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.

Good job Emma! Saying what we all think!!

can’t believe Oliver is considering moving out!!

eddie is so awful. Farmed the land for generations but he wasn’t capable of keeping it and worried about Oliver dying and leaving them homeless! He’s such an arse.

helen has made a big mistake with Henry. She should never be involving him in any discussions. And she shouldn’t be hoping Jack will just forget. Would a domestic abuse charity be able to help?

"it is what is it"? What is this strange expression? Can it be one of them new-fangled phrases that the Young People use these days? I'm sure I've heard it somewhere - maybe on Corrie, or EastEnders, or perhaps it was one of the DGC. [tongue/cheek]

In early 1972 my best friend and I practised saying "far out" until it tripped off our tongues as if we had always used it. We had met some very cool male students, and we wanted to be cool too. My friend ended up marrying the coolest one

MA Linguistics (Distinction), 1999 BTW. I love words. I like noticing how they come and go int the vernacular. It's one of the benefits of getting older in body, while remaining 21 in my head. And I also say "it is what it is" these days, if it seems appropriate. My aged DM would know what it meant, even if it wouldn't be a natural phrase for her to use herself.

When joy said ‘as my mum always said’ I was expecting something a bit more profound tbh

Haven’t listened yet but with some of you saying Emmas been on Mumsnet, has she said “ God these storylines are really boring lately ?”😀

I am quite staggered at Eddie and Ed's attitude and treatment of Oliver

Oliver who has given them all a home countless times , who has bailed out Ed and helped him beyond measure - entitled and grabby and really surprising

Re Helen - yes the a tree was on Corrie as receptionist I think at the medical centre ? (Haven't watched Corrie in years).

I still think I would let Jack see his father - even if just to see him face to face and know he has met him

I'm 69 and say 'It is what it is' where appropriate. Usually when people are moaning and I don't mean there's nothing to be done about it I mean this is where you start.

He has some responsibility since he has the house only through someone’s incompetence in will writing. It’s almost certain it would have been split between Will and Ed had Ed have been born before the will was drawn up.

That isn’t his responsibility though

Haven’t listened yet but with some of you saying Emmas been on Mumsnet, has she said “ God these storylines are really boring lately ?” No such luck. But she laid into Ed for whining, then listed various things he should have done and established he hadn’t done any of them. Then tore him off a strip about his need to apologise to Oliver, and sent him off to talk sense into his father.

helen has made a big mistake with Henry. She should never be involving him in any discussions. She hasn’t had much choice, has she? Henry has a knack for overhearing.

Well, up to a point. Most people would feel a little uncomfortable making off with the entire inheritance knowing the donor’s wishes would have been to split it equally, even if that wasn’t the wording of the will.

of course the time to split it was when the estate was distributed, and Ed would have pissed his share up the wall, so the money was more useful going to Will.

This is an exploded myth, invented by Clarrie to try to make Ed feel less bad about having not been included in Aunt Hilda's will.

In 1992 (William was born in 1983 and Edward in 1984) Aunt Hilda was thought to be on her last legs and Eddie went up to Aberdeen to see her, taking with him photographs of both boys. He came back with the news that she was sure to leave them something in her will.

Then she died for the first time, leaving them nothing.

(Source: entry on "Hilda" in The Archers Encyclopaedia [2001] by Joanna Toye and Adrian Flynn.)

When she died for the second time, after the AE had been published, Ed had broken up Will's marriage and started to cohabit with Will's wife, and Aunt Hilda left money to Will and nothing to Ed. It always seemed to me possible that she knew of and disapproved of Ed's behaviour.

She died twice! An impressive woman

On the BBC board she was known as "Twice-Dead Aunt Hilda". When the story of Will getting a bequest from her was run in 2007, Keri Davies got onto social media and "held his hands up" to the mistake about her having died once already .

Funny!

if inheritance came after the whole blow up then that seems to explain it well. Inheritance vs Emma

Sometimes you have to wrestle the storylines into some sort of order
The poor SWs are playing an enormous game of Consequences that has been going longer than I have, but only by a year
The ones at the moment understand what having DC is like, and what it's like having a husband you have to manage.
Correction: understand what it's like having a husband, full stop

not the crystal ball, more like an utterance from Cassandra: I fear Rochelle is estranged from Joy because Rochelle just can't understand why Joy would want to divorce her father.

Haven't posted for ages, it is all so lacking credibility I don't know where to start.

IIRC, Emma egged him on to doing it without actually realising what was involved. She knew it was dodgy but not how dodgy. Although my sympathy for her is limited since I think she deliberately asked no questions because she didn't want to have a real moral dilemma on her hands, so it was better to remain ignorant. And, again IIRC, didn't it gradually ramp up so that Ed himself got lured in without initially being aware of what he was really doing? Both of them were more interested in the money than the rights and wrongs, until it was obvious how serious it was and then there was no way out.

As my Mum, who doesn't speak like a teenager, would say: 'pity about ya'.

N.B. my memory may be faulty!

Ooo, can I start with how anyone thinks a one-off church event, however successful, is going to make up for the loss of a substantial regular income? And how one of the same people think it's no use tinkering around the edges, big changes have got to be made in cutting our cloth to suit our means ... and his 'big changes' are dispensing with a Christmas tree. I mean, do they usually have a Christmas tree made from solid gold with diamond baubles?!

Our church Christmas trees are donated by one of the big local funeral parlours. Thankfully they don't require any kind of plaque or public acknowledgement.

You're right @Fink it involved that really dodgy "friend"

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime thats fascinating, thank you.

Forget old Terry Two Phones, Aunt Hilda Two Deaths is much more impressive.

A voice in the wildnerness cries "It seems highly plausible to me"
See you all in 40 days

@JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon I have missed your username!

Quite. Makes a change from the grey gables bilge though!

Emma’s change of character to make her sympathetic to Oliver and frustrated by the Grundy men didn’t quite ring true - but regardless, glad they’ve pushed the point and Eddie has had his tantrum and they’re going to move the story further forward.

Despite being a lone Helen fan, I’m utterly bored by the Rob storyline now. It needs to be dropped for a bit. We’ve not heard from Ben for ages. Or how Freddie is getting on in the abattoir.

Do we think we will have Rauri return for Christmas to give Paul some romantic interest again? I like Paul, and Rauri. Did Rauri and Alice resolve things between them or is it still tense with R refusing to forgive her? I can’t remember.