Archers thread #142: Kill Jill? Is Ambridge heading for a Tarantino-style bloodbath on Stir Up Sunday? 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, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that , 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/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-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.)

Well, things have taken a turn for the better in the last few days! The SWs have re-discovered their form and the actors and directors have risen to the challenge. I won't say much more than that for fear of jinxing things. Over to you!

(Thanks to @JanglyBeads for the thread title idea!)

Portuguese cooking does the same thing of using bread for thickening

They have a dish called Açorda de camarão which is basically a very sloppy bread sauce with prawns and some other bits & bobs. Yum!

The Ben actor did very good manic/on pills.

I’m guessing bipolar.

Also I get that it’s a very common issue but I’m not really enjoying the storyline, I’m missing a good dramatic story, even Vince being a baddie is a bit too tied up in this whole thing, it’s just all a bit depressing coming soon after Alice’s struggles. It all seems to remark to mental health when I’m listening to get a mental health break! Oh well. Ben is acting it well but still.

Also - was the silence yesterday supposed to be Joy and her boyfriend kissing and then her wanting to get away in some way?

*relate to

I will place a small bet that whatever he turns out to be supposed to be suffering, people who know about that condition will find the way it is portrayed to be either unconvincing or inaccurate, possibly both.

We all know what’s wrong with him - he feels absolutely terrible about getting Chelsea pregnant (shared responsibility) and about her having such a late abortion (something he had absolutely no control over). None of which had been helped by his beloved grandmother - someone who has previously always been on his side - making him feel even worse and implying it’s all somehow his fault. In addition his girlfriend - with whom he had only recently been reconciled after she believed her twisted sister over him - has now definitively left him and her father is trying to screw money out of his parents farm. He is distraught and he has no one to turn to. As the parent of a 19-year-old boy I really feel for him. The only reason he had the (somewhat far-fetched imo) one-night-stand was because his gf had chosen to believe her sister over him and chucked him out. I’m finding the relentless woe heaped upon him a bit too soapy and I fear Jazzer’s refusal to let Chelsea alert his mum and dad is foreshadowing something terrible. I’m not sure I can bear to listen.

Sorry to labour the point, but he’s been falsely accused not once, but twice - first by his girlfriend who thought he’d been unfaithful and secondly by his granny who blamed him for the abortion. Both of his accusers are people he loved and who he thought loved him. His mum gets it, but she doesn’t feel as central in Ben’s life as she should be. Jazzer should have phoned her - I want to phone her. And where is his brother? He seems to have conveniently disappeared off the face of the earth in the same way that Kirsty did when Helen was with knob.

I wondered if he's overdoing Pro-Plus because he feels he needs to catch up with his coursework and won't let himself take breaks or sleep.

Oh poor Ben He was getting on my nerves lately but now I feel so sad for him. I was getting annoyed by Jazzer too by trying to stop Ben talking To Chelsea (she has sussed him out straight away) and then not getting intouch with Bens parents, he was very much in the wrong. Still zoning out about the stupid spider costume.

Oh and Im a 67 aged flying mammal and use watsapp and all WiFi related stuff its not just for the young uns.

The ‘how old is Stella’ question becomes ever more pertinent! She started off as Ruth’s friend - but spent all of yesterday cosying up with Pip (and didn’t they sound like a couple??). And Mia wants her for Will …

The SWs are deliberately confusing us and it’s annoying.

Agree with @LillianGish about Ben. I felt really sad for him last night, hopefully Chelsea will tell someone. I found it interesting that Jazzer could detach so easily from someone obviously in distress (presumably on the grounds that he was more worried about Chelsea) whereas Chelsea was immediately compassionate rather than annoyed.

Glad to hear the Gasparents (in my head that definitely requires a French accent although I think you're in Scotland?!) are improving.

Love (home-made) bread sauce here. One of my favourite post-Christmas snacky lunches is turkey, stuffing and bread sauce in a toasted sandwich. Cranberry sauce though? Not on my table. Cranberries at Christmas belong in breakfast muffins.

Pip being (objectively) silly about the nativity feels real to me. My children are a bit older than that now but it's very true to some of my fellow parents' attitudes. I suppose these things feel important at that age. My own children were never particularly bothered so although I love an infant school nativity I was never emotionally very impacted by the casting. I can't actually think it's very difficult to stuff tights to make a spider costume though.

I wondered where the stuffed tights will be attached. Would it be best to space them out around the waist - although that could end up looking like a weird skirt of some kind; or four down either side of the spine sewn onto the leotard - but then you might need some sort of central structure to ensure they maintain their height and don’t droop too much. A lot to think about when you’re designing a spider costume.

I was sorry the bought version for £20 won through. Surely they could have got away with the leotard/tights combo with a mask?

Ben’s mental health SL is boring but I expect the SW team are hoping for accolades and applause for highlighting another issue…

@LillianGish don’t forget Vice loudly accusing Ben of ‘seducing the Horrobin girl’ in the pub. So that’s three false accusations, poor lad.

Bess ’molls around in the rud’ - was he definitely on something or just having a manic episode, do we think?

Maybe Ben's storyline will lead to the title of this thread coming true - even if it happens a couple of weeks late?

The key to a good spider costume is stringing the legs together and using your arms as one pair.

Is Ben at risk of doing himself in?

The key to a good spider costume is stringing the legs together and using your arms as one pair.

Haha @TherapistInATabard - that’s EXACTLY the kind of analysis I needed! The costume in the pic seems to only have six legs but I get the gist…Oh. Just realised the legs are meant to be a pair too. Got it!

Oh that’s an excellent spider. I once sent DD to school for Book Day as Slinky Malinkey with a black tight suitably stuffed for her tail. No one knew who she was as no one else had the book 🤷‍♀️

Poor Ben. Chelsea will do something.

@UrsulaPandress everyone should know Slinky Malinky!

I’ll be amazed is that isn’t where this is heading.

Bess ’molls around in the rud’ - was he definitely on something or just having a manic episode, do we think? I wondered if it was in the script or the actor said it by mistake (he was certainly talking very quickly) and they left it in because it sounded good.

One of my favourite books at school and very good for word play. Hairy McLairy from Donaldson's Dairy, Herbert Von Crum with a Very Long Tum.

One World Book day I prepared the class the day before by reading a version of Babushka. I came in the next day with a headscarf, apron and a basket of toys like the illustration in the book. They asked why I hadn't dressed up.

They asked why I hadn't dressed up. god, kids can be brutal 😆