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?

I only read Gaudy Night a couple of years ago. It has not worn well.

Hmm ... I strongly suspect you of being deliberately provocative MissB. If you’re not being so, I’m curious to know what - beyond having been written in different times - you feel Gaudy Night fails to do.

(I, naturally, view it as a behemoth of literary imagination.)

I should add Pseudo Badger was one of the most vocal listeners in disliking Darryl and not wanting the writers reminded of his existence. I’ve never knowingly met Pseudo but I have an image of a young woman sitting at a table, radio on in the background, and her hands clamped very tightly over her ears.

ebearhug that made me laugh.
Realised how rarely characters have off camera thoughts/lives etc and how unheard of for something to be revisited and developed!
Having said that my knee jerk archers ‘take little at face value’ mind did feverishly think there was something I didn’t like about Lee sticking around in this episode.

The snobbery in Gaudy Night was appalling from a modern perspective. And goodness knows I can be a snob myself . Of course the perpetrator is finally unmasked as one of the collegescouts; ie one of the lower orders.

I found the academics insufferable.

One of the points in Gaudy Night, though, was that everyone except Lord Peter had wrongly assumed that "one of the lower orders" would be unable to quote Latin. So their snobbery had its comeuppance.

Well anyone thinking of reading Gaudy Night need no longer bother 😂

Can I just throw in here that I can't stand Lord Peter Wimsey and never could? DLS's other detective, Montague Egg, is much better. Only features in a handful of short stories.

Poor Lee.

I thought this was an Archers' thread but it seems to have been mysteriously taken over by aliens ...

I have to think about something else- otherwise Clarrie and Emma using “bakes” as a noun would cause me to implode.

OMG I can't stand it. It's fingers in ears and lalalalala every time I hear lee and Helen. WHAT a pile of utter trash. Utter shit. Oh bloody hell kill me now. Who wrote that? Who plotted that? They should be strung up.

bert how do you feel about "gifting", might I ask?

Oh god- they weren’t gifting their bakes, were they??????

Love LPW. Adore Miss Climpson.

Agree ‘bake’ is an awful word and it was repeated so often !

Lee just doesn’t ring true on any level and I hate to say this but I am fearful for Helen and my own sanity as we are subjected to this storyline. They have nothing in common seemingly - have never understood this attraction.
His voice sounds as though there is a veneer of reasonableness/understanding to it - doesn’t sound a true voice. Worrying.

I hated that episode because I felt so much for her. Yes she screwed it up with Lee, but that's not surprising when she's a traumatised woman and he was the first after Rob.

I’ll join you tlbf if I may.
Don’t like Helen and never have but she is definitely in need of happiness.

@ Bucking.
I have a feeling that last night was a Pivotal Moment. Helen was finally finally truthful to someone and therefore will be rewarded by the relationship fairy with the status of Happy Ever After. However it points even-more-so to the compare&contrast fairy ruining Kirsty's relationship.

Talking of relationships, is all well in the land of Tomntash? Tom had plans with Batasha for Friday night but dumped her at very short notice in order to take Jonneh out instead: would she be cool about this?

Can anyone answer me this? Listened to the Archers on and off for 20 years, never worked it out. How much money has Peggy Woolley got and where did it come from. I thought most ofJacks property etc went to his evil daughter. I assume she is still dropping 5k a month on Christine's care home and is chucking half a million quid at the green project.

Well, unless she works on her self esteem, she's not going to find happiness with anyone else. She'll always be wondering why Lee's with her, and worrying he'll realise what a horrible person she is, and he'll end things.

I thought this was an Archers' thread but it seems to have been mysteriously taken over by aliens ...

May I refer you back to my comment about Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully if you want to know what Ambridge would be like if it were invaded by aliens (and the plots make sense)

Can anyone answer me this?
On Peggy's money- no idea.

Can anyone answer me this? I was listening at the time but remind me - what was the wholly implausible reason for Kirsty coming back to Ambridge?

Speaking of the Golden Age (and not just to annoy NewName73 ) does anyone have any opinion on the works of Lucy Malleson, who wrote crime fiction under the pen name Anthony Gilbert?

Don’t think I’d ever come across her until a few minutes ago checking the R4 schedule. Her autobiography is about to be read as Book of the Week.

If only I didn’t have so many Margery Allinghams still to get through!

How much money has Peggy Woolley got and where did it come from.
Oh, that's an easy question. I'll answer that if you can explain to me how Bridge Farm and all its spin-offs manage to be financially viable and how they interact (who owns which bit and who pays who for what!).

Kirsty coming back to Ambridge?

IIRC there was a vacancy at GG for CEO Towel Folding - and she confessed it was the one job in the world she had always wanted. Its small village location a few minutes walk from the family home of the man who jilted her at the altar was obviously an added draw ...

People have said she was brought back to play back up to Helen during the custard war - Grace Archer would have been a more plausible returnee.

SurpriseSparDay- you were right about the Lee storyline !

Don’t look so surprised ...