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.

BeaLola
maybe a neighbour who his late wife had an affair with resulting in birth of Alastair & was a horrible reminder for Jim out of the blue that Al isn't his biological son ?

I don't think that can be it, because wasn't someone saying how like Alistair a picture of the younger Jim looked?

Also I don't see why Jim would have stayed in touch with someone who abused him, so unless he was that rare thing, a professor who stays forever in the university in the town he grew up, why would anyone who was in his address-book for Alistair and Fiona to get in touch with know someone from his childhood? It may be that the BBC doesn't deal in probabilities, but the abuse must have been at least fifty-seven years ago (that's how old Alistair is) so it doesn't work unless the abuser was a relation, and in that case wouldn't "a relation we have never met" been mentioned when they were trying to work out afterwards what had bitten Jim?

If Al is leaving emotionally-unavailable Jim to live with Jakob, isn't that a bit "out of the frying pan, into the fire"?

R4 he doesn't really need his colleague to be emotionally-available though does he? Very different to a parent.

R4 he doesn't really need his colleague to be emotionally-available though does he?
He needs his house-mate to be someone he can chat to!

Have Alastair and Shula actually sorted out division of property and assets? How come Shula has a house but Alastair hasn't?

Or do they still jointly own their house?

Is it just me, or was that incredibly rude of Ben?

Yes, @WheresThatCat, I thought so too. I would never have dreamt of speaking to my Granny like that... but then, I didn’t live with her so maybe familiarity breeds contempt.

This whole Mianed and the house business really has me on edge. I just don’t trust the SWs to let it work out for them.

Maybe Jim is not Fiona's father.

Hang on, is Helen still married to Rob?

^ don't think so, although don't specifically remember a divorce being discussed.

Helen's decree absolute came through, on 7th May, 2017, according to Lowfield.

God, Shula's boring. feeling responsible for everything.

On ram-related matters, what are the odds the good bye to Peppa Pig is extended and the buyer cools off?

Amazed he did that without a fuss. Watching "Keeping Faith" on iPlayer and Natasha is in it. Very glossy!

God, Shula's boring. feeling responsible for everything

But has she bought Alastair out of their former home?

On ram related matters I would have thought the normal procedure would send him to a specialist stock auction.

I think that the storyline is going to be about Al not being Jim’s son and the “Young Jim looks so like Alistair” comment was a red herring- you often hear of people seeing what they want to see in photos or even real life eg commenting that an adopted child looks like the parent.

I hated hearing natasha and tom talking about susan and the bartender. Yes she is an insufferable baggage. But i hate it when members of the enclave do that smug chortling about the lower orders. The dopeys were absolute buggers for doing it about Bert (who is also fairly insufferable). It really winds me up.

Shula bought Alistair out of the house and he used it to pay off some of the debts his former partner left him with (did he also have to pay her money for her half of the partnership - although how much was paid off by the Lovell James takeover...)

God you’ve got a good memory Molly!

I can’t bear Shula’s smugtastic guilt which is just a performance of “oh my gosh it’s all myyyyy fault because the world revolves around me.” She’s been like this since at least the hunt saboteurs. When was that? 5 years ago or more?

Alistair is behaving completely abnormally. Surely some kind of illness/dementia?

Hello everybody I have been lurking for years (through the Rob years, and before) but feel I need to talk about Jim, (you are the only people who will understand and I feel like I know you all)
Do you think Jim has early Dementia?
My theory is based on:

1. doesn’t want to meet lots of people from past as worries he might appear stupid/won’t recognise them 2)unusually antagonistic with Alistair and Jazza (kicking them out because worried they will spot memory lapses or slight change in behaviour that comes with early dementia) 3)stopping piano lessons (not learning anything new) 4)long trip away about which he is surprisingly vague (of course he might be doing something he wants to keep quiet about) So that’s my theory. I rather like Jim because he is spikey and pompous and sometimes a bit Machiavellian (is that the spelling?) and it would be an interesting storyline in an intelligent character.

However it might just be an excuse to send Alistair away and Jazza to move in with Johnny and Hannah?

However it might just be an excuse to send Alistair away and Jazza to move in with Johnny and Hannah?
Can we move Jazzer in with MeandEd instead? Let them get their dream house, their first just-the-two-of-us house away from the rest of the family ... only to find that they can't really afford it and have to have Jazzer lodging with them to keep their heads above water.

@greygirl - same thought had occurred to me re Jim and early stage dementia symptoms.

Greygirl my hunch is dementia too. I think the party flooded him with realisation of how his intellectual grasp / recall is slipping. As prof / quizmaster / oracle he is a very pointed choice of character for it if we're right.

It will also provide an interesting way to develop Alistair and Shukla's relationship.

@greygirl I said I think it’s dementia in the post directly before yours! 🧠

Welcome, greygirl - always good to have lurkers come in with fresh questions and suggestions.

I bet there are other lurkers out there. Join in and say hello!

Maybe Jim wasn't a professor.