The Archers - Freddie is getting OUT: will Russ hop it? Helen is falling DOWN: is Lee still in the frame? Tom is heading UP: will Natasha be the boost his sausage needs? (Thread no. 101

[DadDadDad]

We're still here and still discussing TA (The Archers). We welcome newcomers and old hands, so if you have a question or a point of view, please dive in. No spoilers - if you've seen info on future storylines, there's a separate Radio Addicts thread for that.

I loved all the name changes on the last thread. Don't forget to change back! (If you want to).

Who's going to get Russ out of LL? Freddie? Lily? Elizabeth? Or is it Freddie who will head off?

I thought that something AWFUL was bound to happen
Me too, I thought the seed drill was going to explode due to being wrongly adjusted or something.

Adam strikes me as being over tired to the point of paranoia about every little thing.

Just because we don't observe Usha being an observant Hindu doesn't mean she isn't one.

The thing that stuck in my mind from that whole situation was the conversation between Jill and Shula, in which Jill cooed something along the lines of 'it doesn't matter which faith you have, the important thing is that you have a faith'. Which I'd guess annoyed some people who take their faith seriously nearly as much as it makes an atheist roll their eyes!

I don’t remember any of the details of the schism between Shula and Usha, just the tone, which I my memory was Shula objecting to Usha’s religion and behaving if she had some kind of claim over Alan and what he chose to do. It doesn't much matter whether it was driven by racism or anti-Hinduism or xenophobia, does it? Usha’s faith, however deep, had nothing to do with Alan’s faith.

I had no idea spirituality was some kind of competition. I also had/have no idea how it’s even measurable.

Wasn’t some of the trouble between Usha and Shula much more secular due to the fairly ancient history of Shula having shagged Usha’s then boyfriend?

Wasn’t some of the trouble between Usha and Shula much more secular due to the fairly ancient history of Shula having shagged Usha’s then boyfriend?

Absolutely. Usha had good reason to dislike Shula, and Shula's attitude may have been driven partially by guilt.

Whatever the merits of Alan and Usha's spirituality, Shula's seems to be of a particularly self-serving type.

Well.

That escalated quickly.

BOOP for the sheer hilarity of tonight.

(On another note, is it just me who doesn't believe a single word that comes out of Oatey's mouth?)

Where did he disappear off to? Certainly wasn't to put cows away.

Oh Tom! It's all about the image - so where does Bridge Farm fit in with that? I bet she asks him to ditch the pigs next.

I can’t help feeling Natasha was a little unfair about Tom’s appreciation of the importance of one’s professional image: I distinctly remember Tony and Pat commenting proudly on how neatly Tom had combed his hair when he gave his Nuffield presentation...

They've only been married a few weeks!

And what’s up with Adam? Missing Ian’s steadying influence or a compare/contrast for Ed to get fed up with a micromanaging boss while his real problem is (likely to be) the manager who left him to complete their work alone?

Could he have been doing a spot of sheep knapping at Ed's?

Ah ...

Sorry to ask but could he be stealing Ed's ram's erm ... reproductive material? Much more stealthy than stealing lambs. Or would it be the wrong season now?

Apologies if stupidest question of the year.

Usha was vile to and about her, and also at her

Seriously? Shula was never more than lukewarm to Usha - she hated the fact that Mark had a female business partner, especially an outsider.

The devout charitable Christian then went on to shag the doctor and ruin Usha's relationship with him whilst somehow hanging on to her own relationship who she decided was a better overall bet than the doctor. They were supposed to be "friends".

She would probably have felt just as unhappy about anyone who wasn't a practising Christian as a vicar's wife, no matter what their ethnic origin

Nobody suggested Shula was being racist. Just bigoted based on her own possessiveness of the vicar which had long been in evidence.

Actually I think she was absolutely right about Usha's spirituality not being equal to Alan's

Right - so Usha being a mere Hindu can't compare to the upright Christian who broke up one relationship because she couldn't keep her knickers on and had a damned good crack at another.

What makes Christianity inherently superior to every other religion?

Alan is a professional Christian, goes to church every Sunday several times and so on, whereas when is the last time Usha even mentioned her faith at all?

So Alan shoud only marry a vicar? Another "professional" Christian? And because Usha isn't smug about her religion she isn't religious? Why then have the statue that supposedly caused Shula so much offence? Shula's excuse for creating about that was that it was religious.

The only time we hear about any of the villagers' religion is in the context of St Stephen's conveniently in the village. Oh and when Shula bangs on about it. There isn't a temple in the village and not all faiths restrict their religious practice to public displays on Sunday. For some its an integral part of every day life.

From time to time you hear about Joe Grundy's faith and Chapel background.
I think quite a lot of church goers I know would struggle with their Vicar marrying a Hindu (or Muslim or Rastafarian or Mormon or even Catholic).

DDD don’t be silly, George is clearly a Virgin Galactic customer, but she can’t go until they sort out the Archers broadcast in space.

Disn’t Shula make a massive fuss about Usha’s Ganesh statue being on display in the vicarage?

I don’t have any credit cards- but is that really an outrageous amount of debt to have? And would you automatically tell your partner about it?

Do RTFT Bert

Sussed, lido!

Train, D3. (My expensive phone contract is an entirely non-Virgin-related torment.)

Train? All those visits to Freddie?

Ooh, I could pull together two discussions into one theme here. It's not necessarily wrong or a problem to have thousands in credit card debt, and nor would I expect a Christian to tell a Hindu that they are inferior, but if you are committing to marriage to someone, surely it's going to put a strain on the relationship if you have totally incompatible beliefs and attitudes?

I didn’t think 8K was a big deal at all for someone who would probably have left university accustomed to debt and would have quite likely been using credit cards pre-credit crunch and who hasn’t had difficulty getting balance transfers and 0% spending deals. I have to say that as someone almost the same age, that amount and significantly higher wouldn’t have been at all rare in my peer group a few years ago, and although most would have paid it off by now they wouldn’t be reluctant to rack up short-medium term debt that way if they felt it were manageable. And no, it wouldnt be mentioned unless asked about, I don’t think, it’s not like Tom becomes responsible for the debt just because they are married. As evidenced on here, most of us seem to assume that other people’s attitudes to debt will be similar to our own! I wouldn’t be surprised if Natasha thinks about it as leverage - she borrowing for very low rates and feels she’s getting a return that outweighs that from the image she’s able to project via her spending.