Archers thread #156: Fireworks in Ambridge! Helen gave Lee a rocket, but Grey Gables is a damp squib. Is the writing on the (church) wall?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're irresistibly attracted to George Grundy, 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.)

Thanks to @OverArmour for the title suggestion, which I have tweaked a bit. I was strongly tempted by Less GGP (Grey Gables Peril) More GPP (Guinea Pig Plot), which was a plaintive cry from @PuppyPerson some days ago, but if Poppy has found new homes for the baby guinea pigs that may be the last we hear of them for some time, sadly.

Surely in the life of the next thread we must hear more from or of Rob, or Ron as some on this thread prefer to call him? <taps foot> Will Kirsty snap and tell Helen a few home truths? Will Pat's shotgun finally be brought into play? We can only hope ...

Also, will we ever find out who owns the other 60% of Grey Gables? Why is Adil AWOL (to use the other bit of OverArmour's title idea!)? Why aren't we hearing from Roy? Will GG ever re-open and will Emma get her Big Chance at last?

So many questions! Over to you.

I’ve always found the way the grundys are portrayed and bailed out all the time really odd. This feels like the first time the sw have shown their true colours.

eddie in the past month has

• created a Guinea pig problem
• sold Kenton fake goods
• bitten the hand that houses him in a most unpleasant way

can’t the Grundys move into Number 1? Very tight?

Will & George in one bedroom (bunkbeds or twin beds), Eddie and Clarrie in another, Poppy in her own room(, or sharing with Keira, Mianed on the sofabed).

The Grundys came across as rude, horrible and entitled in that episode. He should have no problem replacing 10 acres of sheep grazing at a reduced cost or even free. In many parts of the country sheep are highly sought after to graze on spare land as they are such good grazers.

Appalling behaviour. “You want to hack off a piece of Grundy history” - UGH the whole Grundy rude mechanical piece is very past it’s sell by date.

Do they pay Oliver any rent at all? Ed saying he wouldn’t have any money to graze his flock anywhere else - I mean, does he generate any income from farming at all?

Feels like Jazzer isn’t really trying. I thought Hannah was so patient, whereas Jazzer was like a grumpy and reluctant teenager.

Are we going to find out that Jazzer is dyslexic or has ketamine induced brain damage of some mild degree?

Oh I’m so cross. “We Grundies have survived long before you” - mostly by constant emotional blackmailing. I thought Oliver was very dignified in the face of their behaviour.

He should have stuck to the decision to get rid before Joe died.

I didn't get that. Jazzer left school at 16, I would think, and has always done practical manual work, so shifting to an office-based job recording and analysing data would be a huge upheaval for him. I doubt he's all that literate or numerate or used to using IT for work purposes. What Hannah does must seem absolutely baffling.

As for the Grundy Grifters, well, the mask slipped last night! When Oliver bought Grange Farm, Eddie and Joe were so bitter about seeing an outsider on what they still thought of as their farm they behaved as if he had directly caused all their misfortunes and were deeply unpleasant to him. Why he didn't tell them to take a running jump back then is beyond me. They lost Grange Farm because they were very bad at farming. They always did things the easiest way instead of the right way and often came close to breaking the law. They stuck their heads in the sand when they were struggling financially and did nothing about the rent arrears until it was too late. They might have got away with it if their landlord had still been soft-hearted Guy Pemberton, Caroline's first husband, but by that stage he'd died and his horrible son Simon had taken over, and there was no mercy to be expected there. Bunch of freeloaders. I have no sympathy for any of them.

@TherapistInATabard , maybe. Jazzer would find the office part completely new and alien. He probably left school with no qualifications, and won't have used applcations like spreadsheets.

X-posted with @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Agree @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - horrible bunch of freeloaders. Ed’s entitlement!

That’s a fair point on Jazzer’s experience. It just felt to me a bit like he wasn’t really trying, like everyone else wants him to get the promotion but he doesn’t really want it - which given the financial position he and Tracy have been in over recent years seemed short sighted, I’d have thought he’d be keen to at least try. But I hadn’t thought of it the way you’d put it.

How did the Grundies get away with the SSRI (is that the right phrase?) stuff? That was just swept under the carpet wasn’t it? Once again, easy and cheap over good farming practice.

EDIT: sorry to keep posting about it, I’m just so cross at their behaviour when Oliver has been over generous to them for years!!

The grundys have always been the authors of their own misfortune yet somehow land on their feet. I really wish Oliver would boot them out. He has enough stress with grey gables without that bunch of freeloaders being difficult. Although I do feel sorry for clarrie - she’s always the one who ends up dealing with the shit and she’s the only one with a reliable wage

Assuming Jazzer is a similar age to Ed that means he’s a similar age to me. We definitely had spreadsheets at school albeit they were something that lived in the computer room rather than on a personal laptop. But maybe Jazzer opted out of school quite a bit? As I remember it the computer room back then was pretty popular with the boys though.

Were they practising their spreadsheet skills?

Haha that wasn’t clear… I suspect not. But we definitely got taught how to use spreadsheets in lessons too and boys didn’t usually skive off IT. 😂

But I think those of us who use computers a lot can be quite cut off from how hard it is for those who don’t use IT habitually.

I heard it as a spreadsheet. Tabs, columns etc. Jazzer probably didn't pay much attention at school. He won't have been familiar with dashboards and the like.

Even if he had seen spreadsheets at school that’s a long time ago!

I love Jazzer. I really felt for him because Hannah was not being an understanding teacher. And I don't want Jazzer to miss out on the chance of him getting a good job.

So I decided Jazzer needs to employ Brad as a part-time assistant to get him started on the spreadsheets and figures and check they're in order.

Im 68 and the only computers in my school days weŕe great big things with big reels, flashing lights with punch cards you only saw in films. So I wouldn't and didnt understand a thing Hannah was telling Jazzer.
Also why if Jazzer and Tracy are so skint can they afford to go to the pub for a meal out? They always seem to be able to do things even though they are on the bread line!
I also hope kind hearted Oliver chucks all the Grundys off his land and I dont care about wobbly voiced Carrie she knows what they are like and dosent try very hard to stop thier hilarious 🤷‍♀️shenanigans.

I get the impression Tracy was spending jazzers pay rise. Which is a bit presumptuous!!

The Grundys went bankrupt and were evicted in 2000, so they all left Grange Farm a long time ago. After they left it was gutted and completely refurbished, so it's no longer really the place where Eddie, Will and Ed grew up, either.

Personally I wouldn't have wanted to go back, sixteen years after leaving it, to live in a house which had been home and now belonged to strangers who had completely changed it. That would feel dreadful, to me. I did once go and have tea with someone who lived in the house where I was born, and it was a horrible, melancholy experience: everything had been changed, and while I'm sure all the "improvements" were really an improvement, it was no longer the place I remembered.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
They might have got away with it if their landlord had still been soft-hearted Guy Pemberton, Caroline's first husband, but by that stage he'd died and his horrible son Simon had taken over, and there was no mercy to be expected there.

Amazingly, Simon Pemberton did not actually evict them, though he tried to at one point. His land agent, Shula, protected them from him. (The evil Archers were always out to get the Grundys and do them down, right?) It wasn't until he'd sold up and left that Borchester Land finally gave the Grundys notice to quit for persistent non-payment of rent, and they could get rid of them because Joe having been declared bankrupt meant the Grundy tenancy was no longer assured.

Yes I recall they were given many chances but seem to live in a world where they deserve to stay so that’s what should happen

I live in sheep country, and 30 ewes is very much hobby farming. I have someone grazing that number on my land so will ask her what income they bring in, and yes she has a full time job which no doubt subsidises her hobby.

However there are a number of people in the area who own no land but rent pockets out all over and they run hundreds of sheep, and do seem to make a living. And as a pp said many landowners welcome sheep as they clean up land very well. Ed should have no issues finding additional grazing.

The Grundies do ring true to me, I know a number of entitled losers, a friend’s daughter (a lovely woman) is married to one and I can just see her morphing into the Clarrie of our village. I stupidly allowed the husband to store a machine in one of my buildings and it became a total nightmare, so all my sympathy is with Oliver.

I've just listened and it didn't sound like Oliver was selling the house or evicting them from it (just some of the land and the barn) so they wouldn't be homeless. Though I can't understand how Oliver would be willing to live with them, as a guest in his own house, especially after they have been so awful.