🌟 ⭐ Archers thread #138: Two new stars on the Ambridge firmament, but will Peggy’s retirement leave a black hole? 🕳️ Join us here for a window on The Archers.

[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 think commissioning a stained glass window for two of your great-grandchildren and nothing for all the others is a sensible thing to do, 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 @LillianGish and @MuddlerInLaw for title ideas, which I have played around with a bit. I'm sad to have heard the last of Peggy. An era starts to draw to a close.

What a relief to be out of the Steph Casey phase, which I hope was an unfortunate blip, not to be repeated. [Triumph of hope over experience there ... ]

@BoreofWhabylon has asked the 🔮 about Adil and it predicts that he is actually the Mysterious New Owner of Grey Gables but won't be revealed as such until he has won Kirsty's heart (or some similar Mills & Boon level tosh - apols to the 🔮 but it does seem to have a mushy side). I still cling to the idea that the mysterious silent and invisible Gills who now own Home Farm may have some role at GG, but why not name them?

No mention of the heatwave in Ambridge, but budget constraints probably severely limit their scope for topical inserts these days. IRL I believe this has been a tricky time for farmers. Perhaps the SWs will catch up with this over the winter and start putting in some farming chat about diversification away from oats to olives, or similar. We already have at least one vineyard in the Ambridge area, at LL. (I understand there was another, in the heart of the village, decades ago, but the SWs have now forgotten all about it, sadly.)

Over to you!

Yes, exactly.

@MuddlerInLaw - I'm 35 and I think JB is wonderful. But she was always more on the 'arty' side in any case (arguably) and so so for a chat between two early uni students, it seemed really incongruous, and as @BoreOfWhabylon has said, there are several much more obvious ref points that wouldn't have been as jarring.

I mean, Jennifer Aniston or J Lo would have made more sense, and been a closer match in age. It was just an odd choice of sleb in the context.

Isn’t Beyoncé too young in this context? And I’m not seeing Angelina Jolie as a more convincing name - why would she be more familiar or popular to the young? (I know she was in a game but wasn’t that ages ago?)

Anyway, between actorly references and straight talking Ben has gone up even higher in my estimation.

@MuddlerInLaw but yeah, i think getting hung up on the choice of celebrity is a red herring here :) i'm still really not sure what we are meant to think about this SL at all - hoping it's going to a place where TA discusses sex work in a frank way, as PP said

Never mind about that, do others think they've been having sex all along? Didn't she come to his room one morning, clearly not having spent the night together?

What Is Brian Going To Say when he finds out?

His poor heart!

Ha, wish MN had a reaction button 😆

This cannot be the way they do him in, surely?

I'm sure they've been having sex all along. What else does he have to interest an attractive, sophisticated, power-suited older woman? She doesn't want to adopt him.

Oooh, Brine meets Julianne in some businessy context, starts flirting, considers a dalliance, and then accidentally discovers the Awful Truth!

Bring. It. On. !!!!

I thought the Juliette Binoche reference was a bit odd too. Courtney Cox or Jennifer Aniston I could understand because of Fiends being so popular, or maybe Rachel Weisz (Mrs James Bond) or someone.

I'm a bit at the thought of someone even older than me with a 19 yr old. Eek!

What on earth will Jennydarling say?
Tracey isn't working is she.

OOOh I didnt like that episode at all. it made me very uncomfortable

@BoreOfWhabylon I seem to remember Uncle Gently B (😂) having his eleventy-millionth clenched conversation with Tracy and offering to underwrite Brad's expenses, only for her to vehemently refuse. Then somehow they talked a bit more, he managed to convince her that it was Brad's life chances she might be damaging, out of her own misplaced pride, and she admitted that would probably be wrong, and unfair on Brad and his whizzo maths potential, and accepted. And they had a bit of a laugh….which was actually quite touching, iirc.

We haven't heard from JD for ages. I hope she is OK. I like her.
I like that Ben is level-headed and hope that he will end up running Brokefailed.

What @Octothorpe said about Gently Benoliverent and the fees.

Ben is altogether fab really, isn't he?

Thanks @Octothorpe - I must have tuned that bit out

I've not been that impressed by Ben before, but boop tonight.

It did. It was well acted. Julianne is deeply creepy.

Well Ben didn't hold back, did he? An interesting development.

Oliver reminds me of the stock benevolent (and loaded) Dickens character, showering goodies on the deserving, like the Cheeryble Brothers.

I thought that was quite clever. Ben was struggling with what to say and I think Juliette popped into his head as sounding like Julianne.

I don't think it's weird. Why wouldn't they have heard of Juliette Binoche? It's not implausible that students would have seen The Three Colours Trilogy or The English Patient.

Julianne is supposed to be older and glamorous and sophisticated. The other women named on this thread are older and possibly glamorous but Juliette Binoche , simply by being French, is more sophisticated.

No. Not sophisticated.

I think Ben's attitude is quite unusual for someone of his age. The students I work with, including the feminists, are very casual about being cam girls or sugar babies or only fans as a legitimate way to earn money. It has really shocked me!

We also found out Tracey has lost her job.