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.

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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.

Gosh, this 6.30pm ‘comedy’ is awful. (Not even going to dignify it with a title or credits.)

It honestly sounds intended as a Teaching English as a Foreign Language resource ...

Is Jolene's ex still in the kitchen at The Bull?

BOOP for Tony!

It’s almost as if the SWs have been listening to us!

Gosh, this 6.30pm ‘comedy’ is awful.
I had to turn the radio off and remember to turn it back on at 7. It was dreadful.

That was an almost listenable to episode! And I haven’t been able to say that for ages.....

I switched off the comedy last week.

Is Jolene's ex still in the kitchen at The Bull?

As far as I know, ThatCat. I don’t remember him leaving/being sacked - but I could easily be wrong.

Peggy was frustratingly obstinate - not even willing to consider there might be a better way to achieve her aim.

Jazzer was an idiot even by Jazzer's standards, and I can't believe a genuine phobia could be overcome as easily as Ian appeared to make it.

You're right that the 6:30 comedy is not great. I want something with Paul Merton in to be good, but he's not an actor, and the stereotype of the funnyman who is a bit of an egotistical loser in real life has been done before.

There is a phobia treatment called flooding, I think. Then there's Adam's approach, graded exposure, which Ian now feels he is ready to engage with.

At the end of the episode I found to my slight surprise that l had enjoyed it, despite parts of it being OTT. I liked Jazzer's nervous chit chat, and the way Adam handled it.

I like the comedy aspects of the interview, and as unfortunate as Jazzer's manners can be, there's never been any criticism of his work that I'm aware of.

Peggy.....bloody hell. While I'm up for saving the planet, I think this storyline is going to get well boring.

Good point XX - sorry no one else noticed.

If Peggy's consulted all those lawyers and accountants and so on, how come she's unaware she can't limit this competition to family?

Peggy was back to being the old Peggy I really didn't like. Divide and rule, retain control.

Cares about the environment, speaks to experts, doesn't consider speaking to her son who has devoted his working life to the subject, divides the family aparently unconcerned that for the others its only about the money.

And whatever any of them come up with, it's hardly going to save the world.

I'm an arachnophobe, and there's no way I'd have gone near that creature. Just last night, husband was watching a video on YouTube, of a guy who restores Matchbox cars, and he'd been sent some old cars that had obviously been stored in a loft or garage, as there were loads of little spiders and webs, on them. He opened the back of one of the lorries, and there was a large, dead, spider in it. I only caught it out of the corner of my eye, and my stomach still lurched.

I'm glad Ian was persuading Adam to do a pitch as his attempt to conquer a phobia, and not clowns. I don't have a phobia about them, but I can't stand them, and it seemed like a stupid suggestion anyway.

Since when was "I am very busy and don't want to bother to write something I'm not all that interested in" a phobia?

Gah.

Another BOOP for Tony - saying what we are all thinking. Peggy is such a control freak - everyone dance around me, I am considerably richer than you. When she said “This isn’t just a flight of fancy” I nearly spat my tea out. Love June Spencer, but looking forward to Peggy’s demise - I think she’s a really unpleasant character at the moment. And we still haven’t heard how Kate’s getting on since she gave poor Emma her marching orders.

Bloody irritating episode.

Hate the "dates" as utterly pointless drama machinery, contrary to the SW apparent belief it is not funny, does not build the characters and is not true to life. Ian and Adam would be talking about child care and formula and names and bedrooms etc. Bilge points -7/10

Peggy's competition is dull, will go on far too long and continue to be dull, and is utterly implausible. Bilge points 8/10

Jim. Walzing off. Nuff said. Bilge points 9/10

Bah.

Thinking again about Peggy's prize, it is crazy. How does it help the environment to put half a million in the pocket of someone who comes up with a novel idea which might or might not succeed. Surely, it would be better to diversify and say we'll make grants from a few thousand up to a hundred thousand to any project proposals that have an environmental benefit.

That way she could pay for a few solar panels on a milking shed to helping Natasha's app being used to connect customers with local producers to save food miles.

Jim. Walzing off. Nuff said. Bilge points 9/10
Oh, I don't know. If it turns out that Jim has run off with Dorothy then it could get quite interesting ...
But I don't care about Jim. If he disappears forever then I don't think that he would leave much of a hole in Ambridge life. Lynda can be insufferably smug but she has her redeeming frailities, whereas Jim is just insufferably smug.

So far Bridge Farm and Home Farm have turned their noses up at the half million. If Brookfield cba, too, then where does that leave Peggy's grand gesture?

I like Jim because he is unashamedly intellectual, while not looking down on others.

I'm in a grump about the Peggy story, too. And the Jim one. And the tedious Adam/Ian 'challenge' one as well, for that matter.

With Peggy - for goodness sake, people have spent decades, and countless millions, doing 'blue-sky thinking', trying to come up with the huge thing that will save the planet. Can Peggy seriously believe that her half-mill will magically inspire a member of the faaaaaamly to find the key to save all civilisation? Meanwhile T & P, annoying though they may be, have been trudging away actually putting in the blood, sweat and tears for years.....only for the matriarch to sweep it impatiently away as 'not exciting enough'. No wonder Tony's in despair.

(Re the 6:30 'comedy' btw - it's written by, and co-performed with, Paul Merton's wife, Suki Webster. Which may explain some things).

I think the current scriptwriter must have been a fan of "Carry On" films. The amount of middle-aged nakedness is getting a bit tedious.

The trouble with introducing Peggy's new 'charity' idea is that one of the scriptwriters will have to come up with something creative that carries on...until they all get landed with a big tax bill.

Did we ever find out how Gnasher's Open Farm Sunday went?

I hope Alistair remains a core character, or is he going to wander off into the sunset with his stethoscope before the Summer is over?

Tarantulas are more like toys than spiders though, they're big ,as big as a man's hand. Their sting is only like a wasp's.

We hired an animal party person who had them , the children held them if they wanted to. I only had one one parent ringing me to complain Her child loved them.

Yes Dad Or the 3 farms could get together to do something. I have a non lottery partaker's fantasy of turning our village organic, it would take a hell of a lot more than half a mill.

If Brookfield cba, too, then where does that leave Peggy's grand gesture?

I’ll say it again ... Grundys.

Fingers crossed!

I like Jim because he is unashamedly intellectual, while not looking down on others.
Did you miss the scene where his children did a compare&contrast? Fiona was OK because she went into academia; Al was looked down on because, despite having braincells, he chose to go into a non-academic field (pun intended!).
Jim can put up with the likes of Jazzer because what is the point of being superior if you don't have someone to be superior to? Anyone who might challenge Jim - Lynda with her literary references or Robert with his bird knowledge - is a threat to be belittled.