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.

“Depression doesn't excuse her rudeness.“
Says the person who knows nothing about depression.

Quite.

Re TB, wasn't poor old Lonely Cow a suspect?

The only chronic health conditions which don't seem to magically disappear under the influence of writers amnesia the Ambridge health fairy are Lynda Snell's hay fever and Joe Grundy's Farmer's Lung. Which apparently is a real condition 'a type of pneumonitis caused by an allergic reaction to spores in mouldy hay.'.

One of the many recollections I have of my depression is of the number of apologies I made due to the tin ear I developed for people's real kindnesses, and the snappy nature that went along with a basic inclination towards lying silent and immobile in a dark room, contemplating the pointlessness of it all. Depression is an absolute horror of an illness. You would not tell someone with a broken leg to run faster.

I would also excuse Elizabeth’s rudeness, although I don’t like to hear it. I was irrationally rude when depressed as just about any social interaction was such hard work.

How old is Henry?!?! Because my three year old is distinctly more articulate than that child.

It's actually quite a healthy place to live. There are a quite a number of fairly elderly residents who dont have any ailments.

“Depression doesn't excuse her rudeness.“
Says the person who knows nothing about depression

You have no idea what I know about depression. I'm very bored with Elizabeth. It's not the first time she has been snobbish and rude to Johnny.

I don't understand why russ got the arse about lily's job interview?

Discomfort that she's behaving more like a responsible adult than he is?

Because he thought he'd bagged himself a tiny princess who would feel forever grateful that he chose her. Who would always see him as the great Artist who sacrificed his life for her. And who would accept his decisions on how they would live their life together.

Instead she's turned bolshie - making her own decisions, showing him up by getting a job, making it clear she's happy to spend all day without him, regularly. Leaving him at the mercy of all the LL staff. And Kenton. And he knows just how Freddie will react to finding him loitering around the ancestral home while Lily works to keep him in paintbrushes and whatever ...

Basically, people will ask why he's still there ...

I didn't think Elizabeth was rude to Johnneh, just not as effusive as usual.

Kenton was priceless.:o

I didn't quite get Russ's eruption either. Though George's explanation sounds plausible, I thought he had more self-control. Was it just me or did his interest in the presumably vintage toy soldier under Freddie's bed seem a hint of being after the goodies, money and art work, that MNers have so long suspected him of?

Oh - is that what it was? Maybe Tin-Corporal Pargetter will be off for an EBay /Christie's adventure sometime soon with Major-General Penniless Artist.

But again - I don't get it. LL has staff. There's no way on earth Elizabeth would have Russ rooting through Freddie's room - tidying it for his return. It would have been cleaned regularly by the cleaner along with the rest of the private apartment. And if anything more were needed the housekeeer would have seen to it. (I daresay Mrs Titcombe (?) will have retired long ago, but still ...)

I wold have thought Russ would have leaped at the chance to wear the bunny head so he could remain incognito among the LL visitors (some of whom may remember him as the former deputy head at Borchester College). The valuable, antique soldier was definitely there for a reason otherwise why mention it (and why have the pair of them tidying Freddie's room in the first place).

I didn't think Lizzie was rude to Johnny either. Helen snapped at him slightly but immediate apologised.

I was appalled at Russ being ther to sort out Freddie's room. Freddie hates him. Lily was well off the mark there.

I ridiculously excited about Freddie coming back. I want to hear his voice - that lovely oral slouch which is loathe in any sin of mine - and most of all I want to hear him refiling his toy soldiers up CMR's oh-so-smug jacksie.

addendum: I would loathe how Freddie speaks if he was a son of mine. The jacksie comment remains

addendum
Ah, I did wonder what "that lovely oral slouch which is loathe in any sin of mine" meant. It sounded very poetic. I was about to google it to see if it was a quotation!

George you are spot on about the whole business of who actually does the work at LL. There must be fucktonnes of staff, yet they're never mentioned. Glen(n)? is a manager so who is he managing?

There's the rare breeds, the gardening staff (including vineyards), The Orangery, cleaners, conference/wedding staff, etc, etc. I can imagine that a lot of them are on an as-needed basis, so that will need a lot of organising / managing.
What I don't get are the volunteers: do Stately Homes in private possession usually persuade their serfs to give their labour free to the Landed Gentry?

Maybe the staff don't work in the family-occupied parts of the house - it would be sensible to bring up the twins without staff on hand to tidy their rooms or wash up after them.

What I don't get are the volunteers: do Stately Homes in private possession usually persuade their serfs to give their labour free to the Landed Gentry?

I think for some volunteers, if they have a passion for history or antiques or gardening etc, it's a labour of love regardless of ownership, There's a privately owned hall and gardens we visit quite often that has volunteer gardens, if I lived nearby I'd be tempted.

I didn't think Elizabeth was rude to Johnneh, just not as effusive as usual

It's not the first time she has been offhand to Johnny- apart from the time she was pestering him for information about the prison visit (and being rude then in her total disregard that she was making Johnny late for work)

Her depression doesn't seem to stop her giving effusive thanks if Russ does no more than make a cup of coffee or when golden Lily wafts around making sympathetic noises .

I don't like her or her silly daughter. Lily has finally done something about getting a job. She is still however wittering on about next year with Manchester.

Lily is roughly the same age as Johnny and the contrast could not be starker as to which one is a proper grown up. Has Lily st told the truth about the real reason she is back or is she still basking in the dutiful daughter lie?

Re volunteering - the National Trust is a charity but depends hugely on volunteers. My parents retired to the place where my mum's family used to live. We have been regaled all our lives with tales about the meanness and arrogance of the family that owned the castle at that time. My grandfather was in domestic service there and during the Depression had his wages cut because the family was finding it hard to make ends meet and pay the costs of all their numerous stately homes and estates.

It therefore sticks in my craw to go round the castle now it belongs to the NTS and hear the volunteers, almost all middle-class incomers, talking fondly and familiarly about the old days and 'the family' as if it was all like Downton Abbey and the former owners were benevolent employers and landlords. They weren't. The estate was handed over to the NTS because they couldn't afford the death duties. If it were still in that family's hands the volunteers would be about as welcome inside the castle as dogdirt on a shoe.

So yes, I too find it very odd that LL is supposed to have volunteers showing paying punters round the house and making money for the Pargetters.

Mrs Pugsley and Titcombe used to be regular silent characters - as a vivid as any who spoke - I can't believe that these two have not been replaced, even if we never hear of their replacements. The same goes for Lewis - who was like Elizabeth's right arm after she lost Nigel. he has gone the way of Pat's best friend Kathy - although at least we know where she is and what she is supposed to be doing. i can only think the staff at LL are like the rooms in some Ambridge properties - expanding and shrinking according to plot requirements.