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.

Is it wrong that I fell in love with Ed all over again tonight? He has the most gorgeous voice, and sounds so lovely. Useless - but lovely!

I wonder if they can ever get over this. Emma will never trust him again. He might be nice as decoration but she’ll always feel she cannot rely on him and has to provide her own happiness. And he’ll always be wary of some new demand that he cannot meet. Heartbreaking. BOOP for his sweetness over the yard sale though. It’s exactly what I would have wanted him to do. And if Will did get the coffee table maybe it’s a sign that she will have her own house to put it in one day. With Ed. Or Will.

Thank you, WheresThatCat.

She's going to think it was Will's money though isn't she?

Will is all over the shop, isn't he? Back in A&E with Poppy, being kind to Em. Actually spending some time with George.

(Does he eat anything except pizza?)

I know the SWs thought a yard sale would be good for whipping up Emma's anguish and providing food for gossips but honestly Emma would have made twice the amount has she give through Facebook for sale pages /eBay.

Why on earth was Emma flogging her stuff for pennies? If other people could snap it up cheaply and sell it for more on Ebay* , why couldn't she?

*other online auction sites are available, probably

Ha. Hating and I are of one mind

Wonder who got the coffee table.

@MikeUniformMike
Will got the coffee table... Which is odd as I'm sure Fallon would've refunded her?

“Will got the coffee table... Which is odd as I'm sure Fallon would've refunded her?”

She said she couldn’t ask....

It will be Wills kindness over the coffee table that leads her back to him, which will infuriate Ed who knows the truth. This will drag on for 20 years rather than Emma actually being allowed to forge a life for herself.

Would you have gone to Fallon with that request, if you were Emma right now?

@BertrandRussell ah, must've missed that bit, screaming toddler didn't help my listening ability!

Surely she's the first person Emma would ask?! We went through the whole history of Emma/Ed/Will earlier as my DP was convinced both kids were Eds and I was convinced one was Wills... Neither of us were listening at the point, but it was a bloody long saga, surely they can't be rehashing that again?

Loved Shula's coment to Susan about gossip! Sione thrown from inside the glass house. Wonderful!!
Do you think Susan might get the message anytime soon?
( I detest Susan and always have....)

Surely she's the first person Emma would ask?!

After the way she spoke to her when trying to get Fallon to "employ" Ed? Telling Fallon, with venom, it was alright for her, with her perfect husband, and her perfect house, and her perfect life? Nah, she couldn't go back to Fallon and ask her to take the table back for a refund.

I also loved Shula's interaction with Susan. It shut her up, and she was much nicer to Shula later on.

However, again we had Shula being the person people go to for a listening ear. Was it 3 people tonight?

I can't decide if the bit about brandy glasses was subtle writing highlighting both (a) the poignancy of Emma's failed dream and (b) Emma's delusions about the lifestyle she wants. Or not as the case may be.

It was subtle if it was supposed to show Emma's failed longing to be part of the middle class home- owning class and her assumption that brandy glasses are important to that class. I've been in that class my entire life- everyone I know is. Brandy glasses rarely , if ever, feature.

Shouldn't we be hearing from Lower Loxley? Will Lily be going back to university in September? And are CMR's feet even more firmly under the table?

There’s no way Russ would give up his cushy job at LL.

That’ll probably be the next drama ...

Re Brandy glasses, it certainly wouldn't have been Ed's dream to have that sort of dinner.

I've been in that class my entire life- everyone I know is. Brandy glasses rarely , if ever, feature.
I am home owner in my 60s, would probably be called middle class and I have never owned brandy glasses. And never missed them.

Emma wants so little really. To have a home that doesn't involve living with her in laws and grandfather in law.

Does anyone ever think of Home Farm - the house? I find it so weird that they've moved a family in and now it has been erased.

I am middle class and have never owned a brandy class. My parents, however, do; they live in a massive six bedroomed house and entertain a lot!

We have a load of different style glasses no brandy ones though, we obviously haven't 'made it' none of them in more than 2 or 3s , (dh buys too many) , I managed to break a couple yesterday, that'll teach me to try to dust the siting room.

Home Farm was last heard of with noisy tenants, called the Wards I think.

My Dad had a lovely pair of cut glass brandy glasses - I remember him teaching me how to warm the brandy by cupping my hand underneath. When I was about 12!
I think they were a present. We were middle class with miners and butchers in the generation before.

There was some passing reference to the Gills at Home Farm a while back but that was all it was - taken no further. Completely weird.

Re St Shula, I'm starting to have the sinking feeling that the entire Jim SL has been engineered so that her calling can be revealed and reinforced. So far she's counselled him and Jazzer, and there must be a few more to go. She'll be onto Emma next. Though the stones-and-glass-houses comment to Susan wasn't very vicar-y (I did cheer, though).

But if Emma has sold on eBay then we wouldn't have the "she thinks Will bought her coffee table but it was actually Ed" storyline to enjoy over the next 20 years.