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?

Phoeble's (thanks to whoever suggested that excellent name) idiocy was perfectly encapsulated in her declaration that she's PASSIONATE about rewilding because, er, environment and stuff, but she doesn't care if Justin concretes over some other bit of green space because that's nothing to do with her project, so he can just crack on.

And of course they don't need to run it past a solicitor or anything. Rex, Phoeble and Pip, the three brightest stars in the Ambridge firmament.

Desk>

Phoebe is giving young graduates a bad name. I teach students and know lots of recent graduates, they are not devoid of common sense, and not, in general, too thick to understand when offered advice. Also when they care about the environment they care, being part of a green wash wouldn’t just be dismissed. Possibly phoebe’s problem is that they don’t have money to pay for legal advice, but it is wholly unlikely that she doesn’t know a bright young Oxford law graduate who could look over a contract and explain it. I knew law students at uni and I’m an engineer, we didn’t even inhabit the same campus at my university. Or this would be a perfect opportunity for Usha to do them a favour. I’m beginning to wonder if she actually went to university, perhaps she just lived in a secret bunker in Roy’s basement during term time.

Phoeble was mine as was Phroebe.

I find it hard to believe that a graduate of PPE would not ask a solicitor to look over the contract and advise.

The trouble is, she knows that if they don't get the BL land, then they're out, so she's going to sign it, even if there's a clause saying she has to ride naked through the village once a year.

She probably won't mention Brian's warning to Rex and Pip, although I'm surprised Pip hasn't mentioned getting a solicitor either.

It's obviously written this way, to highlight that there will be DRAMAAAH ahead.

I don't know how Kirsty has patience with Helen, she's exasperating. If I'd been Kirsty when Helen said she felt like a lovesick teenager, I'd have told her she was certainly acting like one, and if she wants to have a proper grown up relationship, she needs to tell Lee what caused her to act like an idiot last time, and some therapy wouldn't go amiss either.

What exactly was Jim's problem? I must have missed it.

“What exactly was Jim's problem? I must have missed it.“

Being treated like shit? Would make most people a bit tetchy..

I found Phoebe unbelievable and stupid.
Obviously you should get legal advice for any contract like that. And not caring about the concreting over of possibly ancient woodland - she sounds shallow as well as naive. And should not be involved in rewinding if her commitment is egg shell deep. Pip has much better green credentials and hopefully can find out more (David's NFU and her young farmers contacts should help).

As a mother of a "Phoebe" I may be forced to change her name by deedpoll unless the Ambridge Phoebe gets her act together. I feel my blood pressure rising every time Phroebe opens her mouth.

I am struggling to understand why the Trustees/Peggy haven't already insisted that 10% of the £500k goes on professional fees/advice after choosing such a 'thin' project.

Surely Roy/Kate or possibly even Robin F would be taking a keen interest in the project.

Possibly phoebe’s problem is that they don’t have money to pay for legal advice

Surely Peggy and the trustees would insist that they have legal advice and would be perfectly happy for the cost to come out of the trust fund? And it's pretty obvious that Brian would happily pay also.

What is irritating me is that this Economics graduate hasn't, at the very least, spotted that if Justin has an ulterior motive for offering them the land, that gives them some bargaining power.

Given that I find Pip loathsome, it speaks volumes that I'm now desperately hoping that she at least is prepared to tell Phoebe to grow up and listen to Brine. Except, of course, that Phoeble is probably going to be too obstinate and dim to let the others know.

Which bit, MereDint? hmm ...The lights, or the electrocution? The lights, of course, not every northerner festoons their house with a ridiculous amount of Christmas lights)

I didn't think it was a northern stereotype to turn your house into Blackpool Illuminations at Christmas, but a working class/council estate stereotype. There are certainly some houses on the council estates round here in Wales that do it.

Are you in North East Wales Motoko?

I didn't think it was a northern stereotype to turn your house into Blackpool Illuminations at Christmas, but a working class/council estate stereotype. Is Joy meant to be working class/council estate? - I wasn't 100% sure of that so I fixed on the northerner thing. Either way, it is lazy stereotyping to suggest she'd be festooning her house in Christmas lights. What proportion of Council houses do you think "turn their house into Blackpool Illuminations" at Christmas? Round here I know of 1-2 houses on each of two Council estates containing over a hundred houses each, a ridiculously OTT display on a private house - a detached Victorian pile with 6 bedrooms, and a menagerie of inflatable reindeers on a select private estate.

Also gobsmacked about Phoebe's naivety.

Rewilding needs to lead to net environmental and conservation gain, not just be used to offset someone else's losses. Plus the money from Peggy should deffo cover legal costs as well as rent - that's the whole point of a business idea. I know, I'm not the first to make these points.

Did Lee make a reappearance after the shopping centre incident last week? I have missed a bit.

Aren’t all Northerners working class anyway?

Did Lee make a reappearance after the shopping centre incident last week?
After a lot of prompting from Kirsty, Helen decided that she does like Lee. Kirsty tried to get her to text him but Helen did her usual "fiercely-independent" wishywashyness. So Kirsty took the phone off her, wrote the text and sent it. Lee said yes. Now read on ...

I hope no one shows dh this thread, i have just convinced him that the house needed a light up snowman and reindeer.
I don't think they have decided who Joy is, the obsession with shieldfield is just one of the script writers being weird. She has money we know that at least.

Taswama, yes. All the men have flat caps and all the women wear aprons. All adults wear clogs apart from young women who wear big eyebrows and low cut dresses with high heels. Nobody under 30 ever wears a jumper or a coat. All the food is fried.

I'm Welsh, so obviously have a valleys lilt to my voice, sing like an angel, eat freshly-baked laver bread and cawl every day, and all my male relatives work down the coal pit.

I know plenty of middle class people from up north and I am none of the things I said other than Welsh.

It wasn't me who originally suggested about the lights, and I'm not stereotyping working class people on council estates (I'm working class myself), I was just pointing out the stereotype is not just confined to northerners.

MUM no, I'm down south, not far from the valleys.

I KNEW Phoeble wouldn't tell the others. And with Rex going on about being open and honest, and trust being important. Stupid, stupid girl.

For the avoidance of doubt, @MikeUniformMike I was joking!

The rewilding plot line beggars belief and its only upside was having some input from the excellent actor who voices Brine.

As for the demonising of Jim by all and sundry. I have particular dislike for "he thinks he knows everything" from Lynda. You don't know what anyone's thinking, a lazy way of making the other person the fault while not explaining your views with any evidence.

Can you tell how much I hate this in RL? I am overinfested :o

I assume everyone else thinks tonight's storyline with the Snells was more beau-de-lollox. Did it make any sense?

I only suggested Christmas lights because Kirsty mentioned that Philip had put lots up (and she had made him take some down again because they use too much electricity)

Stereotyping Northerners never entered my mind at all.

BTW, I'm as Northern as you can get - born and bred here in Lancashire.

And, before you ask, no, I haven't got any Christmas lights outside

Tonight's storyline troubled me deeply. Jim is being paid (enough to build an extension!?) but the Snells are volunteering? Is this (a) the SW setting up a conflict or (b) the SW not thinking things through as per

@Taswama, I guessed that, hence my reply.