#102: Fatted calf is off the menu - will the Easter Bunny save Lower Loxley's bacon, or will there be egg on Russ's face? Will Tom's sausage business get the chop? Join us here to discuss The Archers!

[GabrielleNelson]

Thanks due to @PseudoBadger for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and to @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit. Thanks also to all those who contributed to the thread title, principally Dumdedumdedum and MikeUniformMike on this occasion.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to be Susan's best friend or other odd unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from this thread, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

So, to business: will Helen's new cheese be a success? Will Kate succeed in keeping her visiting Brummies under control? Will Pip, Toby, Tom and Natasha fall into the slurry pit, leaving Rosie to be brought up by Anthony Head Robin Fairbrother? Will we ever hear Lee again, and will he casually drop in a mention of his fine collection of framed Bruce Lee posters?

Aaaah how I was expecting great excitement on here about the appearance of the bunting hanging on the shop's door knob. I hadn't heard the news about Joe's actor dying.

I don't know but I always thought that he made an appearance in the Vicar of Dibley as one of the residents who was being asked to vote for Geraldine as councillor. There was one who sounded just like him.

I hope he passes away in his sleep, and then is found to have a life insurance policy which pays for the whole of Ed's new house.

Very sad news. He wasn’t my favourite character but it’s always sad to lose a long standing character.

Did you mean "not pretending to be ..."

Don’t be ridiculous R4, it’s the Archers that is real.

Elizabeth is very peculiar. There's no reason to be ashamed of having depression but there was no need to tell Chris all about it.

thislido

Jill is awful. First she missed that Lizzie was so ill that she was not functioning. Then she tried to make Lizzie feel ashamed about having MH problems and discussing them with Chris. Then she blamed the condition on herself for being a bad mother 40-odd years ago (obvs doesn't realise that she is being a bad mother now ). Lizzie tried to play down the idea but Jill turned it into a me-me-me, breast-beating mea culpa. Ugh.

Agree, R4. And also, how sodding tactless to suggest to a woman whose son is on probation for dealing drugs that problems with children are very likely the mother's fault.

To defend Jill a bit- it is incredibly hard to stop blaming yourself if you have a child with mental health issues. And also incredibly hard to stop yourself saying “Was it something I did? Was it that time when you were 5 and I..........[insert parenting fail of choice]”

Well that's sad about the death of Edward Kelsey. My late DH and used to especially like the occasional episode where a fair chunk was given over the musing of the rude mechanicals, getting less comprehensible, the more indignant they were. We would the imitate them as we made breakfast and washed up (Archers is an a.m. thing for us).

I agree that Elizabeth's choosing that moment to unload was a bit odd, but her mother's embarrassment even odder, she should have been more supportive in front of Chris.

As for David saying all that to Natasha - so unlike him - though it did signal a de-de-derrrrrr of imagined off-stage music at the end to signal that the laws of dramatic irony have been called to action and Gnasher will prove not to be the rock he so fondly imagines her to be.

Argh. Tony, not David.

Oh no Joe 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 his beautiful full naming (Kirsty millerrrr)

Crikey echt, I haven't heard tonight's episode so I was a bit surprised that we had gone from Tom and Natasha having a few difficulties to David declaring his love in one 13 minute episode!

I see, birds, I left out the important info that it was Tom he was talking about.:o

Bertrand I agree actually. I have depression as does my brother and I worry that my mum feels she could have done more. My teenagers struggle at times and I worry that I managed to fuck it up for them. I actually wouldn’t lay that on them as my mum doesn’t with me - to do so would be making it about the mum rather than the ill person. But of course this is drama so we have to have it spoken out loud. Although yes perhaps Jill confiding in another family member would have been more realistic. It also shows that almost any illness does not only affect the person suffering but those around them too.

I thought Elizabeth's unloading to Chris was a sort of public information announcement - to mitigate the stigma & embarrassment around mental illness. Quite right too. It is nothing to be ashamed of and Jill was quite wrong to react like that.

I thought Elizabeth's unloading to Chris was a sort of public information announcement
It worked on two levels. Yes, it was PI but also it was a huge admission - from the Ice Queen of Self Control and Self Reliance - to admit publicly (and to herself!) that she, too, has failings, but that's human and it's OK.

Oooh. Thinking some more, is it a more subtle than currently-usual C&C. Compare Shula's devastated self-loathing over failing to reach the mark and contrast with Lizzie's measured and thoughtful acceptance.

Yes. I think Lizzie was practising being up front about it. And Jill was wrong- but it was so easy to understand her reaction. The instinct to protect is overwhelming sometimes.

Ted Kelsey who plays Joe Grundy has died. No words - just had to post. So sad. No-one in RL will understand (though DH being v sympathetic - he broke the news to me this morning as if he were announcing the death of a relative).

Sorry - I'm haven't RTFT (blame shock - I've not done too badly with previous 101)

I thought the scales were tumbling from Gnasha's eyes, at the picture Tony painted if Tom, and that she realised with horror her total misjudgement of Tom. That he is a lightweight businessman, a show off and, frankly, full of crap, is known to us - but I think she was surprised to hear his full list of shortcomings from his own father.

The Natasha dynamic is very odd. Who on earth breaks up with their long-term partner and then has phone calls with them to discuss the problems they are having with their new husband, married indecently quickly following said break-up?

From Trevor’s pov he’s either is a real sap, or wants to get back with her.

But from feisty independent businesswoman Natasha, crying to her ex is surely the last thing she’d do? She’d surely be far too proud to do that.

And RIP Joe / Edward Kelsey. The Archers won’t be the same. It must be so hard for the cast to record scenes about the death of a character when the actor has died

What was Tony thinking? How disloyal!

And Kirsty was good for Tom.

It must be so hard for the cast to record scenes about the death of a character when the actor has died
I can still tear up thinking about Shula's reaction to Caroline. Fantastic acting at what must have been a very difficult time.

I think that Jill comes from a different generation when "that sort of thing' wasn't mentioned at all in public, or even, sometimes, not ever. Most of the poor people who suffered mental health agonies after the 2 World Wars did NOT talk about them.

Probably Lizzie was given the 'task' of telling someone who didn't know, Chris. by her therapist. Nicely done.