Archers thread #155: Cold Comfort Farms! The rural sagas continue. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

FILL THE OLD THREAD UP FIRST! https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4902507-archers-thread-154-cider-with-fat-rosie-meadow-rise-to-candleford-or-the-darling-horrobins-of-september-get-your-rural-saga-fix-discuss-the-archers-here?page=10

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 like to hear more scenes in the abattoir, 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.)

Lots of lively discussion about Brad's university aspirations and the Open Day on the last thread. Do you want him to end up at Felpersham or do you want him to spread his wings and go further afield? Where will Mia go?

Will this thread see the end of Rob, or do we have many weeks more before his long overdue demise?

What's going on at Grey Gables? Are they running into financial trouble? Will we hear from Roy, who I had forgotten was working there until he was mentioned the other day? Who are the mysterious 'Owners'? Will the locum GP turn out to be Adil's sister, as we have been surmising since she first spoke? Why's she been conjured up?

Talking of the GP, I'm hoping against hope we're not in for bad news about Jim's mole.

Praying that we're going to get a long and much-needed break from hearing P*p. Not praying that we hear Rob being christened. Who would be his sponsor, as someone commented on the last thread? Harrison? Surely that would be a conflict of interest. Can't see who else would do it locally.

I wonder how Ben is getting on now he's back on his nursing degree? Will we ever hear anything about Lily's course, or how Freddie's getting on at the abattoir?

So many questions! Over to you for some answers and boundless speculation.

Maybe Adil will have PTSD over the loss of his wife, or something like that. I don’t find him an interesting enough character to go through a traumatic storyline with though. He’s behaved like Paddington or a curious but cold benevolent alien. Spock like.

Paddington, but with Spock ears 😆

Kirsty was surprisingly unhelpful, repeatedly shutting Helen down when she tried to explain why she no longer wants to be with Lee instead of listening.

I’m surprised it’s taken her this long to grow tired of him. He has always been extremely irritating. I suppose he served a purpose when she wanted a normal and safe relationship after Rob. Poor Henry - another dad bites the dust.

Kirsty was surprisingly unhelpful, repeatedly shutting Helen down … instead of listening.

Surprisingly? Kirsty must be sick to the back teeth of ‘listening to Helen’, particularly when Helen is seemingly incapable of hearing anything which is not exactly aligned with her own thinking at the time. And she didn’t want advice from Kirsty in any case, as she’s made up her mind. It was just an early warning: “Clear your diary, Kirsty — I’m going to want a lot of validation!”

I enjoyed hearing Kirsty shutting Helen down. Helen so blatantly wanted Kirsty to tell her to LTB and to give her lots of encouragement and sympathy. It was really quite good that she was made to think a bit for once.

How rude is Helen not to have told Lee she had made plans for the weekend without him.

and the very pointed ‘I love you Henry’ at the end.

I feel sorry or him! I hope he gets his happy ever after in San fran!!

Have we now found the ‘point of lee’? As someone said upthread ‘another father figure bites the dust’. Reinforced by robs recent interest and rerejection, now Lee, the guy who sticks up for him is also gone. Cue the demise of Henry into teenage rebellion/angst/delinquency (with or without coconspirator George - does Henry ‘drag’ George down…?).

Lee is a much more interesting character now he’s on the way out…

It’s going to implode this weekend isn’t it? My thinking is that Lee and Henry were planning some sort of elaborate proposal and it will all in end in disaster with Rob stalking them through the woods picking them off one by one leading to a final showdown between them with tuna casserole on the campfire and Helen will be on her knees shouting noooo with bodies strewn about her… cue the cheery theme tune and the following days episode will be clarrie and Susan watching paint dry whilst chatting about turnips.

Clear your diary, Kirsty - I’m going to want a lot of validation😂

I agree Helen didn’t want advice, she never does. But Kirsty’s constant rebuttals were a bit annoying. Suggesting couples counselling for a relationship that has clearly run it’s course is daft.

Anyway, I hope Erik reappears and whisks her away from it all. She has no familial ties in the village and I’m not really sure what her purpose is now (from a storyline perspective). She lives in a house-share with the worlds dullest man, helps Lynda with village activities and deals with Helen’s non stop whining. I know she enjoys her job but she always sounds wistful and lonely to me.

If they had to turn someone lesbian and set them up with Stella, it should have been Kirsty.

Ruth, which would have made for all sorts of SL. Splitting of the couple's assets, Jill's reaction, Elizabeth and Kenton kicking up a fuss...

I don't know what you're on, @Iknownothing, but I'd like some too! I'd enjoy that.

I wonder why Kirsty didn't mention that the world's dullest man is currently under enormous stress at work? Could it be that the SWs have forgotten he exists? Understandable in some ways ...

Iknownothing

Would it be too much for pip and Stella to be skipping hand in hand through a wheat field and pip catching a stray bullet?

Good suggestion - could Justin be there too?

Kirsty can do a lot better than Stella.

It does seem as if Roy has been forgotten. Surely Oliver could just say in passing “Roy said he doesn’t know what’s going on either…” to at least give the impression he is around.

I’m just catching up. Ian is being absolutely foul. Very bullying and nasty. And Addle isn’t just an accent thing, it’s simply a mispronunciation of not a hard name.

Oliver texted Roy and asked him to convene the meeting which was intended by Ian to crucify Adil, an aim thwarted by Adil not turning up for it. So Oliver at least knows Roy is around doing stuff at the hotel as well as organising the bonfire and fireworks, which he was also noted as being in charge of. Whether Ian knows is another matter: he clearly thinks he is the only person of any importance there apart from his underling Oliver.

Why on Earth would Adil even turn up anyway? It was clearly, as you say, intended to just be a lynching.

I tell you one nice thing about Ian's moaning about the unsuitability of the kitchens at GG recently: it completely took me back to TA of the 80s and 90s, with Jean Paul having heavily accented strops left, right and centre! 👨‍🍳 🇫🇷 🥄

I miss those days! Nelson's winebar, the silent Shane baking quiche, Elizabeth, Shula, Caroline and Nigel loafing around being young, frequent mentions of Nigel's friend Tim whose surname I've forgotten, Phil and Jill exasperated by their young adult brood in all sorts of ways, Sid running The Bull (before he was turned into a homophobe), Peggy bossing Jack around at Grey Gables, Jack fussing around his little dog Captain, Marjorie Antrobus breeding Afghans at Nightingale Farm, Martha Woodford looking after the phone box. Happy times.

Indeed …

❤️

Tim Beecham @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g. Thanks for that little trip down memory lane - two more places erased from the map. Nelson's wine bar (well fair enough it would probably have closed down/changed anyway. I can picture it so well in my mind's eye - cosily glamorous, with low lighting and Elizabeth Archer perched on a bar stool, toying with her glass. Nightingale Farm also wiped from the map - I'd always fondly imagined Marjorie would leave it to Roy and Hayley. It would have been no more fanciful than Oliver letting the Grundys live at Grange Farm and then moving in with them. Those places were more clearly etched in my mind than say the Beechwood houses (of which there are apparently 18!) which I just can't picture for some reason.

Ok, so what are the things in today’s TA which we’d miss if we were transported back to Nelson’s Wine Bar days? I’d miss Jim, Lynda, Hilda.

Frilly, Alice, Kristiffur, Kirsty, Tracey, Chelsea, Brad, Alistair, Jim, Jazzer.
We would enjoy there being no Pip.

I agree @LillianGish I can picture the wine bar so we'll in my head! Did he have a separate antiques shop/ store, I have a slightly less distinct image of that. Jax Wine Bar with Kenton making mistake after mistake....
Good times!

I think I'd actually miss Meeur and Chelsea, to my surprise!

I'd miss Leonard, Lynda and Ben.
The wine bar is a vivid memory.