Archers thread #152: The Dog Days of Summer in Ambridge! Rabid rants, tearoom dogfight, Bully Dog George gets it all on camera. Is Lone wolf Rob waiting in the woods? 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'd love a son like George, 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.)

Starting this new thread a bit early, as we're near the end of the last thread and I'm out all day today. As last night's episode was a banger, I thought I'd better ensure discussion can continue seamlessly!

The original idea for a dog theme for this thread came from the death of poor Weaver. RIP. The Dog Days of summer are associated with storms and the silly season, so quite appropriate for The Archers at the moment! They may technically be over now, as it's all to do with the heliacal rising of the Dog Star, Sirius (no, me neither), but apparently the Anglo-Saxons considered they lasted into September (thank you, Wikipedia), so that will do for me.

So - what next for Helen, Henry and Jack? Surely even the Bridge Farm Archers will see that she needs professional help? After her outburst the other night they might finally grasp that Henry could do with some too. All very grim.

On the lighter side (perhaps), whither Pip and Stella?

Over to you!

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
He may have dobbed them in to the police, I can't remember for sure.

He did. He also refused to join them for their attack on Usha, for which offence they beat him up and trashed his father's market garden.

I think Spanner and Craven were a bit older then him and took him up when he had just arrived at the college; then he didn't know how to get away from them.

Usha completely forgave him, enough so that a couple of years later she helped him to prevent Kate from taking the infant Phoebe out of the country against his wishes (and those of all Phoebe's grandparents, too.)

Susan sounding remarkably sensible and fair.

Until Emma turned up supporting George and she didn't put her straight.

But she did tell Emmur not to gossip! 😂

She did go a bit further at the end to be fair.

God, Emmur is desperately disappointing. What a moron... Good for Susan though.

I thought she was starting to realise what George was really like after last night. Clearly not.

Well Emma has chosen her side hasn't she. Even she is going down the "mad Helen" road now. I liked Susan's line at the end but sadly I don't think her words of wisdom will be enough in the end.

Susan telling Emma not to gossip!

I don’t really know much about Stella but isn’t she a lesbian? Why wouldn’t pip have told toby that when he started sniffing around?

is it just so we get to hear Stella making short work of him when he tries it on?

@Bruisername It's because Pip has got feelings for Stella herself. Possibly you may have missed the episode a couple of weeks back when following a bottle or two of rosé Pip and Stella had a short smooch. The following day they tried to resolve the consequent awkwardness, Stella more successfully than Pip who has been behaving slightly oddly as though trying to sort out her feelings. They remain just very good friends. For the moment...

Oh I see. Love triangle with one party unknowingly out of the picture?

if he makes a move on Stella and she tells him why he isn’t her type isn’t he going to wonder why pip didn’t mention it?

He might assume that Pip didn't know. Why would she, after all? Not everyone is as obsessed with other people's sexual relationships as Pip's mother is.

@Bruisername More than likely. What strikes me also is the age difference. Others have noted that Pip is about 30 and Stella is 47. Which I guess is no big deal but I didn't realise that Toby (about 30 also?) might also seemingly be drawn to the more mature woman.

how long has Stella been in the village? I thought she was a lesbian because she mentioned a girlfriend she’d broken up with after a holiday or something? And pip had been asking her about it? Could have been ruth I suppose

Stella just doesn’t strike me as someone who would be cautious about mentioning female significant others and I thought she was good friends with pip too

Oh wow - I thought Stella was mid 30s!!

Sorry for joining your chat and asking questions that are probably very basic!!

I think the actor is older but Stella the character could be any age.

Isn’t 46 or 47 the actor’s age? I don’t think we know Stella’s.

Wasn't there some speculation a week or so ago that because of Stella's knowledge of the music scene of the early nineties she was most likely in her mid/late 40s? Or am I misremembering?

No problem. You're very welcome!😀

We mus target to disagree on the extent of Helen's "nastiness" - but even if a woman is nasty, does she deserve abuse, including rape but certainly not limited to rape?

*We must agree

Didn't Emma show some signs of being bright a few years back? Am
I misremembering that she became a parish councillor? And before that that she promise at school?

Not much sign of that these days

Yea I was disappointed when Emma left school without achieving much due to her messing with the grundy boys. I’m sure she had promise