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.

And before anyone chimes in about baby boomers having all the luck we tended to live in grotty bed sits, caravans and squats, anything to be independent.

Seriously- if you were a fly on the wall and witnessed your child behaving like Liberty, would you be happy?

Surely all of us have been Liberty at some point? No?

God, no - I’d have been too mortified to make myself at home and stroll around in a dressing gown. It took months before I could even stay over at now DHs family home and vice versa. It’s politeness, innit.

Happy Birthday to the Archers! First broadcast on 29 May 1950 on the Midlands Home Service.

Oh ...

What makes it worse is that my most memorable Liberty days were actually located in a farmhouse somewhat similar to Brookfield: (visiting) grandmothers, busy parents, younger siblings immersed in public exams. And a bf who was certain his parents would be entirely cool with my existence. (Absolutely not a ONS btw. The start of a longish relationship.)

Still, I’m glad I’m too old to ever have to go through all that again.

Thankyou so much, LilianGish.

That was a fab synopsis!

I was never a Liberty.

Slippery slope, Emmur, slippery slope.....

Oh god, Natasha telling Emma to buy stuff for their new home on credit, telling her it's great. For heaven's sake, how much more trouble are Ed an' Em going to get into?
The SW are putting so much emphasis on "Our new house", they might as well have a flashing neon sign saying "It's all going to go wrong". There's no subtlety or surprise.

Also, Hilda's behaviour at the Laurels was predictable, but they couldn't have had the curtain rail fixed up properly, for it to be pulled down by her climbing the curtains.

TomNTash have rented the house she wanted, haven't they? This 'housewarming' with a cast of thousands can't be the flat over the shop.

It will all end in tears.

Tash has been handing out the cards in person and nobody has yet said "hang on a minute, this address isn't TheFlatAboveTheShop"

Poor Mia Ned. It'll all end in tears.

The house warming is just utterly bonkers.

TomNTash have rented the house she wanted, haven't they?

That's the only way it would make sense.

I'm sure it will end in tears.

I don't think they've rented the other house. They'd still be locked into their fixed term on the flat, and as said, nobody has commented on a different address.

The box room that grew into a bedroom for A Net, then became Henwee's nursery, it now the size of a ballroom.

Also, Hilda's behaviour at the Laurels was predictable, but they couldn't have had the curtain rail fixed up properly, for it to be pulled down by her climbing the curtains.

Maybe Hilda is handy with a screwdriver.

What we really need is for two Archers fans to be overheard by a Corrie fan saying "do you remember that episode where Hilda Ogden climbed up a curtain and terrorised the residents of a care home?"

Maybe Natasha is luring everyone to the flat and then has organised for them to all be whisked away to the new house that she and Tom have just bought, much to everyone's surprise - including Tom's!

There's a thought Daddadad. Your crystal ball will be spot on. Who stole the bunting? Was that Gnatasher too?

'And before anyone chimes in about baby boomers having all the luck we tended to live in grotty bed sits, caravans and squats,'* but Captain* (sorry to be that anyone), most of those options have been taken away from people too now. The areas where vans would park up in Brighton is all pay and display now and has been for years. A lot of van sites have been evicted nationwide because of regeneration. Squatting residential properties has not been an option since 2012 when trespassing on residential properties with an intent to live there was made a criminal offence. The sad thing is this isn't just an issue for young people leaving home. I know a group of 30 something adult NHS workers living together in vans because they can't afford rent close to the hospital. There is still an abundance of grotty bed sits though probably significantly more as rogue landlords realise they can make more money letting rooms instead of a whole house. They're not all that cheap though.

I thought Kate was the only person Hilda really liked. I also was under the impression that the Cuban honeymoon was in August, so in for a stormy time one way or another.

I lost sympathy with Ed a while back, they have been laying it on with a trowel.

*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.*

Someone, please help! I'm still bewildered. So is DDD saying he isn't a white male, he's really a black female actuary?

that's the trouble with trying to catch up on 12 pages of thread in one sitting.

OK, everyone, I've got this one.

MereDint - for starters, black female actuary - only one of those words applies to me. The other two words apply to Sonita Alleyne who was in the news this week (again, in contrast to me who was definitely not). She is going to be the next master of a Cambridge college.

After a comment by George, I did some Wikipedia noodling and found a connection between Jesus College and The Archers: Antony Gormley is an honorary fellow of the former and he has apparently appeared as himself in TA.

so DadDadDad was in the news this weekend for good reasons did not mean "DadDadDad was in the news this weekend for good reasons"? OK, I've got that. So what did "DadDadDad was in the news this weekend for good reasons" actually mean?

Did it mean "DadDadDad [it] was in the news this weekend for good reasons" referring to Jesus College?

I thought I was getting a bit better at understanding what people were talking about when they weren't spelling it out literally. Seems not [retires back under bedclothes in miserable huddle]

@MereDintof, please don’t feel you’re alone with your lack of understanding of why D3 has anything to do with the person mentioned in the news a few weeks ago who is black and is female but is not an actuary. I do recall d3 mentioning (and in no way am I suggesting he’s an Oxbridge bore) that he studied at Cambridge (and presumably graduated too!). Other than that I can’t see any link at all with d3 and the woman mentioned in the news. And I don’t know if she had formerly been an undergrad there as I read the article, thought ‘about time’, and moved on.

And TA, I heard all the party invitations and thought the flat above the shop had just done that magic expanding thing that so many homes in have done. But it does seem more plausible that they’ve moved to the bigger place. But then wouldn’t Tom have mentioned it to his parents? It’s all a bit odd. I was shocked at Emmur being so gullible over buying stuff on credit. I didn’t think she was so naive, but then again she does tend to like what the Jones’ have so maybe it does make sense. It’s all a bit weird in Ambridge these days.

Did the original bunting have sparkly bits on it? Maybe a magpie?

Oh, regarding Liberty, it did occur to me that if it’s a true ONS then might not have been able to say good morning to Mrs Archer cos she might not have known Josh’s name let alone his grandma’s. It’s kind of ‘Joshy’ to bring someone home without mentioning it to any of the family. AND rushing off to work! But then again they all treat him quite poorly so it’s nice to see him having fun. OTOH his grandma’s response to seeing a stranger in the house is quite understandable in the circumstances.