Discuss The Archers #107: Beware of the Dragon! Peggy's in her den awaiting bids - who gets the hoard and who gets flamed?

[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 @MrsGrindah for inspiration for the title of this thread. I was hoping to find a way to combine it with @C8H10N4O2's inspired suggestion of '"The Assumption of the Ambridge Angel' and @chemenger's comment 'I hope she gets kicked in the head by a horse and wakes up an atheist', but it all got a bit too lengthy.

Odds on Joe shuffling off this mortal coil before this thread ends? We've been marking/anticipating his passing for a while now.

It's a twist that they have done so that Joe gets to end his days at Grunge Farm.

Hello, Kayemm! That's a long absence. What prompted you to come back?

The Grundys have had an eventful time in recent years. After generations at Grange Farm they lost it because they fell behind with the rent. I've just checked and that was in 2000! After a brief and unpleasant interlude at Meadow Rise in Borchester, soft-hearted Jack Woolley rented them Keeper's Cottage at well below market rates and they were there for years. Unfortunately when he died his vile daughter Hazel evicted them so she could sell the cottage off. But lo! soft-hearted Oliver Sterling rented them Grange Farm at well below market rates and they have been there for years.

However, as mentioned above, now that Ed and Emma are moving out (or were) Clarrie and Eddie can't afford even this very low rent (and although nobody in Ambridge ever claims benefits I suspect they wouldn't be subsidised to live in such a big house because of the bedroom tax). So they're off. Or are they? Now that Ed has been sacked, perhaps they will all stay put.

As far as we know, Oliver had no plans to move back to Grange Farm, so maybe he would be happy to go on renting to them. I had been assuming he would sell to Brian and Jennifer in due course, but maybe not.

Gasp0de I think bedroom tax regulations apply to housing association and council rentals - not privately rented accomodation.

If Ed and Emma are not going to be able to get their new house, where are they and their children going to live when Clarrie, Eddie and Joe move into Will-subsidised housing? 1 The Green can't be big enough to hold all of them.

What puzzles me is why Willyum heard about the shunt from Ed and not from his son. Isn’t that the kind of info teenagers would pass on quite readily to the other parent?

@Kayemm, welcome to the thread. What was happening in TA 15 years ago? Was George a baby or a foetus? I can’t remember his exact age, I often forget people’s ages - something to do with own creeping towards 60 I suppose.

Doesn’t bedroom tax affect any household that claims help with paying rent? Housing Benefit I think?

SOC has just been on Loose Ends. Talking about a rl story involving a murder trial, suicide.

Says he’s fascinated by murders because they show people at extreme moments. And because via the trivia that becomes significant we can get closer to history.

Also on TA. “Everybody wants to be in it.”

I have very little time for S'OC, even when he isn't trying to sell a book.

His fascination with murders and the abuse of women was very bad for The Archers.

I think George is 15 and will be entering his GCSE year when schools go back in September.

Hi all, caught up after being away on holiday but spent 2 hours listening to the omnibus to find out I'd missed nothing. I was completely confused by the Ginger Wine/Blame Oliver because he's not here to defend himself scene as well

“It’s your name on the land tenancy.” Eddie to Ed. Have slightly lost track. Is this the Grange Farm land? (Seem to recall some extra bit of land they wanted/had from Hone Farm maybe? Not Grundys’ Field, which they own I think.)

Anyway, surely said for a reason. If Grange Farm then I guess, on top of not being able to move to the new house, Ed has lost them the Grange Farm tenancy too, once Oliver hears ...

Yes, that suddenly jumped out at me as well, Quater

Me three.
Still not totally clear on the Oliver / Bull-disorganisation story, though.

I really wish they hadn’t some this to Ed. U can’t face even more Grundy woe.

I loved the birdwatching scene with Jim and Robert. It actually made me feel quite emotional. Quiet, healing friendship or frenemieship.

Poor Ed... Yes, he's been an idiot but BLOODY Will. He is an utterly insufferable git

Ed is indeed an idiot regarding the dodgy weed-killer abd Will has found it hard to handle his wife's loss but he's tried to make something of himself, it wasn't hs fault that his wife, Emma, had a bunk up with his brother the nght before their wedding. Will gets all the blame for Ed's stupidity, the really odious one is Emma yet she comes over all saintly.

I still don't understand the story about the Bull. Did Toby tell Kenton what the problem was i.e that Oliver's absence meant that Jolene's absence was no longer being covered? If Toby knew, then why didn't he do something about it instead of waiting until it was so bad that even Lilian noticed?

Re Oliver/The Bull, on listening again this morning, it doesn't sound like he was actually let go, because Adam said to Lil, "And you were angling to let Oliver go", which seems to me that Lil didn't get her own way.

So, why hasn't Oliver been in work? He's not away on holiday.

Part of me is with Ed and Emma today: as though I knew that a good friend was having to do something really, really hard in her personal life.

Like a PP, I'm not sure I can listen tonight either.

I wasn't a listener during Ed's earlier years - was he really a bad 'un?

Everyone is goung to correct me but this is my recollection...

Ed and Will never got on - Will was more trouble because he was always bunking off school to be with George Barford the gamekeeper. George set Will straight. Ed was Clarrie's golden boy I think (didn't he sing in the church choir?) and was quite social and popular (was in Fallon's band Dross which did quite well) while Will was more morose. Emma married Will, presumably for the security he could offer, but Ed and Em really love each other and there were a few turbulant years involving Ed crashing the car and Em nearly dying and Em and Ed attempting to run away to France. Ed had a horrible period when he ran away, slept rough, drank and did a lot of drugs, and Oliver rescued him (a miracle cure involving a bottle of port and a talking to iirc).

Will has had more than his fair share of luck, including having Caroline as a god parent, and an aunt who left him some money. The aunt didn't change her will when Ed arrived so after her death Will got enough money to buy No.1 The Green and collect rent while living at the gamekeepers cottage., while Ed was stuck in a caravan with Em.

So not really 'bad' but turbulent and misguided.

I wish the scriptwriters hadn't done this to him.

Re oliver - i thought the problems were because he has taken over the re-stocking and isnt doing it very well?

Ed is not 'bad' as such but is, essentially, a teenager in a grown man's body. He has a childish/insecure need to be liked (Em, Adam, Timotei), goes for the easy option/line of least resistance and doesn't think through consequences.

Possibly the first time in my life I couldn’t sit through the omnibus. Not through boredom, just couldn’t face hearing the build up to utter devastation.

Will gets all the blame for Ed's stupidity, the really odious one is Emma yet she comes over all saintly

I don't think Ed gets to pass blame onto Emma either. He deliberately concealed the nature of the work from her and let her think it was just a bit of VAT avoidance.

Will has had more than his fair share of luck

So has Ed. He had Oliver and Caroline supporting him with getting work and even buying a herd for him to manage.

Ed was not just stupid as a teenager - he was also a liar and a thief and generally quite unpleasant. I could never understand why he was everyone's golden boy whilst Will's worst crime was his personality.

Will did bunk off school because he wanted to be a gamekeeper. When George made good attendance a condition of his training he attended school and worked.