Archers thread #114: Bull banished, Bali beaches beckon, bickering bullshitters burgeon

[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 Gavin 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 for all thread title suggestions! I've gone with a B theme which with a bit of luck will seem odd and irrelevant by the end of this thread. Here's hoping, anyway.

Haven't caught up with tonight's episode yet, so off to do that shortly.

I'm not excusing Kate's behaviour - she's always awful - but "Poor Jakob" should wear a condom if he doesn't want to be a father. I don't think she's pregnant, though.

Jakob probably did wear a condom - but I'm sure Kate is devious enough to have sabotaged it in some way.

What was the clue (that I totally missed).

The clue was Kate becoming increasingly broody and over-invested ever since Adam and Ian first mooted the possibility of having a baby by surrogate. (I can’t recall how she was about Pip’s pregnancy.) She’s been telling the whole village how she is the one woman in Ambridge best suited to procreation.

(I don’t know who first suggested it here!)

We're going to need a new thread soon, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g . Anyone got suggestions for titles?

By the way, for those who like these things we passed our 111,111th post earlier - made by @MereDintofPandiculation* on Thursday.

*one of my actuarial colleagues has just had a baby born 02.02.2020 and I have palindrome envy.

My dd has a palindromic name so we were very excited on 02 02 2020

Poised and ready for action, DDD! We may get some good ideas for thread titles if Kate is really pregnant and we hear what Jakob et al think about this.

Palindrome envy

Ed's a grown man. No one forced him to break the law but the woman always gets the blame for the actions of a weak willed man

I agree. Emma plainly had no idea just how serious Ed's actions were. He comes from a family where a bit of low key fiddling and poaching are the norm, she had no reason to think it more serious. So yes she shouldn't have encouraged him to do it but lets not pretend she was the criminal here.

At the time Emma had been scrimping and saving and holding down three jobs for years whilst Ed faffed around finding himself with the sheep and even wanted to turn down the regular income from Adam because it "constrained" him.

Ed like Eddie is architect of his own problems and has generally been happy to take a short cut. Emma encouraged him just the once but pays all the price of his downfall.

ed was groomed into the illegal work by tim.
he was in an impossible situation.

By the way, for those who like these things we passed our 111,111th post earlier - made by @MereDintofPandiculation on Thursday.* As a former mathematician, I'm delighted at this "achievement".

Following from Dad's palindromic comments: If you divide 111111 by another palindrome, 1001, the result is yet another palindrome, 111. (It's fairly obvious it works for other numbers to, ie nnnnnn divided by 1001 = nnn; conversely, nnnnnn divided by n00n = 111)

111 is 3 x 37 . I've always felt fond of 37, not entirely because it's a prime.

It's fairly obvious it works for other numbers to, ie nnnnnn divided by 1001 = nnn; conversely, nnnnnn divided by n00n = 111 ... which means that nnnnnn is always a multiple of 37. Why that should be in the least bit interesting I don't know.

Ed's far better off without her. Nothing he did was ever good enough for her, she was always wanting more - and wasnt too fussy about how she went about getting it. Remember the begging bowl around the village? Ed should have kicked her into touch straightaway after that horrible display of avarice

I sincerely hope they never get back together. Ed had a very lucky escape.

Good grief!

There was no ‘avarice’ on Emma’s part. She worked her socks off for that house, and the credited furniture. And then was driven mad with panic when it became clear they were going to lose it.

I despise every single person who turned her away during that appalling week.

I despise Emma even more for having the cheek to do it in the first place.

How did she possibly think they would ever be able to repay everything?

Oh yes, I forgot... Dependable old Ed would pay for it all, wouldn't he?

Tough luck, Emmur - you pushed it too far.

In what way would Ed pay for it all. She was working 3 jobs.

As a former mathematician - can you be a former mathematician? I might argue that (nearly) everyone is a bit of a mathematician - it's a basic cognitive ability that humans possess - but even if we set the bar a bit higher, your ruminations about primes show that you never stop being a mathematician.

Anyway, back to TA. How will Jakob react to the possibility of becoming a father? He doesn't seem to display much emotional response to most things.

Only people whose chakra enlightenment has been distorted by modern life need tests.

I can totally imagine Kate saying this Chemenger. Agree that Kate is very solipsistic but it has never proved to be a problem for her, even when she forced Brian and Jenny to sell Home Farm. I used to like Hayley. She was much better for Roy and Phoebe.

I was gutted with how Hayley was treated nettie - she was my Archers twin and one of my favourite characters.

Awwww, I have 111,111 envy. I was 3 short.

Why didn't "poor Jakob" wear a condom?

Kate probably convinced him that the moon was aligned wrong to get pregnant or something.

Tobey didn't want baby Rosie and was furious when pip wouldn't abort (wasnt he? I'm now doubting myself)

Tobey didn't want baby Rosie and was furious when pip wouldn't abort (wasnt he? I'm now doubting myself)

I don't recall that at all. Toby didn't particularly want to be a father but I don't recall him putting any pressure one way or the other on Pip or being furious that she didn't go through with the abortion.

I was gutted with how Hayley was treated

Lovely to discover another Hayley fan Taswama. Just pouring us so we can put our feet up and chat about how Hayley was a rare example of a thoroughly nice and believable Ambridge woman!

Re Toby/Pip - I vaguely remember Pip deciding to have an abortion and then deciding she couldn’t go through with it. I can’t remember Toby’s reaction as I try and zone out when he is speaking.

While I agree with others that Kate is not beyond deceit in the matter of this pregnancy (not telling Jakob for a start), it's a tiresome SL - poor man trapped by sperm-stealing harpy.

Should I bring my own ?

In all honesty I was fairly neutral about Hayley as a person while she was around - but full of admiration for her step-motherly abilities and the way she navigated a sometimes turbulent sea of Katerly disruption.

I was incandescent with fury over the way the SWs wrenched her from her job and home and stepchild because of Roy and Elizabeth’s affair. That was appalling. She did nothing wrong - but was banished to Birmingham with poor Abigail.

Should I bring my own

The more the merrier, SurpriseSparDay! I haven’t fully worked out which posters like which characters yet. The only thing I am certain about is that MikeUniformMike does not like Pip. She kindly let me into this secret A sentiment with which I concur!

I've been a huge Hayley fan ever since John went to meet his maker on his tractor and Helen and Pat subsequently treated her so disgracefully over John's pigs, cutting her out of it all despite her hard work keeping it going in the aftermath of his death. (In contrast, I have immensely disliked Helen since the same time and nothing that she's done/had done to her since has redeemed her for me.)

I have much @nettie434