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.

I can't be sure but I think Ambridge View was built in the early 2000s. I seem to recall a lot of discussion about it on the old BBC messageboard. Possibly sold to Amside in the first instance, and thence to Will. I had a cursory look on Lowfield and found that Roy and Hayley had hoped to buy it and were furious when Will outbid them.

I'm assuming that the police investigation will go nowhere, and that when Jazzer hears that Jayston has flatly denied any abuse, he will take the law into his own hands.

I hope that if a distressed acquaintance turned to me asking for money, I would invite them in, listen, and very probably lend them money.

My opinion of Jim (already low) dropped a few rungs. He knows grief and pain and anger - and people have been trying to help him so some humanity would have been good. Mind you I think he will reconsider.

Jazzer is, frankly and in his own language, a tit. Always has been and always will be. Null punct from me. Who the heck does he think he is? Made my blood boil. Jim is not a child unable to make decisions for himself.

Will Brian come to Edmurs rescue?

“I hope that if a distressed acquaintance turned to me asking for money, I would invite them in, listen, and very probably lend them money.” Well, I might not lend the money- but I would certainly ask them in and listen and see if I could give them any advice.

While I wouldn’t say I actually like Emma, I do actually have a lot of respect for her. She works insanely hard, and I also think that the way she is obsessed with owning a home is completely understandable. If you don’t want to live forever with parents or parents-in-law, it’s that or renting. And private rental with a family is hard coz you never know when you’re going to be turfed out -mid-GCSE’s, mid-serious illness, etc (I know, I’m in that situation). I found her desperation last night incredibly difficult to listen to. I felt quite heartbroken for her.

I think Emma is one of the only consistently believable characters in the show. I wonder if the actor puts her foot down about anything too ridiculous.

Lurker here, hi!

I have recently started listening again after 2 years. Can somebody tell me if the house Em and Ed are buying is one of the affordable houses that she gave a speech about building at the parish council some years ago? Or is it something different? Also, where is it? Sorry, so many questions!

It is indeed an affordable house, on the plot of land Justin's company bought from the Bridge Farm Archers.

While I agree that there are different views on Jim's reaction to be tapped up for a loan by Emma, much padded by her references to helping the community, the point is less what MNers would do in the same situation than whether it's consistent with his character.

I think his final "For your sake, Emma, I'm going to forget we had this conversation" is honourable, he assures her he will not bring this up, treat it as in the past.

Emma didn't explain exactly why she needed the money, ie the set of circumstances that led her to ask for a loan. She simply said their mortgage terms would be better if they had a bigger deposit. It's therefore understandable that Jim turned her down as anyone would if an acquaintance randomly asked them for a few thousand pounds.

However a more perceptive person would have picked up the desperation in her voice (as Fallon did) and asked her what was wrong. Jim simply said no without asking which was unkind.

Hi much do EdnEmmur need? I've been trying to work it out.

It's a small 3 bed on a new estate so presumably a semi, we know there's no garage (think Emma said that the other day.) Say even with affordable homes we are looking at £150k? They are probably using help to buy so will have raised 5% deposit themselves (7.5k) and they'll be getting a 20% loan from the Govt so 30k) which leaves them getting a mortgage for approx £112k over 25 years. So they are probably looking at payments of around £600 per month with small help to buy repayments). It does of course depend how much Emmur has stuck on the credit card, but with all the hours she works and Ed's bits and pieces of non Home Farm contracting they should be ok

I'm in the NE so a bit out of touch with rural Borsetshire (ahem warwicks/Hereford/Worcs) property prices

I will say though I've been in her position over money (not the same circumstances obviously) you can't think straight and it just goes around and around on your brain looking for solutions until you do eventually unhinge a bit

I think the ‘no garage’ must be at No 1 The Green - it was Eddie nd Clarrie’s move they were discussing, or at least, room for Eddie’s tools.

But yes, one does things at a desperate moment that one would never do otherwise - including asking seemingly random people for a loan. And sometimes people actually help.

Susan and Neil definitely took out a bank-loan to build Ambridge View in 2004-5 (their children, born in 1984 and 1988, were not "small") and Neil had to increase it at least once while the building was going on.

Then in 2009 it had turned into a mortgage:

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Lowfield, Thursday 25th June, 2009
[Neil's] visit to the bank goes poorly. Tom's orders aren't big enough to replace Paul's and Tom's plans for expansion aren't the same as firm orders. So Neil tells Susan he went to their mortgage bank and slapped another five grand on. They were happy to lend because Ambridge View has so much positive equity. That he mentioned a conservatory and omitted pig feed may have helped. Susan's unhappy. She doesn't like using their home as security for the business.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

GaspOde, the only people who have ever owned Ambridge View have been Neil and Susan. It was never sold to Amside and never sold to Will. Will lives in a small house belonging to Brian Aldridge/Home Farm, and owns 1, The Green, an ex-council house which he bought when Hayley and Roy were looking for a place to buy.

In the Ambridge Locations, 1 and 6 The Green look late 50s-early 60s, I think. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00w47v9/p00vxs9c

Thank you Abraid

( Asking, I’m pretty sure Gasp0 mistyped - she didn’t mean Ambridge View in that sentence!)

Yes, sorry, I didn't mean to be cross. Just got in very wet from taking my son's dog for a walk and I think I've bruised my heel (it hurts to walk on it) and it's playing hob with my ability to think things through sensibly. Sorry, Gasp0de.

,Susan and Neil definitely took out a bank-loan to build Ambridge View in 2004-5 (their children, born in 1984 and 1988, were not "small")

How time flies, I'd have thought it was the '90s.

Re Jazzer naming Harold: presumably Harrison can run the name through the police database to see if Harold's name has come up before?

I know someone who reported historic abuse to the police. They investigated, but there wasn't enough evidence to proceed. However they said that the name would remain on file, and if a second person came forward with a similar accusation they would almost definitely be able to prosecute.

So I think Harrison will be able to check that, even without officially knowing that the victim is Jim.

I hate the Weedkiller storyline, but I have just had a brainwave:

All Emmur needs to do is to get on the phone to Brenda Tucker (didn't they used to be good mates?) and her oligarch partner/husband: Kerching! Sorted!

Sorry, yes, missed out a sentence there! I meant No. 1 The Green was sold to Amside, or somebody, in the first instance, which I'd forgotten all about.

Hope you're warm and dry now, Asking, and so is the dog.

Probably an unpopular opinion but I think Emma came across as incredibly entitled last night.

I do feel for her, Ed's stupidity may have jeopardised her dream of home ownership but I think she absolutely crossed a line expecting Fallon to break the law for her.

I understand that she works hard but the way she begrudges everyone else's success pisses me off.

That being said, she's probably the most well rounded character and the reason she annoys me is because she's exactly like a family member of mine!

Oh god, so she overheard Kenton talking about the money he paid back to David and Ruth, and thought "Oh, they've got money hanging around, I'll ask them"!

Wonder when she'll ask Peggy? After all, Peggy's got enough money hanging around to buy the house outright, so what's a few grand out of that?

And yet, when Helen did her usual talking over the person she's talking to, Emma changed her mind about asking her.

Emma wants to be careful who else she pulls that deranged begging act on, especially if she's not keen on having Ed's illegal activities widely publicised.

I wonder if she thought better of asking Helen because Helen's 'I wish I had a house of my very own' routine made her think H wouldn't have any money to lend, or whether it was something else that stopped her.

I also wonder whether Emma has a particular sum in mind she's trying to raise, or if she's just out for as much as she can get. It seems unlikely that she's checked the mortgage T&Cs, so is her assumption that it will all be ok if only they can pay off an unspecified lump sum to reduce the percentage of the house which is mortgaged actually based on any fact or is it just rubbish?

Just imagine (some of us may not need to) being Emma right now - in a place apparently awash with money. It’s not just the amount she heard Kenyon loud-mouthing about in the Bull. Fallon and Harrison had a nest-egg; Jazzer got a redundancy payment; she knows Bridge Farm pocketed a million recently; the Aldridges sold their house. Then there’s Peggy. And yet ...

It must be appalling being in Ambridge inside Emma’s head.