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.

Isn't Rosie Clarrie's sister? Did you mean Poppy?
Have I mentioned recently that I don't like Pip?

Mike - I assume you are trying to show your hatred of Pip with a bit of selective amnesia, but I did mean Rosie (born last year) and Jack (born a few years ago), who I think were the most recent births in Ambridge.

Who's Rosie? Who was she born to?

Hi everyone just started listening in yesterday so I'm still figuring out who everyone is. Can anyone give a quick run down of the storylines. I got the surrogacy one but the rest are abit obscure atm.

Oh shit Rosie!

I must just zone out when the pipster is on.

How long have I been listening???

Mike - it's 2057 and Rosie Archer runs Brookfield after Pip retired.

Is Ben still in the cereal cupboard?
Is Jill still making flasks of coffee and baking flapjacks?

How awful is Emma? There is no reason why Will can't have supervised contact if any of the children want it. There is also no reason why she shouldn't make an effort to coparent peacefully with Ed for Kiera's sake. I found the bit where she kept wrongfooting Ed by being angry for him charging at Will over the not kiss, angry for forgiving it and then angry when he said he'd do it if it happened again. What exactly do you want Emma? Oh yes a house. Pretend I never spoke.

I was thinking about how much better Ed came over than Emma in that conversation. Ed, agreeing that Will was out of order, but seeking an explanation of what may be behind it all. Emma, all black and white. People who do something bad are Bad. No understanding that sometimes bad people do good things and good people do bad things.

I think someone on here used to listen on iPlayer and fast forward all the parts with Pip in

That was me. (under a different username)

I still don’t understand why Lexi is doing this

No- the motivation was glossed over.

I don't suppose this will occur to the SWs but the £500,000 is a potentially exempt transfer so unless Peggy lives another 7 years it will be counted for her inheritance tax bill. That would actually be quite funny as there could be unlimited squabbling between the beneficiaries and Team Golden Pip as to who should pay it.

Emma is sounding terribly shrewish.

The law says "reasonable expenses" for a surrogate, but that includes loss of earnings. So Adam and Ian could pay her the equivalent of her picker's salary, while she remained in Bulgaria with her daughters.

I'm pretty sure she agreed to the surrogacy because it would mean that this summer, instead of being forced away from her daughters to earn money, she could stay with them and still have the same income.

Wouldn't it be the equivalent of her salary at Grey Gables, not as a picker? I thought that was her most recent job in Ambridge.

Title suggestion: Hammer Horror (Grey Gables), Carry On (Bryan Aldridge) or Call the Midwife (Adam, Ian and Lexi) - whatever the genre you can be sure The Archers will remain a Brexit-free zone. Come and discuss developments here

I'm pretty sure she agreed to the surrogacy because it would mean that this summer, instead of being forced away from her daughters to earn money, she could stay with them and still have the same income.

And that is part of the problem with commercial surrogacy. Predominantly poor women who have very few choices. Some of the surrogacy contract examples I've seen from the US are hideous - the surrogate surrenders bodily autonomy to a degree which seems at odds with anti slavery laws.

I think Emma is still in shock. Its only a few days since she thought Will would kill himself, himself and Poppy or her as well.

Ed wasn't talking about supervised contact. He was focused on keeping it all quiet and Will's need to see the children rather than what was best for the chidlren. I wouldn't let my children unsupervised with someone in Will's mental state or at all unless he was clearly getting help. Its not a zero sum game. Will in his unstable, unpredictable moods is harmful to the children.

Did we hear any outcome from the GP appointment? Will has steadfastly refused help before and the family trying to hush it up is the worse possibly thing. Will needs help and then time to reestablish relationships with the children in the wider family context first.

Oh. I thought that you would be cheering Emma but apparently not.
Why should she cave in to the two brothers' cover-up request? Why should she expose her DC to an unstable person who is likely to resort to a shotgun if things don't go his way. Why should she accede to Ed's requests to be friendly, why does he get to pick how the break-up (his idea) goes?
I don't understand where Ed was going with the "it's all my fault" routine. I am not looking forward to years of him beating his breast.

@tinatsarina. You do know that the Archers has been on the radio for ..(not s sure how long,) longer than I've been a!ive? Doing a s synopsis is impossible. Ask who Emma ,Will and Ed are and I'd be happy to help

Oh. I thought that you would be cheering Emma but apparently not.

I don't know about cheering but I was definitely agreeing with Emma in that conversation for all the reasons you cite.

Sorry, didn't see your post, tinatsarina's. Impossible question, I'm afraid. Maybe try wiki.

echt I've just returned to this thread; thank you very much for the explanation about "l'esprit d'escalier", I hadn't heard the term before!

If you just listen for five years or so it will mainly make sense, six months and you will cope, ten years plus and you start to nitpick, twenty years plus and you know the writers are dicks

Thank you, Tony, I’m adding Cheery Ruth to my list of ill-traited characters.

True, Mardy. Also, you will hate all the characters but be addicted nontheless.