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.

Snurk. I felt I had to give specificity. Am now back in hot and humid Melbourne. Pity me. :o

Lizzie probably prevaricated with the locum. Hence she was precribed sleeping pills which (although an unbroken 7 hours makes me feel a proper person!) aren't necessarily going to cut it for her.

Good on yer Shula, I wonder if she becomes a wonderful artist

I assumed the licence screw up was entirely down to Lizzie not being able to face leaving the house - me too. I love the way this storyline is ticking along slowly with gentle hints and nudges so regular listening is repaid. It is very believable - I find myself worrying about Elizabeth even when I'm not listening.

I’m waiting for Ed to sign up as a life model to earn some extra cash...

I think Philip is about 50. I enjoyed Kirsty and Phil’s heart to heart but they didn’t really resolve why he’s so tired or what he’s going to do about it.

I listen before sleep, using TA like a bedtime story

I used to, but had to stop during the Titchener era - it really wasn't relaxing at all! I'm trying to get back in the habit now, instead of forgetting and having to have a massive binge - especially as if I'm behind I have to avert my eyes from these threads!

Enjoying the old money talk. As an anorak-y child, it was wonderful growing up with £sd - all sorts of things would turn up in your change. Late Victoria coins were common, with grumpy old woman portraits, then occasionally you'd get young Victoria with beautiful young girl portraits. The oldest I've got is William IV. Then there was the whole thing of the lighthouse and ship coming and going from the background to the Britannia portrait.

Gosh, did you get a William IV? The oldest I got was a bun penny.
I loved having a potted history of the last century-or-so of British monarchs in my purse. The kids of today (i.e. anybody under 50!) have only known QEII coins.

Talking old money...
Farthings, sixpences, pennies & thruppeny bits.

I remember:

the smoothness and patina of coins used over and over everyday;
counting and stacking coins in my grandfather’s bureau desk as play;
the oily, maybe sweaty, metallic smell of coins;
coins warming in my hand as we walked to the sweetie shop.

I could go on but I am now awash with nostalgia.
Gotta go score me some coppers.

Perfect storm - time pressed locum refers to a patient history with long past treatment of heart, no reference to MH issues ( I assume) or knowledge of the family stress points ( e.g. Nigel tragedy, Freddie’s woes) with a deflecting minimising patient.

Were I Shula, unless I saw the prescription script, I would not take Elizabeth’s word about what she was prescribed.

Given the relentless lack of sleep, & as a symptom of clinical depression, I would hope that the Locum would ask her to return in a fortnight to see the regular GP. Cracks to fall though etc.

There'll never be a lovelier coin than the threepeny bit. And never lovelier ice creams than the ones I raced to buy with them as the van turned into our street.

(Narrowly, narrowly missed being run over by a car once in my excitement. My father's face as he scooped me up ...)

The threepenny bit was indeed a lovely coin, especially the one with the thrift plant on the reverse.
Three- and six-penny coins were relatively small denominations so you could amass stacks of them and then pretend-play with your hoards of pirate gold and silver.

3/6 used to be the cost of the paperback books I saved up to spend my pocket-money on (bookworm childhood here), then it morphed into the less glamorous-sounding 17.5p. My cousin worked in a bank and got us one of those sets of ‘the new money’ in a little plastic presentation case, which you could take into school for extra showing off.

I used to like getting those Victorian pennies in change too

I cannot believe after 11 years' Mnettery and 25 years' TAery I've only just discovered this thread!

Have two things to contribute at this stage: 1) I think Philip is only mid-40s as it was mentioned ages ago (when he got together with Kirsty I think), and I remember thinking "Harumph that's not that old!"

2. I am under 50 and remember using shillings for 10p and half shillings for 5p. According to the internet they were only taken out of circulation in 1990

Only 25 years' TAery, eh? We'll put you in the newbies corner.

Only joking. Welcome to our merry band.

25 years' TAery, eh? We'll put you in the newbies corner.

Only joking. Welcome to our merry band.

Seconded!

There'll never be a lovelier coin than the threepeny bit. the silver ones were sweet. But my favourites were the farthings with wrens on them.

I've got an 1848 four penny bit - I'd forgotten that. And an Edward VII gold sovereign.

Coins are the reason I've never had any difficulty in remembering the reigns of kings and queens from Victoria onwards.

Thanks R4 and QaterMiss for the welcome. We all know that the newbies' corner is exactly where I'd be after 25 years in Ambridge!

Hmm *squints at Zinnia.....

We are divided on some of the characters but your thoughts on Pip will tell us if you are one of us.....

My DF used to organise the Christian Aid collections in our area, and I enjoyed being tasked with counting the money, not least because of the odd coins which would turn up - farthings and ha'pennies long after they ceased to be legal tender, and the odd foreign coin. He also had a pouch full of miscellaneous foreign coins accumulated during his travels in WWII, mostly in the Middle East/Egypt - exotic Arabic script and many had holes in them. My favourite was a random Italian coin with a bee on it.

Surely Jim will be a life model??

Loving the chat about pre-decimal coins. The excitement of being given a 2/- coin (florin or two bob, now 10p) when a favourite uncle visited, or, if he was feeling flush, a half crown (2/6, 12.5p).
My mum worked part time in the local newsagents - she brought home a bag of the new money before the big changeover day so we could practice with it! So complicated having both old and new currency in use - I think you could only spend the old in multiples of sixpence (2.5p). Did wonders for our arithmetic!

Back to TA - I do hate it when the characters feel like plot devices instead of people and that’s how I feel about Kirsty atm.

@MrsArthurShappey Fear not I have read enough of this thread to feel right at home vis a vis Pip!

What I don't get is why she's presented as a character we're supposed to like, and yet is so very very annoying. Do the SWs not realise how self-absorbed they have made her? She's so going to end up with poor lovelorn Rex, for whom I rather hoped for better at one time.

Isn't Shula 59? I think Philip is in his 50s and Kirsty about 36.

I asked Keri Davies on twitter once if we were supposed to like Pip and he shrugged and said 'we just write her'. It reminded me of Jessica Rabbit's 'I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way'.