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!

Perhaps they market the barn hire as a family-run, rustic charm type experience as opposed to a slick operation. David appeared to be the only waiter at Steph’s wedding. Freddie was the DJ. Ruth didn’t seem to fulfil any particular role.

Will was ok about Nic getting the job, though it did mean he had to look after her children for her every evening, but he then went off Nic working at The Bull because someone or other (might have been Tony and therefore not intended to be actively malicious, but memory says it was nudge-nudge wink-wink at least) told him that the male customers thought she was sexy. And as Nic herself noted, he'd only just got over being cuckolded by his brother: I remember that her indignant comment was along the lines "I'm not that tramp Emma!" when she was tearing him off a strip for being needlessly jealous and coming into his local more often than she thought was proper. So he was more anxious about his partner not flirting with other men than perhaps many men are.

And there was Harry all over the place at The Bull all the time, being "agreeable" in all directions, and Will happened to come in while he and Nic were more-or-less entwined trying to sort out a computer on one occasion, which really can't have helped!

Thanks Asking. I don't remember Harry at all.

You are lucky! I get nightmares.... No, he wasn't that bad; the other milkman, shared a flat with Jazzer, Fallon fancied him; the three of them went off to the Edinburgh Festival in Fallon's van and half-way there he met his old boyfriend and stayed with him so only Fallon and Jazzer came back.

Good point, I should have realised that given that I actually speak Spanish and Nostra is not even a Spanish word!

Given Wil's attempt at helping Mia prepare for her language oral (German?), I don't think he would have much problem mixing languages in a house name, he wasn't exactly God's gift to linguistics. But actually, casa is also Italian, so Casa Nostra would kind of work (except that Italian would more often put possessive adjectives before the noun), and it might be an interesting play on cosa nostra!

Cosa Nostra was my first thought too, but Casa Nueva makes me think of Casanova

I only remember because you described him, and I'd obviously forgotten.
I liked the idea of George squirming tonight.

Any rewilding scheme worth its salt will b e awash with trail cameras. Someone viewing the footage for badgers and deer may get a surprise.

Remember that MP who said he'd been watching badgers?

Wasn't Poppy's conception caught on camera?

If you go down to the woods today... tra la la

OK, we now know that George has the hots for Fallon. Serves him right that he got stuck with Harrison and his vocal exercises instead.

To misquote Aunt Ada Doom, something nasty in the woodpile there. And unfortunate timing for the scriptwriters, what with it being the coldest night since whenever.

Two things struck me: first, that area must be teeming with insects, some of them of the bitey type. And secondly - much funnier - I do hope Fallon took the right coat home the other night. Because if she finds Emma's gloves in her pocket, she's going to drop round to swap them back with "hilarious" consequences.

Harrison and Fallon planned that didn't they?

New Grundy next September??

I must have missed the bit where the logs were part of a Wenceslas-like distributing to the needy and became a money-making enterprise. So much worse.

I hope Emmurr's new coat is like the shirt of Nessus, not literally, but comes to plague her as ill-gotten gains.

I disliked that episode so much. Ed and Emma’s panic that they’re boring doesn’t fit in with how I see them at all - I would have thought she would have been getting involved in the ‘warm spaces’ and trying to enlist the help of the Parish Council to keep them going. Has she given that up? I was sure when the window was discussed that she was still a member?

I’m also sure that ‘oh look another pile’ is going to turn out to be a designated habitat area with cameras - all the references to the bright moon and not needing the head torches suggests that someone would have seen them.

And oh, the irony of being told you're "boring" by George, of all people.

Who goes out on the rob, handling wood/logs that are covered in earth and leaves and possibly splintery or even beginning the natural rotting-down process, wearing their new coat? After all Emma's pride in it, you’d think she’d have put on something old and grubby to go creeping surreptitiously around in the dark doing her - literal - dirty work.

But the coat has been completely spoiled by Fallon having a similar one… why the SWs have given Emma the thought processes of a spoiled 15 year old I do not know. And the notion that a trailer loaded with logs could rattle through (or round or near) a country village late at night and nobody notices is ludicrous. Linda’s neighbourhood watch would be on it immediately. Nobody’s buying horrible damp logs either. This story line is at the top of the stupid story line list. And as for the sexual shenanigans - just no.

Emma has gone from wanting to own her home and join the middle classes to scrambling about nicking logs from a nature reserve in two shakes of a lamb’s new coat. And last night she said she will
use the profits of this venture, not to pay her increased electric bill (and I bet they are on a prepayment meter) but to splash out on yet another new coat.

We could have had the romantic moonlit al fresco shag if Emma had simply suggested going for a late-night walk instead of spending another night in front of the TV. And I’m also shocked about the lack of knowledge being demonstrated re wet v dry logs…

Agree re a new Grundy in September- yet another unplanned Ambridge baby…

But the coat has been completely spoiled by Fallon having a similar one… Haha yes - she’s just a step from wailing you’ve touched it now so it’s ruuuuuuuuuuined!

If they’re trying to make Ed'n'Em the new Bonnie and Clyde, it ain't working.

The whole Grundy family is a throwback to the 50s. Not unique to them in Ambridge but they do stand out.

Eddie hasn't held down a regular job since he lost the farm, quite happy to lie and cheat for a few quid. Ed also seems to feel no need to hold down a regular job because his "real love is farming" and that matters more than supporting his family. Also happy to lie and cheat when expedient.

Meanwhile Emma and Clarrie both take any paid work going, however lousy, however anti social the hours, as well as carrying the full load at home.

Will, under Tom's tutelage, broke out of the Grundy role model by learning a skilled trade and holding down a steady job continuously until the breakdown. He reminds me of men I knew when younger who would say "my wife doesn't need to work" thinking this was a point of pride, forgetting that he wife might want to work. So still outdated attitudes but at least the sense of responsibility to hold down a steady job and a drive to support his own family rather than expect the mother to do it all.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that the ‘sexual shenanigans’ were the entire point of this unexpected interlude …

Eddie hasn't held down a regular job since he lost the farm Has he given up the domestic landscaping (aka mostly patio building) he was doing for years? I seem to recall work fell off considerably during the lockdowns, but had thought that was his regular (self employed) job. And doesn’t he also have regular work at the livestock market? Plus the annual, seasonal turkey business. To be honest that sounds like a solid working life. Certainly no less impressive than the portfolio careers of the arts professionals in my own circle.

Ed also seems to feel no need to hold down a regular job The BBC TA site has him down as a ‘contractor’ www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/5kV2XWdKZxjylHLd4M4y0tt/ed-grundy and he certainly seems to have worked for every landowner in the vicinity at one time or another. In addition he trained to become a sheep shearer and held down that seasonal job, in partnership with Jazzer, for several years. Plus looking after the actual farming at Grange Farm. His problem has never been unwillingness to work, just insufficient education to ever get properly on top of anything. Inevitably I sympathise with him - he has his grandfather’s blood. There’s no shame in not wanting to become a nameless corporate cog.

Emma and Clarrie both take any paid work going, however lousy, Clarrie has held down a proper, important job at Bridge Farm dairy for decades, surely? She enjoys the work, has a good relationship with her employers, has built up expertise … Emma, yes - apart from the Tea Room her working life seems to have been mostly unpleasant, purely because she has almost no qualifications and not enough education to make anything happen.

Will, under Tom's tutelage, broke out of the Grundy role model Wasn’t it a combination of George Barford and Brian who fashioned him into a reliable forelock tugger?

I guess I’ve just heard it all differently!