👑 Archers thread #139: Who’s the Daddy? No ceremonial required to join us – 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 like the sound of Lilian’s Cinnamon Chicken, 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.)

I'm often struck by the time a thread ends how irrelevant the previous title has become to what's currently going on in The Archers. The Queen's death has only been mentioned very briefly in TA, of course, but I suppose that was to be expected in a time of budget constraints. In a few weeks when this thread fills up I wonder if we will still be thinking that, and about Chelsea and her pregnancy. That depends on what she decides to do, which at the time of writing is still up in the air.

As usual, I asked for title ideas and for various reasons then didn't use them. Sorry. Lillian Gish's was very witty - Will Chelsea stay mum about dad? Muddler made a more controversial one - Horrobins thread #139. As a new Great House of Ambridge emerges, come swear your allegiance here.

That's about all I can face saying about TA at the moment. I am expecting to have to travel north soon as my Dad is in hospital and I have to be with my Mum. (They're the same sort of age as Jill Archer, and up to now have been like her and Peggy, very active, managing very well with no help, but this may all be about to change ). So apologies if I'm more absent than present for a while. Will pop in when I can.

Do episodes have to have a 'point'?
Can't they just 'be'?
I like gentle scenes like Flower&Produce.

To let Chelsea realise she is good with children, and that co-parenting is not difficult.

Pip has a co-parent she has had a relationship with, even if they were FWB at the time of conception. She has a house provided with her job. Her grandmother (92 today) does the childcare for nothing. Her family and the co-parents are local and will help out. She has a job.

Chelsea is a teenager still in education with a casual part-time job, living in the cramped family council house. She was not in a relationship with the baby's father. Her grandmother has passed away...

I thought the contrived Pip-Chelsea scene was to make the point that having an absent father isn't good for a child - Pip kept going on about how much Rosie was going to miss her father when he moved away.
But then it transitioned to something else entirely ...

Much better episode, although that's not saying much given how awful last week was. Keri Davies is the SW this week. I liked hearing Kirsty and Tony again, and Tony was on good moany form. I enjoy the Flower and Produce show. Also good to hear a mention of Carol Tregorran. This gives me a little confidence that they've remembered she's still living at Glebe Cottage.

As someone else said upthread, I wonder who Jill will leave that to. Pip is the obvious contender. It's (mostly) passed down the female Archer line since it was improbably bequeathed to Doris by the former Squire, in recognition of her brief service in his house as a domestic servant before she married Dan Archer and became matriarch of Brookfield. She left it to Shula, who sold to Jill and Phil when they moved out of Brookfield.

I wonder if Rex has drifted out to sea on his narrowboat. Has anyone even mentioned him since he moved onto it?

I'm sure that (thinking about the reality of single parenthood) was exactly the point. Plus, maybe, seeing the reality of dealing with a recalcitrant 5 year old. Let's hope reality is dawning on Chelsea.

But I couldn't for the life of me see why Pip couldn't just take the scissors to her daughter's hair herself if she was so desperate, rather than bullying someone who blatantly didn't want to do it.

Tony was on good moany form

I almost wept with gratitude to hear him and Kirsty. And then Pip returned to remind us how loathesome she is. Don't understand how she couldn't get Rosie out of the car - surely she would have treated her like one of the poor dairy cows, slapping her on the arse and telling her "Go on, girl"

I thought the whole thing showed just how self-absorbed Pip is. The culmination was when she talked over Chelsea who wanted to ask a question about single parenthood, which would have given some sense to the meeting. But the rest of it was building up to it - the idea that Chelsea would be home ready to cut hair 30 minutes after her shift at Lower Loxley (which I have always assumed to be some way out of the village, given the amount of land it has) was the start of it and it all built up from there (maybe she had other plans, Pip, maybe she wanted to relax after work). It was so awful that I thought for all the first half that Ben or someone must have put her up to it in order to deliberately contrive the meeting with Chelsea and talk her out of the pregnancy, because surely no one (other than Rob Titchener) could be that oblivious to someone else saying no and push their own way just for a kid's haricut. But it appeared I was wrong and it was genuinely all about Pip.

Yes, Gasp0, I’m guessing Carol has been mentioned because pieces on the chessboard are about to be rearranged.

Although clumsily executed (Pip as bulldozer!) I felt the hairdressing business was very much about moving the plot forward.

It’s finally dawned on me that the Fairbrethren are being written out. When Rex’s boat warming party happened I assumed it was just a change and securing of location and that we’d still hear from him. But no. Last Friday he and Toby were in a pub quiz team, apparently - but he hasn’t spoken since taking to the water. And Toby’s off. I can understand about Toby - he’s performed a significant role in fathering PlumpRosie, and isn’t needed any more. The story will develop with Pip as a single parent. But Rex still has an ongoing story with his grand stately home piggies. How can he just disappear?

Why did Rex move, I can't remember? Was it that he couldn't afford the rent without Bert's share? In that case he's probably doomed to silence on the boat. There's no reason he couldn't have got someone to houseshare with him and stay in the Bungalow, other than the SWs trying to sideline him.

If there was some other reason for wanting to move out of the Bungalow then there may be a glimmer of hope for his future.

Just imagine Chelsea being properly introduced to her child’s Local Royalty cousin!

Pip and Rosie gave her lots to think about.

I think the danger is more that, as she was able to wrangle the un co operative child, she may think 'aha, I'll be great at this parenting lark then...'

So many departing the heathen wasteland* of Ambridge - who will be left to praise Peggy’s stained glass window? Come, lift up your voice here …

(God loves a trier, I’m told. )

*I fully acknowledge the unbounded skill and poetic artistry of the original creator of this phrase. Forgotten who it was!)

Wow! We romped through that thread…good old Chels keeping us entertained…

Sorry! That was just an early suggestion for the next thread Roysnewshirt. I should have made that more obvious.

Well, I’m in no way a fan of Beth's but my goodness. Leave the girl alone if she doesn’t want to be in the photo!

Toby is going so that Pip can find a "worthy" partner, methinks.

Jill is like the (old) Queen.

Ooh, is this Beth, exit stage left permanently?

33 posts left. New thread will be needed in the next day or two! I'll return to the fray in the morning and hope nobody has insomnia combined with Archers-induced verbal diarrhoea.

She has offended mightily. Displeased both Jill Who Must Be Obeyed, AND Leonard Llewelyn-Bowen…..so maybe. Fingers crossed!

Seems to me that Beth needs to know if Chelsea is going to the keep the baby.

If I were Chelsea I could, if I thought the bloke was worth it, (i.e not Ben, but there's no accounting for taste) overlook the shagging Chelsea but I'd have to think much harder about taking on a bloke who already has children.

That comment at the end from Kenton (?) to Toby about how Toby will always be connected -well it applies to Chelsea too if Chelsea keeps the baby.

I still don't like Beth, but her reaction to having the photo sprung on her doesn't seem that unreasonable. If Jill hits 93 (???) will Chelsea's baby be in the family photo next year? Chelsea's baby would have more right , and always will have, to be there than an unmarried girl friend.

I am not from a "blended family" but there are threads on MN full of bitterness and resentment by step parents and step children. If Beth is having doubts that she doesn't want to be a "step-mother" in her early 20s before she's even a mother, then good for her.

if I thought the bloke were worth it,....

Love Leonard Llewellyn Bowen! 😁

Jill annoyed me: "I hope it isn't a sign of things to come, for your sake"... It seemed out of character and I would have thought she'd be more forgiving in light of their dinner together earlier in the week.

Chelsea dragging her feet is starting to annoy me, which feels unreasonable in some ways (a woman has every right to deliberate), but I don't think her character would have taken this long...
It would be interesting to listen to a counselling session with Chelsea (similar to when Elizabeth had therapy), just hope the scriptwriters realise that's an option soon, mostly so we can be put out of our misery!

I didn't like that either what does that mean
'I hope this isn't a sign of things to come", so nasty. Jill is so invested and pushy in Ben's relationship and why didn't Leonard back off too? Ugh.

Hot off the press and a bit better than usual:

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/04/charlotte-higgins-on-the-archers-ambridges-yoda-to-the-rescue?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I did have insomnia, as it happens but was reading a book.
I don't like Beth and dislike having my photo taken, but who on earth would want to be in aa family photo, when the family in question was that of your fairly recent partner, who had another woman carrying his unborn child.

Jill is so convinced that her family members can do no wrong. Maybe the shock of little Benji Scissorhands will be the death of her.
Chelsea won't have a termination now.

Leonard Llewellyn-Bowen is inspired