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.

12.5 minutes of silence might be preferable to some of the dross we've had inflicted on us recently!

The arrogance and entitlement of Eddie, Will and Ed was infuriating.

I hope Oliver gives them notice. They seem to only care about Oliver when he is being generous towards them. It’s embarrassing to listen to.

I hope he evicts them now and we have a Grundy-less Archers for a bit. Emma’s been irritating enough for the last three years. I think the last time I found her tolerable to listen to was when Ed was bringing her artichoke when she was pregnant.

Perhaps we’ll see Justin invest in the lan. What happened to the show jumping at the stables? That was another planning disaster and it was Alice who helped with that. Maybe she could come and assist Ian save GG from similar mistakes.

TottersBlanklyIntoBimboCore
Someone suggested Will might buy the Grange Farm land Oliver wants to sell?

If Will sells his house to buy a barn and some land at Grange Farm, where is he going to live?

Oh, I wasn’t thinking of his selling his house. He must be good for a moderate loan but I don’t imagine he could borrow enough to buy Oliver’s land. It was only that someone else’s suggestion led - in my mind - to the delightfully poetic possibility of the whole family buying the land.

GaspMum Island Love it.
12.5 minutes of silence might be preferable to some of the dross we've had inflicted on us recently! Indeed.

sorry to come back to this - but imagine being Oliver, and having Ed Grundy dish you out financial advice.

Ed, who can’t even buy his own house.

Utterly baffling isn’t it? I so wish the younger Grundy generation were not so grabby and entitled.

Ed, who went bust because his idea of running a business was to put the bills into one drawer and the receipts into another and not look at them again.

Is Will grabby? I wouldni't say so, although he did inherit money from his twice-dead great-aunt or somesuch. Mianed are entitled and grabby, as is George, but what do you expect given what Joe was like and what Eddie is like.

This tickled me

Isn't Helen on Corrie too?

And lost his chance of home ownership because his idea of sound financial management was doing the dirty work of a dodgy chemical dealer.

If Will was still the gamekeeper, he could be living in the tied cottage and would also have an income he could use to get a mortgage on 1 The Green and also rent it out (although a new buy to let mortgage would be quite expensive).

Theoretically then he would have somewhere to live with George and Poppy, the means to provide Eddie & Clarrie with somewhere to live at 1 The Green, and might even have the means to buy Oliver’s land if he mortgaged 1 The Green, although I guess that would be a bit complicated. Oliver himself could be earning a good income from renting Grange Farm at market value.

Instead of which, Will is living on whatever he earns from the veg boxes and whatnot, Hannah is homeless, Oliver is chucking assets into the sunk cost fallacy that is Grey Gables, and the rest of the Grundies continue on their merry way thinking the world owes them a living.

I like Will, but he seems to be reverting to type a bit.

Why is will responsible for his family though? If I were him I wouldn’t be rushing to bail them out

To be fair to him, he didn't want to do that: Emma told him to ("everyone does things like that!") and he was only obeying orders. Then when it went pearshaped she was furious with him. and told him it was all his fault.

Somehow I don't think "my spouse told me to" would stand up in court, given that he's an adult of sound mind and can make his own choices. He just chose to make stupid ones.

Will lost his job and his rent-free house because of his father's decision to confiscate the tools of his trade and compel him to live with his parents. It was not his decision to "revert to type", because being a scrounging thieving workshy git was never Will's type: he worked hard, learned a trade, and once he'd got a job worked at that, anti-social hours and threats of violence against him and all. Totally unlike the rest of his family.

Also, as Will later told Eddie, taking away his gun wouldn't have stopped him if he had wanted to kill himself: he'd just have done it some other way.

He didn't want to kill himself; it was just a good melodrama for Emma to create. And when that didn't look as if it was working, she told Ed that Will had tried to kiss her without her consent, which made sure Ed would go in and start a fight with a man holding a loaded gun. I don't know which of them she hoped would die at that point.

Thanks Asking, that makes me feel a bit more hopeful for Will. Agree he’s not a workshy scrounger by any means and he’s been through a lot. I have been worrying about him being dragged down by his family.

I think he should have stuck with his job and I miss hearing him in that capacity.

@Bruisername he’s not responsible for them - I was just musing on how much better everyone’s circumstances could be. Having said that, they will probably put the screws on and try to make him feel responsible for them!

I had forgotten Emma’a involvement in that little drama. Poor Will.

Sussurations
he’s not responsible for them - I was just musing on how much better everyone’s circumstances could be. Having said that, they will probably put the screws on and try to make him feel responsible for them!

Of course they will; neither Joe nor Eddie ever acknowledged that their own actions or lack of them had consequences, such as not being competent to run a farm and not bothering even to try for many years meaning that the farm was repossessed by its owners. It's always been someone else's fault, someone else's responsibility, up to someone else to bail them out of the mess they've created.

I’ve always felt sorry for will - he’s been dealt a shitty hand and has made the best of it. I’ll never forgive the sw for taking his gamekeeper job

Emma’s been on MN! She’s echoing us.

Go Emma! Go Emma! Go Emma!

Yes!