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.

for @chemenger!

Saint Pip's halo slipped a bit there. Anyone want to bet against Phoebe and Rex winning?

I don't think they shoot grouse in Ambridge do they?

(several pages back...)

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

I know - why fo they all do that? Without trying mine has decided "fo" is a useful word.

Love the sw eavesdropping.

I forgot to also say that your SW vignette was brilliant, chemenger. BOOP!

There’s no closed season for rabbits, for example, as they are considered a pest more than game. (several pages back) Thanks for cheering my evening with a delightful picture of tweed-clothed businessmen paying £££ for a day shooting rabbits!

Well, DDD I know full well from the Pedants’ Corner boards that you are a fully paid-up member of the “no such thing as incorrect grammar, language is continually evolving” school of thought. Funnily enough I had already managed to notice all by myself that this turn of phrase is “quite common”. However I stand by my assertion that it is unlikely Phoebe would have used it, particularly when talking to Peggy, whose own speech patterns are very “correct” and formal- the more educated a person is, the more instinctively they switch register according to the audience. If she had been talking to Emma, perhaps more realistic to have spoken that way. And she was also in full-on “trying to impress” mode. For all these reasons, it jarred.

you are a fully paid-up member of the “no such thing as incorrect grammar, language is continually evolving” school of thought

I absolutely am not a member of such a school! There are plenty of grammatical rules that need to be followed, I just happen to think they are not always the slightly artificial laws that some try to impose and then get cross with those who don't adhere. The observation about "me" in subject position I think is something I read in comments by the professor of linguistics who wrote the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language and who studies carefully what the rules are. (Of course, that doesn't mean language can't evolve as well).

In short, I see nothing out of the ordinary of a well-educated person saying, "Me and Fred are popping out for a quick pint", but would boggle at them saying "Me am popping out for a quick pint."

But, this isn't Pedants' Corner, so I'll stand down. Sorry, for the rant...

I don't think Ruth over-reacted. They've done a lot of work on the bid and she was probably stressed about it already, and to have it dropped on her at the 11th hour that Pip was also promoting a rival bid would come as quite a shock. It's quite extraordinary the Phoebe had to push Pip into telling her parents - what on earth did she think was going to happen if she kept quiet? If Rex and Phoebe's proposal is damaged as a result, it's Pip's fault, not Ruth's.

I suspect, however, that Rex and Phoebe will get extra Brownie points somehow for going it alone, especially given Peggy's concern about whether all the team members are really whole-hearted about the bid. Then they'll get the award, and Pip will moan at Roooth about missing out on it, and Roooth and David will end up grovelling to her again.

I think Ruth’s reaction was spot on.

In short, I see nothing out of the ordinary of a well-educated person saying, "Me and Fred are popping out for a quick pint"
I thought etiquette says the well-mannered person put themselves at the end of the list of names.

I’d be happy with Fred and me. Not with Me and Fred.

Because manners, not because grammar.

Oops, sorry, R4. Cross post.

In short, I see nothing out of the ordinary of a well-educated person saying, "Me and Fred are popping out for a quick pint", but would boggle at them saying "Me am popping out for a quick pint

I'm stunned by that comment.

I'm so bored with the conservation project. I don't care who wins.

Pip really is vile.

And very stupid. Boop Rooth.

That’s an interesting point re etiquette and the position of “me” - with Emma, it was always “MeAnEd” never “EdAnMe”- so Ed was spot on in his observation that she never put him first!

DDD you may see nothing wrong with a well-educated person saying “Me and Fred are blah blah”. I do. Personally, my brain and mouth just could not form that sentence.

That said, “me and...” pales into insignificance compared to the epidemic of “Fred and myself are...”. That should be a capital offence.

Interesting observation about Peggy using management-speak - a nice touch, to show that she must have been reading/watching/listening to some sort of business or management material as part of this whole process. However I find that I listen less and less to what Peggy is actually saying because in my head I am just repeating “that actress is ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD!”. I know that June perhaps has more takes than the average actor but the fact that she can still not only talk and read but ACT at that age is simply phenomenal.

I would just like to say that that episode makes me wonder if I am actually psychically linked to the SWs.

SW2 “so they hate Pip...let’s have David and Ruth dramatically turn on her. Then they’ll talk about that not whether phoebe and Rex can actually reintroduce the lynx and the wolf to Borsetshire.”

For the regulars in Pedants’ Corner- please note that I can punctuate but choose not to.

I would never say me and Fred though.

I can't believe that Ed n Emma won't reunite.

How long do you think it will take? My bet is on 3 months...something around Xmas time.

Why would you ever choose not to punctuate?

Bit baffled by that.....

It was a joke, Cat ...

Loved the SW conversation, chemenger!

Yesterday felt all artificial and wrong. I don’t understand what they’re doing with Phoebe; I never believe a word the Pip actress reads and I stopped caring about Ruth and David about twenty years ago.

For whoever mentioned it - what was the second re-wilding programme? Was it a Farming Today episode? I only heard the PM article. But yes, it does seem ... deliberate. (Hope everyone agrees this is speculation and not spoiler-ing.) So Phoebe leaves university with no plan in place - and walks into a half million pound project? And becomes an international re-wilding guru charging roughly the same for speaking engagements and clocking up Ted talks? Eventually taking up annual residence in Davos? (In other words, has the career Kirsty should have had - if only she’d been an Archer ...)

But where, in this Dragon’s Den knock-off, were Debbie, Kirsty, Alice, Lily, Johnny? It seems scarcely credible that they would all have declined to take an interest. Though of course they all have or almost have empires of their own already.

Wonderfully neat (if incredible on all fronts) way to bring Phoebe on and carry her into the future. Not quite seeing Rex’s role ...

You lot don't half squabble over grammar!
Is it cos you're Oxbridge folk?

I have bid for funding before.
from the council for a community project and from a charity for another.
both pretty boooooring affairs. no pitch.
just an impact statement, evidence (articles & neighbourhood consultation results), accounts. (were successful both times)