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.

*gun!

I am beginning to think fondly of the ridiculous storylines they ran on Radio 4 Extra!

Maybe Peggy can spare a few £k to fix the floor at the abattoir, or maybe David could ask Neil or Tom or Rex where their livestock go?

If they plan to do another "gamekeeper off the rails" story I think I'll be writing in to Feedback!

Not only do we have a mad gamekeeper playing around with a loaded gun, the continuity announcer alluded to yet another source of drama tomorrow (I hope that's vague enough not to be a spoiler?) - do they really think there isn't enough going on at the moment?

They could have (for a small fee) employed me as the flooring consultant. I spent a number of years acting as a technical advisor and estimator in industrial flooring and advised at least a dozen abattoirs on how to get their floors up to spec.

Do they still have an extended version on 4 extra ? It never pops up on podcast providers I use but I swear I used to listen to lots more of the archers !!

Oh, for heavens sake!

I thought Ruth had a bit of backbone.

Why has her resolve cracked and fizzled out into prostrating herself at the feet of Goddess of Entitlement Pip?

I'm so bloody annoyed. I might stop listening.

Ugh I find both pip and Ruth sooooo annoying ...

When are they going to find Joe's body? I am starting to imagine him all mummified somewhere, possibly astride Bartleby.

And, yes, another ridiculous pile of pooh tonight. You can't just take a child from their parent and expect them to go 'ok see you next week'. What about Poppy's toys and clothes and everything?

Surely even Will isn't dim enough to to cowed into submission by the threat of ' we'll see what they say in court'. What the police will say is, do you have PR or an order from the court, no, well hand her back then.'

Pip was even dimmer than usual tonight, as well as her usual level of entitlement ('I'm so glad you've forgiven me, Mum, because, you see, I was right all along.'): people who want a relaxed, laid-back atmosphere at their wedding absolutely do NOT want the wedding venue staff to be relaxed and laid-back with the preparations. Staff should be well organised and do their job properly so that guests can be relaxed. How could she not realise that?!

None of the storylines make sense.

All that nonsense from Bev about what a court would say.

The GG ghost is just embarrassing.

I take it that its wrong of me to want Will to end it all, even though it's only a drama. I am a very bad person.

The only SL I like at the moment is the Jakob and Kate one.
Where's Johnneh? Hellin? Tomtasha? LoLo?

I can actually see why Will was worried about the threat of what Bev would say about him. I think we all know there is no chance that Poppy would be taken into care because of a few nighttime trips out with him when he was working, but it's perfectly realistic for him not to realise that. It's all too common for people to get paranoid about the possibility of social services taking their children into care, to the extent that they won't ask for help they're entitled to.

The only SL I like at the moment is the Jakob and Kate one

I know.

I'm less than impressed by Bev's behaviour tonight. Will was right- she has no right to decide she will take Poppy without permission and threatening to go to court was nasty.

The wedding venue thing doesn't make sense.
Because I thought they were just hiring out the Barn. Then the "happy couple" or their wedding planner would organise everything else, including tables etc.
Otherwise they are putting themselvse in competition with other family businesses; LL and the Bull.
And why do all that work? It's crazy. Its supposed to be a sideline not a major business.

Ridiculous melodrama tonight. And Will should call the police. Bev Sounds as unhinged as him!

Do they still have an extended version on 4 extra

They never did. They had 4 series of AmEx, which were totally separate storylines, and included (not necessarily in this order,) Lilian's affair with Matt's half-brother Paul, Kate and Phoebe in South Africa, the mad second series where they voiced their thoughts and we heard Alistair going on about his almost-affair with Dan's female fellow sixth former, and the last one was Brenda and Matt and Lilian running around with Russian gangsters in St Petersburg.

Be very glad they decided not to continue with it.

My goodness, Will was vile to Clarrie. I'd almost forgotten how unpleasant he is.

Very typical of Will to tell Clarrie it was all her fault whilst totally denying that he could have contributed in any way. She needs to point out that the only reason it was a problem was because he had so much to hide.

Alistair going on about his almost-affair with Dan's female fellow sixth former

WHAT

It was horrible. She was doing work experience with him.

"So fresh" were his famous creepy thought-words after they kissed!

Oh gosh. Oh dear.

I feel a bit ill.

As did everyone who heard it.

With melodrama all the way, it just feels there’s too much going on for it to be realistic. Will’s reaction to Nic’s unexpected death is fair enough, his over-protectiveness with Poppy is understandable - Bev’s outburst and threat to see him in court is not believable. The scene with the shotgun feels like it has been signposted for a while, but instead of thinking “Oh no, poor Will” we’re left thinking “Surely not - they’ve already done a suicidal gamekeeper storyline”. When you can see the nuts and bolts of the plot it ceases to be compelling and that’s how I’m beginning to feel. Peggy’s legacy is having a similar effect - it’s sole purpose seems to have been to throw a spanner in the works and set family members against one another. Emma and Ed losing the house was a great plot with Ed overreaching himself, brought down by a fatal flaw, but then the SW had to spoil it with all that soapy nonsense between Emma and Will. It doesn’t help that the bits of everyday life that intersperse the dramatic spikes are now just silly - the ghost, the agony column, Kate and Jakob. Ambridge no longer feels like a real place.

BOOP (if I may) for LillianGish's assessment!