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.

But Natasha wouldn’t invite those two for networking purposes - Kirsty has no power at all at GG

Kirsty runs the health club. When Cathy was doing the same job she made the decisions about all aspects of the operation including service procurement. I'd assumed Kirsty does the same.

Phil may not run a catering business but he comes into contact with the wider business community in the area and would certainly have useful information about them. So in his case more general networking than to pitch to him.

I’m amazed that the flat was dinner party ready. Natasha stormed out when they were still mid move, and only came back on Friday......

The beauty of TA is that most of the networking happens organically - the formal meetings generally sound clunky and odd

Mostly it happens by nepotism though within the family connections. Local business networking goes much wider and Tom/Gnasher are never going to build a business solely on family connections. Tom always talked in terms of selling to family connections and supermarkets completely ignoring the local business community. It seemed odd at the time.

kate is probably trying to get rid of the cat and the laurels are the only explanation her landlady might not think suspicious?

I’m amazed that the flat was dinner party ready

OMG no time to unpack the White Company table dressing items. 😁

Is Natasha White Company? I think she might go for something flashier....

Hmmm... That will preoccupy me now!

Have I missed something?

Natasha has waltzed back into Ambridge and no-one there seems to have batted an eyelid, commented on her return or asked her where she's been?

Think I may have missed an episode though ...

Poor Hilda, in the cat carrier for all that time. Scenes with Kate at the cricket should have been punctuated by plaintive miaows.

Also, Kate would have to have DBS check before doing the cat thing at The Laurels.

Gnasher's and Tom's Bridge Farm app must be the most underwhelming business opportunity I've ever heard of.

I still don't understand why they needed a big bank loan to launch it.

When are they off to Cuba? "Hurricane season officially runs from 1 June to 30 November, but the chances of a tropical storm impacting on your holiday are highly unlikely in June or July. In reality, hurricanes are only a realistic danger between mid August and early October"

I still don't understand, in the pick-your-own veg idea, whether using the app or not, how they intend to regulate supply and demand. Their current model is that most (all?) customers get a standard veg box with the produce selected from what Bridge Farm has available. If they go over to a model where you can pick and choose what you want, they could get left with a large amount of fresh produce nobody chooses. In the short term, this means the people in the standard veg box instead of the app will get more of the stuff no-one else wants, so will probably stop buying the box altogether if they're consistently getting a less good selection than they used to. In the long term, if a large proportion of customers use the app, they could end up with oversupply of veg they can't shift. In a larger business, this would probably regulate itself, and there would be more margin for switching what's grown. But in a place the size of Bridge Farm I don't see how they can make it work.

There might have been a vague mention from Tom a few weeks ago that there would still be a 'stock' box - the basic stuff to which all your extras would be added, but how would that work? That would basically mean that they'd be charging X amount for the stuff you don't really want before you're allowed to add anything to your basket. No one's going to go for that.

I have no idea how capitalism works, having managed to spend my entire working life so far, from Saturday job as a teenager upwards, in the public and third sector, so I might be wrong here - but how could anyone expect to make money from a scheme like this?!

DadDadDad was in the news this weekend for good reasons, I saw.

For anyone who might read that as saying I've been in the news, I think ANutAsBig is referring to a college which appointed its first female master and the first black person to head any Cambridge college. Given the ridiculously small number of black students at Cambridge, I agree this is a good (if small) step.

The Hilda Ogden story is totally ridiculous, I think she will escape from the Laurels, be lost for a while, and Peggy will throw Kate out as a result. Speculating further she will be found by Jazzer, who will strike up an unlikely friendship with Hilda and Peggy and will move in as a paid companion. Alternatively, she will be run over by Natasha in the white sports car.

Oh, thanks for explaining DadDadDad. I saw that news item but didn't associate it with you (I knew you were a Tab, but no more than that). I thought there must have been some story I missed about an actuaries' uprising, led by a mysterious shadowy Archers fan.

sorry @DadDadDad yes, my comment was rather ambiguous. Apologies.

Presumably the actuarial uprising will be swift, precise and completed with a lack of fuss.

Anyone who opposes the actuarial uprising will find they have a qx of 1. (actuaries' joke)

Now back to TA...

Have we had a scene with Pat and Tom and/or Natasha since her return? Given how distraught Pat was, is she just going to participate in the Am-nesia that's afflicting everyone else and act like nothing's happened?

Kate would have to have DBS check before doing the cat thing at The Laurels.

Not if she's supervised by a staff member while doing it. But they had a school party from Brum back in the winter, didn't they? So I would have thought she'd already have one for Spiritual Home, and she was speaking a bit like it was an extension of healing and therapy options of that. (What she discussed and agreed with the Laurels may vary from how she is portraying it inside her head.)

I have no idea how capitalism works ... how could anyone expect to make money from a scheme like this?!
It's obvious that you have a very poor grasp of modern commercial realities. If you are a go-getting couple like Tom'nTash you don't actually sell any goods on the website (so last century), it's merely a vehicle to sell advertising space. Best peppered with click-bait links like
HR problems? We got Mr J McCreary a cheque for £4000. See if Lloyd Lawyers can do the same for you
Try the new treatment sweeping the nation: TherapyCatsRUs
Do you have FOMO? Click this link to find out

Just misread your post, CreamCardigan, about Tracey Horrobin! I somehow didn't see the slash/oblique, and read it as "Why don't you get a cleaner childminder, Will?"

Best laugh I've had for ages

I think they said the honeymoon is in July.

Gnasher is sounding deranged I was getting echoes of a female Rob Titchener at some points.

I think she went off on a massive spending spree and maxed out a couple of new cards and got the car on tick. She's going to come out as a "spendaholic" or something similar...

I liked Kenton’s use of Sausage King to describe Tom. Has that been done on the programme before (possibly last year’s single wicket)? Is that a nod to Internet forums - here / Mustardland?

Fink, I get a standard veg box, and I can add extras onto it via the website. It works well for me, but I don't get the impression that the farmer is growing rich from it. Also, I've been able to add extras for years; I can't see what's novel or innovative about the Bridge Farm scheme.