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.

ooh! Do you think Lee knows???

How old is Lee?

Why does Helen have to be so furtive about things all the time and come out with stupid lies.

I don't think we know how old Lee is. I'm assuming a similar age to Helen, since age wasn't remarked upon when she talked to Kirsty.

Lexi wouldn't be on a one way ticket, would she? Once the baby's been born and adopted by Adam and Ian, isn't her plan to return to Bulgaria, hence the end of her relationship with Roy?

Ben's idea sounded great. Shame for us that he plans to get out of Ambridge at the earliest opportunity.

Some of you will also remember maths lessons in the run up to decimalisation.

Oh, do I ever, I was doing teaching practice about then.
In a Primary school where I did some supply years later there was a whole school topic around living in wartime and I taught my 9 years old £-s-d, yd-ft-ins, st-lbs-oz, they were remarkably good, obviously I had to give them the conversions. A number of them said they were surprised that their parents and grand-parents did these easily!

A number of them said they were surprised that their parents and grand-parents did these easily!
When I started work computers and calculators were relatively new so there was still a lot of mental maths. We used to get stories from trainees a few years ahead of us: if things were quiet then, as busywork, they were told to practise their sums by adding up the list of (seven-digit!) numbers in a page of the phone book. (remember phone books? )
Calculators make you very lazy; I occasionally find myself automatically, mindlessly reaching for the calculator to work out difficult things like 15+5 or 20x10.

I worked in bars where you added up the running total of a drinks order mentally as you poured each drink. I'm sure I'm not the only one on here.

Isn't Brian going to have to explain how come he meekly paid up hundreds of thousands of pounds for the contamination clean-up if he thought he wasn't responsible?

Who else was going to pay for it? It was on his land and it had to be cleaned. The principle is the polluter pays; which is fine if the polluter is easily identified and has assets. Failing that, it is the owner's duty to clean it up.

The lying over the secret date/walk to Ruth was ridiculous. Why? They're not having an affair and there's no reason why they shouldn't date. Lee not bring remotely equipped for a wet country walk annoyed me!

Lee not bring remotely equipped for a wet country walk annoyed me!

Me too. I can't believe a fit and sporty man with children wouldn't have dragged them out on country walks. If he really didn't have any gear, I would have expected him to go the other way and have brand new, top end of the market walking boots, coat, hat, etc and be over-dressed rather than underdressed.

I can understand that Helen isn'the ready to be the talk of the village, though, and after Rob (and the rest of her romantic history,) any new love interest will be a strong magnet for Susan.

White trainers?!! What a plonker!

So we’re expected to be charmed by a 40 year old man incapable of dressing himself appropriately for a country walk. Sod that for a game of soldiers.

'Sod that for a game of soldiers one of my favourite sayings Bertrand
Are Lee and Helen compatible?

Mine too, comfortablylow!

I am so irritated by all the Archers 35/40 year old men behaving like teenagers. Tom, Roy, Toby, Lee, Jazzer....... Chris used to behave like a grown up, but has been recently rewritten as a Neanderthal.

"Old MacDavid had a farm" made me guffaw, to the annoyance of the cat sharing my bed last night. Really enjoying Ben - with this and his absolutely spot-on interactions with Ruth.

Bertrand you missed Kenton off the list. While he is out of your nominated age group he is surely the Ghost of the Future to the likes of Tom (who I do want to call TomTit but that probably is not allowed, I guess).

Oh yes, Kenton. The thing about Kenton is that he is a stock character. Every soap needs a Kenton. The trouble is the number of sub-Kentons.......

Really love the title suggestion coined by Lil'G - only wish there was a way of marrying it to "Love sucks" ...

Me too Marguerita . My interview for a barmaid job in the mid 90s was basically a test of my mental arithmetic.

@BertrandRussell yes to this! The men are really not representing

Definitely agree about Kenton, and of course Jazzer

Every soap does need a Jazzer and a Kenton but even when they've introduced a new male character/love interest they have to yet again make him a bit silly.

Can understand that they are trying for new love giddiness but you'd think Lee would be able to play it a bit cooler with their love and life experience. He must be pushing 40

Oh my god I've just realized who Lee reminds me of, Tom!

That is too weird !

Never mind the white trainers - can’t believe noone’s mentioned the “worst Romcom cliché of all - winning the love of your life by pretending you’re not who you are...” Hit us with a sledgehammer why don’t you?