Call #111 for Archers advice: Is Hilda breathing? Should Joy be breathing? Could Nelson Gabriel be in cryogenic suspension? Discuss The 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 Joy'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 for all the input on title suggestions. I'd missed the significance of 111, but @R4 and DDD, our resident numerologist, were right on to it. Strongly tempted by Bore's suggestion but couldn't resist the chance to mention my favourite ever Archers character, Nelson Gabriel. Have not managed to incorporate a cricket reference, so you'll have to read up on that for yourselves. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_(cricket)

I wonder if this thread will last till Joe's funeral.

Oh, I missed that

Yes WheresThatCatGoneNow I didn't understand why "cowman legend" would go running all round the farm to find "Helen, the cheesemaker" ...to get her to make a phone call about an injured cow that she hasn't looked at. Were he to have screamed "there's no !* signal in on my phone", that I would understand!

On the plus side, if they do get a massive order for their terribly niche unpasteurised blue cheese, and the pasteurised one, there might be a need to employ Emma (and possibly all the Grundy men to do the groundworks for new buildings).

One step forwards, two steps backwards...

Oh I just presumed he had no phone or no signal in the field, and was running in to use the house phone, but found Helen first. He obviously wanted to get back and see what he could do for the cow on the spot.

I’m sure he was going back to the cow, not heading inside to watch Homes Under the Hammer and leave her to it

The cheese story is ridiculous.

Idiot Helen hasn't even thought about how she would have to scale up her operation to meet the supply demand of a UK wide distributor.

Many small businesses go under when they attempt this.

Since it was Johnny, I assume he had good reason but didn't want to waste time explaining it to Helen.

The cheese story is ridiculous - I disagree, I love it. Anything that stops (or at least puts a spanner the works of) Natasha's bid for supremacy at Bridge Farm gets my vote (though as I said earlier, I've slightly forgotten where we were with that story line since she disappeared off to Cuba with Tom never to be seen again).
Hate the Lily and CMR story - I just don't believe it when says she loves him. I don't think we've seen any evidence of this - she's been off selling kitchens and hanging out with her younger friends while he has feebly had to be found a job and she's too embarrassed to be seen out with him at parties. Lily is too smart and independent for this to be a convincing story and I can't think of a single occasion when CMR has been portrayed in a way in which we might be able to have even a hint of what Lily might see in him. At least with the Knob and Helen story there was some ambiguity at the start - CMR has been a a bit of a knob from start to finish with his three-speed kettles, food intolerances, petty snobbery, inability to support himself and chronic uncoolness in the face of his ex-pupils.

Yes. When CMR and Lily began, he was the sophisticated older man in a position of authority (well....what passed for one, I guess) and Lily was a dazzled teen still at college. Nothing that’s happened since has served to bolster his glamour and/or authority; rather the reverse. Scales have surely fallen from (Lily’s) eyes, and all is harmony again at home with Lizzie so it’s not as though she’s rebelling against her mother with an older boyfriend any more.

What on earth, I agree, can Lily be seeing in the wretched CMR to make him such a catch?

(Also agree re Helen and the cheese guru: this great businesswoman flatly refusing even to think of how she might go about scaling up production if she was offered a mega-deal? Riiiiight. Good luck with that, then )

he was the sophisticated older man in a position of authority (well....what passed for one, I guess)

Is that a pop against teachers? Can't a teacher be sophisticated? The law is unequivocal: the teacher is in a position of authority, and CMR abused it.

I'm not saying it's right that he abused his position , echt - goodness, obviously not. And why would I be having a pop at teachers?

She's 19. She lives in a very protected environment and has only lived outside of ambridge for a few months. Llly is bright but doesn't really have the skills to deal with the situation she is in. She has had no chance to develop emotional maturity.When I think back to relationships in my twenties I am aghast at some of the behaviours I tolerated.

What on earth, I agree, can Lily be seeing in the wretched CMR to make him such a catch?

Maybe we're missing the obvious - some sort of father figure?

What happened to the old Lily who dished out relationship advice to all and sundry?
She must know that CMR is not Mr Wonderful - Freddie tells her often enough.

some sort of father figure - he's not though is he? He's actually a bit pathetic - when he jacked in his job to go to Manchester with Lily he made out (and she believed) he was a thwarted artist. That's come to nothing. He hasn't supported himself since he left his job, he doesn't seem to have any money of his own - Lizzie paid for the flat in Manchester and now he's living free at LL. Lily and Freddie are the ones grafting in unglamorous jobs to keep the wolf from the door - they are grounded in a reality that seems to have passed CMR by - despite the fact that they are the ones who grew up in a stately home. We haven't see anything at all that suggests Lily is still besotted with CMR - every time he speaks it's to lower himself even further in the eyes (ears!) of listeners. Meeting 26-year-old Lara should have been the final nail in the coffin for their relationship - Lily is not stupid, she must have done the maths and she also knows now that Lara is not some weak and feeble wronged wife resisting divorce. Why is CMR resisting it? I don't like just being told that Lily is too much in love to see what has happened - I need to see (hear) some evidence of it and there hasn't been a single shred.

ooh, look. It's 11:11

Ha! I knew it would be 11:12 by the time I pushed the 'post' button

Well, exactly, Lilian . Do we hear much evidence of his fully-rounded and vibrant life as a creative artist (previously he didn't seem to do much other than to moan about not having any inspiration, or not feeling like drawing)?

Did he make any effort to seek a job, either in Manchester or Ambridge? No - Lizzie conveniently dropped the gallery job into his lap.

Do we hear about the wide social circle he and Lily are a part of, always out and about, having a wonderful time? Nope, she eventually confessed that in Manchester she felt isolated and couldn't make friends with her peers because CMR expected them to be together (iirc). And at LoLo they don't appear to be party animals.

On the Relationships boards CMR would be deemed a cocklodger (which autocorrect insists on turning into Cockfosters )

Maybe she wants (subconsciously) someone rather dull and dependable - not in a breadwinner sense, but able to calm a panic attack, and very unlikely to venture onto a roof on a stormy night. Someone who is actually effectively financially dependent on her may suit this - he's not going anywhere. Except now she's got a major trust issue because she must know that he's into very young women.

Am I missing something, R4?

What's the significance of 11:11?

See D^3's post on Thread 110:
"I'm loving all the playing with 111, especially as I once discovered that my oldest (surviving) post on MN, was made at 11:11pm on 10/11/11. (Yes, it wasn't planned, and I should have waited a day).
I even started a thread about it.

5 threads from now we'll reach the 111,111th post so I'll keep an eye out for it next year."

Is that a pop against teachers?

I read that as a pop against Russ, who couldn't be less (genuinely) sophisticated if he picked his belly button and farted at the dinner table!

Did anyone notice the resemblance between Jakob's dinner the other night to meet Kate's parents, and Russ's first introduction to Elizabeth - both worried about what to wear.

R4 - I think you should save that sort of stuff for Monday.

Lily is too smart and independent for this to be a convincing story

Lily is as convincingly "smart and independent" as Helen is "fiercely independent".

Since it was Johnny, I assume he had good reason but didn't want to waste time explaining it to Helen

It was just a really clunky plot device to show Helen coping with a farm crisis to Mr Cheeseman