💥 Archers thread #117: Welcome to the only C19-free area in the world! 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 think Phoebe is a genius, 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/3853783--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-5-Cant-wait-for-7-02pm-Join-us-here, 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.)

I put the BOOM! emoticon in the title as I thought it could transition into a vague likeness of a virus if we're still going by early May, when we expect some wild contortions from the production team to get Ambridge back in synch with the rest of the world. I think I would have preferred them to ignore it altogether but I suppose they couldn't.

Dum-ti-dum di-dum-ti-dum. Presses Start on Sounds. Realises it is Friday and sobs

I remembered really, but thought I'd remind you.

Looking at the schedules for the rest of May, I feel a bit short-changed that there are still no Friday episodes planned

I mean, they've got about 6000 episodes (almost twenty years worth) to choose from. Surely it's not unreasonable to expect six episodes a week?

What's been on instead? I dont switch on. Surely an old episode would be better than whatever rubbish they are putting on.

Ian is definitely cuddly.

I disagree with Susan having improved her lot. Her husband has. Her son has 'married well' but she works in the village shop and dairy.

Front Row, I think. I switched on for Any Questions, but didn't listen.
Susan is the postmistress.

I agree that it's a pity that they're not using any 20th century episodes in their reruns. I can't see any reason why I would really want to listen to Kirsty and Tom's wedding again.

Kirsty just wants a ring on her finger - at whatever cost, it seems. She knows it is in her interest to get on with Gav so she has gone from complaining about him playing with his xbox in his underpants and being shocked at the way he spoke to her when he was snooping in the wardrobe to thinking it’s ok to gang up with him and Philip on her best friend.

I used to always think she was pretty sensible but she has taken to idolising Philip - ‘Philip Moss, you are a good man’ - and brushing away any implied criticism of the way he runs his business making her appear like a besotted teenager. How can she be so oblivious to the inconsistencies in Philip’s story?!? While it’s obviously exciting for her to be getting married at last, I am surprised she is not thinking more rationally - esp given how she made such a grave error of judgment last time she was on the brink of matrimony...

Surely the Kirsty who used to live with Roy and cared about the environment wouldn’t be fussing about surprise invitations and DJs. I’d like to see a bit more self-awareness and critical thinking. May be she will have time for reflection when she is under lockdown- but perhaps it will be all too late by then...

I even feel sorry for Helen in advance. She’s going to have to listen to the endless wailing...

I gather Clarrie has spent her 50s and early 60s worrying about where she is going to live so I can't see how anyone thinks she has a life that a younger woman like Emma should emulate. Yes, she loves Eddie and her feckless sons but I think she could have felt the same love for a man who shared her work ethic and helped her keep a roof above her head.

They live at the Grange courtesy of Oliver- what will happen to them (and the caravan) when Oliver dies?

I agree with roysnewshirt that Ed is a loser. He won't learn a trade to support his family or go and work somewhere else to provide for them . Is he supposed to be ravishingly handsome or something?

I don’t think that George and Keira would be as excited about the mobile home as Emma is suggesting. Teenage kids are very influenced by American culture these days (hence they call police “the Feds”, which gives me the rage). I think there would be a lot of bullying at school about them being Trailer Trash.

George and Keira now have their own rooms which I don't suppose they would have had staying at Susan's. I'm not sure about the trailer trash thing, they live at Grange Farm.

1994 was before The Millennium Bug, so there was legacy work, and the .com sector was starting to set busy. He could have practically walked into a job then. Homeworking was around even then

Robert had a small business developing software for small businesses/offices (I always assumed it was GL or other accounting software). Those were not hotly in demand skills at the time and unless he had other sklls in demand for either millenium work or the dash to "mid range" or project management skills I can see him struggling in the rural midlands.

I was contracting at that time and whilst there was unlimited work for those with relevant skills it was not always easy for those who were a bit out of date or in the small sector.

George and Keira now have their own rooms which I don't suppose they would have had staying at Susan's. I'm not sure about the trailer trash thing, they live at Grange Farm.

Isn't Ambridge View a four bedroom house? I'm sure I remember Susan talking about it when Neil built the house (which was presented as a major step up from the 3 bed ex council house).

I'm not sure about the trailer trash thing, they live at Grange Farm.

Don’t understand what you mean by that @CaptainMyCaptain? why would it make any difference where the trailer was?

He's a decent guy. He doesn't criticise or belittle Emma, he is unlikely to cheat on her. There's an awful lot of men you can't say that about

Gosh is that the peak of a woman's aspirations in 2020? A feckless man who doesn't actually cheat on you?

Clarrie had decades of insecurity, eviction, the awful overcrowded housing, the triple shift and I've never liked the way she is presented as "poor but 'appy, she knows her place, grateful that a man would have her". She now faces insecurity in old age with at best a state pension and a house she could lose at any moment.

Emma faces exactly the same insecurity now, despite finding her caravan home (something which the useless Ed never attempted). They don't have planning permission and even if they did Oliver will not live forever - where do they go then? I thought also that mobile homes had a limited life (20 years?) so at some point in the future they will be repeating the homeless Grundy story.

think she could have felt the same love for a man who shared her work ethic and helped her keep a roof above her head

Which is pretty much what Susan did. Susan and Neil are a good match - both have done better than they might have done without the other. I don't see any less love there either.

He won't learn a trade to support his family or go and work somewhere else to provide for them

I think this is my beef with Ed. In his 30s and a father and still doesn't want to be "constrained" by a regular job. For all Will's faults he was always a hard worker and whilst he was no less misogynist than Ed or Eddie he did at least expect to work to support the "woman at home" rather than expect them to do both.

CaptainMyCaptain? why would it make any difference where the trailer was?
I meant their address would be Grange Farm as it was previously.

I don’t think that bullies base their bullying on the victim’s registered postal address. Somebody will see the trailer, a local Mum will gossip about it, word will get out.

She now faces insecurity in old age with at best a state pension and a house she could lose at any moment.

Clarrie and Eddie both know that as long as Will owns No1 The Green they'll never be actually homeless.

Even if she has only a state pension - she'll be in Ambridge. She has everything and everyone she needs. People work their whole lives in order to be able to 'escape to the country' in retirement and become part of the sort of community Clarrie already enjoys.

As for Emma and Ed, they're practised at crossing their bridges as they come to them. They'll survive.

(And anyway, despite American daughters, the SWs will absolutely bequeath Grange Farm to Ed when Oliver dies ...)

Clarrie and Eddie both know that as long as Will owns No1 The Green they'll never be actually homeless.

When Will made that promise he was living in the gamekeeper's cottage. Now it would be Eddie, Clarrie, Will and Poppy, sometimes George and what happens if/when Will wants to remarry or even have a relationship with someone else? If Will can't find work he may need to sell the house.

The point is they are and will remain utterly dependent on the ability of the good will of other people for a roof over their heads and that is down to the fecklessness of Joe and then Eddie. Emma faces the same future with Ed.

In the real world when such people don't have handy benefactors Eddie and Clarrie would be homeless

Actually the more I think about it the more annoying it is, its like mills and boon nonsense.

Actually the more I think about it the more annoying it is, its like mills and boon nonsense

I think that is what bugs me. The whole "poor but 'appy" nonsense when poverty and other financial difficulties are one of the biggest factors in family and relationship breakdown.

The timing of lockdown must have been really frustrating for the SWs. I think they must have been planning quite a dramatic week this week with the lead-up to Kirsty's wedding. I guess they could keep it back on the basis that the wedding had to be postponed due to lockdown, but it would be complicated keeping the trafficking SL going in the meantime.

Just to say Feds for police has been used by the counter culture for decades.

I'm quite happy with the Grundys as they are.

Clarrie won't just have the state pension, though, will she? She's had a permanent job at Bridge Farm for years so surely they've been obliged to set up a workplace pension for her and Susan.

Eddie has a steady part-time job at Borchester Market, and that may bring with it another small pension. He's been there a few years now.

I can't see either Eddie or Clarrie retiring until they're physically incapable of carrying on.

Ed does have a trade. He's a farmer/farm labourer/stockman/tractor driver. He has land to use for the purpose of plying his trade, which is more than most youngish men of his background probably have.

The most unrealistic thing about the Grundy storylines at present is that Will hasn't found a job. (I'm skating over the whole Oliver-renting-them-Grange-Farm-for-a-pittance-and-living-in-a-room-at-GG thing because it doesn't bear close examination at all. He'll leave them the farm in his will, I'd put money on it. He seems to have forgotten that he has children and grandchildren.)

He seems to have forgotten that he has children and grandchildren.
Well, they don't seem to have been around to support him much in the aftermath of the explosion and it was the Grundys who helped him get over his bereavement. Perhaps his family have forgotten about him.