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.

The only good thing about Natasha, is that she got Hannah off the scene, with her head games, making Tom think he'd upset her, then pulling the "Only joking" card. Long term, that could have caused serious problems for his mental health.

I also didn't like her pretending she only wanted a FWB relationship, when it was obvious (especially when Natasha came along) she wanted him to herself.

And then when she was trying to usurp Neil, when he was off sick, and putting it about that Emma only got one of the affordable houses, because Neil had spoken to Justin, and snubbing Emma, even though Emma hadn't known anything about it.

She's not a nice person.

We can't have heard the end of Hannah, I wonder what she will pop up with next.

Stinging nettles in February?

There are stinging nettles growing here.

Asking and Bittermints are you sure that Roy and Hayley didn’t get a mortgage and buy their half of the house from Mike? Perhaps he partly funded it but I don’t think he just gave it away completely?

I think it was a bit of both. They paid for building work and got a mortgage for that, but I'm fairly sure Mike made them a very generous gift of the freehold.

Well, I'm glad Jennifer didn't see her kitchen in a skip. I'd forgotten about the dog sculpture. Was that a Grundy effort? I can remember nothing at all about the circumstances in which it arrived at Home Farm except some reluctance to accept it from either Jennifer or Brian or both.

Ref. Buffy Davis she was in a recent repeat of a repeat of Doc Martin, I had to close my eyes but her voice is unmistakeable.

I enjoyed the deliberate inclusion of details about Kate's appearance, I can now visualise a highly tanned 40 yr old woman with beaded dreads and clown trousers

I haven’t heard last night’s yet, but it was Ruari who fell in love with the dog sculpture. Jenny was horrified but i think that Lilian said she’d buy it for him. I remember thinking it was very sweet.

Of course Lilian was being a bit mischevious as she knew how much Jenny would hate it. Possibly IIRC she gave Ruari some paid work (gardening or something) so he could afford to buy it himself.

After all Jennifer‘s histrionics I expect Ruari won’t care what’s happened to the dog.

I’ve just LA to last night - Alice must be pregnant 🤰 and isn’t happy about it. preoccupied, turning down tea, and that marked comment from Jenny about babies being lovely....

So two Aldridge babies at the same time (or potentially a hideous situation if anything goes wrong with either pregnancy...)

Listening to the repeat at lunchtime today and Ian planning a trip to Bulgaria to see Lexi, I was wondering if they have thought about how (if) they will keep the child in touch with his or her heritage. But writing this I’ve remembered it’d not Lexi’s egg is it?
Will the baby be able to find out who it’s mother is?

(Centipedes needed here ......)

Yes Bounce that did occur to me as well.

"What's your secret Susan?"

"... Chilli ..."

(Not really, But Susan is so tactless!)

Yes, the baby will be able to for out who the biological mother is when it reaches 18 - there is no anonymous gamete donation in the UK. She isn’t obliged to respond to contact by the baby will have her name and contact details.

I wondered about Alice being pregnant too last night, or if she is not pregnant but under pressure from Chris, and maybe Jenny, to get on with having kids. I think Chris brought it up before?

Won't Alan's Lent initiative do people like Ed and Eddie, who do odd jobs, out of legitimate work?

Bloody hell, Tom and Natasha getting married next Friday!

Any bets on how long it will last? I'd be suprised if they're still together by Midsummer Day.

Sounds like I need to get home and listen!

I do have a friend whose parents married after 6 weeks and who still seem to be happy forty something years later, but I can’t imagine that four Tom and Natasha - one of them on the rebound and the other desperate to get life right.

Like a PP said, it’s competitive relationships between Tom and Kirsty. Puts on Sean Connery in The Untouchables voice “They move in together, we send one of ours up the aisle.”

Tom is a prize twonk.

I just saw it trailed on the BBC Facebook feed. They said “Third time lucky Tom?”. Who else was he going to marry other than Kirsty?

For

Brenda, I think, although I've blotted that out of my memory.

Brenda, Jessie