Archers thread #143: In the Bleak Midwinter, Ambridge Folk Make Moan. Best Christmas ever? Probably not! 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 you'd love to be in Jolene's choir , 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, we made it through Stir Up Sunday without bloodshed, but poor Ben is now in the grip of psychotic depression. Not going to be a happy Christmas at Brookfield, sadly. When will Jill swallow her pride and go and give him the abject apology he deserves? Would it be a good idea anyway for Ben to see his gran at the moment?

Will Jazzer say yes? I hope so. We could do with a Horrobin wedding to look forward to.

Will Emma and Ed end up in court if they go ahead with this idiotic scheme to nick the logs from Peggy's Folly?

Will the two choirs put on a joint concert at Christmas? I assume so, and also that the BBC will continue to fool nobody by using recordings of what is clearly a really good well-rehearsed established choir, not a scratch choir of half a dozen novices.

Over to you!

I think it’s polite and quite kind to ask Chris if he wants to have Christmas lunch with his daughter. He could certainly say no.

I’m worried about Brian standing around in the cold without a coat. Please don’t let anything happen to him over Christmas.

I think something is going to happen to Jenny over Christmas/New Year. I also think it was kind of them to ask Chris and include him in their festivities.

Yes I think so too. Talk reminiscently about someone who hasn’t spoken on air for yonks - never a good sign!

I disagree. It gives him the chance to spend some time with his daughter on Christmas Day. I thought Susan was being really weird about it.

Why on earth not? Chris is an adult, he can answer for himself. Nothing stopping Susan inviting Alice for tea.

Now that Alice/Chris have reached a working post divorce relationship it makes a lot of sense for Martha to see her parents cooperating and doing things together amicably.

I hope not. Angela Piper must be 80 odd - I remember reading a random article which said she had been married for 60 years - but Archers characters tend to go on well into old age.

I'm not surprised Jenny has happily adjusted to downsizing although I'd expected them to settle in something slightly bigger by now - maybe a cottage with a garden and some hens or similar. I wondered if they were opening up the house story for a new family to take over. The Home Farm house must be pretty large to keep as a weekend place so perhaps the invisible Gills will sell up and we can have some new blood in Ambridge.

Yes I've been through that with a family member and am irritated at the prospect of yet another miraculously speedy cure for a chronic and life impacting health condition.

Also astonished at the amount of care and support available at speed, rather than a rush to stabilise followed by a prolonged fight to get any actual help and a system which assumes family will step in as default psychiatric care. We ended up finding the money, which is what most families do if they can - that is the part of the story I'd like the Archers to cover. The absolute fight to get decent mental health care and treatment in the UK and the amount of money families scrape together to pay for it. They glossed over this with Alice when she had to find private provision. I'll be annoyed if they do the same with Ben.

I thought it was a very sensible and nice offer from Brian. Alice and Chris have Martha to consider - offering a place for her father at Christmas lunch is the more civilised way to approach Co-parenting.

meant to add last night - but I can also see it from susan’s POV.

I guess the ideal solution would have been for the aldridges to ask him what time his family were doing dinner, and make it so he could come for a different meal with them. But if they always do lunch I don’t really see that they should have had to change. Lots of divorced parents have Christmas dinner together when the kids are small, if they can stand it.

I hope Angela Piper can hang on as an official member of the cast until next year at least, as that will mark her 60th year playing Jennifer. Here's an interview with her from 2013 when she marked the 50th year (contains a photo, of course). www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thearchers/entries/aed25473-86d8-30d8-a881-1902c3c3e0c1

I see from the BBC website that Jennifer is 77 now, birthday 7th January, so about to be 78. I imagine Angela Piper is a few years older. Her husband was born in 1935 according to Wikipedia so may well be at a stage of life where she needs to be with him (or vice versa, or they may both be rather frail ).

I agree it was good to hear about Home Farm at last. I wonder if Adil will buy it.

Please god let us never hear another word about that nonsensical logs/coat/al fresco shagging/CCTV>sextape storyline. One of the worst I can recall, and that's saying something.

I hope she stays, but we have heard hardly anything from her character for ages and she used to have a very prominent role.

It is a while since anyone died and it is coming up to the Christmas/New Year cliff hanger time.

I really don't understand how a rental cottage that was meant to be a stopgap seems to have become Brian and jenny's permanent home. Surely they could afford to buy a smaller place, which would make much more sense than long-term renting?

I thought Soosan was weird too, @WeWereInParis.

Oh gosh I really hope we hear from Jenny. Think the last time was a couple of months ago when Ruari came home - or was it further back when he wasn't returning her calls?

It sounded as if the Christmas Meal difference was Brian and Jennifer invited Chris and left it up to him to come if he wanted, whereas Susan told Chris what he was going to be doing and assumed he would rather see Emma than see Martha.

Jennifer last spoke on 15th February, 2022, discussing with Brian Alice and Chris's divorce settlement and what it might mean for Home Farm. Since then, silence, with reported visits to Bath and Hungary and The Lodge to reassure Peggy about the sale of Grey Gables, and time spent "upstairs, deciding what to wear".

I'm not surprised Jenny has happily adjusted to downsizing
I was surprised at the thought of her having all her family for Christmas. Presumably Debbie will not be there but where will they all go.
Adam, Ian, Dander, Alice, Marthyr, Kate, (Jakub, Kristiffur, Peggy,) Ruairi, Brian and Jenny in a tiny cottage.

No JD since February?!?! That is sad.

... where will they all go

Don't forget Phoebe ... because she must come home for Christmas, regardless of there being no trains. I suppose that out of that lot, only Ruairi would be staying overnight Maybe they'll work in shifts? Arrive, sit down, eat, leave.

My theory is that Peggy's going to peg it over Christmas.

Don't Susan and Neil live next door to the Aldridges? Makes it even more odd, somehow.

Not immediately next door but they are neighbours.

I think it was Roy / Kirsty next door?

There's a list of who lives where at ambridgereporter.org.uk/Ambridge_Residences_and_Occupiers.html

It hasn't caught up with Chris Carter letting one of the Rookeries to Jakob, possibly because nobody has yet said which one Chris is getting as part of his divorce settlement (nor why Home Farm Ltd is paying for Alice's divorce settlement).

Susan was weird, saying Chris needed to see his sister. Does she mean the sister that lives in the same village as him or a sister we don’t know about?

Susan was weird, saying Chris needed to see his sister.

"We got some lovely video of her from Rex."

I know, I was so bamboozled by this that (until I saw this thread) I got myself thinking Chris was the one who has a sister (Brenda) who never returns. Chris and Emma must be bumping into each other (literally) left right and centre on the village green! Surely he lives above the shop and she works at the Bull?