🧦 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 predict that in 25 years a certain successful businessman whose wealth is based in the construction industry will turn up in Ambridge looking for a country pad and a site to build more housing. The villagers will hate him (evil second home owner to be and builder of over priced house that only outsiders can afford) until over a number of episodes he reveals himself as someone with fond memories of Ambridge and a lasting gratitude to the villagers who helped turn his life around
Yes it is Blake, and he wants to buy the Gills' place as his sole home and turn it into a training centre for rural folk to learn employable skills such as building and construction; and all the housing he builds will be at genuinely affordable prices for genuine locals. There will be much rejoicing and Chelsea, who runs a hugely successful chain of hair salons across the SW midlands, and is recently divorced, and Blake will marry.

Ok that’s a little further ahead than my prediction @ButtonSister but I’m glad we agree that eventually rags to riches Blake will be back and after Chelsea. What’s the age gap do we know?

@LillianGish

It also says a lot about Tom that he has no idea when his parents' wedding anniversary is after 47 years.

Not really; why should he? Somebody else's wedding anniversary is literally and absolutely not his business.

I doubt my children know either of mine. Why should they? I'd be put out if they started celebrating the current one at me, for sure.

The person who made a Thing about my parents' golden wedding anniversary date was my brother; I knew when it was, asked my mother and found out she didn't want a fuss, and then after he had started in with Secret Preparations had to warn her that she had no option about a fuss being made. She was a bit cross, but too kind to tell him to shut up and forget his notions of some sort of Surprise Treat for them. That was left to me...

How would Tom know anything "after 47 years", btw? He has only been on the planet for forty of them, and he probably wasn't paying much attention for at least five of those.

@FoxgloveSummers sadly I've withdrawn my tolerance, but still trying to support my folks who are number one drop of a hat cooks, taxi and childminders.

We do not celebrate our parent's anniversary- it's a special time for them. But we know when it is and do not hate crash it.

Gatecrash!

Actually, to be fair, one of my adult children was at my second wedding, so I expect she does know the date of it. So far she has refrained from sending us a card, and also from turning up unannounced at a mealtime on that day expecting to be fed.

I always used to send my parents card on their anniversary. But I can be annoyingly good at remembering dates. I can still tell you the birthdays of some people I haven't seen since we were at school in the '80s. It's not necessarily a useful skill...

I don't expect anybody outside immediate family and very close friends to remember wedding anniversaries, but I have no problem with celebrating them. We have a big one in the offing. Not sure what we're going to do about it, but at a minimum there will be a decent meal and some booze. Would be nice to think the pandemic will have receded into the background and become endemic and controlled by then.

Tom is the kind of person to say 'we are pregnant', isn't he.

And Tom is going to be awful to Kirsty.

And apologies for my errant apostrophe!

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

I don't expect anybody outside immediate family and very close friends to remember wedding anniversaries, but I have no problem with celebrating them. We have a big one in the offing. Not sure what we're going to do about it, but at a minimum there will be a decent meal and some booze. Would be nice to think the pandemic will have receded into the background and become endemic and controlled by then.

Tom is the kind of person to say 'we are pregnant', isn't he.

To be fair to Tom (although why?) I think what he actually said is "We are going to have a baby". I suspect Helen will have her nose put out of joint by the news.

@FoxgloveSummers

I loved the Sunday lunch contrasts though. The Tracey household is clearly the only place to be at the moment. I think Bleak will give himself a life makeover and come back to be a temptation to Chelsea later on, probably when she already has a nice but boring boyfriend.

It gives Blake more of a chance to make something of his life if he leaves Ambridge.

I agree with the other comments.I hope he and Chelsea both do well

Both my DCs know when our wedding anniversary is, I've always known my parents' as long as I can remember, so does my brother and I also knew my PIL's - I asked them when we were setting a date for our own wedding. I find it hard to believe that in all those years that Pat and Tony have been married and other weddings have been planned and cancelled the date has never come up or been mentioned - whether they were having a special celebration or because a card was exchanged or something. I don't find it hard to believe that Tom wouldn't have remembered, (though I would have thought his memory might have been jogged when he saw his parents having a special meal). He is entirely self-centred not the sort of person to ask about anyone else which is why he was so tin-eared when Natasha was trying to tell him she was pregnant. Of course now he knows it will be all about him.

Sorry @ButtonSister I know that's not what he SAID, I'm talking about his attitude where (as PP have said) he will make it all about him.

He must have the face of an adonis and a solid gold cock to ever have got a girlfriend at all let alone a wife.

I think it’s entirely realistic that Tom and Natasha might have had a conversation about food in pregnancy soon after she told him. It’s one of the few things that there is to talk about at that stage, everything else like names is all a bit too distant and a bit like tempting fate. But your next meal/drink rolls round quite quickly.

Why would Helen’s nose be out out of joint at the idea of Tom and Natasha having a cousin for her sons? Do we think that she was hoping she and Lee would have a joint child? I haven’t had that vibe from them, especially as neither Jack nor Henry has an involved father for Lee to have to worry about, so he can take on the Daddy role without too many complications.

And would Helen and the boys ever realistically want to move back to BF now she is happily cohabiting with Lee?

"Why would Helen’s nose be out out of joint at the idea of Tom and Natasha having a cousin for her sons? Do we think that she was hoping she and Lee would have a joint child? I haven’t had that vibe from them, especially as neither Jack nor Henry has an involved father for Lee to have to worry about, so he can take on the Daddy role without too many complications."

I don't dislike Helen as much as others do on here but I do get a Queen Bee vibe from her that she won't be happy that her parents now have additional grand parent duties to other children, and are accomodating her sibling during the pregnancy. And SIL relationships are often more fraught than the MIL-DIL ones, so potential for conflict there.
NB - I know Johnny is also a grandchild but different generation and dynamic.

Can you imagine the AIBUs that Pat and Nat would be posting?
It obviously won't go smoothly

Of course Helen's nose will be out of joint.

Did no-one notice my name change? Admittedly I posted as the thread topic changed.

Hmmph! I'll be back with something more festive

Mere is a PITA

Won't someone tell Kursedy about Blake?

Bored of the Mysteries

Will and Stella.
Willa, if you will.

You heard it here first.

Surely we speculated on Willa potential two or three threads ago, when Stella first arrived?

I’ve been intrigued by Mia’s continued existence in the cast - maybe she’s the thing that draws Will and Stella together?

Oh, that's embarrassing @LiterallyKnowsBest

Yes, they will bond over Mere, who will be chief bridesmaid in a recycled frock (probably Pat's 70s hippy chick number)

Oh, that's embarrassing @LiterallyKnowsBest

Yes, they will bond over Mere, who will be chief bridesmaid in a recycled frock (probably Pat's 70s hippy chick number)