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?

[JD] is really badly written at the moment. Its perfectly consistent with her that she would be the one person anxious about Lexi changing her mind but presenting her as the hysterical shrew with no thought for Lexi herself is not consistent with her and is another character change to contort into a badly written plot.
I totally agree. It's why I can't get worked up about the story; it's written so badly / unrealistically. Like a lot of TA at the moment.

BOOP for Tracy - who is fast becoming my favourite character. BOO for Jenny - mainly because her reaction is too out of character. If she had all these concerns then why was she so enthusiastic about the idea of surrogacy in the first place. She has had a convenient change of heart to engineer some dramatic event which was so clearly signalled at the end of the episode the SW might as well have announce it with a trumpet fanfare. Either she or Brian are now clearly going to say or do something outrageous alienating them from their grandchild until said grandchild further down the line is in some perilous situation from which only his grandparents can save him. I don’t believe for a moment Lexi will want to keep the baby - we the listeners have already been privy to her thoughts on that matter (even if Jenny has not been). It eels so artificial in the way Tracy Horrobins interjections at LL do not. Tracy is behaving in character in an unusual (for her) setting. Jenny is acting out of character - and that is the difference.

Particularly as Charles dresses really well...

Oops-wrong thread!

Jenny is acting out of character
Isn't she just. We are still waiting for her to drop into every conversation "I need a new dress for Phoebe's graduation ceremony AT OXFORD. Did I tell you that she got a 2:1?" Also, why haven't we heard JD supporting genius child's rewilding at Home Farm meetings whilst simultaneously building bridges between her and Adam (she usually hates it when family fall out).

By all accounts, Charles Collingwood is quite a dapper chappie, Bert

Brian is one of the best characters on TA.

It’s interesting, isn’t it? Brian has changed over the years- but apart from the noisy party and the agony aunt letter incident- both of which were insane- he has changed believably.

Brian is definitely the best character on TA. I normally like JD too but she is bonkers at the moment.
Seems Helen found her way out of the cereal cupboard.

“Poppers are your friends”

By all accounts, Charles Collingwood is quite a dapper chappie

A friend was listening to a relaxation recording and became wildly excited to recognise the voice of Brian.

Pat used to be a feminist Helen?

The 3 women who might have been expected to give some thought to the ethical implications are Pat, Kirsty and Helen.

Helen won't because of the nature of Henry's conception (genetic father is irrelevant) and both Kirsty and Helen are women who like having bestest gay best friends. Not sure what Pat's excuse is.

Since Jennifer and Brian got married in 1976 neither has been faithful.

Brian has had two affairs on air (Caroline when he was upset about Jennifer having an affair, Siobhán who made the deadest set at him I've ever listened to) and one possible off-air (Mandy Beesborough).

Jennifer, since her marriage, has had an affair with John Tregorran because he fell for her, which her son Adam found out about and was very upset by and which very nearly broke up her marriage because it set the entire village talking, and for several months had sex with her ex-husband Roger Travers-Macy because she still fancied him taking her three-year-old daughter to one of her rendezvous with him I think it was until their daughter Debbie found out and told him to sling his hook or she was going to broadcast it, starting with telling Brian. (Only Brian had already worked it out, and told Jennifer he had.)

So if she has put up with Brian's philandering, he has put up with hers just as much.

Adam had a one-night stand with Pawel after Ian had been dismissive and horrible and then walked out of the house after telling him that Brian was right and Adam was wrong about something or other I forget, and Ian would be leaving if Adam didn't do as Ian told him to. He was kissed by Charlie once when they were both drunk. I don't think either really counts as an affair exactly.

I seem to remember that Adam was very tempted when Charlie suggested he should ditch Ian and run away to Scotland with him.

Or did I imagine that

JennyDarling didn't have an affair with John Tregorran though did she.
She had an affair with Roger.

Yes, it's not clear that Jennifer and John had an affair, reading this: www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thearchers/entries/f3905b95-bf1e-3ce0-b672-29984e54a89c unless Keri Davies has revised Archers history again.

I thought Adam and Charlie were doing a bit more than snogging when Helen caught them doing whatever they were doing. Not sure if it was the sound effects or the Archers # on twitter that made me think that...

Just catching up now

Ian’s “i feel like we’ve taken him away from you Lexi” has to get the NO SHIT SHERLOCK award for boneheaded scriptwriting that is a thing that i just made up

Is there a well known rule that if you have a row the one night Stand you have doesn't really count? If so I have been living my life completely wrong.

So 2 blokes who have probably pressed apples for cider, or watched it being pressed, all their lives (and have to have mechanical knowledge for their jobs) 'force' the screw on the press so hard that they break it ! Come on SW's you can do better than this fgs.

I know very little about pig rearing but wouldn't a pig smallholder simply buy in semen? Otherwise wouldn't there be a massive inbreeding risk?

There seem to be plenty of people in Ambridge who have practical experience of AI.

Come on SW's you can do better than this fgs

And your evidence for that assertion?

I suppose if hauled before us a SW would contend that yes, both Grundy idiots would know better than to do that to a defenceless piece of kit normally, but their bitter rivalry and simmering enmity, or vice versa, rendered them temporarily mad, d'you hear me, MAD!

sorry about that. Got quite carried away.

Well I suppose you're right Sanguine The crazed Jenny character is a good example of the SW's doing much WORSE

All in the quest for "Drama dahling".

Has it always been this bad? I'm trying to remember when I actually listened properly.

When Pip and Rex were discussing Basil, and he described putting the sow in the pen and the boar showing no interest, Pip said "have you tried Neil?" and I was waiting for Rex to say "no, he didn't want to mate with a pig either..."