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.

Killing the fatted Montbelliard ( is that how you spell them?) oh well, there”ll be plenty of that soon! Although presumably between 19.20 and 14.02, and 14.20 and 19.00...

I expect they'll be feeding up the baby montbeliards soon though.

Yes, that’s right, A and C wiped out by dirty telephone disease! RIP Douglas Adams, genius.

Ah but Natasha won't want children. At all. Ever. Did Tom check this first? No of course he didn't.

Idle thought: do farmers normally refer to livestock in terms of their breeds rather than just as "the cows", "the sheep", etc? I can't imagine them saying things like "I'll just go and check the Gloucestershire Old Spots", and "Montbelliardes" isn't much less of a mouthful.

I'm like the return of the profligate son as a title.

Natasha steamrolling Tom into renting a flat they can't afford isn't going to end well.
We don't know they can't afford it, only that it costs a lot more than a little flat over a shop. Perhaps Natasha feels that with Tom knocking on 40 and her presumably not far behind that it's time they had something a little more grown-up, spacious and cimfortable than the flat, and outside what I expect is the suffocating environs of ArcherLand/Ambridge.

do farmers normally refer to livestock in terms of their breeds rather than just as "the cows", "the sheep",

The Brookfield lot regularly refer to 'the Herefords' - in their case though they need to make the distinction from the dairy herd.
And Tony's, even before the return of dairy cows, were always 'the Anguses'.

Did Ed used to refer to his cows by breed?... I've forgotten if they were Jerseys or Guernseys

Idle thought: do farmers normally refer to livestock in terms of their breeds rather than just as "the cows", "the sheep", etc You might but you wouldn't normally have that many different breeds. I might say 'Ill feed the hoggs or the ewes in the lower field' so the reference is usually where they are and what stage they are in life. Beef animals could be suckler cows, heifers, bullocks or whatever.

Going back to the flat or house decision, you'd have to be pretty desperate to choose the flat, with Susan in such close proximity, which Natasha has already realised.

I'm worried by Helen's closing comment tonight to the boys, that they've got each other, and don't need anyone else. I hope she's not going to teach them that having a partner is bad. I can foresee them needing therapy as adults because of her.

Excellent swerve, Kenton. David is soooo not going to get that money any time soon.

Really Helen, is that any way to talk to a child, the quivering voice? Poor sod. I know Henwee is older than three-years-old he sounds like, but he hardly needs that.

Nipping in with my name change at the end of the 100th thread to say how much I enjoy the mammoth effort involved in keeping up.

And to vote for the return of the profligate son in the next thread title.

And to wonder if our bunting emoji has gone the way of the real bunting ... into hiding. Or have I missed something?

It was pretty thick of Helen not to realise that Henry would find out about her lie, and unimpressive that her way round it was to lie again.

I don't understand why Kenton has to spend so much time at LL given that Lily is back and she managed perfectly competently over Christmas despite Glen being pretty new at that stage.

My father might have said he was going to check on the Charolaises (not sure of the plural spelling) or the beef cattle, or the dairy herd, but not the Friesians. He would have said stuff like the barley beef or the heifers, though, so I think it probably is more about what stage they're at.

Hasn't Tony kept a few Aberdeen Anguses, to put on the farm shop shelves? So they might need to distinguish between those and the Montes. Although I am now worried they are completely neglecting the remaining Anguses, because no one is checking on the poor beasts, being too absorbed by the Montebelliards.

[real life alert] I don’t think anyone mentioned this at the time - listening to some back episodes of the Fortunately podcast with Fi Glover and Jane Garvey and the actor who plays Harrison popped in (episode from 5 February). He’s going to be in the new Downton film.

Maybe that’s why he’s been awful quiet of late as @pasbeaucoupdegendarme had noted.

I’m here, sorry! Just catching up with episodes

BuckingFrolics
Ah but Natasha won't want children. At all. Ever. Did Tom check this first? No of course he didn't.

Natasha did tell Tom back in October that the reason she broke up with her boyfriend after ten years was that he wanted children and she didn't, so Tom might have grasped the idea that she didn't want children if he'd been listening. But he probably just thought she meant she didn't want the children of the loser she'd ditched, and not wanting children wouldn't apply to children of the Glorious Tom Archer, King of the Sausage Vendors. Or whatever he's trying unsuccessfully to sell this month.

Natasha did tell Tom back in October that the reason she broke up with her boyfriend after ten years was that he wanted children and she didn't

I'd missed that detail, thanks for sharing. Much potential for plot shenanigans then!

Ah, I don't remember her saying that. Yes, I can imagine Tom thinking that it didn't apply to him.

askingquestions you've got good recall there! Followed by an astute observation about Tom.

Which would make a Hannah up the duff storyline all the more thrilling!

Delurking to say thanks to all of you for keeping me up to date and filling in important back stories, as I'm a fairly new listener....

Did anyone read this in The Spectator?
www.spectator.co.uk/2019/03/why-do-we-love-the-archers-when-all-the-characters-are-loathsome/amp/

Hadn't read - have now. (Thanks!) The thing is, Justin Marozzi may be a dedicated listener, but he clearly doesn't really get TA. I doubt that a single other 'proper' listener mixes up Usha and Shula. And, worst of all , he obviously hasn't encountered Johnny.

I loved the real Tom Archer. I love Peggy, JD, Brine, Oliver, Robert Snell, Lizzie, Debbie, Alice, Shula and Jazzer.

And So It Starts.

Where is that 🔮?