Discuss The Archers - yes, this really is Thread 103. Are you going to vote for feet, stations of the cross, or a hologram? Will Natasha ever return? Will Russ ever leave?

[DadDadDad]

Exciting times - this thread will witness our 100,000th post in this long-running unbroken chain of threads.

New and old posters welcome. Don't spoil with any future plotlines.

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Carry on...

grumiosmum

I missed Friday's episode - please could someone fill me on what happened between Will & Mia? Thanks

It's on BBC iplayer- probably best to listen to it. It was very well done.

LassofFyvie Yes I could listen on iplayer but as I've already heard tonight's then it feels a bit odd going out of sync.

Also not sure I've got a spare 12.5 minutes at the moment.

Maybe I will listen before I go to sleep.

The gist is that Will told Mia he'd booked a camping holiday in the Lake District. She wasn't blown away. He was vile to her and told her Nic would be really disappointed in her. She called her Dad and got him to come and take her away. Worth finding the time when/if you can but that's about it.

Everything came to a head over a camping holiday Will had planned. Mia wanted to spend the summer at her father's. Will completely misjudged the situation and said some awful things. To be fair he wasn't trying to be hurtful but as he has no emotional intelligence, he was. Mia called her father to collect her and she has gone to Andrew's. She probably won't come back except to see Poppy.

Sounds like a parallel with Tom's honeymoon faux pas?

It was much better written, acted and believable. Tom's honeymoon story is ridiculous.

When Mia told Will she wanted to spend the summer with her father and Jake he exploded over all of the extra chores he'd been doing that week so she didn't have too. When she said she wished things could go back to how they were before her mum died he raged at her that he wanted that, but her saying so meant she was unappreciative of him, and she would be a disappointment to her mother.

It was brilliantly acted, thoroughly vile and had so much more I think I've had to block out for my own well being. Definitely worth a listen if you can find the time.

Catching up with the thread - I thought Will and Emma went to Cancun for their honeymoon, but I think it was definitely Emma who wanted somewhere exotic.

Well if Freddie can’t carry a table as far as Lily, he can’t have spent his stint inside doing pull ups with the sleeves of his overalls tied round his waist, can he? That is a deep disappointment.

I had to look up the song playing when Lizzie found him (delighted to find you can Shazam iPlayer! It was Pata pata by Miriam Makeba, 1967 Afro-pop, thank you Google!)

I presume a link to Nolunthando - I recall she introduced Freddie to a new genre but can’t remember what. If so, interesting that he took refuge in memories of her and his father while cogitating the Facebook comments. Yet he still doesn’t really comprehend that his dealing nearly killed her (I know she had some culpability but so did he). Similar reflective abilities as Will? And apparently as much business acumen as Tom, with as much parental indulgence on his poorly researched ideas. I was a bit at Lizzie suggesting Freddie had ‘done his planning’ (which in SW-world seems to amount to a bit of advertising) - he wouldn’t even entertain talking about H&S let alone do a risk assessment (necessary for insurance? A la David’s headache over Lynda’s bard in the barn?). As R4 pointed out, given LL’s... history, safety would have been a key concern. No pricing strategy, no market research... Did Russ manage his contrastingly successful event because it was mostly by invitation and an outlay for LL rather than income?

And I’m not sure if it should be a BOOP or a that Emma was so surprised at Will offering to make a drink for his wifeworkers on Clarrie’s apparently one day off a year...

I really felt for Freddie but thought the scene between him and Elizabeth was so nicely done. £15 for that tour seems crazy - a fiver might have been ok.

My mind boggled at the price tag attached to looking at a load of uncurated tut. While Lily's sneering at the idea in an earlier ep was unpleasant, the unrealistic start-up timeline guaranteed failure. OTOH it gave the SWs an opportunity to foreground social attitudes towards Freddie after his crime, which might have been what it was for.

Ridiculous of Lizzie to say that Freddie had done everything right when the whole thing was a total failure.

Don't stately homes normally run "Behind the scenes" tours as separate events, frequently when the main house is closed? Quite apart from the extra cost, after I've been round a stately home and the grounds I'm usually pretty tired and frequently footsore: generally all I'm up for is a good cup of tea, not another trek around the attics.

Have found my people.🙂

Just caught up on the omnibus today. The scene between Will and Mia had me in tears. I agree he is heading for a breakdown.

I actually think the price is not that mindblowing. Has anyone been to alnwick castle lately . But he should not have run it when the house was open to visitors. It needed to be sold as something extra special that the usual visitors don't get. That would have appealed to people like Susan and maybe Linda.

The 'Lord Fauntleroy' comment... only to be expected.

Neither Freddie or Elizabeth seem to have a clue about their immense privilege. They are focusing on the 'poor fatherless boy' narrative (wallowing in the attic, Topper's ashes, Winnie-the-Pooh bedtime stories....) to avoid facing the real reasons he chose to start dealing drugs and his total disregard for the impact on others.

Elizabeth is getting counselling. Where is the psychological support for Freddie? I also think he needs to be doing some proper work at LoLo to cover his keep.

Interesting that they chose Clarrie to offer a free ticket to... I didn't think LoLo would have been her thing at all so there is a reason they were there. Reminded me that Ed was lucky to have Oliver Sterling around to help when he got into drugs but it could have destroyed him.

IIRC The Grundys do seem to take the children to LL when they can - usually for seasonal festivities.

Yes ... If Freddie really wants his tours to take off he’ll need to collaborate with other members of the household - perhaps offering them under a generic LL heading, without his name. And, if people book online (the tickets on the door was silly) they’re unlikely to change their minds once they get there and find him awaiting them. Wonder if the SWs will do that.

The children, yes, because there are probably not a lot of local alternatives for kids.

Maybe the Grundies have some sort of annual ticket so it’s not that expensive.

Oh the irony of Clarrie wanting to keep George and Kiera away from that nasty criminal Freddy... when Ed is dabbling in criminal activity under their noses.

When Emma was blabbing on blithely about him getting a big pay packet for Tim’s short notice job - surely Clarrie’s Feckless-Grundy-Males-Up-To-No-Good radar would have started pinging?

I bet the Grundys just go to the grounds and the tea room, not into the house.

I think that it was quite cleverly killing several birds with one stone:
Clarrie's reaction to Freddie's criminality (and her hypocrisy)
a history lesson on the Pargetters for new listeners
bringing the family together (sans CMR!)
it shows Freddie's change of heart re LL and his first foray into "the family business"
a Public Information section about how to run events at your stately home (might be for quite a small sub-set of listeners, that one)

I think that the SW's have changed Clarrie's character, she's not a small minded person, as you say she's part of a petty criminal family who have had close dealings with ilegal drugs, and does the cider club have a licence?

Clarrie strives towards honest dealing and respectability. She hates the petty criminal elements in the family.

I also think there is a difference between what Eddie does to get by within the rural economy (which I deplore but can understand the temptation), and what Freddie Pargetter was doing. He didn't need the money to put food on the table and could have earned it if he'd really wanted to.

But Ed got involved with drugs once (in 2006 when Emma and George moved out of the caravan into Ambridge View) - he ended up beaten up and hospitalised, twice. And Clarrie would know about Jazzer too. I’m not surprised she wants to keep her grandchildren away from a known drug dealer - particularly one who would otherwise be socially influential.

You're forgetting that Ed ran away and got involved with all sorts , it is unlike Clarrie to be hypocritical , teenagers need to be given chances in life to go straight however poor or rich they are.