Thread #105: Curtains for Emma, Hilda - Joe? Red carpet for June Spencer on her 100th birthday, we hope! Discuss the rich tapestry of Ambridge life here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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.

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 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3439443-keep-it-to-yourself-the-archers-spoilers-thread-4, 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 to LillianGish and BuckingFrolics for ideas for this thread title. I went with the less Rabelaisian of LG's ideas!

On 14th June it will be the 100th birthday of June Spencer, who has played Peggy Woolley since 1951. I hope the BBC has a lot of special tributes lined up to celebrate this remarkable achievement.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thanks, Asking!

[AskingQuestionsAllTheTime]

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
I was hoping Asking would remember, as she seems to have an exhaustive knowledge of TA! Mine is erratic.

I'm fairly sure it was said by someone to be a "significant" birthday but I don't think we were told which one, any more than we were told the date of it.

(Only on the Archers could someone have a life-shattering party celebrating a date that is never mentioned!)

I was assuming eighty because Alistair was born in 1962 and I really don't think it was all that usual to marry and have a child while you were at university yourself back at the beginning of the sixties; Jim would have needed to be over 21 in 1962, which would make him at least 78 now. If he is 80 that would also fit with his having been retired when he first came to Ambridge in 2007. (In 2007 he said nothing and nothing was said about his injury meaning he had to be off work, so I assumed at the time that he wasn't off work, but was retired instead. Back than I am not sure we had a dob for Alistair either: it wasn't in any of the books.)

Sorry I can't give the right answer just like that, Gasp0de, only a lot of reasoning you've already pretty-much dealt with..

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

New thread

[MikeUniformMike]

Which well known actor already in TA has a wobot for a child?

[birdsdestiny]

I don't think I will be available to start a new thread
Don't you start being mysterious DDD, we have got enough going on with Jim

[Choccyp1g]

greygirl Why does Kira sound so posh?

That'll be because she is the daughter of a well-known actor who is already in the Archers. Just guessing.

[JazzersMaw]

Someone a couple of pages ago questioned the idea of Jim being Scottish. He isn’t!! Around the time he came to Ambridge (c 10 yrs ago?), part of his story was he’d recently retired from an academic post at University of Stirling. There was never any suggestion he grew up there and now we’ve got all the relative dates it’s quite plausible that he moved to Scotland after his children went to uni themselves. Say Alistair was born 1962, and Fiona born 1964, then they’d be off to uni themselves in the early 80s. So Jim could have taken himself off to Stirling then and stayed till he retired. Jim being a fairly young father kind of fits with the story as Alistair’s also suggested he didn’t have time for them, was always working etcetera. Being a father in his mid-20s and building an academic career wouldn’t leave much time to do both roles well. And having a woman to do the wife work would enable that - till she died. I do feel sad for these two little fictitious children. [sob] Of course the mystery of Jim's trauma remains and i’ll never get back the time I’ve spent doing sums on the back of my envelope.

[greygirl]

Maybe Jim’s wife died in a car crash; the car was driven by Harold and put Harold in a wheelchair.
On another note, I do hope Ed ‘n’ Emur get their house.
Also why does Kira sound so posh?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

I'm quite happy to do it. About to get on a train - I'm assuming we're not going to have 38 messages before I get home. I'll do it there, easier on a laptop.

[DadDadDad]

I meant elicited. The ghost of Malaprope has got me.

By the way, I've just searched, and to avoid any scandal, I should clarify I had no hand in the "We listen so you don't have to" line (which I agree is funny): it was all Pseudo's work - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/a2608367-The-Archers-Its-so-much-more-than-just-a-soap-Its-a-bloody-drama#60381533

[DadDadDad]

I think I got that from another poster and thought it would make a good title. I don't think I'll be available to start a new thread.

Anyway, I'm still savouring how my allusion to atavism elucidated discombobulation.

[AbGonk]

You do it, DDD as you came up with the best thread title ever "The Archers - we listen so you don't have to"

Still makes me chuckle.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Maybe Harold "stole" the love of Jim's life (the girlfriend before the woman he married) and now he's trying to "steal" Kiki?

Or maybe he's never going to open up and it'll be a mystery forever, so there isn't actually any story because there doesn't need to be?

[DadDadDad]

Is anyone going to give Gasp0de a break and offer to start the next thread? There are plenty of regulars out there who could do it.

[Tuktuktaker]

Sorry, LilianGish - I misunderstood you, I was discombobulated by DDD's long words and overcome with the excitement of my euphemism being noticed Thank you for the compliment

[StVincent]

Oh great shout - it would be amazing if he was a nazi war criminal...

[ppeatfruit]

Lady Jim has already called Shula "the worst type of hypocrite". Before Easter, and she couldn't give her ' talk' in Church. He's the only one who has actually said it referring to her breaking her marriage vows.

[Tuktuktaker]

"Tuktuktaker I absolutely love your theory - particularly the playing the piano together being a euphemism. I'm beginning to fear that the reality will never live up to our speculation grin.
Sorry DDD - I realise you just said that blush."

LilianGish You were right first time, 'twas I, Tuktuktaker (the artist formerly known as Dumdedumdedum or MerdedeBrexit)

[LillianGish]

Should we have some more guesses then? What kind of thing would Jim consider to be an "evil thing"? It's something that Al and his sister know nothing about so it either happened before they were born or while they were away at boarding school. They only vaguely know Harold as the son of a friend of granny and grandad. No-one at the party - all of whom had been part of Jim's life at some time or another - thought it odd that Harold was there so this is some intensely secret, private evil that no-one else knows anything about. Why is Harold in a wheelchair and is this significant? Harold said Jim was a nice man and hung around to play the piano. Why would someone you consider to be evil make a point of coming to your birthday party uninvited? Is he some kind of psychopath? Jim's evil twin? He looks harmless now - like some ancient Nazi war criminal being brought to trial in his dotage - but what could he have done that was so terrible (and that we haven't already guessed)?

[LadyRannaldini]

How many of us would take the stuff she took from Jim, and keep going?

Most people would learn to mind their own business.she isn't St Theresa of Ambridge.

[LadyRannaldini]

I was pleased to hear Jim pointing out her utter hypocrisy, at complaining about how much he's hurt Al.

I almost cheered when he dragged her off her self-styled pedestal, how dare she force herself into Jim's home, whatever his problems might be! Had he slapped her as an intruder he would have perfectly within his rights.
If Alistair had respected his father's wishes in the first place none of this would have happened.

[ppeatfruit]

Yes Dadx3 I just LA and his voice changes , lightens a little, after he smashed the music centre. Certainly good acting there from them both. He's like the soldiers from the the 2 World Wars, not giving voice to his terrible experience, hoping it'll just go away. Shula was right to push him.

[BertrandRussell]

Roifield is my secret love......

[GeorgeTheBleeder]

Bert & Roifield in a treeee

K I . . . . .



Belated BOOP for last night.

Impressive titling Lil’G

[BertrandRussell]

Roifieldm says the Alasdair actor said that he hasn’t seen the real storyline speculated about on social media anywhere.....