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?

die at the laurels.

That’s what I thought.

By the way, I am a bit annoyed at the implication that Leonard’s son who is “in Finance” in Singapore has left him lonely and unsupported. As someone who also had a “high flying career” in Asia (and is married to someone who also did) it’s perfectly possible to stay close to your family while having a career and being on the other side of the world, especially when you earn enough to visit relatively frequently and said family are healthy and can fly to visit you and have a whale of a time. I really hope that Leonard takes Jill off to The Far East for an exotic tour and she comes back preferring fish head curry to flapjacks.

The SW really can’t help themselves from painting anyone who dares to have a job outside Borchester as a villain/uncaring- cf Rob, Christine’s son Peter, Hazel Woolley, Alice if she had gone to Canada. Debbie seems to keep in touch but conspicuously failed to offer any practical, in-person support to her parents during the big move. Bah. I fear for Phoebe.

Yes that's it birds destiny I remember now.

'I can't allow "Shula was never more than lukewarm to Usha" -- they were best mates for ages'
C8H10N4O2
Sorry didn't realise I was supposed to ask your permission before expressing an opinion.

I do apologise; where I come from that phrase always carries "without challenging/disputing it" as an unspoken part of it, and I quite failed to realise it might not mean that to you.

If they were not mates, why on earth would Usha have been confiding to Shula the details of her relationship with Richard? She was also friends with Ruth and with Elizabeth, so if she hadn't liked Shula she could have talked about it with one of them instead.

I can't remember the order of things, but thought Ruth and Usha were always more friendly than Shula and Usha? Shula had to be polite to Usha because of Usha's position in Mark's company, but I never thought they actually struck up a good friendship? Shula would confide in Caroline, not Usha, surely?
I LOVED "Frexit" and "Radio Carter"

Ruth and Usha were great friends and her disappearance from the scene is as great a mystery as Cathy’s - who although working at Grey Gables has been completely absent from Pat’s life for as long as I can remember now (and certainly through all the Bridge Farm traumas of recent years). I think even if these people are as good as written out the SWs could drop in a few references to keep up the pretence - after all they manage it well enough with entirely silent characters such as Frieda Fry (RIP) who was so large as life in my imagination it’s hard to remember she didn’t speak.

I seem to remember Alan's former MIL, Mabel, also opposed the marriage because Usha worshipped 'many gods'. I can't remember if she came around in the end and she vanished after the wedding. On a related note, where is Amy supposed to be at the moment? Alan never mentions her at all and I would have thought Alice might mention her in passing every now and again.

Amy is a midwife though I don’t think we know where. Alan mentioned her a few weeks ago when talking with Clarrie.

A few thoughts:

Why is Alan christening someone when the parents are not Christian and don't go to church? Is that acceptable? Is that a C of E thing? Surely most religions demand that you believe in them before they let you have ceremonies there? If I tried to get my kids accepted into our local faith the minister would tell me where to get off sharpish! I'd definitely have to be attending regularly and at least saying I believed.

Is Russ in the Easter bunny suit a parallel of Nigel in the gorilla suit?

If Jolene thinks they should be paying Daveed back why doesn't she restart the standing order?

When Tom and Natasha took out the massive bank loan to start up myhairyorganicbox.com didn't they have to declare outgoings?

Haven't RTFT but I also wondered about Russ and Jolene. Maybe Lily will go off the rails herself - one night stand with a call centre colleague after a night out maybe?

I did not mean to denigrate DDD's excellent song lyrics .

I found it so strange to be addressed by him as Hilda that I have finally got round to changing my name back.

I don't think Elizabeth should have let Freddie drive back in his post-prison euphoric state.

Does a conviction for drug dealing not affect the insurance rates? He may not be insured and we have to wait until tomorrow evening to find out if they got back safely!

No need to apologise, Pusscat.

Don’t insurers only ask you to declare driving convictions? I can’t help thinking there would be some administrative or legal obstacles stopping an offender just hopping behind the wheel so quickly, but it’s too late for me to bother googling.

Where is Dr. Locke?

Surely most religions demand that you believe in them before they let you have ceremonies there? Until relatively recently virtually everyone was christened, and that meant that in a lot of cases neither parent was a regular attender. Just as C of E were happy to marry you (provided neither of you were divorced) without being fussy about whetehr you'd ever been to church. 30 years ago I was going very much against the grain in not having my DC christened - it really wasn't the done thing. I suppose C of E takes the view that it's not the baby's fault that its parents aren't chuchgoers.

Dr Locke has been missing in action for ages, I have no idea why they do this. For example it would make much more sense to have a throw away line such as oh I hear Kathy has had to go and look after her ailing mother rather than expect the listeners to pretend that her friendship with pat never existed.

There's an argument on Broadcasting House right now about whether or not TA is sexist, fails the Bechdel test and is basically dead in the water ...

But they didn't say "TASWAMA".

Kathy was about to fly off to Fuerteventura a couple of weeks ago. Ian mentioned it - probably in regard to GG timetabling.

And the LL conversation about washing Freddie's curtains is just the stupidest thing I've ever heard!

As. If.

I thought they were going to find a massive stash under Freddie’s bed or hidden in the curtains......

Just LA and I cannot believe that Alastair could be so dim as to have sold his entire business to a whizzy big firm and not at any point discussed his own role in the new arrangement, nor laid down any conditions regarding it. Completely ridiculous even by current woeful standards.

Alistair did discuss his role at Lovell James before, because he said he wanted to continue to be based in Ambridge, not based in their central office in Felpersham, just mentoring student vets and not doing so much actual animal work. So it does seem odd that the question of goals and appraisals and how they work and so on hadn't come up.

I found it so strange to be addressed by him as Hilda that I have finally got round to changing my name back. This has made me lol. For what it’s worth Pusscat, yours was my favourite name change.

It really irritates me to hear Alastair be so sniffy about being a vet, not a salesman. To keep a vet's practice going he must in effect have been acting as a salesman ever since he started it, so why would it suddenly be beneath him? Every professional in private practice has to promote their services or they'll go out of business.

My children are now 27 and 25. Not christened. I know my parents were disappointed as they are quietly but deeply religious and heavily involved in their church, but it can't have been a surprise as they know we have no religious belief. We didn't get married in church and we never go except for funerals and weddings. We live in inner London and I'd say this is fairly typical of families round here. Most people I know who had their children christened were either already churchgoers, or had grown up in religious families and did it to please grandparents, or were thinking ahead to school admissions (or a mix of 2 and 3).

I imagine it's very different in a village or a small town.