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?

Can the MFH visit me please. Losing the will to live. TA is was my life and now all I have is the Intern Diaries.

I thought of something. Intern,intern, come here.

Can something bad happen to Rosie, Pip and Toby so that Robin Fairbrother is in the cast for ever? Pleeease?

There you are. My will to live restored!

Quater, I've let you down. I clean forgot about my outrage and haven't got in touch with Feedback. I blame Brexit.

I don't know about the MHF and Elizabeth. She's been seeing that counsellor for months and months and we only heard the start and the end. Surely it's normal for a person to end their counselling sessions eventually? I for one was glad to hear Elizabeth finally say out loud that she was angry with Nigel for being so stupid that night. I certainly would have been.

Ha! I forgot to say, Gasp0, that I wrote in myself.

Pretty sure I never have before - but the Graduation thing was unforgivable.

I don't buy what Elizabeth said for one minute, the bit where she was confident what her reaction would have been had Brian or Ruairi had blown up at her. It didn't happen so she actually doesn't know.

Was her forgiving herself for not thinking about Nigel all the time, a permission to get it awwwwn with CMR further down the line? Grim.

I think (and there is lot of experience of Depression around the Archers team), that this is part of a real slow burn story. Elizabeth thinks she is "all better now" then something will happen or not, but she will relapse - it might be spotted quicker, but then again it might not.
I would quite like it if they could have both her and Will dealing with their MH at different times.

I agree Elizabeth believes she's sorted now, and certainly she's made progress, but she seems to have been on a pretty steady upward path, and in my experience of myself and others, it's not that direct - you go a few steps forward, then a couple back, and even if the overall progression is forward, it's often a quite jagged, windy path. Of course, she could be due a setback, but it's seems a pretty quick and easy recovery so far.

I wondered if Jazzer would take on Crowkie, and there would be a terrible accident with Webster.

It's good that the ADs have helped her and she's able to come off them on her own. She has a 'can do' attitude which hopefully is not too optimistic.

but has it been explained why Joy has come to live at Beechwood? No - and this is my biggest problem with her. The last comedy northerner was Heatherpet, who was in the story as Ruth’s mum. Ruth herself came to work at Brookfield. PP have drawn parallels between Joy and Lynda, but Lynda moved to Ambridge from Sunningdale as some kind o downsize because of Roberts work. I’m struggling to see why someone from Shieldfield would move to a new build in Ambridge. Why not move out somewhere more rural in the NE? Or closer to her daughter in Leeds? I would be a lot more convinced by Joy if she had moved from somewhere closer to Ambridge - if she had been a Brummie for instance. Newcomers need a bit of a backstory - Joy has none. She’s just a pointless irritant.

Joy is a cost cutting exercise- a comedy northerner and a comedy woman. Snobbery and misogyny in one character.

Is nobody worried about poor Hilda? I noticed Joy did seem to enjoy her company which is rare in Ambridge.

Hilda is upstairs in the spare room wardrobe. She is hiding until she’s sure Joy isn’t coming back. You heard it here first.

Hilda was last seen scarpering upstairs. She's definately up there, peeing in someone's shoes.

@ ADarkandStormyKnight you and I were the only people listening properly!

Ahem. I thought the same, though not with as much confidence as you two. See my post upthread

I have thought from the beginning that Hilda is upstairs, just too lazy to post it.

I was also surprised that Joy and Peggy seemed to know so little about one another given the previous incident of 'babysitting' where they spent a whole evening together.

Phew!
I manage to listen ‘properly’ about once a week, the rest of the time I’m also herding cats or similar.

I also was thinking that Hilda's upstairs, probably on top of the wardrobe, because cats feel safer when they're up high, and Peggy's probably too short to see her. Plus, there's probably stuff on the top too, so she can hide behind that. She'll have been coming down for food/drink and litter tray during the night.

Please could somebody explain the issue ref Ruari's mother ... who was she, what happened to her, etc ... for a relatively recent listener!

I may have missed a key episode.

Thanks

This should help, NewName. Scroll all the way. And follow some of the links, too.

You did miss the odd episode!

Ruairi's mother was Siobhan (I think someone explained up thread but this is my precis).
Siobhan had an affair with Brian. Brian was very in love. Even after Siobhan had left the village he was sneaking off to Berlin to be with her.
Ruairi was born as a result of this affair. In the end Brian choose to stay with Jenny (but I think still sneaked off to see Ruairi from time to time).
Then Siobhan was diagnosed with Cancer (I think it was skin cancer but I can't confirm). Siobhan didn't want her son brought up by her family (who she thought of as a bit repressive and reactionary). She asked Brian to promises to bring up Ruairi if she died, and eventually also got Jenny to agree. Jenny prayed for Siobhan to survive so sh wouldn't have to fulfill her promise.

But Siobhan died and Jenny took on Ruairi, and despite it being a huge humiliation for her has done a pretty good job. But Siobhan is still a very raw wound in Brian and Jennifer's marriage.
Siobhan died when Ruairi was about 4, and he is now 16/17, so it was a long time ago.

NewName Well, She was married to a doctor, an Irishwoman ( I can't remember her career) they were new to the village and had a shaky relationship, Bri and her had a serious affair. Which was continued in Bulgaria (I think) which is where she lived after her marriage had broken up. She got pregnant and got cancer around the same time (once again my memory is hazy of the exact details).

I do remember that her sister and mother in Ireland were going to look after RSOB but she wanted Brian and Jenny to bring him up. obvs. jenny was conflicted but did do it.

I was about to link to this Telegraph piece on Siobhan’s death - but Molly has pretty much covered it all!

Oh Sorry Molly You're details are better than mine! I remember Brian using Debbie's new work in a farm in foreign parts as an excuse to visit. S.

Spot on, I think, Molly. Siobhan moved to Ambridge with her husband Tim, who was a GP. Siobhan was a translator working from home for an agency. When Siobhan was first pregnant she let Tim believe he was the father. Eventually he realised about Brian and they split up. Tim met Brian on a lane and punched him. I don't approve of violence but hypocritically I loved that scene. Tim left Ambridge and the village lost its GP surgery as a consequence. Tim was teetering on the brink of having an affair himself, with Janet the Vicar, but had managed to restrain himself, unlike his wife, who was actively looking for an extra-marital outlet. She tried it on first with Greg, the morose divorced gamekeeper who ended up with Helen. Then she discussed Hungarian translations* with Brian and the rest is history.

*It is the law that since Tom Forrest retired all gamekeepers in Ambridge have to be morose and have gone through a messy divorce which affects their relationship with their children. George Barford, Greg, Will Grundy. QED.

** Yes, very like Ugandan discussions in Private Eye.