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.)

sorry if this has already been discussed, but what are the legalities around surrogacy and has the Archers reflected them accurately?
My understanding is that the baby would be Lexi's and Ian's (if she chose to put him on the certificate) ....and that Adam would have to adopt? In which case shouldn't they be starting that process now, adoption very lengthy and intrusive...I knew someone whose husband adopted her children and they had to interview grandparents (including parents of the absent birth father) etc etc
so maybe not as straightforward as Jenny is making out?

The baby is biologically Adam's and a donor's.

oh, Adam's, didn't realise- but still, the same situation would apply re adoption?

Swearing is generally just a bit boring, isn't it?

What I love is people who get creative so they won't actually swear and offend others.

"Oh, for crying in the beer!" instead of "for 's sake!" and "crotfaced crumblebum" instead of "c*", and other such things.

My friend called me a common polypody, which just means "an ordinary fern" but sounds like a five-star cuss...

It all makes for a more interesting life.

I can think of about four times someone has sworn on The Archers, and one of those is when Eddie told Kathy that her old man was shagging Jolene Rogers, which hardly even counts as swearing these days, does it?

I’m certainly not missing Hannah at the moment.

What girl was William talking to when he was making Poppy's sandwich? I don't recognise her voice

Nic's daughter from a previous relationship, Mia. So Poppy's half sister.

Why would you remind us of her cheminotte?! I had temporarily forgotten she existed!

Mia.

Mia was brilliant! But, poor thing, obviously weighed down with domestic duties and mothering Poppy and Will.

Nice compare and contrast today with Mia and Elizabeth both being brave.

Hopefully Emma will notice that Mia is becoming too much a child carer. Presumably she is refusing the theme park because she needs to stock up on pickle and do the laundry or suchlike. I've lost track of how old she's meant to be.

So, what - Alice has another day off because her dad's in court??

What's wrong with that? I'd have probably booked a day's leave in those circumstances, if I wanted to support my parent.

Presumably she is refusing the theme park because she needs to stock up on pickle and do the laundry or suchlike. I've lost track of how old she's meant to be.

Maybe she doesn't like theme parks. I've always refused to go to such things, eben at that age. Though probably you're right, ot''s really because she thinks she should be skiving.

I think she’s about 14 or 15 now, give or take a year. I think she’s a year or two younger than Jake, and this year or last was his GCSE year. Probably this, else we'd have probably heard about how his results were awful, but no surprise in the circumstances, or that he did surprisingly well, given the circumstances.

Mia might not want to go as it would remind her too much of having a mum, I can’t reme whether her father has a new partner or not.

Oh wow! She has a Who's Who? page now.

Caution - photo!

So far as I can tell from Google, you can't start adoption proceedings till a child is born, though you can begin to put in place some of the preparatory work.

Oh wow! She has a Who's Who? page now.

So she's just turned 13.

Argh. That photo is all wrong. That scarf looks out of place, for example. Why is she wearing it? - is it supposed to be one of Nic's?

Interesting that they've decided to concentrate on Mia rather than George for the time being.

Actually the actor's photo looks exactly how I'd imagine her.

We did discuss the legalities on surrogacy upthread and as far as I can make out the position is this.

When the surrogate gives birth the assumption is that she is the mother and her husband/civil partner, if she has one, is the father.

However, where one of the intending parents has a biological link to the baby, whether as egg donor (not in this case, the egg donor is unrelated to them) or sperm donor (Adam), they can apply for a parental order. This is done through the family court and involves a social worker to represent the child's interests, but it's heard by a magistrate usually and can be sorted out quite soon after the birth. The order needs the surrogate's consent (and her husband's/civil partner's where relevant). The order transfers parental responsibility from the surrogate to the intending parents.

If there is no genetic link between either of the intending parents and the baby then they would have to apply to adopt the child and there's no guarantee that this will be approved. Wouldn't be a quick process either.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/having-a-child-through-surrogacy

I agree that scarf is very wrong unless it's supposed to be Nic's. The actor, Molly Pipe, appears to be in her late teens or early 20s, so quite a stretch for her to be playing a girl who's just turned 13.

Interesting that they've decided to concentrate on Mia <a class="break-all" href="http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/1Vv5fLGFhfJ6rTw1dfjlj92/george-grundy" target="_blank">rather than Georgee* for the time being.

Some of that may be practicality. I think the actress is actually a young adult - this is possible for girls (especially on radio) but not so easy for boys around puberty. But at the moment there's maybe more potential for interesting storylines with Mia.

Presumably she is refusing the theme park because she needs to stock up on pickle and do the laundry or suchlike

That was my reaction.

I never liked the way Mia was plainly giving up a lot to be a surrogate parent to Poppy and it went mostly unnoticed. Giving up activities she enjoyed etc, doing extra shopping and Will not even noticing.

BTW - why are Mia and Jake both called "Grundy" when they are in regular contact with Andrew and not formally adopted by Will? Was this discussed on the programme? I can't remember if it was.

I think Nic is just looking forward to having a day on her own, not having to look out for Poppy, hunt for pickle or make sandwiches. I found Leonard’s roof and parapet reference a bit - I feel sure Jill would have told him the circumstances of Nigel’s death and if he is a local and regular visitor to LL (as suggested) he would be aware of it. However I thought the scene neatly illustrated how keeping Jill out of the loop has Led to her finding outside interests including Leonard while her new fascination with Leonard has led to a falling off of interest in what is happening in the family in a sort of circular reinforcement. She’s going to be very upset when she finds out about Elizabeth and blame herself (and by extension her relationship with L) for the oversight.

Oh yes, good point about boys and voices!

Did you think she sounded wrong Bittermints? I liked her 13 year old voice. And am hoping that having a more grown up actor means the character will be present well into the future. (I was about to say I think she has Johnny-potential - meaning in terms of acting ability, but another meaning has occurred to me ...)