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?

When I gooooo I will send back
A letter from Ambrrridg-i-a

Brian’s voice when he was recalling Siobhan’s laugh ...

I want to say “poor Jenny” - but really, hasn’t she come out of that struggle rather better off than her erstwhile rival?

Well, in the sense that she's alive, yes, but really, self-respect? I've never much cared for Jennifer and I think I like her less every time I hear her now.

Asking, that song! I don't think I've ever heard it before. Poor Ruairi will need to find his way home his own way.

Anyone else feel as if the Berrow Farm storyline is moving in a similar way to the mega dairy - with Knob sucking up to Justin and then Charlie taking the rap? Justin is presumably morphing back into ruthless boss for this storyline (away from avuncular country gent) who will not be able to see what’s actually happening and we know it Neil will be joining Charlie at a salmon farm in the Highlands (I’m not sure even Susan could be enthusiastic about a managerial job that wasn’t in Ambridge).

Soy that should say “and before we know it”.

I'm not so sure that Ruarhi's conversation with JD and B was sooo bad; were his feelings ones of embarrassment to confront the truth, due to not wanting to upset JD.?

He knows now that they care enough for him to not mind talking about his mum when he needs to.

Poor Jenny. Poor Ruari. Surely that conversation should have been between Brian and R? How can he possibly chat to R about his mother, all the funny lovely and “small details” things the boy might want to hear, with Jenny sitting there? Awkward doesn’t cover it.

I'm fascinated by all the weird and wonderful variations of the spelling of Ruairi's name on here!

Also, the way Elizabeth pronounces it, I sometimes think she's talking about Roy.

Which is very odd, given their history

Ruairi should definitely be a branded a PITA name.
3 posts gave 3 spellings.

I think the Aldridge family have about three different ways of saying it.
Rory, Roory, Rooery...
makes me all roary.

Perhaps we should call him RSOB (Rxxxxx son of Brian) save the confusion.

No doubt I have got the number of asterisks wrong

Or Baspofald, as he once was.

(Bastard Spawn of Aldridge, coined before he was born.)

I was just going to say Baspofald but I'll chip in with Myson.

'Our little boy' is how I remember Brian referring to him, in Siobhan's presence of course, not Jennifer's. I still think he's Brian's favourite. He seems to find his other offspring irritating (when he's not slightly in awe of Debbie), but OLB appears to bring him unalloyed joy.

"HEY! NO BITING!"

Pot? Kettle?

I can imagine Hannah going around biting people if she could get away with it. She's definitely snappy enough.

The spelling of Brian's son's name is like Alastair/Alasdair/Alistair/Alister etc. Many variations. I don't know the Irish spelling but one of the several Scottish ones is Ruaraidh. Teaching Engineering in Scotland I've come across all the variations, of the A name and the R name, the one sure fact is that if you choose one at random, it will be wrong.

I enjoyed Jazzer a lot in that episode.
Crowkie made me laugh as did "so you mean passing the Bull wasn't an accident".

I like Elizabeth a lot. And her voice is yummy.

But please for the love of God drop the facile Joy character.

I don't take to Joy either. Other than that, I enjoyed that episode. Good to hear Jim and Jazzer again, and also Alistair.

Joy does not bring Joy.

SW -Welcome to the monthly plot review meeting. This should take no more than ten minutes. First I’d like to welcome our new intern, who is taking a gap year between Eton and Oxford.

SW2,3,4,5,6,7,8&9 various mumbled greetings

New intern (NI) - thanks, just to clarify, because I think there’s some potential confusion. I live near Eton, I didn’t go to Eton College and I’m going to Oxford Brookes so no need to ask what college I’ll be at. Just to give a bit more background, my parents own a mixed arable and livestock farm and breed pedigree sheep and cattle, my older brother manages a small organic arable farm. My mum chairs the local WI and my dad is chair of the local NFU branch. My sister runs our farm shop.

SW1-9 - stunned silence, long pause.

SW1 - so no media experience at all? This will be quite a steep learning curve for you.

Yes, nice episode.

When Jazzer said, "You stay here and have a wee chat about Rochelle", I genuinely laughed.

The whole thing was so good, I am going to listen to the repeat this afternoon

I'm even warming to Joy.....

I was very cross with Alistair though, being so impatient and dismissive of the bird's plight

I'm not warning to Joy at all. It's that old stereotyping thing again isn't it. Notice how R4 seems to base certain types of vox pop programmes in certain cities.

Brummies on TA are usually a certain type, Northeners are down-to-earth types, Londoners wide-boys etc.

chemenger, is the new intern male or is the SW too ignorant to know that it is a boys' school? Can I assume intern is female?

Mixed and arable farm near Eton? You could be outing the intern there, as there is not much agriculture in that area, although you said that the intern lives near there - the farm could be somewhere else.

MikeUniformMike gender is such an outdated concept, I doubt that the SWs even notice detail like that .

(Please don't expect the attention to factual information that you get from TA from me. I've been to the town of Eton exactly once and have no memory of what its like. I boxed myself into this plot corner some time ago, please just accept my alternate reality!).

I have a solution, here we go -

SW - So how close is your farm to the college, I don't remember seeing farms round there.

NI - actually I think you've misunderstood, its not the Eton in Berkshire, it's the other one.