Archers thread #147: Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder how old Ambridge is. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Many thanks to @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. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to have the general public watching you work and asking questions, 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.)

Title comes from this poem, with which I drive my family to distraction at this time of year.

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz
I wonder where the birdies is.
The bird is on the wing.
But that’s absurd, the wing is on the bird.
Or so I’ve heard.

Ogden Nash

Apologies to @TeenDivided for ignoring her good ideas for the thread title. Here they are to kickstart our ruminations:
'window on the world of cheesemaking'
'how long until the intercom is fatal'
'will Brian settle in new pastures'
'Springing towards Easter with Widowers, Windows, and wails'

Over to you!

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime that must have been heartbreaking for you. So hard to support parents I think.

echt
Your poor dad, AskingQuestionsAllThe Time. I support people's right to take their own way in these matters, but it must have been grievous to know that's how badly he felt.

I think it may be why I have so little patience with Adam and the rest of them doing their nobody ever grieved like us" performances while minimising or ignoring how Brian feels; I somehow don't see any of the offspring feeling suicidal because Jennifer is no longer in their lives, but I can easily imagine Brian deciding not to go on without her.

Oh @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime , how very sad. Did he recover some peace eventually?

He died not so very long after; since he was Liverpool Pathwayed, it was not peaceful at all and took almost ten days for him to achieve. If I could have helped him I would have, but they watch you when you are by the bedside in those circumstances.

I can’t wait for the Ambridge’s Little Stars to become the faces of Nestle, Zoflora and bleach. I thought the outcome of the ££ photoshoot was that Tom and Natasha were going to be ripped off but Pat’s outrage will be much more fun.

Many

Oh, @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime, I am so very sorry you and your father experienced such a distressing time.

when I looked into it many moons ago the 'power' was with the agency and the model (or their parents) had no say what their images were being used for.

Zoflora? That is heresy on MN.

It will be heresy with Pat and Helen too.

Bloody Shipman.

I don’t know that my mother’s death was particularly enjoyable for her, but it was certainly less drawn out.

If the twins' photo shoot goes through, a long term SL will be when Gnasher or Sausage man want to raid the fund in later years.

oliver's proposition = ed seeing ££££ for himself.

Or one or both of the twins' outrage at being made to advertise something they hated.

Tom has zero integrity or conviction of his own. So spineless. I love to hate Natasha - she’s brilliantly awful.

How much money do you think we are talking about for the ad campaign? What exactly is: "That kind of money"? How much would you need to completely sell out all your principles? I liked the compare and contrast with the Grundies who don't have farms and properties to inherit - £5,000 is a King's ransom to them, but I'm guessing the advertising deal will be substantially more than that.

Indeed … It was a stellar c&c. Even in these straitened times £5k is probably chicken feed to Tom and Natasha. And now poor Ed, who’s never seen such a sum in his life, has to watch it being either squandered or put to miraculous, life changing use by the son of the brother who inherited a house through no merit whatsoever. I can’t imagine the twisting and somersaulting going on in his heart right now.

I too have no real idea how much adverts pay - but in decades gone by I’ve heard people say they got £50k for some random campaign - so I imagine it’s much more now.

So bloody unfair. But bravo to Tim Stimpson! Definite BOOP for cat / pigeons set up.

I'm not sure that baby models get paid that much. I did a search and one website specialising in UK baby models says:

"How much can I earn? Jobs can pay anything between £200-£300 for a 4 hour photoshoot to over a thousand pounds for a high profile advertising campaign. The budget for each job will be e-mailed to you along with the booking confirmation."

It would be very stupid to trash the reputation of your business for that amount of money.

One of my grandsons used to do a bit of modelling before he started school. He enjoyed the dressing up and posing
which not all children do and the studios/agencies can't waste expensive time with children that have to be cajoled. He landed quite a big job but unfortunately came down with chicken pox and couldn't do it. His face would have been in all the Disney shops but I don't think the money was a life changing amount.

Have realised I’m thinking about TV adverts. Is that not on the cards for the Starry Twins?

I'm not sure that Tom'n'Tash actually have much in the way of hard cash. I mean, she had a problematic amount of credit-card debt and they were renting (or just thinking of renting? I can't remember) the lovely Hazel's pokey flat above the shop.

April Cottage is described on the BBC as "One of a pair of unlovely dwellings built in 1960 by then landowner Charles Grenville". 😆

Nevertheless they are landowners and business owners and local aristocracy. With at least one very elderly relative who regularly wrote Tom pretty much blank cheques back in the day. So they have access to money - and all the confidence and optimism that brings.

Whereas I doubt Ed n Emma can invest £500 without sleepless nights. (Not sure if they have any of the house purchase money left? Losing the deposit (?) must still be messing with their heads and hearts.)

I suppose TV pays more.

I expect Nocasha will begin a lucrative sideline as an 'Influencer country life family blogger', in the hope that photogenic twin toddlers will be inundated with freebie clothes/toys/paraphernalia to promote review.

Can see it now: carefully staged videos of Seren and Nova, hand-in-hand, toddling through sun-dappled meadows etc. etc.

Isn't Mia an eco-warrior? I hope she finds out, does a Tik Tok expose and it goes viral.

Pat will go ballistic.