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.)

I'm not sure about Brian's logic that a promise of a Catholic education necessarily equals a public boarding school, probably monastic. I nearly took a job in a state Catholic school in the west Midlands; I'm pretty sure such establishments exist.

OMG the Kate klaxon has sounded!!

Far better for the ep to have ended with her saying 'breaking down/having a breakdown" Another depressive here. I don't think I'd have said "I have depression" - it seemed to me just an objective evaluation of myself and events - but I sure as anything would never have said I was having a breakdown.

bittermints - I'm small, but have a very deep voice (get mistaken for DH on the phone), so I don't think you can assume a 5ft woman is going to have a higher than average voice.

I nearly took a job in a state Catholic school in the west Midlands; I'm pretty sure such establishments exist. Yes, lots of Catholic primary schools, usually highly sought after because of perceived good behaviour standards, and Catholic secondary schools - of the 3 good state secondary schools locally, two are non-denominational and one is Catholic.

But I think Brian's logic is that "education" = "a boarding school"

There's a good catholic sixth form college in my area, though I'm not sure by that age it's too much of a 'catholic education' as such.

Brian's reaction to Kate's imminent return was funny but I also found it rather sad - I can't imagine DH and me being anything other than delighted to see our DD.

I thought that Jolene and Kenton were keeping the facts from Jill primarily because Lizzie didn't want to tell her yet, at least until there is some sort of diagnosis.

I'm already finding Jill's simpering and giggling around Leonard annoying, I do hope she goes back to normal soon.

- I can't imagine DH and me being anything other than delighted to see our DD. Imagine your daughter had insisted you sell your family home, forcing you into a tiny rental, so she could hang onto land (given to her by you in the first place) to ostensibly run a business which she subsequently abandoned to gad off on an extended holiday.

I predicted Ruari would be joining cereal cupboard escapee Ben at Borchester College as soon as he was recast and found his voice (what is boarding school in TA if not a posh version of the cereal cupboard?) I’m now wondering if we will be seeing Jenny’s kitchen in a skip to coincide with Kate’s return (things have been rather quiet on the Home Farm front).

Sorry I’ve been catching up. So...on depression I think what I meant is that I very distinctly remember when the penny dropped. I didn’t say it out loud but I’m not in a radio drama . I remember thinking the complete sentence as though it was happening to someone else. I had woken from a dream in which my lovely late grandad had telephoned me from a blue sky vista and told me to come and live with him. I had no idea what that meant and had woken crying with no feelings of sadness. My fella at the time said right we’re off to the dr. So in that way I do relate to how Elizabeth expressed it. Anyway, I am an optimistic person so I actually do ok with it (medicated mildly of course).

Anyway back to the archers and I have yet to listen to last night’s episode. But yes I think Mia is on the young carers storyline. Great young actors at the moment.

Oh Elizabeth doesn’t want her mum to know. It’s possible she still wants to please her mummy? So would feel like she’s let her down?

Lillian - yeah, I can't imagine that. OTOH, I can't imagine my DH allowing groundwater to be polluted requiring massive disruption and costs...

Given that Brian's public school education didn't prevent him ending up with a criminal record, I'm not sure that it's anything to boast about.

I hope we're not going to have JD feeling bad about not being able to offer Kate a bed. It can't be news to Kate that there's no room for her at the cottage, you would expect her as an adult to have made her own arrangements in advance.

I thought Kate would probably move in to Ruairi's room in the short term? The fact that she wasn't getting a bedroom in the downsized house was openly discussed - Kate went running to Roy whinging about it, but there's no way she's made any arrangements. I expect her to be even more outraged at all her stuff being in boxes in a barn.

When’s Kirsty moving out? Kate will probably (or should that be improbably?) move in with Roy as his new lodger.

Kate's options (assuming anything that doesnt involve sponging off her family is out):

Ruarie's room
Alice's sofa/spare room
Adam's spare room
Peggy's spare room (Christine's?)
Phoebe's room at Willow Cottage

What about her cottage or is that let now?

Her cottage is let, that's why she moved back in with Jenny and Brian in the first place - she wanted the rental income.

I do hope Roy doesn't get suckered into having Kate.
Peggy otoh ... that might be fun. Peggy would expect Kate to behave like a responsible adult.

Actually ... Kate moving in with Roy could be a Good Thing - narratively speaking. In my mind he's clinging to the edges of Archerdom atm. Co-haniting with Kate would put him in a more secure position. As well as being hilarious.

Guess there's no chance of Phoebe's parents Getting Back Together ...

On another note, thinking of the faintly ridiculous extreme-ness of the sources of Elizabeth's I Have Depression - (as opposed to the more run of the mill situations that might trouble those of us without a stately home ...) - I've decided to forgive the BBC because past Ambridge depression sufferers have been more ordinary.

Did Jack Archer have depression (or was it 'just' alcoholism?) I didn't really encounter him.
Pat, Mike, Greg, Joe in Meadow Rise, HWMNBN ... There must be others not officially diagnosed?

Well, I'm not depressed but I'm a bit sad that echt and the likes of LillianG* haven't noticed my very witty "dog in a revolving door" = "putting your barks in one exit" (say it out loud). I was quite proud of that, but of course it would be crass of me to draw attention to it.

*and to be clear, that's not to imply that being depressed is just a question of being really sad.

So Kate's cottage wasn't sold as part of Home Farm?

I'm expecting all sorts of drama from her return. Unless the script writers have decided to make her grow up?

pattyhoo No, only the farm house itself and the garden (& swimming pool etc.) were sold, no other land. That was the partnership meeting where they were trying out various different parcels of land ideas and none of them worked except the house.

I noticed DDD! I love a pun...but I didn’t realise it was all your own work. I thought you were perhaps referencing a comedy genius and I didn’t want to appear a twat for not knowing

Can't Kate sleep in one of her yurts?

grumio - that's what I was going to ask!

I admit, still, that years ago a friend told me a joke involving some folk from the Pyrenees getting stuck in a revolving door which ended with "putting all your Basques in one exit", so I was inspired by that.

Get working on the next thread title, DDD