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Discuss your favourite podcast, radio show or The Archers episode.

Archers thread #142: Kill Jill? Is Ambridge heading for a Tarantino-style bloodbath on Stir Up Sunday? Discuss The Archers here!

990 replies

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 16/11/2022 13:41

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

Archers 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. Grin

Archers 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!

Archers 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!)

OP posts:
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ColeensBoot · 18/11/2022 13:46

Does anyone else think one of the actors sounds like the YouTube guy half asleep Chris? It's Freddy I think.

WhoppingBigBackside · 18/11/2022 13:48

Maybe they Mere & Brad will get away with it, and Mere will start on freeing the pigs at Burrow Farm, and find an accomplice in Geowurge.

I hope Brad doesn't lose his place on the Maths Whizz course.

suzyscat · 18/11/2022 14:27

I was tense about how Brad would fare it was such a relief when it was over (though agree it will be up in the air until he's actually gone and come back again)

suzyscat · 18/11/2022 14:31

Mia is awful (and I say this as the person who likes young people so much I was defending George Hmm)

She is meant to be a sanctimonious know it all teenager though, so I can forgive her being annoying as it's apt.

MereDintofPandiculation · 18/11/2022 14:32

I’m beginning to feel they introduce likeable characters only to have bad things happen to them. Best not to get too invested in any one character. But if you’re not going to get invested, what is the point in listening?

GoldenCupidon · 18/11/2022 15:15

I don't think Brad has ever given the slightest hint of giving a toss about animal rights, he's literally just done this to help Mia out because he likes her/fancies her and maybe because he doesn't have many friends.

Doesn't seem very likely he'd do more. Unless they actually get together at least.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 18/11/2022 15:38

MereDintofPandiculation · 18/11/2022 14:32

I’m beginning to feel they introduce likeable characters only to have bad things happen to them. Best not to get too invested in any one character. But if you’re not going to get invested, what is the point in listening?

That phrase always makes me think of one of my favourite ever MN posts. A woman reported that when she was in labour, her partner accidentally sat on his packet of crisps. He held it up and said sadly 'Why do bad things happen to good people?' His labouring partner and the midwife exchanged significant glances, apparently. Grin

And now we return to The Archers ...

OP posts:
Poppins2016 · 18/11/2022 16:14

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 18/11/2022 11:39

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?)

It sounded as though they cycled round the village collecting signs (it was an episode a few days ago and they went to store them in a barn, which Brad was concerned about in case people found them)... I thought they were taking down hunt ball signs, but now I think they must have been collecting highway signs that must have been in use... adding to the irresponsibility of the whole debacle!

WeWereInParis · 18/11/2022 17:32

That phrase always makes me think of one of my favourite ever MN posts. A woman reported that when she was in labour, her partner accidentally sat on his packet of crisps. He held it up and said sadly 'Why do bad things happen to good people?' His labouring partner and the midwife exchanged significant glances, apparently.

One of my favourite lines in Friends is when Rachel is giving birth to Emma and Ross hits his head and says "you have no idea how much this hurts" and Rachel and the dr just look at him.

Sorry, derailing a bit there!

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 18/11/2022 17:44
Grin

Yes, a doctor asked me to rate a pain recently from 1 to 10. I realised I am still comparing all pain to labour, nearly 29 years on since it last happened. I believe gallbladder pain is often worse, so here's hoping I can avoid that.

OP posts:
Hercisback · 18/11/2022 18:45

Checking in so I can find the thread!
I hope Oliver doesn't find out for a long time. I want Brad to succeed in life.

Wonder when we will hear from Ruth again.

TottersBlankly · 18/11/2022 19:17

Oh.

Oh dear.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear …

Fink · 18/11/2022 19:26

I used to like Jill, but that was awful. How dare she make it all about her and her feelings?! What a manipulative attempt at emotional blackmail, I really hope they don't give in to her. Ruth was clearly on to something when she accused David of being a true Archer by making it about him.

I thought previously that Jill might offer to help them out financially, e.g. by selling her house, but no, she just wants to make sure that Ben pays the price of his actions (however the hell she thinks the loan repayment is Ben's fault!) rather than being helped by his family. What an absolute witch.

At least David started to call her out on it in the end. Probably by Sunday he'll have reverted to not knowing whose side to take between his entirely reasonable (in this particular case) wife and his entirely unreasonable mother. Grrr.

Bubbylana · 18/11/2022 19:34

Wonder whats going to happen to Ruth and David now she has had a go at that nasty Jill. I hope Leonard sees Jill for what she is and gets rid of her and lives in Bens old bedroom for ever helping Ruth out in the house.

Rockersversuswalter · 18/11/2022 19:39

It's surprising they discussed the land sale in front of the old bat.

CloseYourEyesAndSee · 18/11/2022 19:45

I went on holiday and just catching up. Boop for Ruth!!

Mumblechum0 · 18/11/2022 19:50

It sounded as though Jill had no idea about the land sale, but then David said "you know about this mum".

Wonder if she's losing her short term memory.

I love Leonard, always so calm and measured

Wilma55 · 18/11/2022 19:56

If they are trying to write her out she could move in with Leonard (wouldn't wish that on him)

TottersBlankly · 18/11/2022 20:05

People (Jill?) keep saying Ben ‘made a mistake’. But what was the mistake?

Are they talking about the sex without contraception?

Or sex with one of the lower orders and failure to coerce her into doing what Jill would have wanted?

Or breaking up with the daughter of the person who’d loaned money to his parents, and failing to predict their vengeful response?

Because this level of anger seems completely disproportionate and frankly unreasonable.

Fink · 18/11/2022 20:23

TottersBlankly · 18/11/2022 20:05

People (Jill?) keep saying Ben ‘made a mistake’. But what was the mistake?

Are they talking about the sex without contraception?

Or sex with one of the lower orders and failure to coerce her into doing what Jill would have wanted?

Or breaking up with the daughter of the person who’d loaned money to his parents, and failing to predict their vengeful response?

Because this level of anger seems completely disproportionate and frankly unreasonable.

From Jill's POV I thought the "mistake" was 'allowing' Chelsea to have an abortion, as though it were his decision to make. Who knows how she manages to justify then blaming him for the breakdown of the loan agreement. Possibly the "mistake" was having sex at all, ever, since she said to him that you shouldn't have sex unless and until you're ready to be a parent.

TerraNostra · 18/11/2022 21:09

SaltyCrisp · 17/11/2022 08:05

Robert is Linda's 'strength and stay' - what will she do?

They could do a beautifully acted and poignant SL with a bereaved Lynda but I hope they don't. I can't bear to hear more sadness being put upon her.

I'm surprised not to have seen any condolences/tributes from Carole Boyd in the press.

WeWereInParis · 18/11/2022 21:30

Mumblechum0 · 18/11/2022 19:50

It sounded as though Jill had no idea about the land sale, but then David said "you know about this mum".

Wonder if she's losing her short term memory.

I love Leonard, always so calm and measured

Yes I thought that, when she responded with "I do not!" but he clearly thought he'd told her.

StillWeRise · 18/11/2022 21:49

I think we need a few clearer pointers than that

StillWeRise · 18/11/2022 21:49

of course if she is ill, Ruth will have to apologise

Fink · 18/11/2022 22:33

WeWereInParis · 18/11/2022 21:30

Yes I thought that, when she responded with "I do not!" but he clearly thought he'd told her.

Yes, I was wondering about that. I think it's more likely that she hadn't been told before, because I can't imagine that her first reaction would have been anything other than horror at the land being split (it was the lack of empathy or any kind of understanding that it might be a necessary evil or to offer any other solutions that made it bad for me, plus the petulant strop about moving out - presumably she meant that rather than suicide when she said she wouldn't be there anymore; I thought being initially upset by the thought of breaking up the farm was ok). So if her initial reaction had been shock and horror and this wasn't the first she'd heard of it, then David would have been much stronger than his ineffectual mumbling that of course she knew about it, and Ruth and Leonard would both chime in to say that she definitely already knew. And Leonard wouldn't have mentioned the land sale as though Jill probably knew, he would have been very sure that she did because she would have been talking about little else.

So ...
a) David thought he had told her previously but actually hadn't?

This is odd since she's regularly around, at least at meal times, and it's clearly a topic they've been openly discussing for days. Even if she's been going on day trips with Leonard since the fight (and I'm glad that there was clarity tonight that Leonard is no longer staying over in the guest room, by the way, I wasn't sure until tonight whether he'd ever gone home), the talk about the land sale started before then. So this feels off.

b) they all know full well that she has dementia and so weren't phased that she didn't remember the conversation?

It seems really unlikely that we haven't heard about this previously, and especially that it didn't come up between David and Ruth this week with David using it to excuse Jill's behaviour towards Ben.

c) Jill was told previously and took it well, and the family are surprised she didn't remember?

This seems unlikely on so many levels: every single person round that table was behaving weirdly if that's the case, for some of the reasons above. It's not inconceivable that they're only just starting to become aware that Jill's memory is going, but in that case they should have been much more surprised that she didn't remember, and all three of them insist on the fact that she did know. And I find it hard to believe that Jill ever took the news well.

d) David did tell Jill previously but she wasn't really paying attention and didn't take it in?

Still a ridiculous scenario, but possibly the least unlikely of the lot. Surely David would have noticed that she wasn't listening and checked that she understood, plus she would have had to not be listening on many different occasions when it was a discussion going on in front of her.

I can only assume it's a badly done introduction to dementia. Very poorly executed.

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