🌟 ⭐ 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!

Maybe Chelsea's test result will be a false positive.

Yes but the damage is done already perhaps re Russ/ Ben/ Josh/ Freddie

I don't think George because he is odious and her brothers frenemy. I think that's good soap material but would mean a lack of discernment by Chelsea and I don't see her that way.

I don't see Ben either. A ill advised snog while your heart is breaking maybe - but not an actual shag. Could just be a lad from college of course- and a neater and more plausible termination SL.

I really hope Russ at least gets publically accused, even if it doesn't turn out to be his in the end. Just enough to get Lily free of him and off for a proper life at uni like she should have had. And I hope it doesn't lose Chelsea her job at LL.

I'd like her to keep the baby and turn out to be a really good mum, although there'll have to be some magic money fairy as well as some extra space in that already overcrowded house. Maybe that was why Chelsea got the larger bedrom when her uncle moved out, unless I've misremembered that, there's room for a cot in with her. If she does have an abortion, I hope there's nothing nasty afterwards. I wondered if Brad might turn out to be the prolife activist rather than Jazzer (whom I love!), but listening back I think that's unlikely.

That's a truly terrible thing to hope for a 17 year old.

I really wish someone has the guts to say "abortion" or if they are too mealy mouthed "termination"

I prefer the term termination because abortion can also refer to a miscarriage.

I just want a young female in Ambridge to be able to make something of themselves, even if they do have modest roots:
-Phoebe ignored her Oxbridge PPE 1st in the run up to Brexit and 2 general elections to manage a campsite (before heading off to another daft role). Surely she could have become a journalist/work at a bank for a few years?
-Alice hit the bottle and turned down a high powered engineering job abroad when her husband had an accident.

-Amy jacked in her midwifery to be a dogwalker (can't remember what, if anything, she is doing now)
-Fallon runs a cafe and knows about paint effects
-Lily abandoned in her degree to sell kitchens over the phone and has only just thought to return
-Pip whines a lot (though I think she did manage to get a degree)
-Kate is a (was it International relations?) postgrad and runs a few yurts
-Emma is in a caravan and helps with a cafe/tearoom
-Tracey ended up with reduced redundancy thanks to daft Jazzer and was seemingly unable to get a job in an industry that has been crying out for staff all year
-Chelsea is/was supposed to be a promising hairdresser (but seeming has no apprenticeship, so has a min wage job at LL) and is now upduffed.

Rant over. I hope Chelsea has gone with a friend to a pregnancy clinic.

Don't get me started on Kate's supposed postgrad qualification. IIRC, Kate had a handful of GCSEs, no A levels, no degree. She cobbled together a manual for volunteers at an orphanage, no doubt copying and pasting material she found on the web. Felphersham University accepted this as evidence she was up to postgrad study and she did some sort of short certificate course. Ludicrous.

Other than that, yes, I agree!

Did Phoebe get a First? I definitely didn’t remember that …

Tbf Phoebe was part of a successful bid for private rewilding funding. PPE (or at least, Nobel prizewinning Economics) seems to be all about grassroots activity.

(Tb fairer - it was her great granny offering the funding!)

I missed that. I'm sure she didn't get a First. I'm not sure we were ever told what she got, but I don't think Roy would ever have shut up about it if she'd got a First!

We never heard anything about her degree or her graduation until long afterwards Kate and Roy were reminiscing about being at the graduation.

I don't think it's an awful thing to wish. Some of my friends and family had their children very young (15 -17) and love it. My best friend's mum was from a background similar to Chelsea, had two children by time she was 19, and says it was the best decision of her life. She had no real prospects at the time, but since she was still young when her children grew up, she went on to finish her Highers and even get a doctorate, married a lovely guy she met later and generally lives her best life. Chelsea isn't going to university, she's doing hairdressing where it wouldn't be too hard to accommodate childcare and complete the course, assuming Tracey et al help out. She might want an abortion, which is fine, but if she doesn't then I don't think it would be an awful life for her, certainly compared to what her life already is and where it looks like it's going - i.e. we have no indications that she has any big plans that would be ruined by having a child.

Regardless of whether it's actually Russ, I think he will be publicly accused, and my bet is on it happening at the opening of the 'amazing' art installation that Lily was cooing over.

Yeh. Russ is way too relaxed about it for it to be him. Even if he wasn't thinking he had made her pregnant, but had had an affair with her, he would be jumpy about what was going on.

I am beginning to think it won't be anyone we already know.

They are playing games with us.

Alternatively Chelsea could continue the cycle of poverty and under achievement.

I think it's terrible advice and a terrible future.

Russ is way too relaxed about it for it to be him Funny you should say that. He didn’t come over that way when he was helping with the search. I found an involuntary shudder up my spine, rather if it were one of those murderers who join in the search. I’m not suggesting he’s murdered her, but has he sorted an abortion? Is that where she is?

Would she really get an abortion without her mum? They are relatively solid. So perhaps there will be a call from the steps of the clinic. Hmmm I shall LA. I can imagine him meddling with the abortion arrangement as he overstepped in the car keying confession. Maybe that last how the finger gets pointed at CMR.

So Chelsea didn’t cut Harrison’s hair. Anyone fancy listening again to exactly what was happening when she rushed out “to cut Harrison’s hair”?

an involuntary shudder up my spine

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Firstly that Russ might have accompanied other teenage girls to have terminations.

And secondly - horrifyingly - that Chelsea might not return for years. Yesterday I assumed she’d be back for Alistair’s party …

And the writing is cunning this week! Both Freddie and Scumbag gazing lovingly at Chelsea’s photo …

Here’s the BBC synopsis of last Sunday’s episode. What it leaves out is that Chelsea’s phone pinged immediately after Tracy asked her about ‘the father’ - and it seemed to be the message that prompted her to rush off “to cut Harrison’s hair”.

A-hah! She was gone during the same period Russ was absent from Lily’s party!!! (Someone asked about that above, I think.)

And he sounded relieved. Or … determined. Like deciding to buy a more expensive flat would draw a line between past and future.

Oh. No. More than that. He’s given Chelsea money to go away. Way away. That’s why he needed a reason for digging into his divorce settlement - the flat deposit is just a smokescreen …

Just listening now. I see Lily is still peddling the lie that she gave up university first time because she had to come home to look after her mother.

They are. I still think it isn't Russ. There was nothing in the conversations between Russ and Chelsea after the rave which suggested anything had happened.

The only thing I can remember is Chelsea teasing Russ about not being able to remember the rave but would you tease someone about not remembering something when the thing they can't remember was they'd had sex with you?

What have I just read? 15/16-year-old children without a single qualification or prospect having babies is horrific, not some lovely Kodak moment to bring all the family together. I can’t imagine having such a low bar for my daughters.