Archers thread #148: Unseasonably, it's panto time in Ambridge. He's behind you, Pat! BANG. 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. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you think George Grundy isn't a psychopath, 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.)

Will Rob return, or are they playing with us? Will Pat run amok with her shotgun and wipe out half the village? (We can but hope ...) Will Oliver come to his senses and turf the Grundy clan out of Grange Farm? So many questions, so much time.

Over to you!

I fantasise about a future when Freddie has run LL into the ground and Brad has become a rich businessman who buys him out.

What was Nigel's situation when he was 23?

Exactly what I was going to say. Surely that’s what that course is essentially designed for.

I’m pinning hopes on a Chelsea-Freddie marriage whereby she can take control and get LL into fantastic order.

And stop relying on unpaid volunteers to run a for-profit business.

but he hasn't shown any kind of maturity, i wouldn't want him in charge of things if i were a trustee. It’s pretty common to write your Will so children don’t get hold of their inheritance till they’re 25. I imagine the trust is similar

I mean the RAC is literally stuffed with none too bright poshos doing their three years of estate amangement befre they return to a position at the family estate.

😂

for reasons i grew up around a few of these titled, and non-titled, estate owners. And yes, Cheltenham was the place they all went. But they haven't all done brilliantly since we were all college age.
Some of them were sent to the army - not an option for Freddie though.
It's just daft to have him potentially running a business with zero training or qualifications.

Yes daft but we do have a King for example who's just been crowned despite having the same qualifications for running the country (ceremonially) as Freddie has got for running Grey Gables i.e. right vagina right time.

Presumably the people who came up with these systems must have swiftly grasped the fact that not ALL these eldest sons were the sharpest knives in the drawer, and worked out a way round it?

Well many estates were run in to the ground financially by totally unsuited heirs - Henry Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey is my favourite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Paget,_5th_Marquess_of_Anglesey

To be fair to King Charles - i'm a republican - he has spent many years actually doing the job and learning all there is to learn about kinging. As will Willy, the rest of them are left to themselves. The Queen Mum used to give Wills coaching too, no time for Harry, etc etc.

Ooh thanks for sharing that GinMonkey.

Absolutely I'm not backing the hereditary system, just acknowledging that Freddie who failed at school and yet seems perfectly adequately to be learning the ropes practically is entitled to run the place under that system. Personally I think it's stupid but there we are :)

Living at home with no gainful employment, mostly.

He was totally untrained in anything even by the time he was 29. When he was younger he'd done such important work in Estate Management as selling ice-cream from a van (he later graduated to selling swimming-pools with almost no success). After being completely useless at keeping even low-grade casual jobs, he was sent to Zimbabwe by his father in the desperate hope that he might make less of a nuisance of himself there, but after a few months his uncle fired him back again in exasperation. He was also forced into the stock exchange briefly, which was understandably a complete failure.

Elizabeth's qualification to run an estate was having spent a year or so in telesales for the local paper, and been a journalist in Birmingham for a few months before she got glandular fever and ran home to be nursed by Mummy. When he offered her a position marketing his new business for him, Nigel paid for her to go on a course to get her fit to do the job at all.

"Oh right, yes, grammar: the secret of comedy.'

😅He's got me bang to rights there! Loved that line.

When is Rylan coming? I assumed he ran Jazzer over with his fancy car.

I think Rylan would be recognised by the hospital staff even if not by Jazzer himself. (Don't know him well enough to speculate really, but I wouldn't have had him down as an electic car driver).

I thought he wasn't coming until Friday. But I could be wrong on that.

I wondered if the mystery driver was Rob.

Even if very drunk indeed, Jazzer would surely have recognised Rob, though. He was very drunk when he and Rob colluded in putting the equally drunken Kenton onto the train to Nether Nowhere Welsh after the stag night.

I thought this too.

Isn't it just another clumsy plot device to have a Telegraph-style pop at EVs?

Although they are very quiet and can creep up on you. They didn't refer to this though.

I assumed that was the inference that Jazzer didn't hear the car as it was electric. Pretty crappy of Jim as a friend to us it against the charging station.

Pretty stupid of Jim not to jump on the idea that it was the silence that made the care a danger for Jazzer, really.

I thought it was quite funny that Jazzer immediately copped on to what Jim was doing: "using a poor wee laddy's pain for your own ends, have you no shame man?"

Loved the Lynda/Harrison skit. That's what local talent shows should be all about!

That photo is one of the most marvellous things I have ever seen!