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?

Yes me too Bert

I loved the talk Elizabeth and Ruari had, I thought it was beautifully done. I was one of those who felt underwhelmed by the way Joe's death was handled, and I've just listened again and realised why it didn't ring true to me. Eddie's "Oh, Dad!" was well delivered, but "Is that why you slipped away early?" maded it sound to me as if Joe was an animal preparing for his death by crawling away to hide, rather than a tired old man, if that makes sense? That was what sounded false to me (actually, as did Eddie checking on Joe to see if the cucumber had disagreed with him, in the first place! It somehow felt more stage-managed than Jill finding Phil, which was perfect, I thought.).

“ Eddie's "Oh, Dad!" was well delivered, but "Is that why you slipped away early?" maded it sound to me as if Joe was an animal preparing for his death by crawling away to hide, rather than a tired old man, if that makes sense?”
I thought that too- but I liked that as well! I wonder whether the difference is between those of us who have had very old parents and those that haven’t?

I unfortunately wasn't at either my parents' or my pil's deaths, Bert, and they all died in hospital, in the early hours of the morning, at 76, 76, (men) 81 and 91(women).

I’m sorry-did I sound like a bit of a git? I didn’t mean to- I was just musing.

tbh
I found it too subtle.
could mean anything.
it's only the assumption imo because we know the actor had died.

No, Bert, it was just Eddie's odd question.

When I found my Dad one morning, my first thought definitely wasn't "Oh, is that why you went to bed early last night?

Do you see what I mean?

Still brought a tear to my eye.

Are Phil and Kirst still in the garden?

He would have known what he was going to find when he saw the light was still on. Yes. There was something very deliberate about the way he hung back till the boys had gone to bed before going in to check, the very opposite of "Oh, Ed - Jo's light's still on - just pop in and see if he's OK on your way up, will you?"

TBH, "is that why you slipped away early" conjures up "secret bedroom activity" rather than dying... it's only because i know the actor passed away that I got what they were alluding to.

Although imagining Joe Grundy's bedroom secrets does not a pleasant moment make!

I think Eddie may have had an intimation that something was up with Joe. At Joe's age it would hardly be a surprise, and they live together so would be sensitive to subtle changes.

at his beloved Grange Farm

At Oliver's Grange Farm, although the scrounging old git seemed to feel entitled to the place.

Can Ollie have his house back now, please?

Joe will haunt Grange Farm just as he said he would.

I think there would always be a terrible moment of piercing shock and grief before the quiet acceptance/inevitability took over.

Speaking as someone with a parent who's in their 90s and with whom that moment will have to be faced, it may not be a surprise but that doesn't mean it won't be awful.

"I’m sorry-did I sound like a bit of a git? I didn’t mean to- I was just musing." Bert, if that was addressed to me, by any chance, no, not at all, I agree that anyone with an Aged P (cf Bertrand Wooster, Esq) is bound to be expecting it. (An image of Charles at the death-bedside of the Duke of Edinburgh or Queenie just came bursting into my mind, but oh, how unlike the home life of Our Own Dear Queen is The Archers and in particular, the Grundy family. )

Are Phil and Kirst still in the garden?

No, they're still having their ears bent by Joy.

I couldn't understand why they opted to ask her for shelter rather than going to the nearest pub or something.

I found both of my parents, one in hospital - Dad was 87 and Mum at home - she was 76.

They were both ill and it was not unexpected, but devastating all the same

I was 33 (Dad) and 38 (Mum) at the time

Aah sorry, brought the tone down

You haven't brought the tone down at all, Captain. The topic is discovering a deceased parent and you've shared your experience. to you and anyone else remembering the loss of a parent. It hasn't happened to me yet, my next step towards becoming a real grown-up I guess (I'm just a 49 year-old kid).

Of course, my eyes will stay completely dry listening to tonight's episode, because I am a man, and we don't cry.

MollyButton, Sherborne. Adam went there too. Brian's alma mater.

I am reasonably confident that Ruairi was sent to a reasonably local (as in less than an hour's drive afetr dark on roads she did not know for Jennifer, when she was taking him Mousie at the beginning of his first term) Catholic boarding school, but not a named one. Definitely not a named on, in his case.

I am trying to find any mention by Phoebe of Oriel during the time she was applying and before she went there; I did not hear one at the time, in spite of listening quite carefully because of various discussions about where she might end up, and so far there has been none in the recordings I have listened to. (She wasn't in all that many episodes in which it might have been discussed between 6th October 2015 when Jennifer said she was applying for Oxford, and her setting out there the following year...)

Wouldn’t Mousie have been at the start of prep school, which would probably have been closer? (I don’t actually remember, though I would have heard it.)

I think he went to a catholic prep.

Yesterday/this afternoon’s episode was beautiful. I rang DBf at work in tears

The bit with Eddie was lovely. I’d have liked the whole episode to have been the same, with the family talking to him.

I’m still in tears tho

That was very well done, made me cry on my drive home.