Archers thread #157: How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless clan! Discuss The Grundys here. Bicker about The Archers as well if you like.

[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, 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 idea of making it clear in the title many of us are inveterate bickerers!

Now over to you, as we are about to eat and I won't hear tonight's offering till later ....

Took me a while to spot @therapist's typo. Wondered if Helen had a blue surplice, perhaps

I just listened again as I remember my jaw dropping at something Helen said last night and I wanted to make sure I got the wording right. When she was talking to Tom and said she was more than happy to dump the kids on Pat and Tony because ‘it’s just me again, on my own, you know?…. Having no other adult around, that’ll take a bit of getting used to’. Dear god, that woman doesn’t know she’s born.

It was mizuna lettuce, specifically, which is more of a rocket style spindly salad leaf. I could see that would be quite nice with a bit of BB tossed through it.

I enjoyed the double sibling chat last night. Tom was surprisingly OK too.

It was a bit too obvious though wasn’t it? One sibling set where a partner has been lost where it’s tragic and another where the ex partner lost is more of a relief

have they outsourced this to a creative writing class?

I see they managed to weave in the answer to the wife/fiancee question

I had a little chuckle at that

I know that we’re meant to endow the SWs with the intelligence and common sense of small pebbles but cheese salad is a perfectly normal thing. Greek salad, just as one example, has feta.

Yes bits of blue or feta or mozzarella. Even little chunks of emmental or cheddar can be nice in a salad

i can think of few dishes that wouldn’t benefit from the addition of cheese

I’m easily pleased.

When I was at school, a million years ago, cheese salad was a standard school dinner. IIRC you got some lettuce leaves (old school round lettuce, such as you hardly ever see in the shops these days, more's the pity), some slices of tomato and cucumber, very possibly pickled beetroot too, pile of grated cheese. No dressing on the salad. Possibly a blob of salad cream. At secondary school I think we'd have had chips with that, and chips make everything better [a glutton writes].

Many years later, we rented a flat from a family who'd emigrated from India. The son of the family told us that when he started primary school (this would have been the 1960s) his parents had explained to staff that they were vegetarians. The school cooks and dinner ladies were nonplussed by this. His first school dinner therefore comprised a pile of grated cheese and some mashed potato, neither of which he had ever seen or eaten before.

P.S. Helen also makes Sterling Gold, or did.

Ha I thought the same! She gets more help with the kids than most people whether they're single or not! A night off for some me time, what's that??!

Cheesy mash - yum!!

I had quite hoped Chris and Alice would eventually find their way back to each other. It seemed such a shame and Chris was so good to her. It would have been nice to have them back as a family again now Alice has got herself on track. But seems the SW have got this new eventing guy lined up for her. Tbh I have no idea if their divorce has now all gone through, assume it has by now. The writers seem to have an unhealthy obsession with single parent stories.

Cheese salad has been for years my default request if I'm out for a pub lunch and don't fancy anything on the menu (I am allergic to wheat which makes a lot of standard things difficult). I've never not got a satisfactory result - at worst it is sliced cheddar with tomato and a lettuce leaf, usually it's a range of cheeses, fruit, leaves, etc. (sometimes provoking open envy in the people who stuck to the menu). Most recently it was a delicious feta, mizuna and beetroot combo.

and don’t forget all the ways goats cheese can lift a salad

I need to go and buy some cheese

What happens next? ........ it will turn out that Helen was actually present when Rob died and she will be accused of murder/manslaughter. And back to prison!!

Thanks for giving me a LOL @TherapistInATabard ! 🧀

Judith Woods in the Telegraph this morning referred to him as Ron.

👋 Judith.

My pleasure 😄.

I wonder if Helen will set her cap at horse man once he becomes a fixture.

Isn't that the point? Very few dishes are not made better by cheese, but the cheese isn't made better by the addition of many of them. Cheese as a standalone food is as nice as cheese with a lot of other things.

It seems she took no notice of Rob's criticism that she relies on her parents to raise her kids for her. One of the things he threw at her that was not without foundation in reality.

I’m not sure I agree

I prefer my cheese with baguette but the addition of an onion marmalade can elevate it - or roasting a cheese with garlic and a bit of wine

I wonder if Helen will set her cap at horse man once he becomes a fixture.

She’s ten years older than Alice, give or take. It’s not impossible that Chilcott might fancy both, but it seems unlikely. Also, Helen isn’t particularly horsy (and has form for causing equine death, as compared with Alice, who so far has confined herself to non-fatal impalement).

Let’s face it, though: Helen is capable of sitting her cap at anything with a pulse.

People may in fact change their minds about such things, even when they are dying. My father did, for instance. And my dearest friend wanted to die at home until she realised how much it was going to hurt in the week or so before she finally managed it.

Rob didn't invite Helen to stab him; he told her she ought to stab herself.

Lowfield from Sunday 3rd April, 2016 is clear about that: "He grabs a knife from a drawer, and puts it in her hand, daring her to do what Greg did, as it is the only way he will ever let her go."

BBC synopsis same date: "Rob grabs a knife from the drawer and gives it to her - telling her to end it, "do what her last boyfriend did"."

I suspect he was mightily surprised when she stabbed him instead of doing as she was told! Even if it was a very silly thing for him to command, since she was carrying the son he so wanted.

God guys this cheese chat is hard reading for a pregnant woman currently not supposed to eat a lot of the best cheeses. Wonder if I can preorder a brie/goats cheese/camembert platter for immediately post birth.