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.

Well you can read it that way if you want

Is Adam going to get Lymes Disease or something? Was there any significance at all to anything that happened in the river?

Did he cut himself? I couldn't make it out.

Think you mean Weil’s disease, Bert, Lymes is ticks.

Well, one of those trendy diseases everyone got worked up about for a while and the Archers will only just have caught up with....

Was there any significance at all to anything that happened in the river?
Ian's bare foot trod on something sharp but they can't do sepsis again.
Was it just to show the relationship? - Adam was being Mr Dreary, as per, but Ian convinced him to go and have fun, and it turned out to be the right call.

He trod on something sharp, I think!

I don't think Weil's disease is trendy - I remember the rowers at university thirty years ago being warned about keeping your mouth shut for that reason if you fell in the local river (where the Am meets the C).

Thislido - can’t help thinking it’s a pity you missed the open air swimming

Aren't we trying to read too many portents into Adam and Ian's jaunt? I thought they were just the comic juxtaposition to the Grundy collision - with sharpness under foot to emphasise their nakedness.

I suppose it's a relief that they didn't go for the full comic potential of Will and Ed shouting at each other, then two naked men popping out of the bushes saying "need a push?"

LilG - I expect I’ll catch up, in between actually swimming outside myself - very rarely in lidos, as it happens! I’m lucky enough to have Hampstead Heath ladies’ pond on my doorstep, can’t remember the last time I went into a pool.

I also remember being warned about Weil’s disease 30 years ago, as a child. It’s actually really unlikely you’ll get it here though www.nhs.uk/conditions/leptospirosis/

Lyme disease is more common and can last for months.

The son of a colleague of mine went river swimming last weekend and swallowed some river water. He has had diarrhoea and vomiting ever since but has GCSE exams this week so has been doing exams with a sick bucket next to him in a separate room GP has been testing for various bugs he may have picked up. Hope the Am is cleaner water than the Okement!

ladies’ pond on my doorstep - so visitors have to swim to your front door or do you offer a ferry service?

I don’t encourage visitors and can heartily recommend a moat.

Gardener - poor boy, that sounds really miserable.

I think Neil had Weil's disease many moons ago, when we were both young. I quite fancied Neil, back in the day

Thanks DDD for pointing out my prediction!

Clarrie's so gullible, re Poppy falling asleep in class.

So ... Is there any chance that the SWs were aware of the push towards reformation of Surrogacy Laws? It’s in the news today - (Guardian / Telegraph) but other articles are a year old. (Google) Can’t see a date on the Law Commission entry.

Though delay and uncertainty would potentially be more ‘dramatic’.

I knew this would happen about the surrogacy laws. Ordering a baby made more and more like ordering a pizza. 'Using a surrogate' has become a socially acceptable phrase, on the analogy of 'I use a cleaning service'. Horrific.

Anyway, as we're not on the FWR board, yes, I think it was Neil who had Weil's disease a long time ago. Somebody definitely did. Bitten by a rat, IIRC. Sharp cut on foot might lead to tetanus if the BBC wanted to shoehorn in a public service announcement related to some health policy. Ian might not be up to date on his immunisations.

@thislido

GIVE ME BACK MY PRECIOUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

The 🔮 agrees with Gasp0de re tetanus s/l and posits (as opposed to predicts) the demise of Ian, leading to s/l of Adam as struggling single parent of tiny baby* OR deciding to leave the babe with Lexi (who may also not want to bring it up).

• Then he'd have something to sound permanently tired about.

I'm hoping the cut foot portends nothing more serious than awkward questions about how it happened. Or maybe an investigation of what he did it on will yield something interesting.

Xpost - surely we can't have another parent dying from a cut quite so soon?

I suppose injured in some way that meant Ian couldn't look after the baby might be possible.

the demise of Ian

How very could you???

Not me, it's the 🔮.

It says it just calls it as it sees it and there is absolutely no way that treading on the sharp thing while skinny dipping in the Am was just thrown in to fill a few minutes of airtime.

It’ll never happen!

Although - I’m very shocked at Adam and Ian’s callous behaviour last night. They heard a car crash. Then, while faffing about their modesty they heard one other voice. There might (easily) have been multiple injuries or worse. They didn’t check. They turned their backs.

I don’t believe this is how they would actually have behaved. It was only written this way to set up yet another sibling blackmail story. Stupid ...