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 was too Choccyp1g. I hoped they would mention the discrepancies, but it just seemed to be about the social commentaries that are included in the SL.

And didn't one of the callers say he was bored of Shula, yet that wasn't mentioned?

Wow, Neil. Brilliant. Just brilliant. Thats been a LONG time coming to Susan. ( And ironic IIRC the actress who plays Susan is a psychologist in real life)
DH & I were cheering him on. Something has to shift her high opinion of her self rightous self.

I'm ready to cook Neil a chilli after that.

Go Neil! Yes, about time somebody said that to Susan.

I was responding to a PP, who mentioned alcohol. I would usually ask someone if they would like a cup of something

Curious, isn't it, that we brew coffee, but a brew refers to tea - or at least it does for me.

To me, "would you like a drink?" implies alcohol. "Do you want something to drink?" would probably be tea or coffee in someone''s house, but alcohol in a pub. But if in doubt, I'd always clarify, and would offer tea or coffee to guests, their choice. I don't drink either, so there's always the option of a nice glass of tap water. But if I say I don't drink, it means I don't drink alcohol. This must be challenging if British English isn't your mother tongue, the subtleties of including particular modifiers and do on.

I'm ready to cook Neil a chilli after that.

EBear!

You may get your chance. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the current disaster turns into reconciliation for Mianed but D I V O R C E for Neil and Susan? 💔

I'm ready to cook Neil a chilli after that.

I was going to comment that Neil won't be getting any chilli for a while! I wonder whether Susan will take what he said to heart or be prepared to acknowledge any truth in it. She really is a very unpleasant character, I've never liked her. I always come back to that scene from years ago when Alan suggested giving up gossiping for Lent and she (speaking to Clarrie) outrageously claimed that she never gossiped. She has shown zero self-awareness up to now, will she change?

By rights not only Emma (and possibly Tracy) but also George and Keira should have heard all of Neil's outburst - and the preceding conversation about Ed's new job wasn't exactly in a restrained tone of voice either. I bet they had all magically popped out though (despite Emma's reluctance to leave the house she is strangely absent from a lot of the action in it), or were playing a videogame with headphones on.

Thanks for the Hopkins, QuaterMiss - I didn't know it either.

"O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
May who ne'er hung there. Nor does long our small
Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep,
Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all
Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.”

Painful just to read that.

I was cheering Neil on too. What good would it have done for Ed to end up in prison? He already has a criminal record from the TWOCing years ago.

I assume that in the very near future Joe will finally die and that may stop Susan in her tracks, if Neil's home truths haven't. What a well drawn character. She loves her family but she's spiteful and lacks self-awareness. So well acted, too, of course.

Huge BOOPs for that episode. Unusually, Shula came across well. I especially like the fact that she didn't tell Ray all about Jim's and Jazzer's troubles to show what a cracking vicar she'd make.

And yes, I too have been wondering about Jazzer's childhood. His reaction is so strong.

Susan's tragedy is her lack of empathy and inability to see the bigger picture. She's not a bad person but she gets it badly wrong.

She was very kind when Nic died. Wasn’t it her who drew up the rota?

I especially like the fact that she didn't tell Ray all about Jim's and Jazzer's troubles to show what a cracking vicar she'd make.

Having listened again I was coming back to say exactly this. It would have been very easy for her to say "sorry I'm late, there's a young man from the village having a very hard time at the moment and he arrived at the house earlier. I really couldn't cut short time with him to get here." Wouldn't have breached any confidentiality while racking up vicar points as someone who people seek out for counsel.

Credit to her for not doing that. I'd have been tempted, I confess.

She was very kind when Nic died. Wasn’t it her who drew up the rota?
True, but she didn't talk to Will first to see if it was what he wanted.

Well I was thinking she should explain why she was late ( without breaking confidences) when the bloke was really snotty with her! I’d make a terrible vicar though.
Great scene with Neil and Susan....it was as if the actor playing Neil was getting out all of his pent up frustration too

Haha MrsGrindah, I bet playing his role for all those years must have taken a toll! I bet he was thinking he wished he'd been able to do that decades ago!

I would have told Ray that I'd been with someone going through a crisis, and couldn't leave them. No confidence breached, but it explains why I/she couldn't be on time. I think he deserved some sort of explanation, it seemed quite rude.

I think the point Ray was making was that a Vicar can’t just drop everything and focus on one person- you can do that if you’re a friend but a professional person has to prioritise. Ties in with the “need to be needed” thing. I thought that was very interesting.

Am I the only one who didn't like the Neil/Susan interaction? It seemed really false for Neil to come out with that after a lifetime of marriage. It's the sort of thing that would have been nagged about and repeatedly mentioned for a long time.
Besides, it would have been more strategic (i.e. more Neil) to tell Susan not to ruin Ed's job because either MeandEd might get back together (it's still early days) or, if they don't, it would be handy for child maintenance purposes if Ed was employed.

Neil mentioned people not telling Susan stuff. She still doesn't know about Neil's £15k loan, does she? I presume that he didn't actually draw it down in the end.

As a compare&contrast, storming off in "righteous" indignation to have a word with Ed's boss seems to be a mother & daughter trait.

Susan's a nagger. Neil isn't.

Go Neil! (Puts chilli on shopping list...)

Maybe "nagging" was too emotive a word.
I don't believe Neil would have suddenly gone off on one like that. Unless, perhaps, he was feeling guilty about not telling Susan about the loan and was trying to blame-shift.

I think the expression "The worm turned" is a good one for the Neil\Susan exchange. It takes a lot to finally get to someone like Neil and force him to tell the truth. Very good acting from them.

Oh I dunno, he's probably got a lot of pent up frustration at how Susan behaves. I can well believe he would finally blow.

I think you might be the only one R4. I haven't seen anybody else, here or on Twitter, who didn't enjoy it!

I agree ppeat. I remember a time, when we were kids, when my brother pushed me too far. I chased him into the house, and he ran upstairs and locked himself in the bathroom, thinking he would be safe there, but I was so angry (he'd been winding me up for years) I kicked the door open. He was so shocked, and called out to our parents for protection, but I'd spent all that anger on kicking the door open, and just started crying because I was also shocked!

It didn't stop him from winding me up, and I've been low contact with him since I left home. Now both our parents have died, I can go NC.

I do think Neil could have blown up like that because he was desperate to stop her and she wasn't listening. Often her gossip is low level or doesn't cause extreme hurt but in this case she was so very in the wrong. I think Neil could see that Emma would've been furious with her as well as ruining more lives, not just Ed's but Keira's A's well. I think he was a desperate man.

Nobody mess with Motoko!