🐠 Archers thread #135: An Everyday Story of Fishy Folk. 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 would be delighted to be given a goldfish named after your ex, 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.)

Apologies for ignoring the various title suggestions on the last thread. However, here they are, plus a couple of other pithy observations, to kickstart the new thread. I think it's fair to say nobody is looking on this as a Golden Era! Goldfish Era, though ...

@Roysnewshirt: Everyone wants more! Chris wants more Amy; Jazzer wants more Tracey; Alice wants more time with Martha and Amy wants more space… Very true. And now we know Kirsty wants more farming expertise in the rewilding project, but not Pip (thank the lord) so does that mean approaching Adam? Currently under-employed.

@LillianGish: I tune in to hear birdsong and bleating in the English countryside not hammy acting and suggestive grunting.

@stilldumdedumming: Archers is good at the dynamics of family, farming, what it means to have your job, your home and your inheritance so closely aligned etc etc not this nonsense!

@DoctorTwo: Like fuck would Pheobe buy her parents a goldfish each. The Ambridge character transplant fairy has been working overtime this past few weeks, it's been absolutely fucking appalling bar a couple of exceptions.

Can't disagree with any of that. I want to hear more about the pigs and any other effects of Brexit. A topical insert about the war in Ukraine must surely be on the way.

Any happy listeners out there? Any disgruntled listeners with even more grumbles? Over to you!

But Home Farm must be worth at least £5m - probably way more - so won’t this mean the siblings have to rustle up a minimum of £1m between them to buy Alice’s share?

Kate hasn’t got much, Debbie doesn’t appear to be Miss Moneybags and Adam had to nick farm funds to pay his electrician’s bill. Jenny and Brian are still renting a shoebox so have no assets to call on. Ian’s redundancy pay out is not going to be much more than £50k - if that given the height of his and Adam’s ambition was to buy a pizza oven; Ruarhi is a student who has some cash to splash around for partying but little more.

So where is all this cash for the buy-out coming from?

But Home Farm must be worth at least £5m - probably way more - so won’t this mean the siblings have to rustle up a minimum of £1m between them to buy Alice’s share?

Kate hasn’t got much, Debbie doesn’t appear to be Miss Moneybags and Adam had to nick farm funds to pay his electrician’s bill. Jenny and Brian are still renting a shoebox so have no assets to call on. Ian’s redundancy pay out is not going to be much more than £50k - if that given the height of his and Adam’s ambition was to buy a pizza oven; Ruarhi is a student who has some cash to splash around for partying but little more.

So where is all this cash for the buy-out coming from?

But Home Farm must be worth at least £5m - probably way more - so won’t this mean the siblings have to rustle up a minimum of £1m between them to buy Alice’s share?

Kate hasn’t got much, Debbie doesn’t appear to be Miss Moneybags and Adam had to nick farm funds to pay his electrician’s bill. Jenny and Brian are still renting a shoebox so have no assets to call on. Ian’s redundancy pay out is not going to be much more than £50k - if that given the height of his and Adam’s ambition was to buy a pizza oven; Ruarhi is a student who has some cash to splash around for partying but little more.

So where is all this cash for the buy-out coming from?

But Home Farm must be worth at least £5m - probably way more - so won’t this mean the siblings have to rustle up a minimum of £1m between them to buy Alice’s share?

Kate hasn’t got much, Debbie doesn’t appear to be Miss Moneybags and Adam had to nick farm funds to pay his electrician’s bill. Jenny and Brian are still renting a shoebox so have no assets to call on. Ian’s redundancy pay out is not going to be much more than £50k - if that given the height of his and Adam’s ambition was to buy a pizza oven; Ruarhi is a student who has some cash to splash around for partying but little more.

So where is all this cash for the buy-out coming from?

Oh dear! Mumsnet said the server was down and it couldn’t post my contribution. It was clearly lying…Sorry for speeding our way to the 1000 post mark!

Klaxon:
Fridays start again from 3rd June

(Let's hope my Mumsnet app is fixed by then)

Thanks for the heads up @Madcats

Re: the farm, it'll be a tenth of the value they have to find surely? He's unlikely to be entitled to Alice's full share especially as it's her family business, I'd expect 50/50 of her share tops?

I don't really know where the money is in Home Farm - I mean, which bits make the money.

A good point well made, @Roysnewshirt - well worth making over and over again.

Six episodes a week again! Many thanks for that, @Madcats. That'll take a bit of adjusting to. Longer omnibus too, I assume - I rarely listen to that.

Most of my knowledge of divorce law comes from TV, radio and MN. Chris and Alice have been married quite a while. Would a prenup have made a difference after this length of time? I don't see how it can be argued that he has supported her to add value to the partnership as she's had sod all to do with it during most of the marriage. She on the other hand has probably had some input to the building up of his business. I wonder what that's worth.

Yay! With the six episodes, we will be getting back to normal at last!

I thought pre-nups are not really enforceable?

Brian and Jennifer still have the change from the house, however much that was.

Hard to believe an astute businessman like Brian hadn’t already thought of Stella’s genius plan.

I’m confused about his comment that Adumb and Ian will be getting a load of cash though. He can’t imagine Ian’s redundancy money will be anywhere close to the sum needed to contribute to a buyout. I know chefs in London with 10+ years experience who still earn a (relative) pittance. Anyway, Ian’s money is apparently now all tied up in the future food van business and a pizza oven. I doubt Ruari will be predisposed to doing anything to help Alice and as already pointed out, where would Kate find the money?

I also thought prenups weren't enforceable in the UK, but the recent series The Split had family lawyers drawing up prenups for wealthy couples all the time.

On a quick google, it appears that UK courts are now paying more attention to prenups than they used to, so I suppose it's worth the while of the rich to have one.

Extraordinary that Brian apparently has read his own partnership agreement whilst Stella has.

Sorry, I meant extraordinary that Brian hasn't read his own partnership agreement.

I find the whole "the farm could be in trouble" thing odd.

I didn't do matrimonial law at uni but I did do trusts and some business law.

It is far more likely that Chris would be allocated a share of the annual profits/dividends and a charge placed over Alice's share for a proportion to be paid to Chris should it be sold or after a certain period of time.

Of course the Aldridge's could decide it would be in their interests to make a lump sum cash offer. All this would be negotiated in the settlement. As someone rightly pointed out upthread, the same goes for the forge.

It is in no-ones interest to kill the golden goose (farm) and given the complexity of the partnership, a judge would be unlikely to order that.

Stella's suggestion and the buyout clause if anything makes it easier for Chris to press a cash claim though as it shows it was a possibility when the partnership was drawn up and there was the definite intention to give partners that option. If anything, Stella's clause spotting puts them in a more difficult position not a better one.

Still, it's soap land so...

Fridays again?!

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

(I still haven’t found a meaningful replacement for 7pm on Fridays - and it still sometimes catches me out.)

Where's the intern?

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Adam was acting like he is the Ambridge version of Elon Musk this evening. Yesterday he was talking about throwing caution to the wind and buying a pizza oven. The Finance Fairy seems to have lost her marbles this week.

Oh I felt so sorry for Tracy this evening. The interviewer was awful for making out the the job was pretty much hers before the interview started then refusing to rephrase a question. And “my daughters have their own ponies” is up there with “my family own the stately home” on the smug twat scale. Shame, I was really looking forward to seeing Lily fuming when Tracy nailed her in the monthly sales table.

Poor Tracy. The interviewer was out of order for revealing the personal connections, as well as the "in the bag" hint.

The poorly-expressed question did my head in. The way she phrased it as "an example" could be a theoretical one to someone under pressure. It should have been, " Can you give me an example from your own experience where, etc." OR "The next question is about how you've solved problems at work. Blah blah." The introduction gives the interviewee time to contextualise.

Ever since I did EOpps interview training in education years ago, I've always been hyper about poorly-phrased questions. The bottom line, and this was stated baldly was if the interviewee did not understand the question, it's your job to re-state it so they can, and /or return to it later. Amazingly, I came across very few iffy ones over the years later.

Gutted for Tracy, but she can do better. I have a mental image of the kitchen company telesales office as a grubby open plan room in a business park unit in the middle of nowhere. Filthy carpet, MDF desks, chairs designed to cause back problems in the shortest possible time, no natural light, ceiling studded with fluorescent tubes. In a converted cupboard now optimistically designated the staff kitchen, an ancient fridge with a freezer compartment frozen solid after the flap fell off, and the main cavity full of forgotten milk cartons with an inch of curdling milk at the bottom and a bag of green slime in the vegetable drawer. On the permanently sticky and stained worktop a scale-ridden plastic kettle from Argos, a huge box of teabags, a catering sized tin of the cheapest instant coffee known to humanity and an open bag of granulated sugar crystallising because nobody bothers using a dry teaspoon, on the red letter days when there actually is a spoon to be found. Often the staff improvise with the one ancient discoloured fork with bent tines or the plastic knife somebody thoughtfully left from their meal deal. Sink like something out of Withnail and I. Overflowing bin.

Lily thinks it's edgy.

With a yellowing Employer's Liability insurance certificate dated 2016 on the noticeboard next to an out of date menu for Belly Buster's sandwich shop

That sounds a bit like my house,only my house is a crumbling worker's cottage in the fag end of Shitsville town centre, with no fluorescent lights, just the flickering light of a battered old laptop and my last tealight

Oh you've been to my office then?

There should also be a calendar still showing Nov 2021 and a first aider list entirely made up of people who've left/retired/died/been sacked.

Lily thinks it's edgy.

Lily wants to live like Common People
She came from Ambridge, had a thirst for knowledge...