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 vote (d) from DDD ‘s options. I think finding love again has mellowed Jill and she’ll wonder why she was ever jealous of Grace.

Hmm, Taswama, I'm not sure I can quite make that leap with Jill. I can perhaps see her being a bit upset then talking about it with Leonard (contrast Helen being unable to tell Lee about her past), and he persuading her that she needs to let it go.

Thanks, Captain, good to be prepared.

I’m also curious how one performs an emergency baptism?
As simple as making the sign of the cross and saying 'I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost' if I recall correctly. It was 40 years ago

That was my recollection too. We got to practice on each other at our desks during RE. I decided that if my atheist brother ever had children I would perform a covert baptism on them, although by the time he had them, I no longer felt the need having lapsed into a life of mortal sin myself.

We got to practice on each other at our desks during RE.

There’s no danger in being over-baptised then. So if one is unsure about baptism status, on should just go for it.

My father disappeared with all his grandchildren for a few moments and reappeared with a suspiciously damp haired baby. Nobody ever mentioned It. I feel quite sad that he wasn’t around to do the same for ds.

Gosh, Bert, I'd have been incandescent in similar circumstances!

When I was with my ex, he went on holiday to Greece with his family, and took our son. When they got back, my son told me he'd been Christened and described the incense etc. Ex's mother was RC and had wanted our son Christened when he was a baby, but I'd put my foot down. I'd always felt that children should make up their own minds about whether to follow a faith, once they were old enough to understand, and make their own minds up about it.

I was livid, but never spoke to ex about it, it's not like I could change it, but it did add to the nails in the coffin of our relationship, that he could do that behind my back.

Back to TA, I liked the scenes with Johnny and Tony too, although it did occur to me that it didn't sound like they scrubbed up before putting their arms where the sun doesn't shine.

That’s rather lovely, Bert.

“Gosh, Bert, I'd have been incandescent in similar circumstances!”

I think if he’d taken them off to church and done it, or ever mentioned it again, I would have been too. But ir was a private thing between him and his grandchildren- and he was a fantastic and seriously non judgemental grandfather, so, and maybe hypocritically, we just love it.

Sounds lovely to me, too, Bert.

My siblings and I realised what was happening after the first 3. We decided to let it go and just kept our eyes on him for the next 6. We were all sad that he wasn’t there to do the same. for ds-number 10.

Gosh, Bert, I'd have been incandescent in similar circumstances!

Same here.

But if you don’t believe in god, nothing has really happened to the baby, has it, apart from grandad bestowing some kind of wish for it’s future wellbeing, it’s just an expression of love.

What thislido said. If you don't believe in it then it's just meaningless words, no harm done. It's not like he took them off to be circumcised or anything.

“Gosh, Bert, I'd have been incandescent in similar circumstances!

Same here.”

I can see why people might have been. But he wasn’t a particularly religious man, he didn’t go to church or follow a particular faith, and never suggested we had them christened. I think he was just hedging his bets for them! He also planted a tree for every grandchild - and taught them to break the bottom of boiled eggshells so that witches couldn’t use them as boats. So it was all a bit Celtic Twilight rather than evangelical.

Oh I love the eggshells one, never heard that before.

The lack of religious conviction definitely makes it more palatable!

Does anyone think that's it for Helen & Lee? Are we never going to hear from him again?

We do seem to have been left hanging but it wouldn't be the first time.

Didn't Lee disappear off somewhere and delegate karate classes to someone else? I suppose he may come back and, if Henry is still going to karate, they'll meet up again.

It may only be words, but that's not the point. The point is that he's betrayed the parent's trust. The parents had their reasons, just like I did, and he's decided unilaterally, that how they feel, doesn't matter. Now, in Bert's case, it seems like there was no harm done, as presumably the parents didn't find out, but in my case, it certainly harmed our relationship. Why should his mother's wants, over our child, trump mine? She believed that our son would go to hell if he died unbaptised. I believe that if there is a god, it wouldn't send an innocent child to be tormented for all eternity.

Lee, I've been wondering if he's coming back too. After all, we only hear about the karate classes in relation to Henry, even though half the cast were also going. They could quite easily make no mention of it again. But if that's the case, the whole storyline seems a bit pointless, as nothing much has changed, Helen's still single. It wasn't even a catalyst to her getting therapy, so either she's going to forever stay single, or history will repeat itself if she starts getting interested in another man.

“Now, in Bert's case, it seems like there was no harm done, as presumably the parents didn't find out”
We worked it out after the 3rd one!
And I have to say, I would rather anyone -even a MIL- made a secret sign over my baby’s head than be constantly worried that the baby might go to hell. How awful would that be?

It's only words but if they made the sign of a square and said Abracadabra surely that would be the same as saying the words of a Baptism when you think there is no foundation for it. Meaningless and no effect on the baby whatsoever.

I did have my baby baptised because I believed in it but I'm just trying to think of it from the point of view of someone who doesn't believe at all.

I can think of worse things grandparents could do like taking your child and getting their ears pierced, getting their hair cut badly and buying them a guinea pig (my parents).