Discuss The Archers #108: Has Ed & Emma’s ship sailed? Will Alice stick her oar into Kate's love life? Can Shula walk on water? Come and discuss whatever floats your boat in The Archers.

[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 @QuaterMiss for the title of this thread. For reasons of space had to cut out the bit speculating about Oliver and Tracy pairing off. Surely not!

Off now to give blood, something nobody in Ambridge ever does. See you all later.

I think Phoebe and Rex's idea will win as I've heard/seen two pieces on the BBC in the merits of rewilding in the past week

At which point it will become Pip's idea and proposal with Rex being nauseating and Phoebe losing the will to live in Ambridge.

I agree the whole story is ridiculous.

C8H10N4O2 I just reckon the Carters would be blaming just about everybody for their daughter's sorrows. Or be too embarrassed on Emma's behalf.

I agree with painting, but I'm guessing the SW's haven't had to bid for funding EVER - they probably imagine that it is a bit like Dragon's Den...but with just one dragon.

Lovely to hear from Jenny! But actually plenty of people do still drink Pastis (in France anyway!).

I've never had to bid for funding, but I would expect proper costings and a load of other stuff would be needed. It is a ridiculous SL, and I also hope an outsider wins it.

I would think Dragon's Den, ask the applicants for all that stuff before they choose who to put on the show.

It seems to me that we are being spied on by the SWs. I imagine their meetings going like this:

SW1 “great new plot line about the Ambridge Environmental Endowment SW2, well done”

SW2. “Yes, I think it will be a good way to deliver a slab of money to one of the Archer clan and then we can let how their new found wealth affects them and drives Emma nuts”

Archers summer intern “according to Mumsnet it wouldn’t be possible to set this up just for the family”

SW2 “damn...oh well, we’ll have a scene where Emma convinces Peggy to open it up to everyone but Pip will still win. Everyone loves Pip.”

Intern “everyone on Mumsnet hates Pip and throws things at their radios when she speaks.”

SW2 “then Adam can win, he’s harmless and the money will help with the baby”

Intern “Mumsnet says they would have to spend all the money on the project”

SW1 “shit, hadn’t thought of that. Maybe we can just ignore the whole thing, nobody will notice.

Intern “Mumsnet keep a list of all the times you’ve done that. And they’re close to figuring out that the Shula actress is blackmailing you all about what happened at the Christmas party, you’re going to have to have an episode without her soon, even if it means people finding out about the pudding incident.”

SW1 “no way, Shula has to stay at 85% of all episodes”

SW2 “maybe we can go back to Toby making gin from whey”

Intern “apparently that’s quite difficult, some chemenger person on Mumsnet says Toby couldn’t do it with just a bucket and a funnel like we said. She also said it was time we heard from Brian again for some light relief”

SW2 “Brian... good idea, let’s give him one of our funny sexy scenes to do, everybody loves a willy joke”.

Intern “actually, about the bum and willy jokes...”

@chemenger Brilliant😂

If they have Kwis Packham as a judge I'll give up listening for ever.

So will I MikeUniformMike

SW2 “great news, Chrisham has agreed to the guest spot. Finally something is going right for us”.

Intern “actually...”

Auto correct - Chris Packham not Chrisham. I don’t mind so much when it autocorrects to an actual word, why autocorrect to something that isn’t a word either.

Pip is a self-centred fool.

Why was Pip so surprised at this outcome? Though I can see an argument that different projects might not conflict, and could even complement each other, it is set up as a competition.

Isn't part of the spec that the project has to benefit the whole village? Though I doubt we've had much in the way of specifics (as it could restrict possible script directions.)

Presumably Tomntash's fruit idea didn't get through or we'd have heard.

Didn't Phoebe say something about being up against Tom? That's another idea that's going to need major buy-in from the village.

Talking about things that bug you about the whole Peggy scheme, it seems massively unfair that all the Archers had two or three weeks' more than everyone else to prepare their bids and, hey presto, virtually every Archer bid except Josh's makes the shortlist.

In other news, Pip- the Pope is a Catholic.

What the f did she think they were going to say?

Pip is accumulating a bit of a track record for doing her best to avoid awkward admissions to her parents. Mind you, it didn't dent her Saint Pip status last time and probably won't this time either.

apologies to anyone who doesn't share my cynicism, but i didn't realise the archers had any plots line, but rather it is a set of succinctly crafted rural nonsense that was designed entirely to allow women with our particular affection to white jeans and a glass of sauvignon before dropping off the kids in the Landie in the morning to listen to what is in reality a glorified soap opera that we won't feel guilty about following because its on radio 4. We shouldn't feel so ashamed of our watching/listening habits, that Danny dyer of Eastenders gives me knee tremblers i haven't felt since thatcher was in office. Any opposing opinions welcomed

Loving chemenger's eavesdropping on SWs' meetings.

Was that judge they were enthusing about a Real Person?

DH drinks Pastis. I can't stand the smell of aniseed so he knows if he drinks it he's in the spare room

Why was Pip so surprised at this outcome?

Because she has an ego which would cast a shadow over an elephant and a sense of entitlement to rival Boris Johnson's.

I mean obviously every bid wants her and would benefit from her massive experience and expertise on everything (except human fertility apparently)

Total over-reaction from Ruth. This, plus her run in with Emma, has shown a very unpleasant side to her character.

Anyway, I'm sure David will ensure his favourite offspring regains her halo soon enough.

3 years at Oxford and she comes out with “Me, Rex and Pip...”. FFS.
Bad scripting or realistic? I thought that the whole point of having Emma always say “MeAnEd” was to underline her lack of education.

That was much more entertaining, and plausible, chemenger!

Why was Pip surprised? She was obviously delaying telling them because she knew it wouldn't go down well, otherwise, why all the procrastination?

So now, she has to drop Feeb's and Rex's proposal, to their detriment. Mind you, I thought it was mad asking her in the first place. At least there won't be any argument over who delivers that paragraph that Pip took over.

She might drop Brookfields.

Argumentative, "me" is quite normal in colloquial English in the subject of a sentence. There are expressions where everyone does it (eg "I like dogs", "Me too.") I'm sure Phoebe's educated enough to know she might say it differently in a formal piece of writing.

But talking of jarring words coming out of characters' mouths - what about Peggy? "the process needs to be up-front and transparent", "let go of the outcome", "passionate commitment" - she sounds like a management consultant.