Archers thread #113: Who’ll find some Magic Time this Christmas in Ambridge? Share the glad tidings (and bad writing) in The Archers! Election-free zone so far ...

[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 Hannah 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 @SurpriseSparDay for the title. I haven't heard 12/12 yet so must catch up now, seeking relief from the outside world.

It was Will who told Emma that Ed bought all the house stuff. (At least, that’s what I heard.)

I may have misunderstood your point ...

Oh you're right. The Grundy sons are so interchangeable I'd forgotten which one bought the furniture.

Ed and Will interchangeable?

Not in my head. Ed sounds deliciously sexy but permanently mildly bewildered by life. Every time he speaks I want to wrap my arms around him and whisper gentle, reassuring things. I’m entirely indifferent to Will.

Sorry- they are interchangeable and both are uninteresting.

I don't like Emma or Eddie much either.

I thought Will had only bought her coffee table

I think Ed gave Will the money to buy everything that was left.

He told him to keep it secret.

It was to be a secret, and particularly from Emma; that is why Will took the earliest opportunity to tell Emma all about it.

Ed wasn't in last night's episode at all. Will was being sent off to find more tombola presents and Clarrie sent Emma with him. Will and Emma went to the barn and thence to the skip.

I'm not sure how I'd feel about winning a tombola prize out of a skip.

When the skip previously hired by the Gills was mentioned, Emma said there were good clothes all bagged up in there.

I would assume it was the same this time. It was also mentioned that some of the clothes still had tags on, so were unused. I wouldn't have a problem with that. Most things (useful items, not builder's rubble) from skips can be washed anyway.

I'm not averse to second hand stuff anyway but a cashmere jumper isn't a normal tombola prize and the legality is a bit dubious.

The Gills are so conspicuously wealthy that they throw brand new designer clothes and shoes, with tags still attached, into a skip.

Surely people of such extravagant habits, living in one of the biggest houses in the neighbourhood, would be the subject of feverish gossip, and not just courtesy of Radio Carter?

And yet we've never heard any of them speak, or heard anything about them, other than the occasional bit of relayed info from Susan. Completely bizarre.

What is the legal position regarding 'liberating' stuff from skips. Were the Grundys flogging stolen goods right under Harrison's nose?

I was told by a policeman once that taking stuff off my own skip was stealing, because as soon as something was on a skip it became the property of the council or the firm that owned the skip! So I can't believe taking stuff off someone else's skip isn't stealing. And didn't Burns once tell Fallon that it was, back when she was still upcycling?

Well I agree with you about Adam @SurpriseSparDay but John was surely just a tragic accident? Can anyone tell me an approximate year for his death as I don’t think I was listening then.

25th February 1998. Approximately

It was on Tommy Archer's seventeenth birthday.

but John was surely just a tragic accident?

Sure, but his death upholds your ‘only two children allowed’ theory! The SWs were supremely effective there in cutting the Bridge Farm offspring down to two.

Again, those of you not exhausted by online archives will be able to say whether the period when Debbie and Adam were both resident at Home Farm corresponded with a time when Kate and Alice were either away or too young to have a regular voice.

The Gills are so conspicuously wealthy that they throw brand new designer clothes and shoes, with tags still attached, into a skip

It really isn't credible. They have hired a skip, presumably for building materials. Why would they fill that up with unwanted shopping?

I don't believe even the most callous and spendthrift person wouldn't take it to a charity shop/recycling centre/the local church/ask their cleaner/ housekeeper to get rid of it or even just say to the builders take this if it's any use.

On the subject of skip diving, a few years ago a place I was looking after had a massive skip outside which I'd spent all day filling with the crap that was left behind. I went back in the property and locked the door, before checking outside again. In the 30 seconds or so between me finishing clearing the building of shite and locking up a van had pulled up next to the skip and a man in a white singlet had got out. I went out to talk to him and our conversation went:-

Me: hello our kid, can I help you?
Him: Can I take the metal out of your skip?
Me: Yes mate, just leave the place tidy yeah?
Him: I will, and thanks very much.

I went back out an hour later and he was just about to leave, having reduced the level of crap in the skip by half and swept up all around it. He thanked me, I said he was welcome and we shook hands.

MissBarbary
It really isn't credible.
I don't believe even the most callous and spendthrift person wouldn't take it to a charity shop/recycling centre/the local church/ask their cleaner/ housekeeper to get rid of it or even just say to the builders take this if it's any use.

Especially since one of the things said was that they had been seen taking things to a charity shop.

didn't Burns once tell Fallon that it was [stealing], back when she was still upcycling?
I wouldn't trust Burns, and neither would anyone else with a tittle of wit, for the way to the khazi. Stalky, creepy git.

But on the taking stuff out of skips thing, I think he was correct. Probably by accident. That lummox is now a Sergeant. BVA.

I can't find a definitive answer but I would guess that if the skip is still on the Gills' property it is theft.

If it's on the public street I would think the same. The skip is temporarily in the control of the Gills but I think until the point the skip hire company remove it the contents are still the Gills.

Yes, you're definitely not supposed to take anything out of a skip without permission, although I always thought it was the permission of the person who was hiring and using the skip (veteran of several dozen of the things here).

I've had a similar experience to DoctorTwo . It's uncanny how 'rag and bone' type men with vans divine the presence of a skip and appear as soon as you put something useable (to them) in it. We don't live on a public road and our skips were tucked away from general view, and yet old radiators etc would disappear as if by magic within half an hour or so of being deposited. Which was fine, it made more space for other things.