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.

What did Tony mean by saying it was his ambition that meant Tom was sitting there now?
The competition is specifically for local landowners (hencewhy the Dopeys were there but no Grundys nor Fairbrothers). Pat'n'Tone originally rented; they took a huge mortgage gamble when they negotiated to buy the farm from the Estate.

I think I have found Natasha’s housewarming outfit.

< Cuban gin.

A permaculture approach would be much more radical/useful
Making the farm a sustainability centre which demonstrates best practices and case studies

But isn't this largely what P&T have always aimed for rather than just avoiding pesticides, synthetic hormones etc? Alongside animal welfare for the animals they do keep? They have a sizeable range of crops and a relatively small footprint of animals, especially since they sold the original dairy herd.

I can certainly recall conversations around permaculture, soil structure, introducing greater diversity in wildlife etc They seemed to treat the two as aspects of the overall goal of farming sustainably and that featured in many of the conversations.

However imperfect they are way ahead of the other two farms in the competition in terms of enviroment and sustainability efforts over a long period.

Bridge Farm invested in a pond/sedge/reed scheme back when Helen started seeing Rob. Sounded pretty eco, too.

The poo lagoon

Indeed!

Now the sidelining of Lillian merely looks like a plot device to raise the temperature for a while. How on earth can Peggy say she didn't exclude Lillian personally when that's exactly what she did, leave her out on the grounds of a personal estimate?

Half a million on fruit trees? Bog standard apples, pears and cherry trees are about £5 each. Retail they're more like £20. Then there are things like stakes and tree guards to buy, and labour for planting. But even so, it's a lot of trees!

It's odd that she applied for the job in the first place though, There was something odd about when she opened the letter, it was almost as if she couldn't remember applying and for an instant I wondered if Philip had filled in the application form for her without telling her.

Oddly enough I really like the perceptible distinction between Peggy’s relationship with Jenny and that with Lilian. She’s generally quite robust with Jenny - even though she’s ready to tear apart anyone (mostly Brian) who crosses her. With Lilian she often seems to forget how deceptively needy her daughter is - then, when reminded, she’s much gentler than she’s ever been with pretty much anyone else. (It’s not inconceivable that I find this particularly striking because it reminds me of a mother / ancient daughter relationship in my own family ...)

My first comment on this thread as I’ve been following but not finding anything useful to add!!

So I’ll pitch in to say that I think something about core business etc should feature in the next thread title.

I thought Kirsty and Philip sorting out their differences tonight wrt the tv, the finances and the job were a nice contrast to the heated way that Tom and Gnasher failed to solve their differences.

I know we've been made to feel that Philip is this boring middle-aged man but he was wonderful tonight. Tony is being ridiculous insisting Tom forgoes this amazing opportunity, even if it is divisive as hell.

What's Gnasher going to say about Tom's decision, I wonder.....😲

Philip was excellent tonight.

I actually thought Tony had a point last night - Peggy is constantly calling family meetings and chopping and changing her mind with regards to her will. That’s without even questioning how much money she actually has after Hazel swooped in to scoop up all Jick’s cash and businesses (another storyline that was never satisfactorily concluded).

“ Peggy is constantly calling family meetings and chopping and changing her mind with regards to her will”

Is she? I know she did it once- realised she was wrong and changed her mind- I can’t remember her doing it again? Maybe my mind has blanked it out as too tedious. I agree about the Hazel storyline- did Peggy buy her off?

Also her family don’t know about her bank rolling Aunty Cardboard when she was scammed out of her money (was this ever made public knowledge - I can’t remember?) and then funding her early days at The Laurels. This is another “Peggy’s cash” storyline that seemed to go nowhere.

Is she still supporting Aunty Cardboard?

No, she's not.

I must say, the consequences of Christine’s losing £200k seem pretty negligible. The odd moan over a few weeks about her new penury - and then, miraculously, with Peter’s help she’s ended up in exactly the (exclusively luxurious) place she would have wanted anyway.

Rich people’s troubles ...

She’s not supporting her any more, but the plot thus far had seemed to suggest she’d shelled out quite a bit on Christine to avoid her having to face the humiliation of telling people she’d been scammed. I was looking forward to the moment when Peggy’s family found out how much she’d spent, but no - it appears the coffers are replete again and Peggy is Lady Bountiful once more.

It’s just a lot of plots going nowhere - which was pretty much what Tony said last night (where fact and fiction collide).

The plot line around Peggy’s cash seem to go: Oooh she’s married Jick - she’s absolutely loaded. Oh dear Jick’s died, Hazel’s taken everything. Never mind she’s still got a bit of cash tucked away - she’s going to leave it all to Tom. No she’s changed her mind - she’s going to do a fair division. No she’s changed her mind again she’s going to make everyone compete for her cash. Meanwhile Aunty Chris has fallen on hard times - never mind, Peggy’s going to support her. Oh no, she’s been tripped up by the demon cat - never mind, Peggy can pay for her to stay in The Laurels. What’s it all costing? We’ll never know. What will the family who are all toadying around her hoping she’ll chuck some cash their way say when they find out? We’ll never know that either because she’s still got loads of money.

Lilian I noticed that going on and had to laugh when Lilian , or JD, said something like " lets not make a silly drama out of nothing again" !! When they were staking out Peggy's house fgs.

Maybe a SW is aware of how stupid it all sounds.

Though I did like Adam being frightened of clowns, I hate them too. I like spiders, even tarantulas don't phase me (unless one appeared in the bath I suppose!

I know she did it once- realised she was wrong and changed her mind- I can’t remember her doing it again?

I can think of a few but many more summonings over the years for one, two or other subset. It does often feel a bit divide and rule. The divisions over her Will/money are a recurring tedium. I'm with Tony frankly, its just going to mean trouble.

Peggy bought Hazel off, the amount was never disclosed but Jack was still alive then so presumably it was effectively an advance on her inheritance.

I remain mystified that the widow of a publican whose only asset was the pub, whose inheritance from Jack was the house and an income and whose investments were doing so badly just a few years ago suddenly has squillions to spend.

Isn't there a money tree somewhere in Ambridge?

I'm sure I remember it being mentioned on here occasionally