#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?

Shame really. It would be much more fun if she could skip off to Costa Rica (see what I did there?) and leave Tom fielding bailiffs.

I’m not sure she would be Tiger’s type Bert !

Delurking and doffing my cap to all my betters... I thought I had been following for years, until I realised that I have no recollection of the origins of the bunting saga.

Sorry if it's already been mentioned, but could Tasha be a MLM Boss Babe? Think of the damage the SW could have done with that one..

What a bore Shula is.

Poor Mia. I bet George and Jake are never asked to make the teas.

Oh scriptwriters grrr. Mia was prevented from asking Clarrie her questin not once, but twice, thus filling me with frustrated fury

I hope Mia excels at maths, goes and studies rocket science on a scholarship to MIT and becomes Borsetshire’s first astronaut, rather than becoming the drudge of the village doing the cricket teas and making paninis at the Bull for the rest of her working life.

“Oh scriptwriters grrr. Mia was prevented from asking Clarrie her questin not once, but twice, thus filling me with frustrated fury angry“
Actually- that was so realistic! The number of times my kids have picked the most awkward time possible to ask something important. I bet Clarrie will talk to her in the car on the way home.

So who won't Shula want at the church art meeting? One of Alastair's conquests?

I hope it's Usha, I'm sure she can paint a lovely Ganesh. Or Lavinia - "paint me like one of your French girls, Al".

Poor Mia, castigated for not doing her homework until the last minute, while helping out on teas.

Oh, and yet more women's work. I wonder how many man Chris asked.

Does anyone else find it slightly jarring how often children in TA address older relatives by their first names? The younger generation of Archers all address their aunts and uncles that way, and today we had Mia addressing Clarrie as Clarrie although she's effectively her step-grandmother.

That would be normal in my family.

Yes- normal in mine too. The only people who have titles are actual grandparents, not step ones and my brother- because there are 5 other Mikes around and it makes it easier.

I wonder how many man Chris asked.

He'd have been too busy trying to sign them up for nets. I suppose Mia might be a bit too young to be on the team.

I hope Mia was going to ask Clarrie how to get Will to drop Miss Jenkins, but whatever it was, I hope she does get to ask. I would also like her to be a maths genius.

I think it's odd the way the adults refer to other adults as "aunty Christine" "uncle Kenton" etc. In my family that stops by secondary school.

Long time listener and lurker and occasional poster here. Only a complete and utter moron would book a self-catering honeymoon. Grounds for immediate divorce in my book! Any self-catering break is no holiday for a woman. I know sometimes 'needs must' and all that, but a honeymoon?!

I didn't mean that Tom is now legally liable for Gnasher's debts.

But I distinctly remember, when he found out about her credit cards, Tom said something along the lines of "They're not just your debts now, though, are they? They're ours."

Or did I dream that up.....

I'm finding the treatment of Mia upsetting - all that pressure on her to be a replacement Nic and to be "a good girl" by taking a caring role within the family.
Re the honeymoon I don't see a problem with self catering per se - potentially more privacy and the opportunity to eat out at decent restaurants every night. And Natasha wouldn't be the type to wear a hair shirt and cook meals for her husband every night.

I am sure there are some people out there who would like self catering but Natasha isn't one of them. And if we know that then Tom should know that.

Any self-catering break is no holiday for a woman

It is if she's smart enough to marry a man who can cook.

The main issue with the honeymoon is being near home in cas there's a problem with the pigs. Tom shouldn't have booked any type of accommodation in any location unless he could definitely dedicate all the time to being on honeymoon.

So, apparently my wife and I are "complete and utter morons". We were young teachers, had spent a lot of our savings on a modest wedding and towards buying our first home. So we glad to be offered a friend's holiday home for our honeymoon, and have that week together, sorting out meals together as well as eating out.

Of course, we chose that option together, but I just want to challenge sweeping generalisations.

But tom didnt marry you ddd3. No one with half a brain would think that Natasha idea of fun.

I would have been fine with self-catering, part of our honeymoon was in a log cabin although it was in Canada. I would be fine with him having to go and see to the pigs too because I understand the commitment of being a farmer, there are also lotsof lovely places within 20 miles of where I live. The problem is that Natasha doesn't get this and Tom doesn't realise that Natasha doesn't get it.