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.)

Just to point out that there is no way Toby owns pyjamas. Let alone sufficient pairs to be able to pop back to Bert’s to get a clean pair. But perhaps this was signposting that he’ll be allowed to sleep in Pip’s bed but nothing else will be permitted.

Also I thought Leonard sounded like Alan the vicar. And that David came across as thick and boorish. Did he really have nothing to say about the history of his own farmhouse? Could he not have asked Leonard if he managed to get over to Singapore and what he thought of the place? If it’s not farming-related David clearly has nil conversation and he’s criticising Leonard who goes dancing, enjoys history and paints of being dull essentially.

Jill would have known more about the history of the house than David, and surely Leonard could have asked something about farming?

The whole thing was very weird.

Yes but David’s attempts at social chat were lamentable. He could have asked questions about the information Leonard gave but just dried up. When Leonard asked a polite question about the house David started on what was clearly going to be a litany of Farming through the Ages of the Archers
then started going on about his Dad.

BOOP for the history of Brookfield. The house was nothing like that old in my head. It now sounds like a fanastic home! I wish I lived there. Preferably with Jill to cook and clean for me.

Please, what does BOOP mean in this context?

It clearly didn't mean what I think it means, a small pat on the nose or head 😂

@Areeza Never mind, we've all done it!

Congratulations on your first post. If you hit the report button you can ask MNHQ to move it for you

Sorry, Chakira. A BOOP on this thread means something good about The Archers. It stands for BitOutofPractice, the username of the poster who brought to our attention that there was a lot of negativity regarding the show, and so when we want to say something positive, we give it a BOOP [point].

From 2015

... Possibly on New Year's Day or thereabouts a poster whose name could be abbreviated as BOOP complained (justifiably) that the threads were becoming increasingly negative about the show - and therefore less fun to follow and post on.

So, some exceptionally bright spark (...) proposed the challenge of adding a BOOP point - mentioning something positive on each day they posted. Others took it up too. It's fallen off a bit now but things do still get BOOPED. Like the Hell/Rob story.

I'm too slow!

😁 not at all, I needed both your posts to get my head around it, so thank you!

I enjoyed last night's episode.
Firstly for Leonard who sounds very like my MIL's own gentleman friend (right down to the physical description and always wearing a shirt and tie); my MIL is of similar age to Jill.
And for the scene between Toby and Rex when Toby is getting his PJ's - have the writers of Peep Show joined RA writing team?

TA not RA

have the writers of Peep Show joined TA writing team?

😂😂😂😂😂 that's exactly what it sounds like!

If Toby wears pyjamas, (which is feasible in old rural houses in recent weather) - I imagine they're as poor state as his hole-y underwear was previously reported to be. I do wonder what he has going for him.

I try not to imagine it. I have a very visual imagination, which is a curse at times...

I live in an old rural house.

My DS, who is younger than Toby but shares much of his approach to life, never wears PJs.

If it's really cold he sleeps in a pair of old track suit trousers. Which I believe are nowadays known as 'joggers'. Otherwise normally just pants.

I think what Toby has going for him, mainly, is that he is one of very few single men of Pip's age in the area to whom she is not related, especially important now that she's nearing the age limit for Young Farmers (I checked - she'll be 26 in a couple of weeks, YF is for up to 26 🐜🐛🐞) and doesn't appear to have any other social life outside of Ambridge, even her Felpersham friends seem to have dried up.

She has been (reasonably subtly) portrayed as highly sexed, and so I would guess she considers Toby Fairbrother to be her Hobson's choice of sexual partner.

I should qualify my preceding post by adding "in bed". Obvs.

choccyp1g, Paul Copley isn't Tom Wrigglesworth's dad in real life as far as I'm aware, just plays that part in a R4 comedy series. Very understandable you should conclude otherwise, given the huge amount of nepotism in recent casting decisions, though!

David came across as half witted and quite unpleasant.

Why the big surprise that Leonard was wearing a jacket and tie?

I thought David was funny and would give last night's episode a BOOP just for that! (But then I am a huge fan of Tim Bentinck and it is highly possible that the two are forever conflated in my mind!)

Especially given that Jill asked David if he was going to change his clothes, which should have been some indication that she was expecting him to be slightly better dressed.

David's surprise that Leonard was nothing like his dad really was half-witted. Does his mind run something like 'Mum and Dad were very happily married for x years, ergo the only man who could be pleasing to my mum must be my dad or someone exactly like him.'?! Someone call the logic police.

I think David was so embarrased by his mum having a new man, especially as Leonard is younger than Jill IIRC, that what few conversational skills deserted him.

*what few conversational skills he has

Leonard sounded a bit creepy and suspect to me. Son a financial expert based in S'pore. Immediate questions about the house - is he over-interested in Jill's potential financial assets?

I thought the questions about the house were a bit odd.

Perhaps he's already snapped up Home Farm.