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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.

985 replies

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 15/08/2019 13:27

Archers 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.

Archers 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. Grin

Archers 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!

Archers 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.)

Archers 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! Shock

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

OP posts:
MargueritaBlue · 27/08/2019 23:23

Well that was unnecessarily unpleasant

Wasn't it just.

UnholyStramash · 27/08/2019 23:25

Once Ian’s adopted the behbeh, maybe he can bugger off with his Irish passport and the child with his/her Bulgarian one - somewhere across the North Sea, Copenhagen maybe, and Adam can stay in Ambridge and grind on about his aquaponics. JD wouldn’t be happy though.

Tonnerre · 28/08/2019 07:57

Emmur seems to have caught the Adam bug of constantly sounding tired. Except when she's being unnecessarily unpleasant to the brother in law who gave her £3K to help her out.

notmuchmoretogive · 28/08/2019 08:22

That was horrible.

And it didn't ring true, after Will's reaction to the valentine card, albeit six months ago, I don't think he's ready for a relationship/launching himself at women. And what Emma said to him was just awful.

MereDintofPandiculation · 28/08/2019 08:29

And what Emma said to him was just awful. This. I can't imagine saying something that hurtful to anyone, no matter how angry I was. There's no coming back after saying things like that.

EBearhug · 28/08/2019 08:35

when she's being unnecessarily unpleasant

Emma probably is constantly tired at the moment - everything she's worked towards has been lost in a very short time, which is mentally exhausting. If it's affecting her sleep, she's probably feeling physically exhausted, too. It would sound quite out of place if she was sounding bright and full of energy currently.

She probably did go too far in her reaction to William, but however well they were getting on, anyone with an iota of emotional intelligence would have realised that even if she were up for it, it's way too soon after everything she's just been through. She should not be expected to have to manage his emotions as well as her own, which she was barely managing as it was.

Of course, Will has the least amount of emotional intelligence of anyone in Borsetshire, so the outcome is no surprise.

C8H10N4O2 · 28/08/2019 08:35

Except when she's being unnecessarily unpleasant to the brother in law who gave her £3K to help her out

If he had just made a move on me whilst playing the wedding dance from his wedding to his dead wife, then blamed me for his own behaviour he'd have received a damned sight more than a few home truths.

Offering to loan some money (the loans were all to save the house so presumably none were invoked as they lost the house) doesn't entitle him to sex with Emma.

Yes what she said was hurtful but only because she has spent the last year or so protecting him from the consequences of his own behaviour toward his older children.

C8H10N4O2 · 28/08/2019 08:37

She should not be expected to have to manage his emotions as well as her own, which she was barely managing as it was.

Yes exactly. Why are women always taking responsibility for the behaviour of men and being blamed when the men in their lives behave like utter twats.

5000FlapjacksofJillArcher · 28/08/2019 08:56

Emmur seems to have caught the Adam bug of constantly sounding tired

The Emmur actress has been gasping all her lines as though short of oxygen for a good year or more, presumably to signal how frantically overworked and busy she is - which to me was almost as annoying as Pip's wei. Rd. Into. NAYtion and JennyDarling's habit of starting every sentence with 'Ho!!'

If she's now going to morph into round-the-clock sighing I don't think I can bear it.

Agree that Will is an unbelievably insensitive boor, though. He really does seem to have zero emotional intelligence.

PastelPotential · 28/08/2019 09:24

I hope that this will be the point at which Emma realises she does not need a man to be complete.

Sadly I think she will end up back with passive aggressive manchild Ed, having learned her place and that love conquers all and living with her inlaws in a rented house, probably rolling her eyes and saying :Oh Ed!' the best she can aspire to.

Ffs Emms, leave your comfort zone!
.

C8H10N4O2 · 28/08/2019 09:28

Sadly I think she will end up back with passive aggressive manchild Ed

I hope not but of course Will's stupid, innappropriate behaviour does set them up nicely for another tedious round of Grundy wars when Ed inevitably finds out. [kill me now]

CodenameVillanelle · 28/08/2019 12:44

I don't think Emma was out of order to have a go at Will. She was vile but even so.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 28/08/2019 12:52

EBearhug
She probably did go too far in her reaction to William, but however well they were getting on, anyone with an iota of emotional intelligence would have realised that even if she were up for it, it's way too soon after everything she's just been through. She should not be expected to have to manage his emotions as well as her own, which she was barely managing as it was.

Seems to me, though, that if you turn that round it is just as true.

"He probably did go too far in his reaction to Emma, but however well they were getting on, anyone with an iota of emotional intelligence would have realised that even if he were up for it, it's way too soon after everything he's [just] been through. He should not be expected to have to manage her emotions as well as his own, which he is barely managing as it is."

She went to his house on their wedding anniversary without being invited it was her idea, not his, and he was surprised by her doing so, but she specifically said that yes, she did know what day it was and had a meal alone with him, drinks alone with him and a sit-down on the sofa alone with him. And he was playing, not the music from their wedding but the music from his wedding to Nic.... I can't feel that he initiated that contact, or when you think about it that he had time to do anything particularly frightful before she leapt to her feet like something out of a Victorian novelette and said the nastiest possible thing to him before running from the room in a most hysterical manner. She had been giving out "we were so good together" signals during their chat; yes, he misunderstood her, but then, she also misunderstood him.

She's meant to be thirty-five, not fifteen, and she ought by now to have learnt to handle awkward situations mostly of her own making better than that. (I had by the time I was fifteen, but I'm not one of the Emmas of this world.)

Motoko · 28/08/2019 13:04

I imagined he just leaned towards her, perhaps put a hand on her shoulder to draw her closer, and went in for a snog. He got the wrong impression, probably partly due to having been drinking, but he didn't deserve her telling him what she did about George, nor the way she said it. That was just spiteful and unnecessary.

It was weird though, that he was playing the song from his and Nic's wedding, after talking about their own.

C8H10N4O2 · 28/08/2019 13:34

She went to his house on their wedding anniversary without being invited

Oh come on, she went partly to talk about George because she felt guilty about George's rejection of Will (despite it not being her fault).

Emma/Will had been over for years, he invited her in for pizza but they are part of the same family and supposedly friends. Why on earth would you expect an ex with whom you had developed a friendly relationship to make a move on you in the same moment he is talking about his late wife? Its bonkers to blame Emma for Will's stupid behaviour.

Anyone with an ounce of emotional intelligence would have been embarrassed, apologised and simply said he was influenced by the emotional memories instead of blame her for being "a tease".

birdsdestiny · 28/08/2019 13:40

Emma has tried and tried to be kind to Will, she sees him as a friend who she has helped on numerous occassions. Having a pizza with a man or sitting on a sofa with a man is actually a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It's not as if we are back in the 1950s.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 28/08/2019 14:10

"Oh come on, she went partly to talk about George because she felt guilty about George's rejection of Will (despite it not being her fault). "

To talk about George was clearly a very small part of her motivation, which was (her being Emma) mostly to do with Emma: she didn't want to have to be at Susan's house with Tracy as well. And she has worn out her other friends and wouldn't have been able to walk in and get a meal from them.

Who fed her daughter in her absence, and put Keira to bed? She is like Helen: "I'm her mother!" "Only when it suits you, dear," said Peggy.

MargueritaBlue · 28/08/2019 15:10

I'm inclined to side with Will. I also think making him do what he did was out of character.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 28/08/2019 15:13

When I wrote "Helen", I actually meant Kate. Helen doesn't have a daughter yet.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 28/08/2019 15:55

I wonder if there will be a topical insert tonight. Doubt it. They'll probably carry on ignoring Brexit or they'd have to re-record half the episode every day.

OP posts:
R4 · 28/08/2019 16:12

With the caveat that both Will and Emma are fairly vile people, I think that it was mainly Emma to blame. It may be just the way the SW are presenting their lives but Emma has done very little socialising with Will ... until Ed dumped her and then she has been round to Greenwood numerous times on various pretences. Will even said it: she's a tease.
Subconsciously, she's getting back at Ed.

The only good thing to come out of it is that Will seems able to think of being with someone again though I wouldn't envy The Third Mrs Grundy.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 28/08/2019 16:42

Isn't the phrase "like a dog returning to its vomit"?

R4 · 28/08/2019 16:43

Eeeeeew Envy

birdsdestiny · 28/08/2019 16:43

I think Will using the word tease was to underline what an unpleasant man Will is. But then again it's been a very long time since I have heard anyone using the word tease about a woman.

EBearhug · 28/08/2019 16:52

It may be just the way the SW are presenting their lives but Emma has done very little socialising with Will

I don't think she's been socialising (but then, does Will socialise with anyone?) But I think we've had quite a few glimpses that she's been round helping with the children, providing dinner from time to time and so on, and I am not sure she really expected to socialise, but wanted to explain why George wasn't there. (I think George shouldn't have had an option about going, but that's a separate issue.) I can't face listening again (till the omnibus, anyway,) to be surer about it.