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 wouldn't tell Jill immediately, she'd just do her best pigeon impression, send a casserole but be of no real help, what with being too busy with her favourite child's family.

That crying sounded so real it almost had me going too.

Massive stately home wedding venue at bargain rates with BYOB - I'm surprised they haven't got queues lined up round the estate.

Why aren't they hosting yoga retreats, mindfulness etc?

Why aren't they hosting yoga retreats, mindfulness etc?

Yes, surely LL could corner the Borsetshire market here now that Spiritual Home is out of action?

I hope the SW are not just recycling old storylines.... Ed gets done over and loses the deposit money, his cattle, whatever. Helen has another partner drama. Lower Loxley has another too.
It’s all getting a bit samey and predictable.

No, we're going to have some happy storylines to make up for the misery of the news.
Ed & Emma move in to new home and prosper
Helen and Lee hook up and he turns out to be lovely
The new cattle at Bridge Farm help the cheese to become good again.
Elizabeth gets the help she needs and turns things around with the help of Lily who dumps what's his name.

Brian can get a massive fine.
Toby can be exposed as useless.
Lexi can miscarry (sorry Lexi, but I'm not convinced Adam should be a Dad)
Moany Kirsty - don't care

Summer Fete can have a major worry which is all resolved to be the best fair ever.
Ben's dog can continue to cause upset, but ultimately Ben wins some trials
Josh makes bad decisions and goes bankrupt.

(Frequent reader, irregular poster, hello new thread!( David, Shula and Kenton discussing depression like it was done sort of rare tropical illness... I hope to goodness this is not going to be some Well Meaning But Ever So Slightly Patronising mental health storyline...

Bored of the cows already.

But LL doesn’t just do weddings. Surely the Orangery isn’t BYOB ..far too upmarket for that? I can’t see the local ladies what lunch turning up with a Spar carrier bag with four cans of lager in it...

Concerned about Elizabeth.
Great that Shula, Kenton & David got together to discuss their concerns about Elizabeth’s wellbeing.
Well done David for recalling his MH awareness training and calling out that Elizabeth seems to have clinical depression BUT not the nuggets to remind himself what the next step would be e.g help Elizabeth to see her GP at earliest opportunity such as this evening or tomorrow’s walk-in appointment.

Oh no, loads of Archeresque self-absorbed shuffling & mumbling with the ineffective outcome that Kenton, yes effin’ Kenton, is going round tomorrow night to see her...to say what ? Do what ? Help how ? The BBC R4 mentioned that Kenton will put his foot in it tomorrow.

Poor (almost) Elizabeth has broken down, trusted her brother to share the extent of her distress and is now at home with two weeks (if I heard correctly) of sleeping tablets on her own. Any of them rung to find how she is? Gone round to see her ? Nah, don’t need as Kenton has it in hand.

S’OK then .

SW brewing up a neat storm around Elizabeth with the potential frenzy of 20/20 hindsight/if only/why didn’t anyone say something etc once the drama hits.

I'm glad someone else was wondering what on earth was happening with Elizabeth whilst her siblings met up elsewhere. Mind you, I did rather enjoy David going into that self-righteous hectoring mode only to be completely wrong-footed.

What does LL do? And who does it? Apart from Glen are there any other staff?

Josh makes bad decisions and goes bankrupt.

Noooooo. None of us could bear the way Pip would crow over him. In fact, TeenTimesTwo, you left out of your list of happy storylines the one where Pip makes some horrendous cock-up which she lies about yet again, is found out in toe-curlingly humiliating circumstances, and gets throw out by the Dopeys never to be heard from again.

I know a Megan Hobbs. You'd have thought her parents would have worked out that one

Well I don't get it. What's wrong with Megan Hobbs

I don't get it either.

What does LL do? And who does it? Apart from Glen are there any other staff?

Domestic residence of the Pargetters. (They have a private apartment within the house.)
Stately home. Guided tours of house, (Bert Fry is one of the tour guides.)
Theme park type seasonal entertainment. Ice rink etc.
Treetop walk.

Orangery restaurant.
Vineyard.
Hawk displays (forgotten the correct term).
Gift shop.
Art gallery (used to be run by Lewis).

Conference venue.
Wedding venue. (With accommodation.)
Sometime host/venue for a summer music festival, the odd concert, the Hunt Ball or corporate shindigs.
Only the final three need the alcohol licence.

In better times always fully staffed, and provider of casual/regular employment for various Ambridge residents.

Poor, poor Elizabeth ...

(Plus the Orangery I guess!)

I found the acting by Alison Dowling fantastic last night.

She was good!
QuaterMiss that was helpful re LL, thanks.
Mega N(H)obbs me thinks

Falconry Quater

Ah! Thank you Comfortablylow

That's the one!

And yes, BOOP for Elizabeth's breakdown yesterday - it was heart-rending.

Have we had an attempted suicide storyline in the Archers before? Because that's the way the signposts seemed to be pointing ...

Well I don't get it. What's wrong with Megan Hobbs

Mega Knobs?

Brian’s gamekeeper Greg took his own life in a particularly horrible way.

Someone really needs to move in with Elizabeth - Shula? Maybe Kenton can help her with the alcohol license, but if she gets it back will Freddie be allowed to live there when he comes out of prison? When you see everything that happens at LL written down like that (thanks Quater) you really appreciate what a huge enterprise it is. No wonder Elizabeth is struggling after sacking Geraldine and no wonder the new chap is struggling without Elizabeth to show him the ropes. Whatever happened to Mrs Pugsley and the man she married and where is Lewis? We need to know.