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 Grundys are there for comedy, but Will and Ed and their families have exceptionally bad luck.
What does CallMeRuss live on income-wise?

Welcome, BeUpStanding

Maybe a snake could be grabby with its fangs. I can imagine a Russ-snake with a big stack of organic viennoiserie speared on each fang and maybe a few paint brushes held in the curl of the tail. Maybe he could even be a horned snake and hold a couple of imported coffee pods on those.

I wonder what the Italian GQT listeners make of snakes in the LL garden? Guarda! Un serpente con cornetto! Che strano!

@MikeUniformMike
What does CallMeRuss live on income-wise?

I assume Lilly's money, which ran out and got them kicked out of their flat...

The Grundys are there for comedy

D'you think this is still so? Actually I don't remember them ever as comedy. The stress they lived with in the months and years before eviction from Grange Farm lives with me still. It's true that LSWs use them for comedy. (They do the same with Susan or Jenny. Though, strangely there's no humour to be found at Brookfield or the Stables ...) But that often feels artificial to me - very much superseded by their everyday tragedies. (And that mythical pull to the land that I'm always pontificating about.)

What he could do it teach art classes at LL. To Adults only.

Well, as Russ has refused to get a job, I guess he's living off Lily's money.

I can imagine the shouts of "cocklodger" and "LTB" if Lily posted here.

TPO decisions are taken by planning officers not elected members. The parish council may be able to support or object but it’s a professional decision so not a lot of scope there.

I suspect Timotei plans for Emma to lean on/bribe the planning officer for him, and I actually can't see Emma ever agreeing to have anything to do with it.

Please God that Ed and Eddie have the sense to check that the paperwork for the van is legit.

I'm intrigued by Lilly n' CallMeRuss's relationship though; she's clearly hacked off with him and the scales are beginning to fall and yet seems determined to hang on to him ever more tightly. But don't get the impression he has her under any kind of sinister control. Is she just refusing to admit the relationship is a failure, even to herself, having committed so much to it?

I think would find backing down and admitting she was wrong about him too difficult.

I think Lily .....

Yes, I think she doesn't even want to admit it to herself that she was wrong. And then also the embarrassment of admitting it publicly, to the people she had such disagreements with, when they tried to warn her.
She was so stubborn and convinced that she was right, that Russ loved her too much to be anything but wonderful. She swallowed all his lies about his marriage, so it's going to hit her hard when she realises that her agreeing to the affair, broke up a family with children.
She'll probably find out that there's nothing wrong with his wife's mental health too.

It's a lot to swallow and admit to.

Quater I had to brace myself to listen, hence my relief at finding out I no longer need to care! It will be inconvenient to have to listen to it though.

MUM I don't think they do have more bad luck, it's just that the impact is magnified by having no money. It's important to reflect that and how hard it is to get out of that situation, but they don't need to make them idiots to do that!

Do CMR and Mrs CMR have kids?? I had completely wiped that from the memory banks. Then why isn't the CSA down on him like a ton of bricks?

No, no kids.

I think it's the sunk cost fallacy with Lily. She has invested a lot in her relationship with Russ and wants to make it work, rather than admitting she has wasted her first year at Uni. Plus, she does actually think he has talent and she does think that if he gets his breakthrough everything will work out; they'll have money, she'll be the muse of a famous artist etc etc and everything they've done will be justified.

They are turning Tim into a total pantomime villain. So annoying when the SWs do that - underestimating their listeners....... We can cope with subtle nudges - in fact we prefer them! -any SWs listening??

As ever I’m late catching up but wrt CMR’s ‘muse’....just watching one episode of ‘Portrait/Landscape Artist of the Year’ would confirm very speedily that massively talented amateur artists work phenomenally hard while holding down full-time jobs - and that nothing stops them from practising their craft.
CMR is an insufferable self-regarding idiot. If he were a real artist he’d have to make art, come what may.

Exactly 5000 One can be massively talented , have been to art college etc. and exhibited at the Nat. Portrait Gallery. dsis is a good example, and she certainly couldn't live on the income her artworks might fetch her. She used to have a proper job before she retired.

5000Fingers, l was thinking more or less the same. While CMR might well have some (but not a phenomenal) talent, he’s a freeloader for whom hard work doesn’t come easily. And if he had a phenomenal talent, you’d think somebody might have noticed by now and encouraged him. And as somebody said yesterday he could have done his own art work whilst teaching in college. However, going for promotion will have meant less time for his own stuff - of course being in a promoted post might have offered more opportunity for preying on teenage girls just out of school. I’d be surprised if Lily is his first such encounter.

A few weeks ago I caused confusion by suggesting CallMeRuss had children. I don’t know how that idea came about but it’s not true. All we seem to know is the wife’s called Lara and, surprise surprise, has some kind ofMH problem.

Oh, I thought he did have children. I seem to remember a time he said he had to stay at home, because his wife was away on a self help retreat thingy, and I could have sworn he's mentioned his children.

I think the self help thing was when he was putting off telling his wife about Lily. His wife was at a retreat and he promised to tell her on her return but then he bottled. Maybe?

I thought Russ's wife was training to be a psychotherapist or similar. Did I misinterpret?

And ... Yup. Fausty will have Ed and Emma's guts for garters.

Did we know that Toby had paid Emma to clean Rickyard? I have a feeling he took the credit himself.

I also can't stop hearing Pip's weird intonation since someone pointed it out recently.

Why would Ed be thinking he needs to buy Tom a wedding present? Are they close enough for him to assume an invitation??

You are right Quater, she was at a psychotherapy training weekend and Russ said they taxed her mentally and wanted to put off telling her until anther time.

Just a quick heads up, tomorrow at 14:15 Radio 4 Extra have an edition of "On the map" which will cover Ambridge.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rlwwy