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.)

[LillianGish]

Thanks DDD - I love those stats and they are all the more fascinating to me because I haven’t got a clue how you do it (and so quickly after my initial query). Well done, much appreciated. Re. Tim Oatey (can’t hear his name without thinking of Timotei shampoo) I don’t think Ed will be scammed (as a pp said the SW have done that already with Christine) I think may be persuaded to do something illegal - love Ed and what Emmur said about hard graft was spot on, but he is not the sharpest tool in the box. I want to tell him that if it looks too good to be true then it probably is. Otherwise is it possible that Tim is a sheep rustler who is after Ed’s prize Texel?

[R4]

Oh, was it HWMNBN? Apols. But the point still stands that they have done the 'getting caught up in dodgy dealings and cannot escape the quagmire' storyline recently.

[QuaterMiss]

I'd be surprised if some illegality isn't coming ...

Going back to the chronology I linked on the last thread, (which I devoured in its entirety that weekend ) I was very struck with the uncountable number of thefts, break-ins and burglaries that occurred in Ambridge over the period covered. And how the villagers rallied round to help the victim out. It's even more surprising than the unfathomable inheritance luck that Ambridge residents have. Why has no random associate ever left me a nice patch of land?

[5000FingersofDrT]

I'm just popping back to skew the stats say that I guffawed out loud at Waitrosenkavalier's username. Genius.

Nothing else to add on things Archers-related at the moment except to agree that Oatey-Boy is a wrong-un.

[Comfortablylow]

That chronology was really good, I couldn't stop reading all in one go and was greedily looking for more 1995 onwards. I started listening to TA again in the early 2000's when my kiddies were small. No luck tho unless anyone can kindly link something similar?

[LiveCCTV]

Thank you for the new thread and all those stats DDD. As a relative newcomer I’ll try to do more to contribute and not just lurk.

Clearly Ed is on the path to trying to get more money for the deposit, and of course Tim Oatey / Tim O’Tea (weird name!) will be his downfall - Ed’s mentioned that Tim’s work is all good legit stuff at GG and the golf club so he trusts him. Now he’s been paid for work he didn’t complete he owes TimO.T. a favour ... poor Emmur, she’s never going to get her house is she.

[JessieMcJessie]

Ha ha Tim Oaty - Timotei! Of course. I loved that stuff as a blonde teenager.

[ppeatfruit]

Thanks for the shiny new thread bitter and all.

I enjoyed the statnips . Iam also neutral about Pip Chakira But I like Susan

[Comfortablylow]

Yes Oatey not Oakley, I was mixing him up with Gabriel Oak - a different countryman altogether.

[QuaterMiss]

That sort of talk will bring back SOC, Comfortablylow ...



(Oh, the nostalgia for those days ...)

[R4]

(Oh, the nostalgia for those days ...)
Did you seriously say that!? I hope that there was some tongue-in-cheek there.

[ppeatfruit]

But we know that Oliver is solid why would he recommend someone dodgy to Ed? No I reckon we're seeing the descent of the Aldriges and the ascent of the Grundies. YAY

[QuaterMiss]

Well ... It was fun when we were all trying to discern exactly which Eliot/Hardy/Waugh narrative he was trying to feed us! (I re-read all sorts of forgotten stuff as a consequence.) And all the portents. Helen & Kirsty and the roadkill during the wedding dresses business ...

I miss it in the way I miss Steven Moffat and the story arcs in Dr Who. The ambition was awesome, execution - least said, soonest mended.

[DadDadDad]

Sorry, I may have set hares running with my financial scam suggestion for Ed & Tim - it was more just a throwaway illustration of that ominous feeling that Something Bad is Going to Happen, especially as yesterday's episode started with E&E discussing their finances and their hard-working, responsible approach to making it work.

Maybe a more likely scenario is Ed getting roped by Tim into some early morning shifting of goods which turn out to be stolen.

Anyway, on another topic. Susan appears to have a well-tuned pregnancy radar - lucky guess or is it genuinely possible to intuit these things? Real life examples?

[R4]

An interesting parallel. It's fine to have flights of fancy when that is the whole point of your programme (Dr Who). It seems a bit indulgent to play 'spot the Victorian plot' when the whole point of the programme is supposed to be an 'everyday story of country folk' and you are missing out whole chunks of modern relevance like Benefits.

[QuaterMiss]

It wasn't just you, DDD - several pps have been suspicious since Tim was first introduced.

Fair point R4. (Though I guess SOC was tapping into the idea of 'the land' as a realm that transcends ...

...
...

I really need to get on with some work!)

[R4]

or is it genuinely possible to intuit these things?
It's not intuition, it's spotting signals. If you've been through it yourself and have a DD who has sprogged, then your antennae will be fine-tuned. There is the added stimulus of wondering why on earth Lexi has made the effort to come back to the UK just to dump Roy - it doesn't make sense to the outsider.

[DadDadDad]

Susan also spoke about Lexi's figure "thickening" - is that her imagination or is noticeable at such an early stage?

[Bittermints]

Yes, it can be, especially on a second or later pregnancy. Depends on the woman's build to some extent.

[Bittermints]

Although on reflection Lexi can be little more than six weeks pregnant at present so that is extremely early for any visible changes to the figure. That part may just be Susan's vivid imagination.

[JessieMcJessie]

I think Lexi’s figure “thickening” is more likely to be due to her having been living with a chef for the last 6 weeks or so!
Baby at this stage is the size of a poppy seed, it’s not going to thicken anything.

[R4]

That part may just be Susan's vivid imagination.
Agreed.
It was the decaff coffee wot got the spidey senses tingling but Susan is now inventing facts to fit the theory.

[ppeatfruit]

Yes but Lexi is more of a country person than Lee so will no doubt be wearing a sensibl ecosy padded jacket\coat which would be very unlikely to show any 'thickening' of her figure, she's less than 6 weeks.

The only flight of fancy is in the S.W's mind IMO

[ppeatfruit]

Sorry for the typo

[stilllearnin]

Honestly I think Ed will show how far he’s come by spotting any Tim O’tei scam mile off.

The ill clothed Lee thing was pathetic. He may be younger but not 6 years old!

And I’ll say it again the life model will definitely turn out to be Jim (hasn’t happened yet). It’s perfect because it’s Shula’s ex fil and Jim will be insistent that it’s all in the name of education and proper art.