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.

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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!

Bishop Richard Harris on Thought for the Day sounds suspiciously like Jim.

Alice must be driving Brian mad.

What does Lilian see in Justin? Implying Brian is off with another woman a few weeks after Jennifer's death is the kind of scurrilous gossip I can imagine someone in Ambridge coming out with, especially after the nasty scene with Debbie, but to Lilian, Jennifer's sister?

If Brian knew about Alice rushing off to Save Ruairi From Himself/Julianne aka shove her beak in where it was specifically not wanted, he'd have even more reason not to tell her where he was going to be, wouldn't he.

As it is, he was simply exercising his right as an adult human being to go out for the day and have a meal at the end of it without pinning a Notice of Intent to the outside of his door so nosy-parkers would be able to spy on him more easily, and burglars would know he was out for the day and break in to help themselves to his belongings.

Hey, maybe he was taking his lawyer out for a meal after redrafting his will!

What does Lilian see in [the millionaire] Justin?

needed a bit of tweaking ;)

Alice is being infuriating, i don't blame Brian for trying to escape.

@TottersBlankly damn, I knew someone would pick up on my turn of phrase! I know Emma is George's mother, just used very clunky wording (and realised just after I posted that I was making it sound like I thought Emma was his step mother... this is one of the reasons we need an edit button on MN)!

I was just trying to refer to the fact they should have a close relationship, without him scathingly saying that Emma humiliated Will, etc.

Pretty much every important email I send (never the unimportant ones) contains some wording that I only realise could be misinterpreted once it’s too late to do anything about it!

It’s true we don’t generally hear any fond and tender moments between them. But I haven’t forgotten how Emma effectively abandoned Ed and left the caravan in order to keep George safe and warm at Ambridge View when he was tiny. So I’m guessing she does love him. But if he really is eternally mortified by his mother’s past vacillations then perhaps she senses that and it makes their relationship awkward?

I didn’t really believe what they had George say retrospectively about Nic. I hope between the two of them he did feel he was loved and championed as a child.

I wonder how difficult school was for George? Struggling academically, poorer than average, possibly the butt of jokes about Eddie's various schemes such as The Grundy World of Christmas, and we now hear mocked about his mother having children by two brothers, it sounds like a recipe for trouble in his teens.

George sounded very much like a teenager I know. Good characterisation.

On the other hand Elizabeth's condescension had me fuming. How dare she! I'd have handed her the blinking clipboards and marched home.

Have just looked him up...you're absolutely right!

I think he's got quite a lot of get up and go. Admittedly it's mainly been dodgy side hustles gone predictably wrong but I'm remember being impressed at how quickly he picks himself up and tries to rework doomed situations. There's definitely a lot of entrepreneurial talent, he's naive and foolishly over confident, but I've worked with enough men who've made a lot of money (and created a lot of problems for the poor sods in operations) with that attitude. The way he tried to strike a deal with Martin Gibson, obviously he got fleeced but he also went back and got taken under his wing.

I also think he's an incelly little scrote (as evidenced by the way he spoke his mum), but I do think with the right support he could be really successful.

And listening to the opening episode of the hilarious disability sitcom "Ability" this morning, for the first time I realised Matt's mum might also be our Joy?

Ooh just listened to the end. Tom is such a spineless weasel.

She certainly sounded much more as if she thought she was talking to two fairly lowly members of her staff, rather than volunteers who were doing her a massive favour.

Yes, it's not often I sympathise with Helen but I was with her all the way today. Mind you, Tom is probably so ultra-defensive because he knows none of this is really defensible.

Angela Thirkell's high rising and wild strawberries are next on my list
A character in Elizabeth Jane Howard's "The Light Years" mentions reading her latest and I realise I've never read any of her books.

On the other hand, her son, Graham MacInnes wrote a superb memoir of growing up in 20s Melbourne, "The Road to Gundagai"; so evocative, in which his mother features prominently and amusingly. She was a bit of a piece of work at times, though his portrayal of her is not critical, more clear-sighted. I can't recommend it highly enough. If you want to read it, there are quite few books with the same title.

And her son Colin MacInnes (he changed his surname McInnes slightly) wrote Absolute Beginners.

Elizabeth (actor) has had a stinking cold all week I've been so distracted by it. I thought she was condescending to Oliver and Neil too. I could understand her being offhand with Neil but snobby Elizabeth would surely see Oliver as as on same social standing.

I quite like Alice with Brian, she is looking out for him and Im feeling it as my mum is going to a home soon and acutely aware of my dad being on own.

What was it Helen said? Something like 'At least I haven't commodified my children ...' Not often I say this but well done, Helen!

For a while Oliver was her employer; she ran and did his bidding about the Hunt Balls.

Oh yes Elizabeth's sounded so bunged up! I wouldn't mind if they'd incorporated it into the script somewhere!

Yes, go, Helen!!!

Didnt Helens sperm come from the Netherlands?
I wonder if Henry had 500 siblings linked to the current sperm donor scandal?

Wasn't it decided that Henwee is the spawn of Beelzebub and is the Antichrist, biding his time in a sleepy English backwater until the time is right?

massivenamechnage
Didnt Helens sperm come from the Netherlands?

If it did, I am reasonably certain the fact was never mentioned on air, by her or anyone else.

I'm not convinced that being a new volunteer and unilaterally swapping the rota and thus potentially messing up a school visit would be 'a massive favour'.

If a school has a bad tour word would get round the other schools not to go there and they could lose business.

As it is of course it all worked out fine.

Though I agree, volunteers need kid glove handling as they can walk at any time, so showing exasperation is maybe not a good move.

The Netherlands is a huge exporter of cheese, which suggests a lot of cows and a certain number of bulls. So if Henwy grows horns, we'll know why.