long time now. I think Betty was cleaning before Kate/Roy were a thing which would be when the Aldridge children were young/school age so 80s?

Going back couple of episodes, possibly the first rude joke I've heard on The Archers. It was when Lily was scraping off the insulation tape some NYE fun-lover had stuck over the Treetop Walk sign.

R: What's it supposed to say?
L: Treetop Walk

:o

So is Roy in the bigger house, The Aldridges the little cottage?

Brain and Betty Tucker?! I missed that, long ago. I remember the longstanding Brian and Caroline affair (in the 80s I think). The Siobhan. And that ther werre many others. Betty though!

Brain and Betty Tucker?!

Yes - was definitely long before Siobhan time, possibly after Caroline. But yes there were many in between.

I don't think Lily is going to go back to Manchester. She's got too much to do and loads to say. They need a young female voice.

I don't think Lily is going to go back to Manchester

Having sent Phoebe to Oxford, I suppose it's par for the course the SWs will scupper another girl's education.

Sorry haven't RTFT... I got over a month behind with TA so forswore myself from this thread (despite its wonderful title) till now - I've managed a couple of binges and finally caught up.

Lottie Betty didn’t return Brian’s advances. But that was the back story to Brian saying to Roy the other day when asking him to put a word in for Willow Cottage “A fine woman, your mother”.

Re rude jokes, I admit I was actually quite shocked to hear Harrison say “arse” twice in one of the Canterbury Tales rehearsal scenes!

Wow, I always thought of Betty as quite 'matronly', not Brian's type at all. Guess I got that wrong!

Who was Ed working for this evening and did anyone else get the impression he might inadvertently get drawn into something dodgy? “I’m happy to do anything as long as it pays.” Just wondered why the improbably named Tim Oaty (sounds like shampoo) was given such a prominent speaking role.

I think Lily should ask if she can defer for a year. Pretty sure they'd let her. The LL disruption this year has been too much already. I know she could catch up but it would be hard work and she knows she's missed all the fun experiences.

It would give her time to support Elizabeth during Freddie's time away and her breakdown - which is clearly going to last for months - and help oversee a more permanent handover to a new manager at LL. And, live in an unaffordable, arty love nest with Russ / put him to work in the LL kitchens / otherwise get shot of him, ready for a fresh start.

I always thought of Betty as quite 'matronly', not Brian's type at all. Guess I got that wrong

I suppose despite everyone's mental picture of Roy we have evidence from Lizzie and Carol Tregorran that Roy is good looking. Hayley and Lexi aren't shallow enough to go for looks over character but I can't imagine that even if was only to annoy her parents that Kate would have picked someone unattractive. Maybe he takes after his mother.

Who was Ed working for this evening ?

And where ? Was that at Home Farm farmhouse?

My (quite possibly unreliable) memory is that Betty was cleaning something like an office in a small industrial estate.

And where ? Was that at Home Farm farmhouse?

I got the impression it was the gates to the golf club, so wondered if it was Martin Gibson, but he'd know Ed, and it was someone new (and less sneery), so I wondered if it was the new manager at LoLo, whose name I can't remember.

I was driving while listening, and thought I'd missed a significant detail (name), but it seems no one else did, either.

HNY all.

Tim Oatey gave me the absolute creeps. He felt like the aural equivalent of something out of Luther. Or a naked Dalek about to attach itself to its victim.

Poor, darling, not quite bright enough Ed ...

I so want to be wrong.

Ed n Em are taking on a new house/mortgage with Ed having no regular income?! Could someone tell me what Emma does for a living pls?