Archers thread #145: The glue that held the Aldridges together is gone. Will they fall apart? 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, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it.

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.)

Lillian and I both made the glue observation, so I thought that would be as good a way as any to kick off this new thread. We raced through the last one, for obvious reasons. This one may last until the funeral. Will Tamsin Greig find time to attend? I do hope so.

The poem Jennifer quoted in her journal is here: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43775/rabbi-ben-ezra It's doubtful whether the last of Jennifer's life was the best, but she had plenty to contend with all the way through.

Over to you!

Yes that was ridiculous re Xander.

At age 3 the child might say what they wanted the letter/caption to say and someone would write it for them, that was be common with cards and pics my son brought home from preschool. Saying they “wrote” it is just shorthand. I think a 3 year old can observe that Granny loves roses, I can just imagine Jenny narrating a gardening session to Xander as he dug beside her with a mini trowel.

@ILoveShula

As so often it made me wonder if the SWs have ever met a child.

@Catnary I understand the shorthand, but Adam said "he's even done some words" and Ian confirmed "yes, with a little help" - I could understand that if he was 5 or 6. But at 3? No

Done as in “dictated” I assumed.

@Prestissimo , he seems very advanced compared to Henwee who was drawing pictures for many years.

They have obviously met plenty of children as they are experts on sorting out free on-demand childcare.

Who in the world would use "done" in that context to mean anything other than 'created', probably written?

And Ian's reply confirms that.

he seems very advanced compared to Henwee who was drawing pictures for many years

Always of Mummy, Wob and the knife?

Ian is dull but I love his accent so I don’t mind hearing him speak.

My niece was almost 7 when her grandfather - my father - died, and she could just about write his name and 'I miss you' in capitals in a card for the funeral.

(I kept it. Sobs quietly)

OK OK it’s just my comment about how I interpreted some word I heard on the radio

I think I’m done here, to be honest. It’s too much about trying to catch the scriptwriters out.

Ruairi's boundaries around sex seem more than a bit off. All that business about refusing to take no for an answer from Paul, and then there was the stuff about coming heavily onto Julianne and trying to get her into bed when he was trying to persuade her to keep the arrangement going.

@FallonsNewCoat

Perhaps being paid for his attention has given Ruairi and inflated sense of his desirability.

Ruairi will also have an inflated sense of his business acumen. I mean, seriously - I know it's not my world, but would a callow university student carry any weight in a business deal, even if he lived locally? This entire storyline is implausible beyond belief.

It was noticeable that when Julianne turned up offering extra money for Ruairi's services, his first reaction was "I can use it to keep my expensive flat for longer" not "I can give up my expensive flat and use the money for general living expenses which is a bit important given that I've spent what my father gave me for that purpose".

Yes, and given property rentals cost £thousands in London and this was a one-off payment, are we expected to believe that a callow youth is paid that much for his company for one evening?

He also just turned down the offer of a new client which seems foolish if he's that invested in keeping on his flat.

I had thought it was Juliane's, not that she lived there but where she put up her current gigilo. Rory wouldn't have the means to rent the apartment with so few payslips.

I wonder if Ruairi as done a tax return? It doesn't sound like he's saved anything up to pay, nor does it sound like a PAYE type job.

Someone said a week or so back, here I think, that someone on the production team had claimed that the whole Ruairi and Home Farm storyline had been mapped out decades ago.

Obviously the mapping was probably flexible enough to allow for ways the world would change over that long a time. That made me wonder whether originally Ruairi was meant to have a manipulative older sugar daddy who would help drive the story development.

For some reason they decided to have a sugar momma instead, and that, along with Angela Piper's retirement at a time not pre-arranged has produced a hard-to-credit outcome.

I also wonder did A P get fed up with the Julianne stuff and decide to opt out.

I'm sure there have been other sexually predatory older women in Ambridge over the years - there was the very posh one who tried to lure Christine away in the1950s but was seen off by Dan (Lady Hylberrrow, I googled) - who else?

My brain simply melts every time I hear his voice. Viji is a good second but there is only one Neil.

Yes I found that quite chilling. And any incident would have been followed up with Ruari being presented in court by and expensive barrister as a fine upstanding young man of the establishment whose future would be ruined by the young hussy making claims.

Brian has past form for trying to press his advances where they were not wanted - Ruari really hasn't fallen far from the tree.