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!

Yes I wondered that too!

IMO? Yes, it does

Yes. Whack it on the other thread. <moves threads at lightning speed>

Anyone planning to attend this year's Academic Archers/DumTeeDum gathering?

https://www.academicarchers.net/2023-conference

I've never been but sounds intriguing!

Seen on twitter
The twins - Sarin and Novachok

@BoreOfWhabylon, 😆

planning to attend this year's Academic Archers/DumTeeDum gathering?

I'll be there.

This poster is following me around the boards being quite odd. I'd ignore!

Ooh a mumsnet stalker! How odd!

eh?

£15k seems a very very small amount to leave in trust. Jenny must have paid at least half of that again on solicitor’s fees and tax when she set it up. Not to mention the time it takes- it would just not be worth it. Tax will be due on any income if the money is invested too. Who is going to do the paperwork? I can’t see Chris being overjoyed at doing the annual tax return (for such a small trust fund) when he gets home from the forge. May be it’s not a formal trust as such.

And if Alice does relapse then Martha is going to need a lot more than £15k to fund additional childcare etc. This PL is stretching credulity like a piece of chewing gum. The SWs really need a decent legal advisor- especially when they tackle trusts- they always seem to get it wrong.

Jenny must have paid at least half of that again on solicitor’s fees and tax when she set it up.

Not really. It's very common when leaving money to underage children - you effectively leave £15k (or whatever) to be handed over when they're of age, and specify in your will who (in this case Chris) is in charge of that money in the meantime. My mother did it with legacies to her grandchildren, nominating my sister (their mother) as trustee in the event that they were under 18 when she died. They weren't, so it didn't matter. It was just a clause in the will - nothing more formal.

Ugh Jolene annota me so much I can't stop thinking of her as a pirate now, don't know who said it here but so true. Fallon is a saint for staying married to pc dull.

Nobody pick up the fact that we are likely going to have a Helen and Lee wedding in the offing now the seed has been sown. Hopefully Rob will turn up.

And if Alice does relapse then Martha is going to need a lot more than £15k to fund additional childcare etc. This PL is stretching credulity like a piece of chewing gum. The SWs really need a decent legal advisor- especially when they tackle trusts- they always seem to get it wrong

I don't think such trust funds can be "raided" for childcare as this is a benefit for the parent, not the child. I only have experience of one and the terms are tied up very tight indeed to prevent such actions. It's all for Martha when she's whatever age is specified.

What I find most ludicrously far-fetched is the idea that pompous and egotistical Adam, who was always quite forthright and assertive in his plans and ideas for Home Farm, has quit to become an occasional pizza van person, and is now happily working as assistant cheese-maker. He seems to care not the slightest what happens to the farm that he used to manage, and which is his joint inheritance. I mean, wft?

But second to that in far-fetchedness, is this week's personality transplant in Kate, who has been famously selfish to the point of narcissism all her life, but now, when her mother leaves all her money to Alice's child and none to her children, suddenly comes over all empathetic and insightful, instead of being outraged.

I couldn't agree more, FlamingoCroquet. The whole talking it out scene was very tidy plot wise, is poor in itself, but not convincing in the slightest in character terms. Adam had his worst accepting/quasi gloomy but with-it voice. Kate... really????

Ha ha - I was dozing through that Adam/Kate conversation and woke up very confused about who was this person with Kate's voice saying most un-Kate-like things

I dunno … It’s quite clever and specific. Most people rejoice when they receive money - but the Aldridges are already well off so that would have been unbearably boring. To have someone wailing because they’ve been given money, and to have their family members who didn’t receive an equivalent gift being smug kind and understanding - actually not sure I’ve seen or heard that before in soap land.

But the sum involved does seem curiously small.

It's all for Martha when she's whatever age is specified.

Oh, was an age specified? Sorry, I must have missed that bit. Couldn’t the money be used with trustee discretion, ok’d by the executor, if it was needed earlier? If she has to wait until she’s 25 for it, then by the time she inherits it won’t be enough to buy a basket of shopping from Susan’s shop!

The Bridge Farm treasure hunt sounded very dreary if even the boys couldn’t be bothered to follow Lee and Helen round as they cracked the clues. I agree it was just a clunky device to put wedding bells on the radar but it’s hard to believe anyone, even desperate Helen, would seriously consider Lee as marriage material.

(Incidentally, when I was growing up there used to be a regular page in our local paper featuring pics of just married couples. It was called Wedding Belles which I thought was the cleverest pun imaginable for years…)

oh btw, how long do you think we will have to wait for the organic twins to be revealed as the new faces of Domestos? Best SL for a while- so much mileage to be had from the fall-out…

sooo much to say this morning- have had an unusually early start and feeling a bit wired…

I'd marry Lee, he's lovely!!

I'd marry Lee, he's lovely!!

I find that astonishing! I would marry Tony, Justin and even Vince Casey above Lee. Probably not Kenton. Horses for courses though…

I'd marry Kenton, he reads books and has a kind heart.

I'd marry Alistair 😊