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!)

There’s no way Tracy would be on MN! She’d take one look at all the Oxbridge, and Ocado threads, independent schools, foreign holidays, and Toast …

Natasha absolutely would be if she could find the time.

Emma would have lurked avidly on the property threads - until her house buying disaster. Then she’d have stopped.

Ruth wouldn’t be interested. And native Archers are all too grand. They’d see it as something for isolated women living in towns …

Tracy, Ruth and Emma would be too busy probably.
I liked the food bank scene, although I just bung a few things in the 'bin' when I have something. Never crossed my mind to donate peaches.

I'd like to think that Lynda joined Gransnet when Mungo came along. Jenny too, perhaps?

Kirsty probably jumped onto Mumsnet when she was pregnant.

Alice would be a lurker, but might be on an alcohol area/Dry January forum.

Emma really ought to have popped on to get some benefits advice and hints and tips about her wayward son.

I doubt that Ruth and Kate have even heard of Mumsnet!

Maybe she is on here.

Ruth would be on Moomsnet.

40 year listener. Very occasional delurker but regular reader.
Because Jill and Peggy may depart soon, I wonder if Lynda becoming a widow might be too much?
Heartfelt RIP to the lovely Robert actor x
However, Justin became very friendly with Lynda when they stayed in the B&B during the house refurbishment, so that could be a new battle between Lynda and Lillian?
Martin and George could be an evil Batman and Robin relationship, please no!
Oliver and the Horrobins have been through too much, please don't stop Brad's maths course!
For those who are fed up with listening to the news, on Radio4 extra at 6pm currently you may be concerned to know that Oliver is on Saturn with Dan Dare!

I distribute food to people in need through a couple of schemes (not an official food bank); we really don't need more peaches, thanks. Far too many people donate tins of stuff that no one really wants. As a general rule, think of what you use a lot of at home and donate that, although be aware that not everyone has access to the full range of kitchen facilities (oven, hob, utensils) and, increasingly, things which require a long slow cook are getting more difficult as energy prices rise. So, e.g. a premade pasta sauce is generally well received. We also take toiletries, and fewer people donate those, so they're quite useful.

Public service announcement over. As you were. I haven't listened to tonight's ep yet, I'm saving it for a long journey tomorrow. I really hope no one discovered Brad with a hand in anything naughty.

Hello! Delurking!

Omg I couldn't believe the Tuesday episode of Jill being set right. 'Sure you could have lifted that from a Mumsnet thread' was all I could think!

So relieved that's all done, though shame on Brad! That's exactly the kind of mild peril I tune in for.

'Contains scenes of mild peril' was a warning on a film that terrified my eldest when she was about 4. We found that even mild peril was a bit much but the writers for once got that just right for me.

Where I used to help out, peaches were pretty popular because of Jack Monroe's tinned peach and chickpea curry recipe, but I suppose that was born out of wondering what to do with the blooming peaches.

For some reason I've found the Brad n Mia story line so infuriating I can't bring myself to listen to the last few episodes. This is despite having stuck through everything else over the last few decades. Maybe because I have a 16 year old son?

Anyway - put me out my misery, are Brad and Mia in terrible trouble and did they ruin the hunt ball?

are Brad and Mia in terrible trouble and did they ruin the hunt ball?

At this point, no and no, but the ball was on-going at the end of the episode. Mia thinks they're great at sabotage and should do more of it, so there's probably going to be plenty of chance for this to change.

Mia was very irritating and self-satisfied at the end of that episode. Sounds like she'll be on the m25 with extinction rebellion or just stop oil before long. Brad has no appetite for any more I don't think, but may be swayed by what he seems to think of as Mia's charms.

More delurkers - lovely!

Just want to say please no to any suggestion of romance between Lynda and Justin. The best thing about Lillian and Justin being together is that no one else has to suffer either of them.

Someone needs to address the rift Jill is making in the family and Elizabeth is probably as well placed as anyone both to support Ben and to remind Jill of just how cruel she and Shula were when Elizabeth was pregnant.

I'm wondering if this presages the split of Jill and Leonard. Leonard kept saying Jill was fine - but presumably hadn't realised she was such a forced birther that she would torment her own family on the subject when they needed support. It may be side of Jill he has never seen and its quite an ugly one.

Mia is 16 - Mark Twain springs to mind.

I do wish that the LSWs wouldn't make every eco minded character annoying and/or stupid. They have been doing it forever - the endless snide comments from when Pat'n'Tony went organic to Mia's childish antics. I sometimes wonder if any of them have actually met people who simply try to get on with the job of living a lower footprint (without a bung from the tax payer).

Someone wrote on another forum - Mia sounds like the Worzel Gummidge version of Greta Thunberg (or words to that effect)…well quite

Kirsty is generally written sympathetically (admittedly I wasn’t listening when she was doing more radical things like destroying GM crops or whatever it was), but we’re clearly supposed to laugh at Kate and roll our eyes at Mia.

Yes, Lucy Perks was an animal rights activist and deeply annoying too. Just checked my Archers books as I knew she'd done some sort of sabotage, and I find it was sabotaging the milk at Brookfield, to Sid's horror. She also demonstrated at a circus that still had animal acts.

I hope Mia glues herself to something as a protest and nobody notices for a long time. She's not nearly as clever as she thinks she is, and I won't forgive her if Brad sabotages his future because of her daft schemes. Elizabeth is bound to realise that the signs used to divert the Ball guests all came from a shed at LL. (I assume they did, anyway - how else would two teenagers get hold of them?)

I know! It was brilliant so maybe Ruth has recently joined.

Oliver is on Saturn with Dan Dare I'd tune in to that storyline.

That's a really good point about (gentle, ish) pisstaking out of eco types. Pretty sure Tom and Kirsty in their yoof were similarly depicted as "radicals" when they were protesting... GM crops was it? I don't think they mock Kirsty now for being against water pollution but the tone is still there in the background.

I wonder if that's indicative of what they think the countryside audience is thinking, or whether it's a typical BBC small C conservatism, I mean that they don't want to approve of Strong Feelings and Action.

Does give it a slight tone as though your Mail reading Uncle Derek is writing it though, doesn't it.

The Meer and Brad story was annoying to me!

Messing with road signs has always been a popular prank.

My dad told that back in the 1930s, local lads turned round some signs, to misdirect the Monte Carlo rally to the back of beyond in Sutherland.

It was fairly well balanced back in the days of the GM crops story. It was well established that Bridge Farm had gone organic a few years earlier. There had been a lot of scepticism and some ridicule about it, but the hard work involved and the deep-seated principles Pat and Tony had come to hold were always to the fore. It was therefore perfectly credible that hotheaded young Tom would be furious at the possibility of other farmers trashing his family's livelihood by planting GM crops in their fields which could end up contaminating Bridge Farm crops. It was a hot topic at the time.

Lucy Perks was ridiculed more because she was a teenager, and perhaps because she was a teenage girl, than because of her specific views, I would say.

I wonder if Mia has donated her wages from the Ball to her idea of a good cause. Seems very hypocritical otherwise to agree to work for Elizabeth (who was doing her a good turn), take the money and attempt to ruin the event without being open about what she thinks.

Buy them off Amazon probably! Not sure where they'd get the money though.

Here you all are!

The hunt ball sabotage was all a bit pointless.

Urgh, just heard the Rob & Helen scene on 'Our Archive Century'. So well acted.

@Tulipomania , probably not. My guess is that Oliver will find out who was responsible and Brad will lose his LL job and the free hotel stay

The hunt ball sabotage was all a bit pointless.

We’ll see the point when Oliver finds out that Brad was involved …

And Mia seems to think last night was just the start of her campaign …