The Archers #110: Game(keeping)'s up for Will. Game on for Lillian & Vince, Tracy & Oliver? Game over for Joe? Stay ahead of the game with all things Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

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 LillianGish for the title idea. Very tempted to go with MrsGrindah's suggestion of It’s all a bit crap and boring at the moment but let's be positive, maybe things will look up in the coming days ... Also very taken with Lexi's Midnight Runners - Burpers, maybe? - from Madcats.

Not at all happy about Lily not going to university. Yet another bright Ambridge woman not fulfilling her potential. Why do they do this?

I'd just like to withdraw saying that I thought Jennifer might care even as much as half a hoot about how Lexi might be feeling. She clearly doesn't.

I do actually think that Jenny being worried that Lexi won’t be able to give up the baby is interesting as she is obviously thinking about how she felt about her own children, particularly Adam whom it was suggested she might put up for adoption. In fearing she might change her mind it is less a hatred/resentment of Lexi than a recognition that the emotional impact of surrogacy can be very profound. I think it is coming out wrongly in that she is saying “what an untrustworthy cow” but she did suggest towards the end that Lexi might simply not yet have realised how strong the feeling is.

I do hope that where this is leading us a heartfelt conversation between Jenny and Lexi, probably after Jenny has exploded at her, in which she tells Lexi all about how she knew she could never part with Adam and that is why she has been worried Lexi will feel the same. Lexi will explain that it’s different for her, she is at peace with the situation and it’s very different from a clean break adoption. Jenny will then sob and genuinely thank Lexi for what she has done.

I’m probably wrong though.

yes Lexi seemed adamant that she was at peace with her decision- but- the baby was asleep, she didn't even see him
let alone hold/feel/smell him

Didn't Oliver and Tracy go to Kidderminster to sus out the murder mystery dinner thing? Not really a date.

I loathe Jennifer at the moment.

That’s the point Gasp0de- we know it wasn’t a date but the village doesn’t and tongues are wagging...

And of course maybe the gossip will turn into truth in the end anyway...

I don't think it's particularly realistic. AFAICS Will's problems aren't anything to do with his job. He doesn't have another job to go to. And yet it's the main thing he's prepared to change... I agree.

I thought tonight’s episode was a bit like a public information broadcast on surrogacy with Lexi stressing that she had done it as a friend, had never thought of the baby as hers etc etc (much like the surrogate who posted on here) with Jennifer expressing all the anxieties that have been brought up on here.

No one else excited by the naming of the baby???

That episode read as if the SWs had been reading these threads.

I don't think Adam and Ian were anything other than being honest when they said they are about to ring Lexi. neither has shown the capacity to be underhand in that manner.

JD was as annoying as ever, not least pronouncing Xander with a long "a".

Thanks for the new thread Gaspo .
Kidderminster is not exactly posh.
Loved how Jenny didn’t twig the connection between Alexander and Lexi until it was pointed out to her.

Love that they have called the baby Alexander Quater. Though Alex would be more of a tribute to Lexi than Xander.

Can I say just how much I dislike Pip. And boop Ruth.

And Jennifer was awful. I really hate the surrogacy story.

I was driving listening this evening and I don't think Jenny was helping me concentrate on the road.

I thought tonight’s episode was a bit like a public information broadcast on surrogacy

True, and did you notice the SW's little joke? "The hardest part about being a surrogate is educating people about it - there's so much misconception!"

Ugh
Jenny is being absolutely VILE. Did these issues never cross her mind before the birth? I'm really hating this storyline.

to be generous to JD during the pg she was maybe able to silence those doubts as she was excited about a new grandchild- one in the village she would have a relationship with from the beginning. But seeing the new baby must have brought home to her the reality of what they were expecting Lexi to do.

Thanks Gasp0 and LillianG

God Jennifer is awful to listen too. I feel that the older she gets the more her character is reduced to crass stereotype. Too often she is cruel or vindictive- a post menopausal shrew caricature not tempered with finer qualities. Then she is normal for a while and I wonder if the script writers have changed or when the woman hater will return.

I think Oliver and Tracy as unlikely friends would be brilliant.

I've never been too keen on Jennifer but I can confirm that after tonight I bloody loathe her. The Archers just isn't enjoyable any more and this storyline is giving me rage!!

Thanks for the thread!

I quite enjoyed the Brexit parliament parallels with JF tonight - Lexie as the known liar who cannot be trusted, only 6 weeks to make it legal and safe, have they thought this through, what are they thinking, legally they don't have a Leg to stand on... etc

Other than that, boo, if that's the opposite of BOOP, for Pip and Ruth

MysticOliphant decides to leave plot predictions to the expert from now on.

I must say, fatherhood suits Adam- he sounds positively perky! And he and Ian were genuinely lovely with Lexi. Still doesn't alter the fact that they are responsible for bringing a child into the world with the intention of separating it from both its mothers.

Jenny has been made the voice of surrogacy opposition which doesn't work for me because 1. it feels like a bit of a volte face - up until now she's been thrilled about the idea and 2. her family make up thus far is far from conventional - the scandal she caused with Adam, taking on Ruari, Kate's various shenanigans over the years (if ever there was an example of children not needing to be with their mothers it's Kate). It just doesn't ring true to me. The SWs are making her take this position to cause conflict, but it doesn't feel like something the real Jenny would do. The objections needed to come from someone much more conventional and less open-minded - I could see why Roy was alarmed at the start for instance. I had thought Lexi might stay, but now I think it's much more likely she will leave because the SW will have wrung their drama out of her and will want to move onto storylines involving two men raising a baby uncomplicated by her role in it.

And yes I'm very sad that once again I'm discussion The Archers as if it were a work of fiction and speculating what the the SWs might do rather than what the characters might do, but I feel that's very much what it's been reduced to by the current team which is a shame.