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!

Must be an MN toddler - perhaps we should check the G&T topic for posts by Ian 😁

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

I finally found her birth details on the Mormons' useful database - easy once I discovered via their marriage records that her original surname was "Pipes" - and she was born in 1940 . So, she'll be 83 this year. That's probably a reasonable age to retire!

I know Eastenders is very heavy on older women younger men storylines, as well as mid to late 40 pregnancies. Perhaps it's a wider bbc thing?

@Fink , Petit Ecolier are my very favourite biscuits apart from home ones. I load up on the chocolate hazelnut ones when we’re in France and Belgium. Lush. My French exchange pal was from Nantes so introduced me to them back in the 80s. The factory was nearby.

I took Ian’s comment to mean someone had written the words and Xander did a bit of tracing over the top. My kids’ nursery used to do that for Christmas drawings etc.

One of the papers had an interview with AP before Christmas. A lifestyle piece rather than a piece focused on the Archers. She described life moving between their homes in France and SE England to visit all her children and grandchildren saying she wanted more time with them now she and as she was getting older this took more energy.

I assumed at the time that this meant she would become a mostly off air character rather than she was due to be killed off.

Yes, the killing off was what made me wonder- people usually become silents (see Shula), very occasionally let out for special occasions, but cutting them off permanently is rare.

I’m moved to wonder just why there are fish fingers in the LL domestic fridge.

I mean, who orders their food? They don’t appear to possess a housekeeper these days, so presumably Elizabeth herself? She doesn’t habitually eat them - and I find it completely incredible that she’d buy them for her adult children, who have a world of nicer things to eat.

(Admittedly I haven’t set eyes on one since my own now adult niblings were about eight years old and coming to stay …)

@Catnary I meant to respond to this yesterday - hope you haven’t disappeared already!

Could you not see it as (mostly) joyful critical engagement? Presumably people who frequent this thread do actually care about the programme and need want it to be as good as possible. I’ve no idea whether any of the creative team read these threads - but certainly at the back of my mind , when I express a view on the writing I … would like them to know where they’ve gone wrong! And it’s always fascinating to read other listeners’ criticisms - I always find there are things I’ve missed or not fully understood.

@Xol I am sitting here giggling at the thought of Ruairi completing a tax return declaring his self employed income and work benefits. Presumably on a serious note a long term sex worker would want to pay NI and could declare a proportion of their flat rent and clothing as a business expense. But a student looking for extra dosh probably wouldn’t go over the tax threshold after expenses.
Is there an accountant in Ambridge? I think probably there will be a franchise of TaxAssist or similar on a Borchester trading estate he could get help from. Thanks for a much needed laugh. Genius!

I'm quite partial to a fish finger, always pleased when gluten-free ones show up as a Special in Lidl/Aldi (every few years). Elizabeth being mystified by the contents of her own freezer is just annoying.

There's Richard Thwaite, @TopOfTheCliff .

@DeanVolecapeAKAelderberry , she lives with Lily and Freddy and maybe one of them bought them, or they might have been a subsitute item from a food delivery.

I don't know. Until ours accidentally defrosted itself whilst we were away after Christmas, half the contents of mine were an utter mystery to me.

Having restocked it it's less of a mystery but the goodness knows what I've put in the back of the top drawer. Might go and check later.

I like fish fingers once in a way. I have a packet in the freezer at the moment. I think they arrived as part of an Ocado fill your freezer for £x special offer last year. I was actually already planning to have some this week, but will definitely do so now in solidarity with LL. I can't resist a good special offer.

I'm another one who often has lovely surprises when I root through the freezer, or occasionally just surprises. I label almsot nothing I freeze as for some reason I always expect when I freeze something I've made myself that I'll remember exactly what it was when I take it out. This has not proved an infallible approach. Not for nothing does Freezer Surprise appear on the menu chez Gasp on the rare occasions I defrost the freezer.

I did notice the other day that I'd frozen some salmon pate I bought before Christmas. I'd forgotten about that and have my eye on it for later this week.

My freezer contains many wonders (a particular highlight was the brown bead that turned out, on defrosting, to be particularly bloody chicken's liver) but I expect BETTER from the lovely lady of Lower Loxley.

I have a fishfinger butty (with decent bread, butter and a dollop of tomato ketchup and tartare sauce) a couple of times a week for lunch. Yum! 😋

Lilian springs immediately to mind, as does Jolene. Admitted that they now seem to stick to going phnarr phnarr at younger men (as when surprising Harrison in the shower, and talking about it together afterwards), does anyone else remember toy-boy Scott?

I keep a list of what is in the freezer and where, and either its bbe or the date it was put in there, on this very computer. When I use things, I delete them.

Sometimes this system even works.

My mother does that, Asking. In her case it's a handwritten list that sits on top of her chest freezer. She's much more efficient than I am so it works well. I have utterly failed to learn from her example, in this as in many other things.

The PON fish finger pie is a really good store cupboard meal.

My freezer is a mystery. My mum was the same. Think you are having cheese and onion Pie for tea? Surprise! It’s Apple.

I learned the other day that tinned fish is now very on trend. www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/10/tinned-fish-tiktok-latest-food-craze Restaurants are apparently serving people with more money than sense sardines in the original tin, for the same reasons wine is served in the original bottle - so you know it really is an insanely expensive tin and not a cheapie tin from Aldi.

I love tinned sardines. I used to always order them in John Lewis's café until they stopped doing them - presumably as they were not posh enough. Maybe they will bring them back!

I used to do this by hand with a blanket box where I stored DD1's outgrown clothes for DD2 (5 year age gap). It actually worked pretty well, especially as DD2 hated shopping so producing 'new' things from the box as normally a hit.

Or that they are very good at transferring sardines from one tin to another!

I used to have a friend who in spite of smoking about thirty king-size a day thought himself a wine buff and went through the whole careful wine-tasting ritual every time he had wine. Not having a lot of money to waste in those days, we invited him to a meal one day and decanted some of Sainsbury's cheapest red into an expensive bottle my father had got me for my birthday. He thought it an excellent vintage.

On a different occasion, ex OH went through the whole careful wine-tasting ritual at him, and then announced, "mmm. Yes. Tastes of grapes." I think he forgave us in the end.

Is there anyone in TA who is pretentious about their taste in wine? Justin might be, but I don't think we have been told on air. Brian is a single malt drinker, nothing about his wine habits. Nigel and Julia just drank whatever wasn't taken away or locked away fast enough.

Carol Tregorran in her brief appearance a few years back was or had been a wine merchant and someone (I have no recollection who, maybe a Trex) tried to dazzle her and failed.