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.

I think as Peggy has invited the major Landiwners except Justin that she has found out something dodgy that Justin is mixed up in. And it affects land around the village.

Re Peggy:

What if she is the Gills?

Someone has probably posited this theory before - but now it all seems to fall into place. (Although why she would announce it now, other than for June Spenser birthday purposes ...) I asked yesterday why, if she were about to buy Home Farm she hadn’t done it immediately. She’s never trusted Brian and would want to secure the house (and whatever land was involved) for Archers - her daughter and grandchildren. IIRC it was Peggy who got the shutting up the house dialogue with Jenny when they moved out. Which always seemed odd to me.

If she’s been buying up the land from Justin’s various embodiments that would also be excellent - but it’s got so complicated I’ve forgotten who owns what.

Oh, it would be cool! I can hardly wait for Friday.

(June Spencer has a Guardian interview today btw.)

Perhaps she wanted to teach Brian a lesson by not revealing she owns Home Farm but that means she deliberately let Jenny suffer.

I honestly can’t see Peggy being so deceptive.

Yes, that's more of a Justin Elliott or Matt Crawford kind of behaviour than something Piggoi might do. How much money did Jack Woolley leave her, anyway? I'm thinking most of it has now gone on paying for Christine's stay at The Laurels or wherever she is living now.

I did wonder the same thing at the start George, but haven’t we heard about work being done on the house and the garden being ripped apart (with Ruari’s dog statue getting smashed) - I don’t think this would have happened if Peggy was the Gills. Also why wait so long to announce it when she knew how distressed Jennifer was?

Oh, I know ...

If the actual Gills are tenants they might well have been given permission to mess about with the garden. (And gone beyond their remit with the stone dog.) We don’t actually know what’s happening inside the house, do we? Just rumour and speculation.

Can someone explain why Bridge Farm were getting a delivery of weaners (sp?) when Tom is getting rid of the pigs?

Maybe Tom’s changed his mind- without telling anyone?

I also wondered about the weaners - I thought the idea was that he would reduce the business gradually by getting rid of the existing pigs when their time came and not replacing them. This was the role he offered Jazzer - suggesting he could stay until they were all gone and then move onto veg boxes.

Is it possible he has a regular delivery of weaners and forgot to cancel? Happened to me with the Sunday Times Wine Club. Nightmare.

Yes, I reckon he forgot to cancel, or maybe he'd not got alternative supplies lined up so can't stop his porcine pipeline yet.

Alternative explanation is that actually they are diversifying and it was a consignment of wieners. They wouldn't like being out in a field though.

I really don't think Peggy has bought house. There was all that business with the stone dog, the kitchen being ripped out, and the noisy party, with caterers.

No idea why Tom's had weaners delivered, but at least we found out what the message was, that Ben sent from Adam's phone. I felt a bit sorry for Susan at the end though.

And Jim was positively nasty to Linda. Whatever is the cause for his behaviour, the people around him don't deserve the treatment he's dishing out, especially Linda, who despite her previous dislike of him, was trying to do a nice thing.

BertrandRussell I laughed at the idea of the Sunday Times Wine Club posting a load of piglets through your door☆ because you forgot to cancel your subscription. And you coming home to find them all running riot in your hallway!

☆Clearly I'm imagining a big letterbox, so that each piglet can be individually guided through in comfort.

Ref. Home Farmhouse did I imagine that the Gills have re let it to the loud people someone called 'the Wards' ? I think one of the Brookfield boys said it or was it Ruarhi?

How much money did Jack Woolley leave her, anyway? I'm thinking most of it has now gone on paying for Christine's stay at The Laurels or wherever she is living now.

I think Christine took over payments when she decided to stay permanently. There was a discussion about how she could just about afford it.

I have a bad feeling that Peggy's meeting is going to be a terrible anticlimax - she might just be asking one of the families to adopt Hilda (Lilian excluded from meeting as her dog is over-exuberant)!

Did you know the Agricultural Story Editor tweets @squeezyswad?
I wonder if she is on Mumsnet too

Hate to be nitpicky, but it's Lynda not Linda. Linda would be far too ordinary a name for La Snell.
I don't think I was listening last night so am intrigued by the weaners.

The obvious person to adopt Hilda would be Kate - the only other person who actually likes her.

intrigued by the weaners I also immediately thought that the SWs have really 'lost the plot'!!! They wouldn't be getting in weaners if Tom was running down the pig busines , maybe it was an excuse to have Susan. Pat and Llian in the same scene, actually doing manual farming work and to give the shoe fetishist among the SWs something to mention.

I've never heard of anyone sending stupid texts\emails about baby names, has anyone else?

The weaner thing might just be because he hasn't found an organic pork supplier for his sausages yet so needs to keep up his own supply.

I've never heard of anyone sending stupid texts\emails about baby names, has anyone else?

They were referencing Michael McIntyre. As mentioned in TA, he gets a 'celebrity' guest to hand over their phone, sends a generic 'funny' text to all the people in their contacts list, and reads out some of the responses. It's not to do with baby names specifically.

It's not a funny programme. We have it on because someone else in my household likes it.

Ruairi chose it as one of the bucket list challenges for Adam and Ian. Although I must be missing something as I can't see how it has anything to do with something Adam and Ian would want to accomplish before they became parents, which was the point of the bucket list.

It wasn't funny, it was pathetic.

Well, presumably it’s the one and only time they’ll ever be able to send this particular prank message!