Thread 99 (yes, 99!): Join us for spirited discussions of The Archers and its Top Blokes, whether you're Team Elizabeth (low spirits), Team Kate (Spiritual Home) or Team Toby (spirits =gin)

[Bittermints]

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. Thanks also to all those who contributed to the thread title.

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!

So, to business. What a fantastic two-hander. Massive BOOP points to Alison Dowling, the scriptwriter and director (and the therapist). I had more than a small tear in my eye listening to that.

I'm another one with a vote of thanks to chemenger for all that information on the last thread about distilling. I should know some of that because I went on a tour of the whisky distillery near where my parents live but I've forgotten most of it except how delicious the end product is.

I missed that- was that when talking to the therapist? Any more talk of this should be on the other thread I think.

I'm sad that Lily feels she can't "go it alone". She seems so confident most of the time.

Love that Susan regards herself as being on the same social level as JD now. Years of being awe of Aldridges and Archers and feeling crap because she's just a Horrobin all swept away down the U bend. She's so desperate to be up the social ladder. It's going to be interesting to see who can be the most snobby. JD sounded winded by the realisation that she and Brine are now the same as Susan and Neil. Actually worse off because I assume Susan and Neil own their own home. How the mighty are fallen!

MerdedeBrexit

Alec - yes, a moment for Susan (and the listener to savour). Of course, the Aldridges’ dip is financial, so any fall in status is temporary (they are still landowners, pay for private education etc), but for a moment working class/aspirational lower middle class Susan could drink in the sight of Jenny under the sink and fool herself both that Jenny is MIDDLE middle class and that she herself is on that level too.

Listening to a bit I missed during the week - why have they made Kenton out to be a digital illiterate? It's not exactly hard to send a bit of film you've made to someone else via your phone.

Just listening to the omnibus and I'm sorry but I had to laugh at cast-members being forced to read variations on 'ooh, isn't she's great?' as Jolene yodelled away unconvincingly in the background.....

why have they made Kenton out to be a digital illiterate?
Because then he had to pass over some access code to Ruairi and Ben. I'm sure that they won't do anything reprehensible with that information ...

Re Elizabeth and "burning the lot down": that's so that the burden isn't passed on to the next generation. Freddie wouldn't/couldn't have the expectation placed on his shoulders if there was nothing left. She would never do it, though (at least, not intentionally).

Yes, Jolene’s singing sounded bloody awful. There was also a throwaway comment from Russ later along the lines of “some of the comments in this video are priceless”. But OTOH the BBC Facebook page had an item about Buffy David recording the songs and it seemed quite serious. I can’t work out if we are meant to think that Jolene the character is any good or not (now, anyway- I think that she was previously portrayed as having actual talent). Also wasn’t that the whole point of Kenton dissing her then her “saving the day”- that he was supposed to have to eat his words because she WAS good? Fallon is meant to have inherited her mother’s talent too. I was actually a bit taken aback that Kenton, who is meant to love her, was so mean about her passion in life.

Buffy Davis.

Another question for people with more knowledge than me, can someone give me the background about Willow Cottage?

Split in two? Where is it in the village? Why did it get split and when?

I don't get why Jenny thinks she's socially superior to Susan. Didn't Jenny grow up above a pub - the daughter of an alcoholic publican?

Hmmm. Buffy Davis's Spotlight page lists a wide range of musical accomplishments, from 'country singing' to 'opera' and 'trumpet'.

Maybe she really can sing and her mediocre skill-level as Jolene is a double-bluff?

Horse - annoyingly the locations guide on the TA website gives almost no information.

There's a little more on the Who's Who page for Roy and other pieces of the puzzle can be gleaned from Mike Tucker's page too.

Ambridge residences seem to have magical powers and can sometimes appear wherever they need to be for plot purposes ...

Surely Jolene was in a fairly successful band in her younger days. I found the whole thing with her and Kenton quite odd.

Yes, about Jolene. On her birthday, Kenton arranged for her band members to come, and she ended up getting on stage with them to do their old songs, so I was also a bit confused about Kenton's reaction to her suggestion that she sings.

Hi think Kenton’s reaction was that the punters who’d turned up to the abortive gig were unlikely to be Country fans.

Was he expecting a lot of Tubular Bells fans?

Kenton's ignorance and prejudice about country music says more about Kenton than he realises. Country/ Alt Country/Americana is a vibrant and diverse scene with artists of considerable virtuosity and and understanding of musical roots and influences.

I wonder if amongst all that 60s and 70s prog rock he ever came across Gram Parsons?

Oh goodness!

"Will you write to your people?!"

Demanded by a husband of his wife as they maunder in a hotel in Paris with no money to pay the bill. Asking her to ask her family for money. The R4 drama - China Towns, on now. Only, the husband is threatening to leave her, to find work ...

Oh yes - was just listening to that and thought the same thing!

The R4 drama - China Towns, on now. Only, the husband is threatening to leave her, to find work

I missed that bit. I wondered why he'd disappeared. Now I'm wondering if she's going to get fleeced by Madam Wotsername, who she's agreed to go into business with.

R4
Derek is an established Silent Character. He even has his own page in the Who's Who.

That says "he and wife Pat moved into the area over twenty years ago"

I suppose forty is more that twenty, but it says in The Book of The Archers that they bought a starter home in Glebelands in 1979. "More than twenty" gives rather the wrong impression, I feel.

HorseDoorBolted
Another question for people with more knowledge than me, can someone give me the background about Willow Cottage?

Willow Farm belonged to Mike and Betty Tucker. After she died, Hayley and Roy couldn't find anywhere to live and Hayley was pregnant. Caroline suggested to Mike that he could split his house in two and give them the bigger part, keeping a small "cottage" for himself. So that was what he did. Then he met and married Vicky, and she decided they were moving to Birmingham, so they sold up and moved out.

That Who's Who hasn't been updated for a very long time. 'More than 20 years' was probably not too bad when it was first set up ten or more years ago.

Some complicating factors about the Willow Farm/Cottage story are:

1. Betty and Mike's daughter Brenda was supposed to get Willow Cottage in Mike's will to even things up after Mike gave half his house to Roy and Hayley.
2. Roy and Hayley are now divorced and she lives in Birmingham with their daughter Abigail.
3. Mike and Vicky very unexpectedly had a baby girl, Bethany, who has Down's Syndrome. So she will also need providing for.

I think Brenda can whistle for her inheritance now. I wonder how she's getting on in London. She was engaged to a rich young man last we heard, but that was years and years ago. I miss the Tuckers.

I'm just watching Countryfile (it happened to be on, OK?) and they're featuring a farmer whose kefir is a best-seller.

Tom, Tom, Tom.......you might live to regret letting Natasha call the shots oh I do hope so