Archers thread #112: Quelle beau de lollox! And yet we stick with it. 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 Alf to stay around, 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 @DoctorTwo for the thread title! I was strongly tempted by R4's suggestion of Wildlife on Four: Jonneh is wild at Lily, Phoebe rewilds by Occam, Joy is in the wilderness and David is bewildered by a marriage proposal.

So we did make it past Joe's funeral at last. Are we heading for a Christmas octogenarian wedding now?

Does anyone else have a sense of foreboding about how much Ruby and her naughtiness has been mentioned recently?
I thought that it was meant to be a compare&contrast. Lillian can, apparently, get Ruby to do what she wants but it's only because she bribes the dog with titbits. She employs a similar strategy with Justin. She kept telling Phoebe that she would 'talk Justin round' to the rewilding when the time was right. Softly, softly catch the monkey etc.
Phoebe then blew that theory out of the water by straight business talk that - luckily for her - fell right in with Justin's plans and the Board's timetable. You don't need to 'manage' Justin, just flash ££-signs in front of him.

I’m pretty sure the Board meeting and agenda will have been fixed for a while. Parachuting in Phoebe to chat them through her request at short notice doesn’t seem very realistic.

Also I am annoyed at Jill and her wide-eyed wonder at why Leonard would think she had been hinting at marriage. I don’t think he was unreasonable to think what he did. Love David and his true-to-form character. Anyone more socially adept might have waited to be told the news.

When did Johnny get a car?

First I've heard of it....

And when did Bella get a voice?

And how come no one recognised Josh in the photo? Even if he was mostly obscured by Bella or something, wouldn't someone have recognised his hair or shirt or something? It's not like he's a total "randomer" but someone they all know. And if they (Lily & Freddie at least) had realised it was Josh, would Lily have approached the matter differently?

I'm currently listening. Aargh! It was Josh.

Oh poor Johnny.

The conversation between Lily and Phoebe was ridiculous. This was the first time Pheobe's "lack of doing anything worthwhile to pass the day let alone think of getting a job" status has been recognised. Yet both Phoebe and Lily were behaving as if this situation has been imposed by outside forces over which Pheobe has no control as opposed to Phoebe's complete absence of motivation.

All three of those posts are things I was going to comment on!

We've never heard before that Johnny had a car as far as I know; why is it such an enormous deal for Pip, Josh, Ben, Freddie, Lily, and everyone else apart from him in TA to take and either pass or fail their test, and he just suddenly has done(presumably years ago) and got a car too with is another massive deal for everyone else. Oh, maybe except Phoebe, who doesn't even have an income of any kind to run one on but seems to have a car?

Bella got a voice today, as far as I know.

And I expect if they'd known it was Josh she was snogging they would have approached the matter differently but I don't think they should have -- except that they could have gone and tried to harass him about it, and come away with a flea in the ear just as Lily did from Johnny, which would have been good for them.

(Incidentally, back when I worked in a pub it was not allowed to snog the customers in the bar. Is it ok now?)

that was meant to be "got a car too which is another massive deal"

I enjoyed Phoebe's feeble repining about how she should be preparing for the BL proposal, when her half-arsed presentations for the original bid and winning over Justin's support for the BL meeting carried the day .

Also, what does Phoebe need a break from? She doesn't do anything.

I assume Justin will add the rewilding pitch to the agenda under Any Other Business.

I hope we’re not looking at sheep worrying in the near future.

Given the mixed messages the poor dog is getting, I am rather hoping that, maddened beyond endurance, she goes straight for Justin's jugular. Or carotid. I'm not picky. Ideally this would be before the board meeting.

And, I've never heard Phoebe (or anyone else for that matter) call Lily, 'Lills', before

Incidentally, back when I worked in a pub it was not allowed to snog the customers in the bar. Is it ok now?

Wasn't it at the party at Shula's that she allowed Freddy to host, where Johnny and Lily got drunk and took the Grundy hangover elixir?

I am glad that Lemberry and Jill aren't getting married. Also glad that she's spending Christmas away.
Still think Lemberry's an ex-jewel thief gentlemen Raffles type.

EBearhug
Incidentally, back when I worked in a pub it was not allowed to snog the customers in the bar. Is it ok now?
Wasn't it at the party at Shula's that she allowed Freddy to host, where Johnny and Lily got drunk and took the Grundy hangover elixir?

Bella didn't go to the party at the Stables because she was working at the Bull that eveing, and the Bull was where Freddie's friend Imogen took the pictures she forwarded to him. The party went on there but Freddie stayed behind to clear up and missed the rest of it, and Johnny was so drunk he didn't get there.

So since Bella was working there that evening I thought that her being out in the bar snogging a pun'ah (as Kenton calls them) was strange. She'd be a bit busy anyway serving drinks to all the influx from the party, I'd've thought.

Oh, I thought she'd arrived late at the party. Not that I really care...

why is it such an enormous deal for Pip, Josh, Ben, Freddie, Lily, and everyone else apart from him in TA to take and either pass or fail their test, and he just suddenly has done(presumably years ago) and got a car too which is another massive deal for everyone else

Yes, I noticed that too. I suppose it's because Johnny just gets on with things rather than making a drama out of it. Johnny, I would guess, is driving something cheap and second hand- he might have got some help from his grandparents to buy it.

The writing for Pheobe's character is just dreadful. I want a breaking the 4th wall Six Characters in Search of an Author scenario where Phoebe points out the scriptwriters have failed to write her character properly.

Bella got a voice today, as far as I know.
She has been around for ages so why did she finally get a voice on the day that they were over. Unless she and Josh become an item?

Oh well. It leaves the way clear for Lily...

Bit skanky and disloyal of Josh though ...

We are not supposed to like Josh. We are supposed to support Pip and think she is always right when she badmouths Josh. So having him do something skanky fits that narrative.

It happened when she was running home from the stupidity of having made a complete mess of going to university, and "Oh I have to help mumsy" made a very good excuse to abandon Russ in Manchester

But the point is that plenty of 18 year olds in that situation would barely have noticed there was a problem, or would have run back to university to escape having to deal with it, or run off to other people to sort things out, or been totally ineffectual. Lily did none of those things.

Oh well. It leaves the way clear for Lily...

What has Johnny done to deserve having Lily inflicted on him?

There was a thread elsewhere on mumsnet about women who fall in lerrve abroad and want to bring their paramours back and the potentially exploitative intentions of said paramours re visas, right to remain, etc, and some were suggesting that the women ought to be Warned. One poster suggested notices saying 'Please Don't Marry The Waiters'. Perhaps The Bull could adopt similar signage.