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.)

WRT Roy and Kirsty it was about 3 years ago.

So that was an anti climatic visit to court. I could have done without Adam’s “advice” to Brian on the way in though, he was even more irritating than normal. Even the paint throwing felt like a bit of a scene filler.

They’re usually very vague about numbers so hearing the size of the fine and Brian’s jacket size both seemed unusual.,

Yes but I had to laugh at Brian's outrage about the new jacket only having a single button on the sleeve at such a pivotal moment in his life!

“A single button!” could be the new way to express outrage.

I too loved ‘but it’s only got one button’ - maybe even worth a BOOP

Am shocked that the Threadfather has admitted to missing some episodes. My world is shook!

If we want a passionate affair for kirsty, then Roy is not the answer. Please dont let them do that to kirsty.

Have Pip and Toby never heard of diaries? kitchen calendars? Having a 'but you said!..but I've got work!" exchange is so typical of this slack, immature pair. And why is Pip having a strop about household chores when they don't live together?

Found the hearing and fine a bit anticlimatic (and yes, what is going on at Home Farm?) - and why is Kenton being such an arse about the 'community event'? Surely Brian would have said, "Whatever I might have said, given the scenes this morning, I think discretion the better part of valour right now, old boy, and I'll be keeping my head well down."

Think I fell asleep worrying about how to distinguish Kirsty/Roy from Fallon/Harrison ...

Because generally it doesn't make sense to create relationships between two people who have no current connection to an Archer. Fallon's step-daughter to one - so it's just about ok. But Kenton is very much present in the village. Roy is father to one - but I imagine Phoebe will become less and less present if she forges a 'successful' career somewhere else.

Dunno. They have backed themselves into a corner by situating Kirsty in a domestic relationship with Roy - while all the while trying to show that they're not 'involved'.

Frankly they both need to move on - the SWs have more than run out of reasonable stories for either/both of them.

(Yesterday I remembered nauticant's 'single, cross-platform Roy' and it's still one of the funniest things I've ever read.)

Loved the irony of Kenton reminding Brian about his promises with regard to money commitments!

Oh, was it one button on the sleeve? I was thinking of only one button on the front, which I agreed with Brian would probably be hideous.

I didn't like the reference to the chest size, I'd imagined Brian being much smaller than that.

@Cromercrab, the problem is that Toby is a semi-cocklodger; he doesn't technically live there but it's been made clear in the past (most notably when Pip was speaking to Rex) that he's hanging around for the free food, washing, and Netflix. In those circumstances, I think she's rightly pissed off that he's not even clearing up after himself.

Oh not sure now Fink I may have sleeve/jacket front confused! Will listen back when I get a moment!

Tbh I always imagined Brian as a rather sturdy (running to stout) gentlemen farmer type dressed in tweeds!

And agree with pp down thread about Roy not being the passionate type. More of a cup of tea and a current bun I would have thought.

I took the one button to be referring to the front, that's where Brian's snobbish eye would go. Like this although I wonder if they have Brian's size....
m.topman.com/en/tmuk/product/suits-1950628/mens-suit-jackets-4182061/grey-check-skinny-blazer-8353444

Did I mishear or did the SWs really invent a shop called Top Bloke.

Since when did judges or court clerks ask the prosecution to "outline the aggravating circumstances"? They just ask them to give the facts.

Isn't Pip supposed to be on maternity leave? It's difficult to believe that top dressing had to happen at that moment and no other. Is she getting ratty at the prospect of losing her grandmaternal babysitter?

Yep, DDD, Top Bloke it was. I thought that was great!

Re Toby and Pip's childcare arrangements, I think the problem is they don't have a proper arrangement. They are not married/partners, but Toby is not living independently of Pip so they have not organised a proper access rota. This ad hoc arrangement would be fine if they had proper childcare in place, but as each is relying on the other (or some other random relative) it is hardly surprising it is not very satisfactory.
Re. Kirsty and Philip - I still think she and Tom will end up together (which links to Quater's idea that random characters need to be attached to one of the key families if they are to survive). It's a long term storyline, but Tom and Natasha are doomed, Kirsty and Phil are not a promising partnership despite their names, Kirsty's environmentalism sits well with the Bridge Farm brand -she rescued Helen and Tom is the only person who truly understands her miscarriage heartache (if things had gone differently she and Tom would have been playing out the Pip and Toby scenario).

Re. Brian's fine - despite the gasps from people in Ambridge, it seems quite small to me considering it prompted the sale of Home Farm. Surely it's even more ridiculous now that they didn't just sell a plot of land (and where is Kate - Spiritual Home must have ceased to exist by now?)

I'm not great on men's clothes sizes, but a 46'' chest seems huge, it's an XL I think. I imagined Brian as quite tall (probably around 6' 2'') and solidly built but definitely not overweight. Maybe that would be a 44'' chest (as Adam said 46'' to be on the safe side), I don't know.

@LillianGish yes where is Kate!

Wasn't the sale of Home Farm to pay for the clean up, not the fine? I thought the fine was just something 'extra' they hadn't budgeted a lot for (given it was more than they were expecting), but the main cost was the ££££ in clean up.

Good point Fink. I thought Brian would have been more relieved he didn't go to prison - judging by the crowd outside the court I think there would have been a lot of people who would have liked to see that happen.

LOL @ Brine imagining that he'd be handed a jacket that's up to his usual sartorial standards. I can't quite see him as someone who has a tailor (although who knows) but I expect he frequents 'gentlemen's outfitters' rather than Top Bloke

Re Pip and Toby and childcare arrangements....I have long thought (and mentioned on here) that they don't appear to have any sort of physical or even virtual diary but instead rely, disastrously, on 'but you SAID you'd look after her on X day' arrangements......which are doomed to fail. And yet they just carry on doing it.

I wonder again: is Pip actually on official maternity leave? Were we ever told?

Oh I loved the 'but it's only got one button' - classic Brian, it's still all about appearances.

I think sprouting is right, Kenton wanging on about Brian's promise to the community was supposed to be ironic/hypocritical.

I thought Adam acknowledged that a 46 wasn’t the right size but was all available in the right colour to match the trousers.
The bbc never use real brands if they can avoid it as that would be advertising- hence referring to ‘social media’ rather than FB or whatever.

5000FingersofDrT, I don't think such arrangements are universally doomed to fail, only that it's clearly not working out in this particular case (Toby is flaky, Pip is ... I don't know). It's how me and ex-h have done things for the past 8 years (i.e. no shared diary) and there's very rarely been a confusion and never an insurmountable problem. We both just remember what we've agreed to and stick to it, by and large. If one of us can't remember, we ask the other one.

cheminotte Adam didn't say 46'' was definitely wrong but matched the trousers, he said he'd got 46'' 'to be safe', which I think means he wasn't sure whether Brian would be a 44'' or 46'' so got a 46'' just in case. The talk about matching trousers was a separate sentence.