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?

Yes, that's my thinking. They're most of the way there having a large table and sufficient crockery, china, serving dishes etc. Jill's made the Christmas pudding. I bet she does lots and lots of other stuff in advance too, and fusses and flutters on Christmas morning, with Ruth hooting and shrieking that it'll all be FIIIIIINE, Gooo on Jeeeell, enjoy yirsel!

I can hardly wait.

Jill and Leonard met while visiting at the Laurels and have never been back since.
Helen used to visit so he could meet Lee accidentally.
Poor Christine has been completely abandoned.

Christmas dinner is just Sunday dinner turned up to 11. You have bread sauce, cranberry sauce, pigs in blankets, Yorkshire puds, stuffing with your Sunday dinner? Can I come and join you?

why does anyone think they will need 2 turkeys? They don't. It all started because someone thought cooking Christmas dinner for 5 was somehow easier than cooking Christmas dinner for more than 5. I commented that it doesn't get harder until you start needing two turkeys.

I don’t have bread sauce ever because eww but all the other stuff, sure... i’m a vegan and my house is TINY and i just have the one oven but i manage to do a meaty dinner for the kids and their dad and a roast cauliflower thing for me and i often get completely shitfaced while i cook it, it’s honestly not that hard 😁😁 it’s all about the prep

In fact to me the cooking’s the easy bit, it’s the putting leftovers into tupperware and clearing up that’s the killer so i get the best deal i reckon

For me it's all about the shitfaced

Does Jill know Leonard is living a double life and has a wife and son?
He's on the radio now.

You have bread sauce, cranberry sauce, pigs in blankets, Yorkshire puds, stuffing with your Sunday dinner? Can I come and join you?

I agree with MadameButterface, I would have all of those except bread sauce for a normal Sunday roast. Maybe not all at once, it would depend what the meat was.

Sure, you can come round if you like. Bring your own chair though, we don't have enough.

Is Justin after Peggy's money?

And who's Lewis?

Lewis was Julia's former companion and former manager of the LL gallery. Julia was Nigel's mother/Lizzie's MiL.

Pheobe's presentation was dire long before Justin stepped in.

Lewis and Julia were married - but she died not very long afterwards. So he’s Frilly’s step-grandfather.

Thanks for the answers, you two

I have no memory of them actually marrying!

Here’s Lewis. ‘Ware photo!

I think the SW are trying to remind us that Justin only does things if they benefit him somehow.

Again, Phoebe wasn't prepared for questions that would have been obvious ones. Oh, and Rex! There's being optimistic, and then there's being deluded.

Imagine making a presentation to a board speaking off the cuff. And why wouldn’t it be the whole team presenting? It’s just amateur.
Where’s their science? Their projections? Their financial info?

The questions Justin asked Phoebe were essentially the ones we've asked on here, and indeed they are questions that should have been asked by Peggy and the awards panel.. It's insane that she didn't have answers.

When did Phoebe become Aldridge? Wasn’t she known as Phoebe Tucker as a child?

Agree with Beveren about Justin's questions to Phoebe, although if that was the approach he intended to take, was the whole thing not just a pointless waste of the BL board's time? Or was he trying to deflect from his own failure to produce a report about the new development? I didn't understand what he was trying to do, or what he was explaining to Martin afterwards.

I thought he was demonstrating his impartiality & will now push ahead with rewilding so they can get planning permission that would not otherwise be granted.

In today’s Times there’s a sad & yet fascinating article about a woman killed by feral pigs in Texas. They were a Spanish pig/Russian wild boar cross that were originally bred for paid hunting. There’s over 3 million of them now and some counties pay a premium for each tail.

I thought ... that at the time of writing yesterday’s episode the editorial team hadn’t made up their minds about how the rewinding story will develop - so the SW was forced to hedged their bets.

It’s all frustratingly unsatisfactory.

It’s all tied in with the tedious planning story (otherwise why would they be labouring the point on it?) BL will present the rewilding as a conservation project to earn brownie points with the council as part of the application (and then stop renting out the land as soon as it’s all gone through which also means the SW won’t have to follow up the rewilding in any meaningful way once this tedious story has run its course).

I still don't get it. Wasn't this storyline meant to be a 100th birthday present to June Spencer? I'd be mega fed up if I was her, unless the SW have some amazing denouement up their sleeve (not holding my breath after the mess they have made of this so far).

Wasn't this storyline meant to be a 100th birthday present to June Spencer? Indeed. It reflects the very short attention span of the SW - Peggy’s role in the storyline was for the duration of the competition itself, I don’t think anyone had thought through where it was actually going in a meaningful way. It’s exactly what happened with the Aldridges moving from Home Farm and the Gills moving in (never to be mentioned again).