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?

Lily's pleasure in her job makes it clear how shit her student experience was - she should have been having a whale of a time.

As to whether she's enjoying her English course... while swapping to business studies at Felpersham might be a dispiriting retread, it would perhaps be a different story if she could do so at Manchester, which has a very highly rated business school.

And finally... I have put on my chemistry pedant's hat and point out to someone upthread that you really can't abbreviate C8H10N4O2 to C8H10.

No, he doesn't. How much is the rent? Tom presumably doesn't pay himself a lot and neither does Natasha by all accounts. I wonder how many credit cards she has. Bet her car is leased too, and she rents the orchard land.

£8000 of credit card debt isn't that bad if you are on zero interest and have the means to pay it off. What's a complete disaster in my view is to get married without having discussed your attitudes to money and agreeing how you are going to share your finances.

8k on credit card - I wonder how much she has in student debt, overdraft, business loan ... and as you say, Mike, leased car, rented home, no assets except a bulging wardrobe and shoe rack. I wonder what she'd get for the goodwill in the business.

She was keen to buy that parcel of land as well.

Her extravagence with gifts has already been noticed.

Completely agree, D3! I wonder what else they've not talked about.

On another note, nice to hear someone in TA questioning whether to have a child christened. Very rare to hear anyone voicing anything other than strong or weak faith. Caroline Bone is the last person I can recall openly expressing a lack of faith.

Marry in haste...
As Pat said, is love enough.

I'm surprised Alan could countenance Toby's cynicism, crossed fingers, etc. As a thoroughgoing atheist I was .

Well done MysticBore on the credit card front.

On this thread the credit has to go to birdsdestiny. Well spotted!

Yes, as a Christian (and Anglican), I do despair of the wishy-washy approach that Alan puts across. Welcome people to church even if they profess no faith, even if they mock it (eg crossing fingers behind your back) - that's the church's mission, to reach out to everyone. But agreeing to someone making promises of faith and vows of raising a child in the Christian faith, when they've explicitly said they don't believe it, just sends the message that the faith is worth little, that it is devoid of any substance, just whatever meaning you feel like giving it.

Sorry, rant over!

On another note, nice to hear someone in TA questioning whether to have a child christened. Very rare to hear anyone voicing anything other than strong or weak faith.

Yes... but I was, like echt, not pleased by Alan and Toby steamrollering over Pip's misgivings. Toby you'd expect it of, but I'd have expected better of Alan. Not because he's a Christian, but because he's generally portrayed as a bloke with some sort of ethical compass. And there's still the background assumption, surely somewhat discredited nowadays, that the church should automatically be seen as a 'nice' organisation.

X-post with D^3 ... yes, it would have annoyed me when I was a Christian nearly as much as now I'm an atheist!

Wasn't me who predicted the credit card debt. Although the 🔮 says OF COURSE it knew. It thought it was so obvious that she is a reckless profligate that it didn't bother to make an Official Prognostication.

Oh, Bore, you could have nicely used the word prodigal there, but I'll let you off for finding a use for prognostication.

Belated thanks for the thread. With regard to the religious question, did anyone catch the R4 programme Sea of Faith the other day? The comments above reminded me of it. It was about a BBC2 documentary from 1984, which I’m too young to remember, but which seemed to have the effect of turning some people towards religion by dint of taking a sceptical view of certain aspects of belief.

It was really interesting and is still available here if anyone wants to listen: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00036kp

I knew it was me but didn't want to look like an arse by pointing it out. I am pathetically proud . If however I have somehow developed the ability of my predictions coming true I can confidently say that CMR whilst dressed as the Easter Bunny, will be tragically mown down by a tractor driven by Tom. Tom was distracted by his next great plan for the veg boxes/kefir/trees and will be imprisoned for life. Happy sigh.

Just dropping in as finally I'm up to date.
Did Helen own up to Lee when I was being distracted by the DCs? Or do we have bets on who'll tell him?

Helen has been ignoring Lee, to the extent of lying to Henry that karate was cancelled so she didn't have to take him. I fear that both Helen and the SW have ditched Lee, and it's all about Helen setting her jaw firmly to being single and telling herself that she doesn't anyone else.

Natasha is bound to have more than 1 credit card.

birds is there any chance that Tom dies too? I just worry about a release date if he’s imprisoned.

Thislido, sadly he dies in prison.
Oh no have just realised I can't kill him because Pat can't go through that again. Even I am not that cruel.
Back in reality I wonder if Natasha is going to be the ruin of Bridge Farm, will Brookfield be the only one left standing.

Nasty accident in the prison kitchen with the vat of slop, perhaps.

Maybe Pat will have to die too then.

During the visit, perhaps. A tsunami of slop.