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?

MUNGO!!!

Glory be to Heaven!!!

Oh, but wait ...

Mute Mungo.

Oh Asking!
That was me.

It certainly made an impression, MUM. Good for you.

But, now the SWs are writing for nettie rather than me, none of the old assumptions will matter.

Ooh I so wish SurpriseSparday! For me and MikeUniformMike:

Ruth (with emotion): Oh nooooo Dayveed. They’ve just phoned up from Brazil and they’ve still got that vacancy for the job Pip was going to take years ago. She’s on her way to Hollerton Junction already.

David: Why doesn’t Pip ever think about me? I’ll just have to train up Bess to clean the milking parlour.

[scene change to the Beechwood Estate]

Phillip: I’m sorry Kirsty but me and Gav have decided to leave Ambridge

Roy (runs in with big bunch of roses and a ring): Kirsty, I miss watching TV with you so much. Why go birdwatching in that silly hide when I have just taken out a Netflix subscription?

[Scene change to the Bishop of Borchester’s palace]

Bishop: The thing is, Shula, we need to know that your vocation is genuine. I am going to set you the New Nun Challenge. Unless you can persuade Helen to join the silent order of the Selfless Sisters, we can’t take any further steps to ordain you and you will have to run Equine Slimming World sessions instead.

I do feel all this would all be extremely popular (well with me anyway)

I think we need a sermon from Alan

said no one (sane) ever.

It is a bit odd that James would not have told Lillian they were going to be in Ambridge unless he really didn't want to see her.

Going back an episode, the Jakob/Kate making up was lovely. I can't be doing with Kate at all, but it was a delight to hear a different tone, joyful and sincere instead of her usual carping, nasal honk.

Bert Fry isn’t Susan & Tracey Horrobin’s father. He and his wife Freda, who was the chef/cook at the Bull until she died in the floods, couldn’t have children.

James is really awful! Leonie is just extremely self centred, James has always seemed worse - Matt bought him off on more than one occasion, and didn't Justin do much the same?

I liked Kate (who is one of my favourites, because she actually has a personality rather than being a blank canvas the SWs can project their latest pop psychology on to) and Jacob (being an academic engineer he reminds me of a lot of my colleagues, no abstract conversation, remember not to use hyperbole or sarcasm or the conversation can go very wrong).

I quite enjoyed Lynda and Lil too, there was a harpy in the room, Lillian, but it wasn’t Lynda. Unfortunately my prediction here is that at some point Lillian will break down and confess to Lynda how unhappy she is in an emotional but clumsily constricted scene and they will be BFF.

LizziesTwin, whoever mentioned Bert earlier was referring to Bert Horrobin - BBC site; Tracy and Susan’s father.

Sorry for my mistake, I’d forgotten he was Bert too.

I wonder if one of them is a Bertrand (Fry) and the other is an Albert (Horrobin)?

Someone will know ...

I dont know what I felt about Robert stepping in with a "I won't allow you to speak to my wife in that way" line.

Would Lynda not tell him off for that, implying as it does that a) her role as his wife is what he is defending rather than her as a person, and b) that she cannot look after herself?

Views on a postcard please

#BeKind Lynda

I thought Robert was superb He defended Lynda against Lillian, but then checked the facts and told her off in private.

I am happy that Robert defended his wife against Lillian but a lot less happy that he told her off afterwards. Probably totally realistic but annoying nonetheless less than women are expected to turn the other cheek, smooth ruffled feather as, be kind etc when Lillian has been so horrible to her personally over the last few weeks.

It was a very gentle telling off, Robert said "we" could have done better.

I missed the ‘we’ which does improve things slightly.

A belated BOOP for Kate and Jacob making up and him saying he’d rather have her in his life no matter how chaotic she is.

Jacob will come to rue the day he said that.

Surely since Mungo is Robert's grandchild, it should have been his business (if it was anyone's except James's, which I don't think it was) to tell Lilian the child would be in Ambridge for the day? "We" was him evading his responsibility.

=

Albert Nathaniel Fry is Bert Fry's full name; we were told it once and I wrote it into his entry in my copy of TBoTA. And I have "Albert" written by Bert Horrobin's entry too.

I expect we will learn tomorrow that Kate proposed to Jakob today. i hope very much that he will have turned her down, but it's hope against experience.

I feel that 'we' showed Robert accepting his responsibility. Both Lilian and Lynda behaved very badly. I hope this doesn't go on much longer. I prefer the guarded truce that normally pertains between them.

Nettie, you need to get onto the SW team! All of that would be fine by me.

It is a bit odd that James would not have told Lillian they were going to be in Ambridge unless he really didn't want to see her.

But THE PLOT obviously required the relatively trivial disagreement between those two repellent women to be upgraded to a full blown Feud. Not enough of them in Ambridge.

Why is Lynda so besotted with Mungo anyway? He's no actual relation of hers. Was she actually a 'stepmother' to Snell's daughters during their minority or just someone whom their father subsequently happened to marry?

Thanks Asking - though disappointed in Bert Fry ...

Was she actually a 'stepmother' to Snell's daughters during their minority?

Must admit I don’t recall at exactly what stage they came into each other’s lives - but there have been one or two unusually well written conversations that showed she feels her child-free/step-mother role rather keenly - and tries to do the right thing.

Forgot to say how much I enjoyed nettie’s scripts - although only the second one would arguably disrupt tradition. (I’m not sure: union of two non-Archers ... Fallon/Harrison; one is an Archer step-child so just about ok. Roy/Kirsty; one is an Archer/Aldridge parent - but right now he somehow seems more tangential to everything, the other an Archer reject. Though maybe almost honorary Archer because of starring Custardgate role. Grundys can marry out of course; Grundys are royalty too.)