Movin' on up (Ed and Emmur), Movin' on out (Brian and Jenny), Time to break free (Lily from Russ, we hope), Nothing can stop *The Archers* in 2019 - Thread 97 (Joe Grundy’s age!)

[Bittermints]

Many thanks to @LilianGish for the title and to @NotdeadyetBOING for being the last threadstarter. Further thanks due to @PseudoBadger for kicking of this long, long series of Archers threads and to @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3439443-keep-it-to-yourself-the-archers-spoilers-thread-4, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

I wonder where Brian and Jennifer will end up. I was very taken with the idea on the last thread that the mysterious Gills won't last very long and the house will be sold back to the Aldridges at a knockdown price.

Nooooooo! They can't kill Brian. He gets the good lines.

I thought Kirsty had gone round to Grange farm to suggest she sublet a room there.

So did I.

The REAL 🔮, as deployed by MysticBore™️, says the pretender is wide of the mark with its false prognostications on the demise of Brine.

However, it says Smugula and Alistair will be reconciling, possibly after Alistair collapses due to an excess of half-marathoning.

Brian may end up being jailed for a while but he will turn this into a triumph by revolutionising the prison farm and will come out a better man.

Or, Brian will have a heart attack which doesn't kill him but is All Kirsty's Fault.

I was wondering about the sudden emphasis on the patio work by the Grundys. Will they get the contract (beating Philip to it) on whatever Grand Designs the Gills have. And then bugger it up?

I once Googled myself and Google images came up with a picture of Cliff Richard

Maybe!

I'm on the edge of being bored with all the misery. Why didn't we get a nice cheerful dose of James/Leonie/Mungo over Christmas? Perhaps it was Robert's ex-wife's turn with the Archer/Snell grandchild. Really, apart from inflicting Tom on Wales, there was a distinct absence of non-nuclear family to-ing and fro-ing. Couldn't Clarrie have invited Rosie? Or Jim visit his daughter or ... In fact, why didn't Bridge Farm have Maurice over for New Year? Meanies ...

When I google myself I come up on ratemyteacher.

If Brian is jailed, I doubt Jenny will be able to stand Susan's empathy, tinged as it will be with schadenfreude (unlike re Helen).

I'm back and finally caught up. Behold my essay of rambling musings.

Tom's new markets chat is a crock of manure. The theory makes sense but the LSWs are mad if they think "young people" aren't buying veg boxes. I've being buying organic food direct from farms since I left home at 18 and so have a lot of my friends. Provenance, sustainability and accountability is priority. I know a lot more people in their mid 30s and under who boycott supermarkets and none who are older who do with quite the same vigour. Iappreciate that may say more about my social circle and unscientific sample size than the veg box demographic appeal per say.

Riverford organic doesn't even have an e-commerce app so why does Tom want one? Groan. Sigh. Tut.

Also I'm glad Helen and Lee had coffee but she lied when said she had time for one, she totally abandoned lovely Jonny last minute to clear the barn alone. Bit rude!

I dislike Kirsty but I think IRL we'd be friends. I almost like Brian but IRL I wouldn't be able to stand him.

East point they've removed animal noises from the GCSE biology syllabus so he had a lucky escape there.

I'm definitely going to google more people now. Not sure who, yet, but I will.

she totally abandoned lovely Jonny last minute to clear the barn alone. Bit rude!

I was rather pleased by her doing that - actually being spontaneous!

So did I. Re Kirsty. What pain she is.

Brian will spend a fortune on a Shit Hot Lawyer who will tug at the judge's heartstrings about how he has been punished enough by losing his home etc etc, and will get off with a rap over the knuckles. He will then have Kirsty hating him for getting away with it, and Lizzie hating him for not suffering as her supposedly innocent son suffered. The potential for more storylines springing off from all that lot is huge, they won't be able to resist it.

I thought that Brian’s personal attack on the “void” in Kirsty’s life was way OTT and out of character. Brine is a smug git but he’s also not remotely interested in the personal life of anyone outside his immediate family and maybe Will- he’s the type to probably have forgotten that Kirsty was jilted and get mixed up between which Fairbrother fathered Pip’s baby. He doesn’t generally gossip. As Jenny pointed out, he had indeed totally forgotten about her miscarriage. So focusing on K’s personal life to insult her was just odd, even though I do fully believe that she does press his buttons.

I don’t buy the Jenny and Brian being inconsiderate neighbours thing either. Ridiculous. They just wouldn’t be like that.

The whole Kirsty v. Brine thing feels very manufactured, and purely for plot purposes. They are both acting out of character.

I don’t believe that Ambridge is going to end up with yet another middle class jail bird. So Brian is going to walk.

Helen is a bit like a self-indulgent child. She leaves Johnny doing all the Barn by himself. I also can't understand how she can make plans for a day out all day on Monday week, without (1) checking work, and (2) checking childcare. Or does she just assume her family will pick it all up no question, which they will do, as they are always too scared to risk upsetting her.

Why aren't there any strong nice women - most seem to be nasty, fragile or feeble?
I've always liked Shula and hope she finds happiness.

Its true that Brian's outburst seemed out of character - but perhaps that's because Brian/Brian actor have been so persuasive in convincing Jenny and us that the current upheaval is just a tedious inconvenience. When in fact Brian has had to see his wife almost in tears every day for months, has, in somewhat advanced years, had to scramble out of his home, and has lost the respect of 'friends' and associates. This must be an absolutely horrible time for him - and he won't allow himself to crumble in front of his family, because it's all his fault.

I don't imagine he has any interest in Kirsty's personal life - but from his dinosaur point of view she's an officious, trouble making woman who would have less time to interfere if she had the 'appropriate' domestic duties.

but from his dinosaur point of view she's an officious, trouble making woman who would have less time to interfere if she had the 'appropriate' domestic duties.
The 'accusation' of "feminist!" might have rung true if it wasn't for Debbie. And Annabelle Schrivener. And Caroline. And many more perfectly competent and non-harpy women that Brine has met over his lifetime...
It was out of character.

“ but from his dinosaur point of view she's an officious, trouble making woman who would have less time to interfere if she had the 'appropriate' domestic duties.”

That is sooooo not Brian.

Why aren't there any strong nice women - most seem to be nasty, fragile or feeble?

Leaving aside the 'nice' (who the heck is consistently 'nice'?) surely many who aren't nasty, fragile or feeble.

Off the top of my head, Peggy, Jill, Ruth, Usha (though we don't hear enough from her), Clarrie, Jolene, Fallon...