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.

Thinking about Natasha and the posh des. res. - it’s all about show. She wants somewhere that’ll look good so it can impress people...potential investors? Material for marketing brochures wherein she and the former Sausage King tell their ‘story’ in the specious manner so beloved of companies nowadays? Shots of them laughing merrily a la Boden as they pack their carefully-curated veg box offerings?

She’s a bit of a con artist, isn’t she? With her leased orchards and her make-up business that was all about product and no actual expertise.

I can see they’re now trying to reposition her a bit as a less-pantomimey and more nuanced character (Jill’s makeover etc) but ultimately Tom’s family business springs from genuinely deeply-held convictions whereas Natasha is a marketing person. Doesn’t really matter to her which widget brings in the money.

I think there’ll be plenty more clashes to come.

She’s a bit of a con artist, isn’t she?

Has she met Josh? Now, that would be a match made in heaven ...

Not really sure about deciding morality based on your career. It's not wrong to be in marketing. I don't find anything particularly virtuous in farming, in the same way I don't find anything virtuous in my career.

Yes, the posh house will be a good backdrop for her Instagram marketing. Also, she couldn't invite potential clients round for dinner or drinks if they're living in a flat above the shop. It sets the wrong impression. She is all about marketing, whatever the product.

Bert women are still defined by their fertility. I've seen plenty of posts on here, where the OPs are asking for advice on how to stop friends and relatives from continually asking when they're going to start a family. JD is all about family, so she will keep going on about when Alice is going to start popping out sprogs.

@PseudoBadger - you've gone all Hazel Woolley on us (absent landlord). Honestly, we've kept this thread in good order and we're up to date with the rent. Are you going to start the next one, or do we need Bittermints or someone else to step up?

Either way, we need some thread title suggestions. What would you put in Room Thread 101?

I wondered if Tom and Natasha would end up in the flat above the shop as a precursor to a battle royal between Natasha and Hazel. There have been two or three mentions of Hazel recently which is sometimes a precursor to reintroducing an infrequent character by reminding us of her existence. If there is a fight, my money's on Natasha.

Ref. farming and virtue, well if we didn't have farming we wouldn't have fresh food. I don't think anyone would starve if there were no barbers/hairdressers, public relations execs etc. etc.

I would farm if it were necessary, I support our wonderful organic farmers instead and we feel 100% better than if we survived on imported stuff.

Yes unspiritualhome The actress who plays Hazel has been on telly recently so maybe she'll be back on TA too.

I'm here, still in my new disguise! Happy to start the next thread if that's OK with everyone else.

Title suggestions - something about preparing for the return of the prodigal son? (One day I'll find out what prodigal means. I know it doesn't mean what I think it means. )

You lot have made me smile. Loving Toms window...and what do you think prodigal means?!

But I hate hate hate the music career fairy...even more than the baby/health/house and job fairy. Eg getting the pet shop boys to headline last minute. And Jolene...I don’t know whether to laugh or scream

'prodigal' just means being wasteful / spending money etc freely; a synonym with 'profligate', just to add to confusion.

Because it's part of that set phrase "return of the prodigal son" and that parable is in a sequence in the Bible with the "lost sheep" and the "lost coin", I think it's easy to think 'prodigal' just means 'gone missing'.

The Little Tin Soldier & The Return of the King: Rites, Debt & Appropriation in Aurally Constructed Contemporary Rural Mythology. Ambridge 101.

(Sorry ... academic conference week ...)

Though Little Tin Solidier and Marching Orders would be satisfying in the same sentence. And the Lilac Cardigan somwhere ...

Yes, I always thought when I was growing up it meant something like lost or errant. I'll try to remember it means much the same as profligate and that might help. Not cognate with prodigy and prodigious, apparently.

I see the OED is well on the way to accepting what people think it means as the current meaning. Descriptive rather than prescriptive lexicography! This is one of their definitions.

A person who leaves home to lead a prodigal life but later makes a repentant return.

ppeat
I don't think anyone would starve if there were no barbers/hairdressers, public relations execs etc. etc.

That’s the ending to the first book of the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, isn’t it? I remember it well because it specifically namechecked PR execs and that’s what my Dad did for a living!

Re Natasha and marketing, I think it is no bad thing whatsoever for an enterprise like Grange Farm with some excellent product but a bit of an amateur team to gain some marketing talent. Haven’t we all derided the various Ambridge farms for years for not doing it properly?

The B Ark! I often think of it. Telephone sanitisers are the group I particularly remember.

Telephone sanitisers are the group I particularly remember Yes, but weren't the population eventually wiped out by a disease contracted from a dirty telephone - or maybe that was the people left behind?

Yes! A glorious detail I'd forgotten.

Can’t we just have ONE woman who doesn’t descend into wifedom?

You are married with kids, aren't you Bert? Did you descend into wifedom or just get married and have kids?

I'm assuming Bert meant that in the specific context of The Archers, marriage can be a 'descent into wifedom'. I'm not sure even there it's really true though.

“You are married with kids, aren't you Bert? Did you descend into wifedom or just get married and have kids?”

I’m not married, actually. But my reference to descending into wifedom- which is a paraphrase of something Jane Austen said- is specifically in the context of TA.

The return of the profligate son has a ring to it......

maybe we could just once have a woman in the Archers not defined by her fertility

My biological clock comment was very much informed by my own experience (DS1 born when I was 35, DS2 when I was 38). But yes, I agree it would be good if the SWs don't go down that particular cliched avenue ... however I have my doubts.

No storylines involving fatted calves at the moment, unfortunately.