🧦 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!

Does Philip still own the Beechwood house? I know he "gave" it to Kirsty but did he actually sign anything? Not sure if he bought it with a mortgage or outright?

Kirsty will be daft enough to tell Philip she has rented it out to Helen and that will give Philip a hold over Kirsty. He could either threaten to sell if she doesn't play ball or it might have to be sold as part of the divorce. Helen has to leave and there will be no room at the inn at Bridge Farm.

@Flumpaphone

Does Philip still own the Beechwood house? I know he "gave" it to Kirsty but did he actually sign anything? Not sure if he bought it with a mortgage or outright?

Kirsty will be daft enough to tell Philip she has rented it out to Helen and that will give Philip a hold over Kirsty. He could either threaten to sell if she doesn't play ball or it might have to be sold as part of the divorce. Helen has to leave and there will be no room at the inn at Bridge Farm.

Yes. That would be the point of her going to see him in plot terms although it makes no real sense.

I don;t think she will go to see him in the end; somebody, possibly Harrison Burns, will tell her she no longer needs to because Blake is now safe.

I am disappointed that Tracy has not already done it, though.

I have a feeling that there is a tendency for twins to be born to women who have twins in the family, which might explain why Jill and then her daughter Elizabeth had twins. That would make Lily the next likely candidate, heaven preserve us all from the horror.

There's only a genetic tendency if the twins are non-identical, and of course both sets currently in Ambridge and its environs are, so that's probably the reason and yes, Lily could have inherited it. No twins in my family but I looked it up out of curiosity not long since, and if I have this right (big if, Biology O level is a long way in my past):

Identical twins could occur in any pregnancy, no known reason why/risk factor.

Non-identical twins happen if at ovulation two eggs are readied for fertilisation instead of the usual one, and they both get lucky (as it were). Three reasons this could happen:

• fertility drugs
• diet high in plant oestrogen, e.g. from yams, as found in some parts of West Africa
• mother has inherited tendency to do this, obviously passing down the female line

Do we have any twins on the thread?

Has there been any mention of booster jabs or Omicron?

That's all anyone I know seems to be talking about at the moment.

I have a feeling that there is a tendency for twins to be born to women who have twins in the family, which might explain why Jill and then her daughter Elizabeth had twins. That would make Lily the next likely candidate, heaven preserve us all from the horror.

Or Pip - even worse.

I suspect Kirsty may be dumb enough to know about Bleak's change of heart but to have decided she still has to go to see Phil because she promised ( and because the SWs want a bit of drahmah ) - even though, if she actually asked Bleak he'd obviously say no, forget it.

@GoodPrincessWenceslas

I have a feeling that there is a tendency for twins to be born to women who have twins in the family, which might explain why Jill and then her daughter Elizabeth had twins. That would make Lily the next likely candidate, heaven preserve us all from the horror.

Or Pip - even worse.

I'm on shaky ground here, but I think that works genetically. David could have inherited the gene from Jill. It wouldn't have increased the chance of Ruth having twins, but it could have been passed to Pip. We can be fairly sure Elizabeth got the gene, so there's a good chance Lily has it too (50:50? my grasp of stats is a lot shakier even than my science).

I am the daughter of a twin and mother of twins (non-identical); always knew twins was a possibility.
I conceived shortly after miscarriage so always wondered as well whether I released 2 eggs that particular month as body's way of trying a bit harder to get a successful pregnancy next time round.

How interesting, @ButtonSister! Do the twins on TA ring true at all?

Not a twin but have many, many twin second cousins and third cousins, who are related to me through my father's father so none in my immediate family.

They are mainly very similar looking twins of the same sex. It could be that they are fraternal not identical. I have a sibling who I look very alike but we aren't the same age.

Someone I know was introduced to a class of children for the first time, and noticed a set of identical twins in the class. The 'twins' had different mothers.

My cousins, who are sisters, both have identical twins. As explained above, nobody really seems to know why identical twins happen, so this is probably just a massive coincidence, but it does make me wonder if there is some genetic connection. No other twins anywhere in the wider family.

I had 3 embryos transferred for my IVF, was glad that I didn’t end up with triplets but a tiny bit disappointed not twins, especially as I can’t have any more.

I have twin grandsons. Fraternal twins - the consultant said they might not even have been conceived on the same day. They don't look alike but in some ways they are very alike in other ways very different.

Having just listened to the Tuesday ep, how old is Tom? He behaves like a teenager. Some of this is due to the very youthful voice of the actor, I know, but he's never seemed properly an adult.

I think he's about 40?

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/1PQBWTdqS4bggDmsTgXyQKz/tom-archer

He did actually say tonight that he’s 40 - which had escaped my notice.

What was the Parks and Recreation reference about? I’ve not seen it.

It's just the name of a television series that the scriptwriter thought of, as far as I could tell.

Tom has always been immature.

Enjoyed Chelsea and Blake's blossoming friendship so it's a shame he's leaving.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime I thought the show might have featured some dreadful man without any social graces putting upon his poor parents and that Tony was trying to make a point - god knows what goes on in the scriptwriters’ minds. Tom’s big explanation was just bizarre. Privately freaking out that Natasha might miscarry was a reasonable reaction to her pregnancy (like many, I’ve felt the same panic) but then he brought it all around to John. He doesn’t want his wife to miscarry because his older brother died 20 years ago - what?

Tony had already mentioned Parks and Recreation to Pat when Tom wasn't there, as something they could watch in the few evenings they would have left before their peace was destroyed again. Not that he put it in quite those words, but that was what he meant.

I think he doesn't want his wife to miscarry because that is what Kirsty did? And feels guilty because John didn't have a wife who miscarried, or something.

Tom truly is an idiot.

Ahhh ok, that makes sense now re P&R. Must have missed that bit! I meant that Tom’s fears were perfectly understandable following his loss with Kirsty but the shoehorning in his brother was just weird. I don’t know, I’ve never lost a sibling, perhaps every big traumatic event (impending marriage/pregnancy) would have that awful shadow over it when you’ve had that experience but with Tom it just feels like an excuse. Sorry Kirsty, I left you at the altar because I felt all this pressure when my brother died to become a pig farmer. That wouldn’t have washed with me.

Did anyone hear today’s episode of Woman’s Hour? There was a great interview with Tamsin Grieg, with a brief mention of The Archers: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08k1b4v.

I don’t usually think of Pat and Tony as pushovers but they are behaving very strangely - especially considering they had a massive dust-up with Natasha less than a fortnight ago over the Summer Orchard relocation. She tried to bully them then and now Tom has spent yesterday trying to bully them again. Pat is generally one of the more assertive older ladies in the village so there is no way she would allow her home to be turned into a storage facility just because Tom wants to get the move done in record time.

I find it hard to think of Will as a potential romantic lead for Stella. I think she will want more from life than Eddie Grundy as a father-in-law.