Thread 98 - Discuss The Archers here! If you don’t give a ha’porthfor Pip come and add your two penn’orth - we do enjoy a bit of change counting (especially if it’s in old money)

[Bittermints]

Many thanks to @LilianGish for the title (again - she has real gift for this!). Further thanks due to @PseudoBadger for kicking off 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. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to be Susan's best friend or other odd unusual views.

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!

(Change counting references arose specifically out of a nostalgic discussion on the previous thread, if anyone is intrigued.)

Can Brian plead Not Guilty to force the prosecution to reveal their case and then change it to Guilty (on the steps of the court, if we want some drama) if it looks too watertight? And still get the discount?

He can change his plea at any time but the fact he chose to go to trial , when he could have pled guilty at an earlier stage, will be taken into account when setting the sentence

It's an MN cliché but was anyone else hearing the world's tiniest violin playing when Lexi, Adam and Ian were moaning about being the subject of village gossip?

So - at the moment Lexi has a part time (?) job at Grey Gables (forgotten what she does) and another part time job at the canning (?) factory? And is, essentially, without a home of her own, staying with Adam and Ian as their guest.

But she's planning on returning to her home, in Europe, soon - where she will presumably have to find a job until she goes into labour? Or does financial support from Adam and Ian kick in at the start, or at some specific point during her pregnancy? Will her trip home and living expenses there be paid for by them? Who's currently responsible for the financial upkeep of her teenage daughters?

What is the agreed period of maternity leave for which Adam and Ian will pay? What is the exact date on which the baby is to be handed over?

What? Where? Who? How? When?

Seriously - why?

Unbelievably ridiculously complicated story ...

I heard it, Marguerita! Personally I think surrogacy is a beautiful thing- but what were they expecting?!! They live in Ambridge ffs - they must know how it works! Poor Roy. He’d be feeling bad enough about it anyway.

I find Helen on dates really odd. It’s like she’s been beamed from outer space. There’s nothing natural about her. And she may be good looking but blimey she’s dull! Sorry...as you were

Lee's life experience of something going badly wrong involves farting. Helen's life experience of something going badly wrong involves stabbing her husband, and spending time in jail on remand.

Imagine Rob taking Helen out for a relaxed dinner, and telling a story at his own expense about a date that went wrong to put her at her ease....

Ref. Helen , I reckon she gets off on secrecy, remember when she pretended to be going to pottery classes or something when she was dating Rob. ? Pat was doing the babysitting for Henry and believed her.

Also mothers\parents and children often find it difficult, if not impossible, to confide about sexual matters even, especially, if they live together as adults.

You may be right. Before Rob there was Greg who Helen initially saw in secret.

Is there a mother anywhere in Ambridge who is not supported by her parents? I winced when Helen was declining alcohol as she had the boys to manage in the morning, yet her manner towards Pat saying she'd put them to bed so Helen could go out with Lee was almost one of surprise and irritation as though she'd expected pat to do that but didn't feel pat should have felt she had to mention it, if that makes sense.

I reckon she gets off on secrecy ...

That is so interesting! We all probably know people like that in real life, (some of us need only glance in the mirror,) but it's a strange and obscure thing for SWs to foster in a fictional character over decades. I wonder if they actually had a meeting, at the time of her (creative) conception, where the writing of this trait was agreed on 'going forward'.

Because that business with the jewellery making/bracelet for Pat a few years ago was weird.

And, of course, a habit of secrecy made her all the more vulnerable to Rob.

Yes, it's part of her personality.

Rob was married though wasn't he. Most people in relationships with married man don't tell their mothers

I think the need for secrecy fits with her eating disorder, she has needs to control aspects of her life.

At first Helen's secrecy and whole attitude to Pat really annoyed me right up until I realised I would be exactly the same. In some areas I'm a chronic over sharer but with many things I'm a secret squirrel, ESPECIALLY with relationships and parents, but with lots of things and people. My late grandma was too. I don't think I'm that weird though.

Pat had a severe depressive episode after John died. I wonder if during that time it became second nature to Helen to hide things from her parents because she felt they had enough to deal with.

Gosh, we really do need an overinvested emoticon, don't we!

Brilliant idea Bittermints!

Who's going to ask MNHQ?

On the other hand, the scriptwriters may have forgotten all about Rob, in the same way as they forget about all major illnesses, and financial problems - except for the Grundys.

Well, MNHQ, have us the Archers smiley to mark 50,000 posts, so maybe we can persuade them to honour reaching our 100th thread soon or the 100,000th post later in the year with another smiley.

What would an [overinvested] icon look like, I wonder? (gets overinvested in pondering this for the next few days).

Well it should feature a vest at the very least - perhaps a string vest with a to the power of three (or more?) sign. I should add I haven’t the faintest idea how such an emoji could be created.

Nah ...

Some sort of bug.

🐜 🐜 🐜

(Eating all the crops.)

our 100th thread soon or the 100,000th post later in the year

We should totally have an over invested emoticon!

I love that Quater. How did you do it? The beauty of that is that you can have as many as you want depending on your level of over-infestation.