🧦 Archers thread #133: Woolley socks it to them! Discuss The Archers and its Woolley thinking and plotting 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 would love to take part in the Mysteries, 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/4197199--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-6-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.)

Thanks to @ButtonSister and @BorsetshireBanality for title suggestions. I went with their idea in the interests of keeping the title fairly short.

@LillianGish and @FoxgloveSummers made cracking but longer suggestions, which (mashed up) will do a great job of kicking off our new thread.

Evictions (Tom and Tash), depictions (Bridge Farm Christmas card), conniptions (entire cast and crew of the Mysteries), convictions (Philip) and addictions (Alice) - what are our predictions for 2022 in Ambridge? All sure to make this the Best Ambridge Christmas Evah!

This thread should take us through to early January unless something very exciting happens (ha ha, fat chance). My predictions: this is a bit left field, but I wonder if Peggy will offer to buy the shop and flat so Tom and Gnasher (great coinage, whose was it?) can stay put. I don't believe Hazel is sincere about wanting to live in/regularly visit Ambridge. She's always been utterly two-faced and rotten to the core, why would she change now?

The Mysteries will, of course be a triumph and briefly borrowing the🔮 (sorry, Bore!) I expect we are going to hear them at some point over the New Year period.

Over to you!

I'm thoroughly enjoying terrible things happening to Gnasher and Tom.

@WhoppingBigBackside

I think that part of the Hatezel story will be Tomtasha moving into Fridge Barm

Hatezel will probably try to weasel money/an inheritance from Peggy

Hatezel really needs to be in the nicknames! Would that be ok?

Agree the impending cocktail sausage is the clumsiest of Christmas analogies.

Also amazed at Hazel's effrontery in palming off her explanation to Tom and Natasha for others to do. Apart from anything else, she'd said it to their faces any way.

Gnasher’s credit card tries to be used again…..

Haven’t been able to listen yet, PLEASE don’t say it’s another unplanned pregnancy?

No, they've been trying for ages apparently. At least we were spared that.

A planned pregnancy in Ambridge that’s taken ages to come about? Goodness me, I thought there was something in the toxic waters of the Am that ensured two blue lines after every drunken ONS.

Presumably Poppy and Keira Grundy were planned?

Oh, Emmur certainly planned Keira. Ed, in a rare fit of intelligence, didn't want another child because money. Emmur prevailed. Ah, how sweet, a baybay.

hazel letting off stink bombs everywhere.

pregnancy - didn't they say they absolutely don't want any children. at all. ever?

maybe natasha and hazel can move together, they are very much alike...

@JanglyBeads

Gnasher’s credit card tries to be used again…..

Can you actually pay a deposit on a house with a credit card? I wouldn't have thought a solicitor would accept it.

Can you actually pay a deposit on a house with a credit card? I wouldn't have thought a solicitor would accept it.

unless the credit card limit is high enough for buying outright...

Yes I wondered that Captain.

Presumably Hazel has a right to end the tenancy at some point without having to evidence fault on the tenants' side, which would be easier and cheaper than trying to prove a contested breach of tenancy? (And probably quicker in the long run).
If T&N have an assured shorthold tenancy their right to stay indefinitely is very limited

This whole story line is ridiculous. Hazel can serve them notice but if they choose not to leave she then has to go to court to enforce it. She will have more luck with a decision not to renew the AST than she would with the commercial use case which is a complete non-starter. But if they decide to play hardball there is no way she will get them out before the summer.

Are we expected to believe that two people running their own businesses have zero knowledge of landlord/tenant law and are unable to google it?

I thought Natasha had said she didn’t want children - have I remembered this wrong? As for trying for ages, surely if that were the case that would have been the first thing she would have told Tom? Ludicrous. You can really hear the gears grinding in every part of this plot.

Why doesn't anyone know how to access advice on their rights. Honestly dealing with legal stuff is part of adult life- Tony's oh please don't get solicitors involved take was weird. So what if she does?

Not telling the actual father of your unborn that you are pregnant is standard old stuff. Honestly in Natasha's situation you would just tell him as soon as you knew - even if he was stressed and cross. What is she waiting for?

I dislike Tom (he is basically my selfish brother who also has Helen traits, particularly on the expectation of free childcare front - stop having babies you are over 50 and you have so many! My db not Helen), and Natasha who is nasty. But for some reason the baby news has warmed my cockles and made me think all will be well! Pat and Tony will have some lovely news for a change.

Ooh, is your brother the prime minister? 🤣

@autumntimebrowns it is very telling that I am trying to weigh up which would be the better option! I get a better dad than Mr Johnson for sure... I at least have that one!

I want Natasha to think fuck all of you, I’m moving back to my family - and watching Pat and Tony be aghast at being the Second Grandparents.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime, of course. I wasn't sure of the spelling but she truly is a pile of spite

I remember Nasher saying she didn't want any sproglets too

Keira and Poppy were planned and the parents were married, but soap pregnancies are usually the result of ONSs or are to teenagers or the over-40s, and babies are usually born at Christmas or Easter in dramatic circumstances

Oh lordy, I hope that Sisterofboris isn't on here.

The Tiny Tom will be three-quarters welsh, so he or she will be born with a comedy twirling mousache

@LillianGish

I thought Natasha had said she didn’t want children - have I remembered this wrong? As for trying for ages, surely if that were the case that would have been the first thing she would have told Tom? Ludicrous. You can really hear the gears grinding in every part of this plot.

I too thought that she left her previous lover (can't remember his name: surely it can't have been Trev?) because he wanted children and she didn't.

And if they had been trying at all, I agree she'd have run to him squeaking excitedly at the first sign of blue in a test. Or perhaps she had literally just done one and was about to tell him when Pat rang and was more important, so she sulked off back to bed. She did say she wanted to talk to him, while he was busy grumbling about the terms of the rental and how stupid he had been to sign it and before his phone rang and he cut through her speaking to answer it.

WhoppingBigBackside, it is up.

Thank you Asking.
I can't remember the link to the list