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.

OK so can you tell me what my thoughts on Pip should be
Your own thoughts, of course.

and as the threads were fully threaded yeah- I really miss usenet. There'd be threads that had gone on for hundreds if not thousands of posts, and since they were all threaded, everyone read every post of the bit of the thread they were interested in, and you got sensible conversations, not lots of trivial repetitions from people who hadn't read the thread.

I was an urgler (amongst other things)

Think what you like about Pip. I don't hate her as much as most people on here, I feel fairly neutral towards her most of the time. She's one of the duller characters but otherwise unexceptional. And I've never felt out of place or unwanted on the thread.

What's an urgler, I can't help but ask?

Hornets I think it would be really interesting if you could offer a new perspective on her. To be honest I think a lot of the hate on here stems from the fact that she has been so poorly acted for all her life. That's certainly what irritates me. I only have to hear her voice and it sets my teeth on edge. I don't have to like someone as a person to love their character iyswim, but I do like to believe in them so they need to sound convincing. David and Ruth treat Pip like the new Messiah (the Pope of farming as someone memorably put it on this thread), but we don't really see any evidence of her brilliance. I rather fear Rosie is destined to follow in her footsteps - apparently she already knows all about eggs and chickens so she is seemingly well on her way.
Quater I love those links.

Alice and Brian seemed to be competing with each other in the stupidity stakes in Friday's episode. It was utterly ridiculous for Alice to tell her employers that they could test the robot on Adam's strawberries without asking him first, let alone to announce it on the radio; but it was even more ridiculous of her to decide that he made a major decision about the future of the farm purely to spite her - or indeed the he should pay out tens of thousands of pounds on a losing crop to help her save face.

Brian's decision to plead not guilty is equally ludicrous. He can't claim that he didn't cause the contamination when he's admitted it all over the place, so does he really imagine the jury will be full of yokels whom he can charm into finding him not guilty? It would serve him right if it's full of Kirsty clones. I hope Jenny will tell him she's just not prepared to agree to him spending thousands of pounds on a hopeless defence which will only end up with him being fined tens of thousands more.

I've resisted the temptation so far - but this is just too good:

1977
Shula danced with Alf Grundy at a Young Conservative hop and Joe gave her a French cookery book that had belonged to his wife Susan. He told Jill that he would welcome Shula as a daughter-in-law.

I feel cheated.

I like @LillianGish's title.

No way Susan thinks Roy is the father. As she said herself she's been pregnant. Presumably she's familiar with the timescale. Roy's been moping for AGES. Well before Christmas. If was his Lexi would be three or four months on, no?

Surely the cessation of strawberries would be a big meeting? It affects so many of the others. No caravans to clean, no pickers party for Kate and Alice to get sloshed at, no extra holiday cash for Phoebe.

Wasn't Lexi's plan that when she was pregnant, she would spend the bulk of the pregnancy in Bulgaria with her daughters? How is that going to work, given that Brexit will happen in the middle of her pregnancy? I thought it was significant that Alice reminded us that Adam voted Leave.

Alec I feel you may be a bit muddled, Susan , mum of Emma and gossip who works in the village shop and P.O. was conjecturing that Lexi was pregnant, due to her changed shopping habit.

She knows nothing of the surrogacy.

SilveryPuss - Intriguing umrat revelations!

From the chronology:

1983/00/00 Ken and Mary Pound retire from Ambridge Farm.

1983/00/00 Ken Pound dies and leaves his stuffed vampire bat to Mike Tucker. His dying wish was that Joe Grundy and Mike Tucker should become good neighbours and Ken's wife, Mary, organised the shaking of the hands after the funeral. Mary left Ambridge to live in a bungalow in Edgeley.

Ken Pound dies and leaves his stuffed vampire bat to Mike Tucker. His dying wish was that Joe Grundy and Mike Tucker should become good neighbours and Ken's wife, Mary, organised the shaking of the hands after the funeral. Mary left Ambridge to live in a bungalow in Edgeley.

Wow. I was listening in 1983, I can't understand how this gripping storyline passed me by.

Joe definitely has a wiry, maybe even scrawny physique.

Brian I am sure has a generous belly.

I always think of Joe as quite solid.

So how many Umrats, past or present, have migrated here, or post in both places? I have always assumed there were a large number of Mustardlanders on these MN threads, but until Caffeine mentioned it a few months ago, I hadn't considered there might be other Umrats on MN, though why the two should be mutually exclusive for everyone except me, I don't know!

Reverting to an earlier discussion, when I was small, we still talked about guineas, we certainly used them in arithmetic and I think prices were also in guineas. I loved thrupenny bits but never saved a guinea's worth!

Mightn't Radio Carter know about the surrogacy from Chris and Alice?

What's an urgler, I can't help but ask? uk.rec.gardening. We talked about all sorts (in the same way as gardeners chatting over the fence) and had urgmeets where one urgler would throw their garden open and other urglers would come from hundreds of miles away bringing food, and plants to swap. Then there were the shedmoots of uk.rec.sheds, and other meets with other groups I was involved with - I have so many good friends made in those days, people I'd have never have met otherwise. You'd never dare to invite strangers into your home in that way nowadays!

I just need to say (probably not for the first time) that David is a complete nutter. Every time he's in any scene I get the distinct impression that he will kill again

He is so highly strung he needs daily sedating! He is constantly on the war path and when he's doing 'Happy David' he just seems so smug and self satisfied, he actually is starting to remind me of Rob!

And why do they need money? I thought they were left over a million pounds by Ruth's mother?

Merdede Yes one would think that Alice at least would know about the surrogacy, (and be sworn to secrecy) which she has broken in her impulsive fashion, but obviously not.

I thought it was about £300k? I think they’ve spent a fair bit in sorting out the farm, new cows etc.

Otherwise it’s obviously time to resurrect the feckless Kenton storyline.

Was it a million. Where did Heather get that kind of money from.

So much to unpick after listening to the film.....

I was so irritated by Pip's entitlement that I was forced to look up Lowfield to confirm my memory of her chat with Ruth in the early days of the pregnancy.

16 Feb 2018: Ruth suddenly lets rip. For years now the milking is going to be down to Ruth and David. Pip doesnt understand why she can't do the same as her mother. Ruth says she wasn't some sort of shining example...Pip will be almost on her own. They won't be around for night feeds and while Toby will do his best most of the time she will be on her own and the farming will be down to Ruth and David. Pip sounds a little deflated.

What seems to have happened is that everyone on this busy working farm - Ruth, David, Jill, Josh, Ben - and additionally of course Toby (who also has a job and life, although I accept he's an arse) and Rex have been expected to provide childcare (and of course adoration of Ye Magyckal Babe 2.0) whenever Pip requires it. Should they refuse, she goes into strop mode. *

Has it ever been spelt out whether she's officially on maternity leave?

• I think I've disguised it pretty well, but you may just possibly have spotted that I'm not a Pip fan

expected to provide childcare (and of course adoration of Ye Magyckal Babe 2.0) whenever [single mum] requires it. Should they refuse, she goes into strop mode.

TA does feel like they are recycling a lot of old storylines at the moment. I accept the Tolstoy proposition that "happy families are all alike" but the SW seem to have missed the corollary that "every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way". Having said that, I suppose that it is better than the days of SOC when some of the SL were merely plagiarism an homage to the classics.

I don’t like Pip-but I haven’t heard her stropping about childcare. She was justifiably pissed off with Toby, but when else?

Don't forget, Ruth was the only child of Solly Pritchard, Prudhoe Toilet Roll magnate, so she could have reams of inheritance.