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.

What an unreasonable sucker of joy Helen is. Her poor boys. Lee is the only bringer of joy in their lives.
I hope Kirsty tells her some home truths.

Poor Lee, too. He hasn’t actually done anything wrong

I think Henry will continue to have a relationship with Lee. He is to old to be under her complete control.

And I think Lee is good for Henry. Helen inclines to the “because I say so” school of parenting.

Just thinking about accent. Henry speaks more or less RP, as do the rest of the Archer aristocracy. It’s only the lc characters that speak with an accent. Is that still an accurate reflection of real life? Most of my mc family speak RP, but my DS has a Yorkshire accent. I’d rather assumed we’d moved on from regarding an accent as a lc/lack of education signifier, but maybe we haven’t.

I was cheering Lee on in last week's row - Hellin is supremely selfish. But is she going to push him away and then a catastrophe will happen with Ron so she'll be wailing and gnashing her teeth?

I also spent some time speculating about what swear Henry grafitti-ed. I hope it was the really bad one 😜

Helen was really nasty last night, and I don't particularly like her (although I have a lot of empathy for what she's been through with Rob), but my god Lee is irritating. He really sets my teeth on edge, with his stupid figures and his smelly trainers and his trying to be the big man and making everything worse (with Rob). I've never understood how she can bear to be with such a man-child.

Poor, poor Henry though.

Am I unusual in finding bowling an unwelcome choice for an evening activity for adults in their 4Os, who have busy working lives and have children? It's reasonable as an activity, but you can't have a conversation, it's noisy, it's associated with teen parties, the floors are sticky, the music insistent. I understand how Helen would find it peak Lee, it's like soft play for a slightly older age range. That and the poor horse made a horrible episode to listen to.

wombat I totally agree; that might actually be why I was so firmly on Helen's side last night, as I've always hated bowling and at this point in my life it's my idea of hell. So someone bouncing around insisting it was the best fun ever would definitely have pushed my over the edge. Although I never would have gone in the first place, but I imagine he was really whiny and persistent (and had already agreed to it without asking her). Ooh I'm getting annoyed just thinking about it.

I agree @WombatCowgirl. I’ve never seen the appeal.

No fondness for bowling, but there’s nothing wrong with “soft play for adults”. Bouncy castles, water slides are just as much fun in your 50s and 60s. Helen shouldn’t have got together with someone whose interests were so divergent from her own, but it’s not a character defect in Lee

I expect Lee likes wearing those horrible sweaty bowling shoes- they seem right up his street!

I was more surprised that both Adam and Ian enjoyed bowling (even if they hadn't done it for years) than that Lee does and Helen doesn't. I would say it's in character for both Helen and Lee, but I really can't see Adam and Ian thinking of it as an ideal date night activity.

Helen seems to disapprove of fun generally. When Lee mentioned the hike and the campfire and marshmallows I'm sure I heard her lips purse.

When did Lee enter our (Helen's) lives, and when did they get together? It feels like it must have been quite a long time ago - 4 or 5 years at least?

I hope this isn't another breakup where they completely ignore the impact on the children (see - Toby moving away and Rosie apparently barely noticing her parents splitting up, since they were cohabiting before).

"I understand how Helen would find it peak Lee" - gosh absolutely! And there is literally nothing more boring that going bowling when you're shit at bowling and the other person is great, someone insisted I go on a bowling date once and I can still remember the deep tedium. Were they playing in teams? If so I think Helen should have insisted she play with Ian and then at least they could have a good chat in between turns.

I'm sure I heard her lips purse

But wasn’t that because she’d arrived home with a nice plan to put Lee in detention for all of Saturday - and found herself outmanoeuvred? (Though I’m sure it was an innocent move on his part.) There’s nothing he could have suggested that would have met her approval at that moment.

Helen got together with a sporty physio. Chaps like that like all kinds of sport, and wear trainers. Her sudden ick and realisation seems odd. It's been great for the boys to have someone like that in their lives

Yes, you're right, he's been brilliant for the boys and it's going to be devastating for them.
I generally like sweaty sporty chaps myself, but there's something incredibly grating about Lee. He's completely wrong for Helen.

Especially since neither of them has been mentioned as bowling before during the 20+ years they have been together. In fact bowling hasn't really been part of the Life Of Ambridge at all.

● Kenton took Jamie ten-pin bowling in 2007 to get the child out of the way when Kathy had a migraine.
● Adam organised an evening ten-pin bowling for the pickers in 2008.
● Annette and Helen went ten-pin bowling together in 2009.
● Kathy, Kenton, Josh and Jamie went bowling for Jamie's birthday in 2010. Jamie then went bowling with Marty in the same year. And later in the same year Kate took Phoebe bowling.
● Clive insisted on taking George bowling in 2011.
● Jonathan dragged Helen bowling on their first date, under the aliases Jonno and Helga.
● Johnny went bowling with some mates from his course in 2014.
● Freddie took Elizabeth bowling in 2019.
● Alice, Phoebe and Lily went bowling in 2022. So did Fallon and Harrison.
● For Jack's birthday in May 2023, Lee booked bowling instead of them having a party at Bridge Farm, in the belief that this would be safer because Rob wouldn't know where they were. (No, I didn't understand this reasoning either.)

So while Lee has definitely got form for going bowling and so has Helen, Ian has none and Adam seems only to have sent a bunch of pickers bowling rather than going and doing it himself.

Wow that’s encyclopaedic knowledge!

WitcheryDivine
When did Lee enter our (Helen's) lives, and when did they get together? It feels like it must have been quite a long time ago - 4 or 5 years at least?

Lee's name was first mentioned in September 2018 as the instructor for Henry's karate class. Helen decided she wanted him about a month later and started to go to the class and then "just happen" to be "visiting Christine" at The Laurels when he was going to be there. That was in November 2018. Then there were a lot of "hilarious" misunderstandings and Helen getting him to the point of a lingering kiss and then dumping him, and Helen getting him to the point of a meal at his flat and and a snog on the sofa, then freaking out because he played the wrong music and running away, and so on.

She finally admitted to herself that she did want him after all in December 2019, so she then told him all about Rob having made it impossible for her ever to trust a man again, and why. He knew from the press about Rob having been stabbed, but since Helen was Archer not Titchener he hadn't made any connection. He vowed never to hurt her. They had sex for the first time on New Year's Eve and woke up together on New Year's day 2020.

Kirsty gave them the Beechwood house to live in in April 2021, and they moved in together.

I have Lowfield, and I'm not afraid to use it! The pain about searching for "bowling" is that there's an awful lot of cricket to wade through for each mention of the ten-pin kind.

So where did Kirsty move to?

and when did they move in together?

yes to her having realised she didn’t need him when he was gone so long but is there also something stirring in her about Rob? And thinking she went safe with Lee. Not as in she wants someone like Rob but that she has gone too far the other way

ugh. Helen was awful in that episode. Lee hasn’t actually done anything wrong. It feels like Helen is manufacturing drama.

The horse scene seemed sooo unrealistic. I get they want to get across a lesson about fireworks and animals, but there's no way Kate wouldn't have had a plan, and any yard manager, upon finding out ahead of time that the immediate neighbours were planning fireworks, would have been over there to have words immediately, even if their party was already in progress.

Thanks @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime - so yes he's been a part of Henry's life for 5 years and with his mum for nearly 4. Poor little guy. I wonder if Lee will seek some kind of custody (or at least want to) but then be shot down as he has no parental rights. Lee will then bugger off to the US under the Magic Soap Visa Scheme and Henry will be incredibly upset and take to spending even more time with awful George.

Honestly of all the people in Ambridge I think Helen is the one I would least like to be my mum. At least Kate has had the good grace to leave her kids with decent dads since she's not very interested in them.

Interesting you say that @AngryBirdsNoMore as to me Helen is sounding like people I know you've just "done therapy" and have a whole new approach to life and relationships and suddenly want to change a lot of things. (Which if Helen had done, I would respect it.) But given that she hasn't made any obvious life changes apart from murdering Rob via karma, it comes across as really really odd.

At least we know she's not pregnant!!

Bruisername
So where did Kirsty move to?
and when did they move in together?

Kirsty is renting Roy's spare room at Willow Farm, which was where she was living before she married and moved in with Philip.

Helen and Lee moved in together in April 2021, as I said.