Archers thread #115: Johnny's in the gym, Josh is in a jam, Rex is riled, Kate's with child - 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 to share a camomile tea with Kate, 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 @LillianGish for the excellent Bert Fry tribute title!

I don't think this thread will get us to Easter, but we should be well into Lent before we need a new title. I wonder if St Stephen's will have a new oh-so-interesting Lent initiative this year. When did we last hear from Alan?

Yes, it’s strange. Lilian is properly horsey - usually she’d be the first to advocate for whatever kept her horse healthy.

My late DH was raised on the Archers so late 90s was when some storylines came to my attention, though early 2000s was when we listened together regularly; the polytunnel kiss, Sid and Jolene in the shower, the Brine/Siobhan affair and her subsequent death.

On moving to Australia we listened far more, though my DH could hardly bear the Knob/Helen SL he found it so painful to contemplate.

On other matters, MUM's updates on her bile levels regarding Kate make me laugh.

she is past her use-by date. Not a feminist then, Three

they have listeners convinced it will give you cancer with good reason - that's exactly the official message at the time when I could have usefully used it. Add to that the warnings about use over 65 and dementia ...

Jazzer and Ed was really nice at the end. A good episode.

Wait mike who don't you like?

I'm really sorry for Kate. I know she's awful but that was horrid to hear. Everyone's talking like pregnancy tests and science are fail safe but I never test positive until passed the 2 month mark at the earliest. It always sends my hospital appointments awry because I need the second scan when I'm having the first. DH always knows the moment I'm pregnant but I don't and the tests don't. I was so late to test positive with our youngest even he started doubting himself, but lo.

Has Jonny got alopecia? I thought he was just balding. Clumps of hair on the pillow doesn't sound good. I'm seriously unimpressed that he would let Freddie's colleagues think he was dealing rather than tell Lynda in confidence he was using hair loss supplements. I don't believe Jonny would do that for a moment.

Helen is my least favourite. She's has no redeeming features that I can see. I adore Ben, is it counterhonnish to want him to stay local for uni?

I inherited the Archers from my parents.

I don't remember the plots, but I remember Walter Gabriel's gravelly accent and thinking Shula was an odd name.

Always have had R4 on at breakfast, in the car and while cooking supper. Became a regular listener during Helen/Rob ... but had dipped in & out before that.

I remember thinking Shula was a weird name, when I became conscious of TA as a teenager. Of the initial dozen years of listening, forced upon an unwilling child every tea time, I have no memory.

Abandoned TA immediately on arriving at university as uncool then enjoyed some "ironic" catch up sessions over the years until the Helen/rob storyline, found this group, and escape became impossible.

My name is BuckingFrolicks and I like Pip.

@MissBarbary, sometimes it is a placeholder.

I loved the clip.

Can you imagine TA characters posting on here?

So DC3 is coming up to his A-levels, should we let him out of the cereal cupboard?

Living with MIL is fantastic, she does all the cooking for us despite being in her 80s... but

Counterhonnish @inkysplatter ? If that was a typo I have no idea what it was meant to be! If it is a real word, please educate me as to its meaning.

Mitford reference, hons and rebels. Not Rebulls.

Oh, Ed!

Really?

Why the hell would you want to get back together with someone who was so dissatisfied with you - and nasty with it.

Run for the hills, is my advice. You're well out of it mate.

Welcome, Graphista! I see we have another new listener too. Icantstandpip, I wonder what your motivation to post here might be?

My mum listened to TA in the 50s when hardly anyone had a TV, but in the 60s she and my Dad rented a TV from Radio Rentals and that was the end of radio listening in the evenings. However, she always put Radio 4 on (occasionally Radio 3 for an organ recital) when she was in the kitchen, so it was often on in the background when I was around. I remember Tom Forrest introducing the omnibus on Sundays. Somehow or other I started listening actively while I was a student (I was never cool, so that wasn't a consideration!) and I've scarcely missed an episode now in nearly 40 years. Can't imagine not listening.

AIBU for Archers listeners would be great, but on the odd occasions it's been tried some non-listeners have reacted with fury when they discover that it's not a real AIBU so just like a great many other AIBUs then.

We could do them here.

AIBU only to have cardigans of one colour? It's not a very practical colour, but it's my favourite, and I can tell the difference between all twelve of them. The buttons are different, for one thing, and the collars are all slightly different, and some of them are a touch longer, and the shade of ecru is subtly different in each case.

AIBU is also a good way of recruiting people to this thread. I remember Helen’s one about her present from Tony when she was pregnant.

AIBU to be annoyed my wife has started dating again even though it’s only been x months since I dumped her?

Living with MIL is fantastic, she does all the cooking for us despite being in her 80s. Don't spread ideas like that. I've no intention of cooking for boomerang DS in my 80s.

Well it was great until she got herself a fancy man.

Is Hon pronounced hon or on?

I think in the film version of Love in a Cold Climate they said it with an H although it's short for honourable.

How come none of the adult offspring, living with their parents, doesn't cause tensions. It certainly did here with my boomerang kids. Thank goodness we've got the place to ourselves now, much as I love them.

I'm sure I have Hons and rebels somewhere and most of Nancy's books

My cake is pretty currantless right now.

I think Jessica Mitford asserted that they were called Hons because of the hens they kept and a complicated family joke, so sounding the H seems to fit that. She pronounced it "Hons" in the title of her book.

Thanks. I wonder if some of Jessica's sisters pronounced it Huns?

Not thinking of any two of them in particular?

I was fascinated with them when I was a teenager. I think I read Highland Fling at an impressionable age.

Living with in-laws must be such a strain, but in Ambridge it's living on the doorstep that's difficult. Living in the same house seems fine.

Listening to Freddie's realty check forJosh he said "people chatting rubbish" when surely a yoof would say "chatting shit".

Loss of nerve on the part of the SWs. :o

I was brought up pronouncing it with an H. It is a commonly used term in my family. DH was telling people at a wedding recently that apparently my family has its own vernacular and it took a while to get used to what any of us said to each other when we first met. I should probably be more conscious that no one knows what I'm talking about.

Ooh I so dislike Jolene and Lillian atm. Whilst part of me wishes Lynda would put her energy towards a bigger project, I find the sneering attitude towards the regulars too vile. Pub names are part of history. I liked it when Lynda said they were the custodians of the place rather than owners.