Fast falls the eventide for Joe Grundy, the darkness deepens for Ed - will he be fenced in or is there still time for acts of pennants? Abide with us and discuss The Archers, thread #104!

[GabrielleNelson]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit and more recently when someone forgot they had promised to start the next thread, ahem.

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 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!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks also to LillianGish for the splendid thread title. As actor Edward Kelsey died last month, we have probably heard Joe Grundy for the last time, or will do very shortly. RIP Mr Kelsey; many thanks for creating a wonderfully vivid character, gnarly toenails and all.

As pointed out on the last thread, we're getting very close now to the 100th birthday of June Spencer, who plays Peggy Woolley. What an achievement! I hope the team manage to squeeze Peggy into that day's episode, come what may.

I agree, it wasn't just a tone of annoyance, but a more spiteful edge particularly when Jazzer was the topic of discussion

She sounded really spiteful about Will having childcare problems re Poppy and it came across as quite spiteful towards Poppy too. Clarrie had George and Keira and she was gloating about Clarrie not having Poppy too.

LilG - to answer your question, we typically run at 50 or so posts per day these days, so yes, seeing more than 75 posts in the past twenty-four hours is quite a step up. If it's lurkers de-lurking then it's welcome!

I couldn't understand why Roy thought it was so awful to continue to have Brine and JD as neighbours. I thought it was Hannah who was moaning about their music choices?

knowing said inlaws have to move leaving me homeless in the forseeable future

But the only reason that they have to move is that EdnEmmur are moving out, so (a) Emmur won't be homeless (well, not till Ed gets locked up and the new starter home disappears in a puff of smoke) and (b) even she would find it hard to justify feeling hard done by in a situation that she's brought about.

ppeat - I'm sorry, I must be dense, all I remember commenting about the soup and the polka-dot shoes was replying to someone who asked who'd mentioned "polka-dot shoes" by saying that it was Camilla and writing down what I'd heard her say! So no extraction of polka-dots from me, anyway!

Acis I don't remember that conversation. Are you sure it wasn't Kirsty? She lives with Roy in Willow Cottage, next to Willow Farm where Brian and Jennifer live, quite a way out. Hannah lives at 1 the Green, which is in the centre of the village. So if she were complaining about the music it would have to have been when she was over visiting Kirsty and Roy, which I don't remember she has done. The only conversation I remember was between Kirsty and Helen when Helen was over during the Aldridges' housewarming party. I think she was generally annoyed by the noise levels rather than their taste in music.

I don't think Roy was ever a massive fan of having the Aldridges as neighbours, just not as vehement about it as Kirsty. I wonder if he sees it as a bit too much like hard work with all Jennifer's pretensions. Plus, as his sort of ex-ILs, they haven't exactly been his best friends over the years.

Oops, sorry, that last was I, Dumdedumdedeum, I changed back to my old name today in honour of the European Parliamentary Elections. (Vote early, vote often.)

Kirsty and Roy live in Willow Farm. It is Brian and Jennifer who live in Willow Cottage. Hannah houseshares with Johnneh at No 1 The Green.

I was a bit confused by the reference to Rotaboy and JD’s love nest upthread too. I mean this is the Archers not Emmerdale!

I was joking because of the pp about Roy living in Willow Cottage, which he doesn't. He lives next door.

On another note, did I miss an episode where Jakub (the vet-organist à la Carmelita Spats tap dancing ballerina fairy princess veterinarian) gave up the job and left? Or has he had his 5 minutes of fame and now gone to join Kathy, Bert, Henry, Jenny et al in the silent cupboard?

No he is still there. Alistair pretended he was speaking to him the other day to cover up the fact he was organising Jim's party.

Leonard! Mind you own beeswax.

BuckingFrolics
Apparently they record four episodes? Instalments? at a time.

It used to be four weeks' episodes at a time and it took them a week to do it.

Back when they still brought out annual "Who's Who" volumes, there was a foreword explaining all sorts of things and that was one of them, in the 2013 one.

The other thing which told you which block the week's episodes had been recorded in was that the scriptwriters used to do the last week of one block of four and the first week of the next one, so that there would be continuity. It would go for example
Week 4: Mary Cutler (23-28/2/2014)
Week 1: Mary Cutler
Week 2: Nawal Gadalla
Week 3: Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti
Week 4: Tim Stimpson
Week 1: Tim Stimpson
Week 2: Keri Davies
Week 3: Simon Frith
Week 4: Joanna Toye
Week 1: Joanna Toye
Week 2: Caroline Harrington
Week 3: Adrian Flynn
Week 4: Simon Frith
Week 1: Simon Frith

Sometimes one writer didn't do weeks 4 and 1 but mostly that was how it worked. That has certainly changed, because we have just had

Week 4: Naylah Ahmed (week of 10-15/3/2019)
Week 1: Naylah Ahmed
Week 2: Caroline Harrington
Week 3: Keri Davies
Week 4: Nick Warburton
Week 5: Adrian Flynn
Week 1: Adrian Flynn
Week 2: Sarah McDonald Hughes
Week 3: Tim Stimpson
Week 4: Gillian Richmond
Week 5: Paul Brodrick
Week 1: Paul Brodrick

Perhaps they are now doing a week per day of recording. and doing five weeks at a time instead of four.

[Emmur] sounded really spiteful about Will having childcare problems re Poppy and it came across as quite spiteful towards Poppy too. Clarrie had George and Keira and she was gloating about Clarrie not having Poppy too

I thought she sound annoyed and exasperated as yet again Will just assumes Emma and Clarrie will pick up his slack.

He has had a year of Emma, Clarrie, Mia and others covering Nic's load for him. In all that time he still hasn't sorted out regular childcare or even organised his own shopping and cleaning. He is still expecting two overworked women to pick up his slack.

He is prickly as hell when anyone tries to suggest ways to manage things.

Emma took Poppy yet again at short notice when she had been up all night working and gave him tactful suggestions about managing Poppy's school bag as well as telling him she couldn't do more babysitting later in the week.

Yet again he organises nothing and just assumes they will reorganise their plans around his wants.

Bev has offered to help, he is too proud to accept it (thereby cutting off Poppy from Nic's family).

I'd be pretty bloody exasperated by now.

But the only reason that [the Grundys] have to move is that EdnEmmur are moving out

I thought it was more than just EdnEmmur's money, that generally they were still struggling with the rent? But now you mention it I'm not so sure.

“[Emmur] sounded really spiteful about Will having childcare problems re Poppy and it came across as quite spiteful towards Poppy too. Clarrie had George and Keira and she was gloating about Clarrie not having Poppy too”

Really? I didn’t read it like that at all.

Really? I didn’t read it like that at all

Spiteful you mean? No nor did I that was my point.

“Spiteful you mean? No nor did I that was my point.“

I was agreeing with you. I don’t think Emma is spiteful or gloating at all.Seems a very odd interpretation to me.

I thought Emma was vile last night. Regardless of Will, Poppy is very young , has lost her mother and now her big sister and brother have moved out. Emma came across as really nasty - going on about Clarrie having George and Keira but she shouldn't have Poppy.

Looks like Will is going to take Poppy to work with him. What could possibly go wrong?

Poppy is very young , has lost her mother and now her big sister and brother have moved out

Emmur and Clarrie have both bent over backward to accommodate Will's refusal to organise proper childcare/household managment. Both have given up paid work they could ill afford at times because he was not sorting himself out. Both have financially supported him in a myriad of small ways with no real acknowledgement from Will who is financially stronger and who has other childcare options available as well as doing what everyone else does and getting a childminder.

I don't think it was spite at all, it was fully justified exasperation. Just as will Clarrie tonight.

Will has (a) made his life harder on purpose by sacking Pete and (b) doesn't plan ahead - everything is always a last minute emergency.

I appreciate he is grieving but it seems as if Will only accepts help if its on his terms.

Emma sounded spiteful when talking about Jazzer, but I thought her reactions around Will’s childcare cadging were very different and were firmly based in very natural exasperation. He clearly feels it’s his right to have all the women, and even Joe, rallying round, otherwise sheer self-respect would stop the continuous begging and wheedling and cadging. If anything had happened to Poppy whilst in Joe’s care he’d have been the first to blame Joe.

I wonder whether Poppy is going to start talking in school about wandering around the countryside with Daddy all night, and the fun she had playing with Daddy’s gun? If a social worker turns up on Will’s doorstep he’ll probably attack him or her and Poppy will be placed with Bev forthwith.

I thought the Kenton/David encounter handled well in some ways, David's anger at money suddenly be coming available when he could have been paid back ages ago.

What was less convincing, and puts David in a bad light, is his continued anger and stamping off, though it lays the plot lines for his reaction when he finds out Jill has underwritten Kenton's feckless ways. Again. While it will be none of his business if his mother chooses to piss her money away like this, it will breed resentment.

I foresee a time when a money gift/loan from Jill would be handy for those at Brookfield, and she is unable to do this.