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 of the licensing situation but I know that large scale distilleries have very strict controls on their alcohol stream for excise purposes, the alcohol is effectively sealed in during production. I just can’t see Toby as a master distiller for many reasons. Unless we are being set up for half the village going blind in a mass methanol poisoning I don’t see where this could go.

Talking of licences, I wonder what the plan is for when Freddie gets released? Surely if LL are applying for a new licence they'll have to give convincing assurances that the convicted drug dealer won't be living there?

But Spiritual Home is a moveable feast if ever there was one - it's basically just some yurts and a fire pit which could easily have been relocated far from the contaminated land which in any case now makes the existing location far from ideal. It is completely bonkers that Home Farm was sacrificed to keep the yurts where they are.

As we approach 1,000 posts can I suggest a new title: Whether you are Spiritual Home (team Kate) or more at home with spirits (team Toby) keep faith with The Archers here on thread 99 (yes 99!!!)

No way would I drink spirit distilled by Toby fairbrother. How the heck would he do QC on it adequately?

Liking the title @LillianGish
Whether you are Spiritual Home (team Kate) or more at home with spirits (team Toby) keep faith with The Archers here on thread 99 (yes 99!!!)
but may I suggest the additions (team Toby - will he ever make it as Top Bloke?) and also where the heck is Lily - I am worried about her!

Lily's in Manchester. If she wasn't living with the ineffable Russ I'd say that was the best place for her.

Anybody else want to start the next thread? I'm happy to do it again but don't want to hog the position! I see this as a very democratic bunch of obsessives discerning group of listeners.

Go for it bittermints!

Whether you are Spiritual Home (team Kate) or more at home with spirits (team Toby - will her ever make a Top Bloke?) Or wondering if Manchester really is Magnificent (Team Lily); keep faith with The Archers here on thread 99 (yes 99!!!)

He*

I suspect Lily may grab the first chance to return as soon as she hears of Elizabeth's breakdown. I doubt that life in Manchester with the great artist has improved for her. So we may have moved beyond wondering where Lily is by the time a new thread starts.

@SaturdayNext exactly! Of course I know where she is... just concerned what could be happening to her. I never used to like her much but she grew on me when she got a bit more ballsy with HWMNBN - I want her to have her epiphany once and for all.

Thanks, chemenger.

What confused me was that he definitely turned up from Brighton with a still he'd borrowed, and he seemed to be setting up that still at Hollowtree in spite of David's objections, and now suddenly having a still is a new shiny idea that he didn't already have.

Has anyone told Lily about her mother being mentally ill?

David told him in no uncertain terms not to run an unlicensed still. Maybe at that point, with no product established, and no 'business partner', the outlay for a license was too much for Toby? Starting his experiments by using base spirit made more sense, really. Whereas now he's at least got some clue what he's doing, and maybe he's onto something with the idea of a fully local product.

AIUI he has one still, presumbly standing idle, and wants a second one.

Wild speculation, but I'm wondering if there's going to be some kind of sinister angle on Leonard's interest in Lower Loxley. Kenton threw in a comment in the last episode that Leonard was "all over Lower Loxley", which seemed a bit random unless it was significant and his interest seemed excessive in the previous episode also. He might have said something about how lucky Elizabeth was to have it. I wonder if he's got together with Jill as a way to get at Elizabeth / Lower Loxley for some reason yet to be revealed.

He is distilling his gin, but its a different ball game distilling wort (fermented grain etc) because it is so dilute, its effectively beer. If he distils 20 litres of alcohol plus botanics he gets more or less 20 litres of gin. If he distils 20 litres of fermented broth he would get a couple of litres of gin (at a guess) at the most, and it would take longer and be technically harder. He would need to distil it more than once to first produce the spirit then at least once more (but possibly more) to add the botanicals and increase the alcohol content. I doubt that he could make spirit more cheaply than buying it, I also doubt that making it would have any effect on flavour.

He'll need more space and equipment too, to accommodate the fermentation process, which takes a week or two. He needs to heat the fermentation mixture so needs a source of heat, he'll also need to dispose of the waste, both solid and liquid from the fermentation and distillation stages (and a filter to get the solids out).

He presumably buys spirit with the duty paid, if he distils from scratch he would have to have an arrangement to pay duty on the spirit he produced.

I'm fairly confident I could make a few bottles of gin from scratch, on a visit to B&Q and a home brew shop, if I had to. I would need a significant amount of money to make anything like a commercial amount though. I think the licensing aspect would be quite complex too.

I can't remember what the falafel van that Roy and Khate dad at Glastonbury was called.
The Willow Farm house wasn't huge before it was split. IIRC it was 3 or 4 beds, and was a bit cramped with Mike, Betty, Brenda, Roy and Hayley, and Phoebe living there.
IIRC it was modified to convert to a 3-bed and 2-bed, the 2 bed cottage being much smaller than the main house.

had not dad.

The clue to why I'd drink your gin with a lot more confidence than Toby's is in your name.

WHY HAVE THEY MADE HER THERAPIST SOUNDS SO CREEPY?!

Elizabeth's therapist sounds like Dame Jenni Murray..!

Alison Dowling is acting her socks off. Brava

That was brilliantly acted. Well done AD. I wish Nigel was still here. ~I'll never forgive Vanessa Whitburn.

That episode started slowly. I didn't like the therapist and I wasn't keen on the potted history being thrown in for newbies but my goodness the pace really grew and Alison Dowling really nailed it.