🎲 Archers thread #134: Ambridge as human board game. We’ve had Pandemic. What now - Game of Life or Trivial Pursuit? Go! 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 warm to Hazel Woolley, 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 @LiterallyKnowsBest for the thread title idea. I also liked @LillianGish's suggestion which was Conversions abound and it’s not just Harrison - Lily’s kitchens, Hazel’s flat, Jazzer’s finances, Bert’s bungalow...come and discuss The Archers - are you a convert or could you be converted? and that seems like a good place to kick off this thread.

Who'll get the bungalow? Pip, Josh or A. N. Other?

Will Lily leave the cold calling behind and launch a bid to run LL when Elizabeth hangs up her clipboard?

Will Jazzer become a financial whiz after mastering Tracy's state of the art budgeting techniques, viz, writing it all down in a little notebook with a kitten on the front?

Over to you!

Nothing like a night out with someone you're not so keen on to make you certain about who you actually want to be in bed with

Exactly - perfectly put @EBearhug! I would struggle to get through an evening with nice-but-dull Rex. I wouldn’t be racing up the dangerous shop steps to fall into the arms of Christopher either but he is marginally above Rex on the League Table of Ambridge Men…

Apparently it's not the done thing to move in to your best friend's former partner so quickly, even if they have both been very clear it's definitely over. I was on the side of, they'd broken up, so it shouldn't matter, but I was definitely in a minority.

IME, this is what happens if the dumped spouse is a man.

If the dumed spouse is a woman, it tends to be attached men who start chasing her

I think it's quite plausible that Amy after a few drinks and a spark-free date with Rex decided to make a move on Chris

Amy must be heading towards her forties?

She's been back in Ambridge for about 6 months now, surely, and we still have no real idea why she abandoned her life in Nottingham.

If she gets caught in flagrante with Chris is that good news for the divorce settlement? Maybe we'll hear from her stepmum.

I think it would only affect the divorce settlement if they move in together, but I'm no expert.

Amy is roughly the same age as Alice, 33.

Amy qualified as a midwife in 2010, so if she was 21 then, she's 33.

I might be a year or two out, so no, she's not heading towards her 40s

I’ve got a close friend who’s been with her spouse as long as Alice and Chris. If they broke up the appropriate amount of time to wait to make a move on her ex is FOREVER. There is basically never a good time. Failing that I’d say many many years eg 5 years and when they’ve both “moved on” eg had other serious relationships, but I’d still expect it to end our friendship.

I have know someone who married her husband's best friend.
Both were widowed.

Okay. BOOP the SWs - that was a surprise! Interesting expansion of the territory.

🤐

How easy is it to get a bank loan/mortgage on a houseboat? And aren’t residential moorings like gold dust? Including in Ambridge which is commuting distance of Birmingham?

Clearly, The Ambridge Fairy has sprouted waterwings.

My house backs onto a canal. I'm also near a river.

Permanent moorings are as rare as hen's teeth and you really didn't want to be anywhere near a river mooring up from the Severn.

Also loved the 1-9-8-4. Pleased I spotted it, considering how often I've taught the novel.

I have relation who lives on a boat, and the moorings would be well-populated, it's a rapidly-expanding mode of housing, and would surely have featured as part of TA narrative before now

Agree Putin has potentially put a spanner in the works for Kirsty, especially now he's thrown the nuclear option into the ring.☢️

"Apparently it's not the done thing to move in to your best friend's former partner so quickly, even if they have both been very clear it's definitely over. I was on the side of, they'd broken up, so it shouldn't matter, but I was definitely in a minority. And I think Alice is definitely going to be the type to say, I don't want him, but no one else can have him either."

Agree, and think this will be Alice.

I'm usually, always, a few episodes behind, but have almost caught up now. Very old news, but I'd been going to ask if people thought Ruairi was too harsh towards Alice, on his last visit. I'm still undecided.

So that's Rex's new abode!

I've known a couple of people live long term on houseboats in the London area, generally on the basis that they move moorings every few months. They both did it because it's a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a flat. I can't say I'd like it - it's essentially a glorified caravan which is bloody cold when the river gets icy, and emptying the sewage tanks is never a fun activity.

I foresee loads of "hilarious" episodes when the boat springs a leak, or people notice the boat rocking and conclude that Rex is shagging.

But it’s going to be brilliant if it brings a sort-of new bit of Ambridge into focus. Does anyone else have a boat moored there? Is it a thriving community? Or will it just be Rex?

In any event it should mean new conversations, fresh vocabulary, legal / practical or etiquette-al (what’s the word for that?) issues and alarms! Potentially exciting.

Potentially.

I think he’ll need planning permission so that ought to be an interesting one.

My ex lived on the cut. When he stayed at my house, I'd come home to find he had moved everything off the floor (books etc) just in case my house leaked He didn't even realise he was doing it.

His boat didn't leak though. He had to be pretty organised though in terms of fuel and waste. Not his strong point!

@BowerOfBramble

I think he’ll need planning permission so that ought to be an interesting one.

He won't need planning permission if it's a proper mooring although he might have to vacate it for a month a year. It's quite possible the boat was already there and he's renting it.

It wasn’t though, he said he was doing it up elsewhere and then moved it and Phoebe(?) said yes we’d have noticed it otherwise.

Never mind that though who wants to go to a party on a frozen riverbank in the middle of winter?

Rex’s financial situation is very vague…He and his brother are always crying poverty and that was one of the reasons he was bunking up with Bert. Now suddenly he has a houseboat and enough money to do it up. Rewilding clearly pays more than I thought it did.

I thought the 1-9-8-4 code was also a reference to Neil’s wedding anniversary. Didn’t he say they were marking 38 years?

@BowerOfBramble

It wasn’t though, he said he was doing it up elsewhere and then moved it and Phoebe(?) said yes we’d have noticed it otherwise.

Never mind that though who wants to go to a party on a frozen riverbank in the middle of winter?

I missed that. I wouldn't mind the party on the frozen river bank, though. I live next to a rural stretch of canal.

1984 is a useful dual purpose number for this storyline, signifying both anniversary and Big Brother.

Boat is an interesting development. My mental image of the Am is clearly massively out, as I've always pictured something like this, in spite of The Flood a few years ago. I envisaged something you could paddle across with a few deep pools suitable for angling or swimming.

PS Frozen river bank? It's the end of February! There are daffodils and blossom out here in London.

PS Frozen river bank? It's the end of February! There are daffodils and blossom out here in London.

And hard frosts, especially in areas which aren't built up.