100 Archers threads! We are truly overinfested. Whether you need some help from a therapist in a tabard, or want to move your wife in with your FWB, there’s something in Ambridge for you!

[PseudoBadger]

Well hasn’t it been a fun few years! Thank you all for supporting the threads and sharing in love and critique of The Archers.

Heavens lido - I would absolutely have refused to go to school if I had been expected to make such public announcements!

I think it's the 'get' that sounds foreign to me. (In just the same way as "Can I get a house-bred unicorn milk latte?" sounds foreign - even if people point out that it's grammatically correct.) But I suppose language was different almost half a century ago!

Lovely scene between Emm and MIa, sweet of Susan to notice, I had more than one tear actually when you realise the significance of going without a mum at the time of getting your first period. (or a big sister) I reckon I would've nearly broken down if I'd been Emm.

Tom has probably pushed his sister's traumas to the back of his mind deliberately, they embarrass him and he can't deal with them by confronting them (typical man).

I want to know more about Natasha's backstory. What is/was missing in her own family dynamic that she was so desperate to idolise and then join the Bridge Farm clan? Looking at them with a clinical eye - what's the story about Johhny, where are Helen's DCs' dad(s), what is Tom's past dating/LTR history - it doesn't look great.

Rob hit Helen at least once as well as raping her.

Well, that scene with Emma and Mia left me a snotty mess, but that is an issue that gets me more emotional than most. 'When you're on' was perfect and there's nothing American about saying 'get your period'.

My husband used to to beat me up" (and I think Lee would find this much easier to understand) than to have to try to explain how he gradually and consistently undermined and controlled her when she doesn't really fully understand what happened herself.

Yes. You just have to read some of the threads on here to see that there are even women (not just men) who don't know about, or understand coercive control. Even when it's immediately apparent from the first post, that the OP is in a controlling, abusive relationship, you get posters telling the OP to try to talk to him about it, or all the usual things you'd suggest if a non abusive relationship was having problems.
It's so little understood.

I agree about Susan being complex. She does mean well most of the time, and has her moments when she's being very caring. So, I can't hate her, like I hate Kate. Kate has absolutely no redeeming features, she's just an entitled, self centred person, who thinks the world owes her, and doesn't take responsibility for her actions.

Oh, I disagree about Kate having no redeeming features!

Clearly she wouldn't be a terribly easy friend, and her partners all seem to have run away, screaming. But her constant dissatisfaction with the world is really ... enlivening. She shakes things up and makes connections that would never exist otherwise. The Tuckers and the Madikanes are forever, gloriously, partly Archers because of her. She is an adversary of rural smugness (even if generally ill advised and ill informed), always forcing people, mostly her mother, to justify their entrenched and unthinking positions. Not being settled is her redeeming feature.

Isn't Kate an Aldridge? So her children are actually one third Archer

Surely a quarter Archer, in each case? As both Roy and Lucas each had two parents? (This is where I reveal why I achieved a C in Biology in the century before last ...)

Preen, preen, I got a B! Yes, one quarter, although as soon as I start thinking about this it makes my head hurt.

Jennifer was an Archer before she married so her children, including Kate, are all half-Archer, but you could equally say they have as much Perkins blood as Archer, as that was Peggy's maiden name. Goodness knows what Peggy's mother's name was. She was always Mrs P when I was growing up and had become a fixture in the village, having left London to move nearer to Peggy and her family.

Interestingly (or not ) Ruairi hasn't a drop of Archers blood.

(But the point is that being Archers places Phoebe, Noluthando and Sipho permanently within the First Family - and means their non-Archer blood relations are ((assuming the SWs have understood my thesis )) forever part of the Archers story.)

Sorry, yes, was replying to ppeat.

True about Ruairi ... Will be interesting to see how they handle that. Really, to be safe, he needs to procreate with an actual Archer!

My money's still on Ruari and Ben having a fling (once they stop being in denial) so that would make Ruari an Archer??

Very belated congratulations on the new thread. Sorry to have missed the celebrations as only just caught up with broadcasts after a recent two weeks sans Archers exacerbated my irregular listening pattern.

Loving the inspired name changes but don't see a need to change mine

Coincidentally, I saw a thread about this Pads for Dads on MN today, which made me wonder if the Mia scenes were part of "The Archers'" public service brief?

*Missed out a colon after "this" above, sorry, my punctuation is particularly awry today for some reason.

I'm intrigued by the clear game of musical houses coming up. So my predictions are -

Hannah + Johnny > Roy's as new lodgers now Kirsty is moving

Eddie, Claririe & Joe > 1 The Green

JD & Brine > Grange Farm (possibly purchasing it from Oliver)

Tom & Natasha > where JD and Brine have vacated ( sorry can't remember the name) whilst putting pressure on Pat n Tony to move into a bungalow and Helen to swap with them

I think there are a couple of storylines coming up around farm/property inheritance. There is what happens at Bridge farm of course but I can also see a colossal scrap coming between homeless Archer/ Aldridge/ even Bellamy grandchildren when Peggy finally vacates The Lodge

Gosh, Tom and Natasha are getting on well ...

Not just change counting, but uninterrupted cashing up as a scene all to itself. Poor Helen. Lee will be doing his shopping in the village shop now so things should be much clearer by the end of the week.

Oh! How I enjoyed Peggy and Kate tonight again.

But Lee and Helen ☹ Oh dear! She's not doing herself any favours, is she?

Emmur and Mere (Mia sic) were very sweet yesterday. I'm only a man (albeit a gay one) but I really sympathised with Mia dealing with difficult puberty. Us boys had a bloody hard time, too, going through puberty with no-one to talk to about it.

Haha, I loved it when Peggy mentioned conditions, and Kate's "Conditions?"! And the rent! And very clever of Peggy the way she also got Kate doing the litter tray too! I did enjoy that scene. I do love a bit of schadenfraude!

Not very good of Tom to jump to conclusions about how Natasha found out about Helen though, and his attitude in that whole scene. It was a very big thing to omit to tell her.

And then Helen. I can't believe that nobody in her family or friends, have ever suggested she get some therapy to help her to deal with what she went through. And now Lee thinks she's been seeing another man. She's treated him appallingly.

When ‘Pads for Dads’ came up in the preview, my first thought was that it would be an online store where men like Lee can buy posters and blu-tack.

Knives for wedding presents (or any present) - my grandmother would have have a fit! It cuts the friendship, unless the recipient pays some money to the donor, usually a penny.

I'm glad Kate is a cat person. Clearly my alter ego recognises a kindred spirit.

I love the way the Kate said 'Conditions?" and "Rent?"

I fear Gran will give her the heave-ho quite soon. Why on earth would she transform herself into a reasonable human being after being unable to do so at Lillian and Justin's? It's just not in her.

Is Peggy still paying Christine's care home fees?

I love the way no matter how rude Kate is, Peggy gets the better of her. Some great storyline material there.

And what's the latest on the Gills?