Archers thread #158: Te Rum? You numpty, numpty, Tom! Empty tearoom follows. Christmas coming, farmers’ stand up, will it make us LOL? No! 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 think Tom Archer is a great businessman, 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 @LillianGish for the title idea, which may plant an earworm if my scansion just about holds up. @BeatriceBatchelor wanted 'plebby coffee' inserted in reference to my Bolivian coffee anecdote on the last thread, so I'll mention it here instead. Here's hoping Fallon and Emma decamp to the charging station or Grey Gables, or both, to run the type of coffee shop/tearoom people actually enjoy spending time in. Tom's cauliflower eclairs and kale criossants approach sounds more likely to drive the casual trade away from the farm shop and cheese window as well as the Google Translate-named Te Rum.

Feeling very uninspired by TA at the moment, so I have nothing more to say for now. Over to you!

Agree that Lillian has a point - he did something for himself only and proved to her he doesn’t see them as a team

It also may have messed up both her and Alice badly in relation to The Stables, because of Shula's reaction to not having been told about something which hadn't actually happened. And if Shula is angry enough to sell up, Josh, Lily and Paul would be homeless, and Alistair might have a problem about his vet premises.

All because Justin wanted to play a little game of one-upmanship against the woman he claims to love.

Yes it was very Oberon and Titania vibes if you swap small boy for parcel of land

I'm not sure that he has seen the error of his ways. He has realised that he misses Lilian and wants to be with her. But he has not acknowledged that he has consistently, and not just on this occasion, treated her as a rival rather than a partner and gone out of his way to protect himself financially at the expense of screwing her over. And, as she has finally noticed, done all this in underhand and sneaky ways. Basically he is an utter bastard, but the extent of his self-realisation yesterday was that he wants Lilian back and that they're well-suited as a pair of business-minded people out for a good deal. He has conspicuously failed to notice that the fundamental difference between them is that Lilian has some limits (although her decision making may have been questionable at times, she does has some boundaries) whereas he is completely unscrupulous and amoral and would happily throw every living friend and relative under a bus just to get what he wants. I really hope that the scales have properly fallen from Lilian's eyes and she doesn't take him back, no matter how much grovelling he does. Unless he has a profound conversion and personality transplant, she's well rid of him.

I remember the toddler days - I can’t wait to hear them when xanders a teenager!!

like Justin’s attempts at getting Lillian round with Tony backfiring

where has all Ian’s angst come from? Where is this leading?

If and when Justin does try to speak to Lillian for some kind of reconciliation, she's just going to be thinking "charm or smarm? is he genuine or just doing this because it's in his selfish interests?" Bit hard for Justin to get beyond that now that Tony "I-don't-want-to -get-involved" Archer has uttered the word "smarmy".

I hope very much that you are right, DDD.

I don’t know why Lilian expected Justin to be trustworthy and loyal. He cheated on his wife to be with her so she should have known what kind of man she was dealing with. The weeping and wailing over his ‘betrayal’ was very melodramatic.

Re what someone was saying earlier: why is Alice being asked if the Harry thing might be getting serious when they've had, what, one proper date/ maybe two???

And it's been a whole two weeks since they met.... yes, I wondered that, too.

Oh that was me banging my ridiculous Archers speeded up relationships gong. If anyone had said they thought I was getting serious two weeks in to dating now DH I’d have thought they were mad!! At least alice pointed out that she hardly knows him. I think two weeks in pip and Stella were already having three rounds of angst about Ruth.

No idea what’s up with Iain, I’m also unclear as to why the archers seems to be doing a sort of gay parenting public info season. No reason as to why they shouldn’t it just smacks as if someone in the editorial team has just come out/had a child come out and wants to go deep on this.

I had to laugh about the Alice and Pip conversation where Alice makes a joke about how far too soon it would be to introduce Harry to Martha, while Pip basically immediately told Rosie about her and Stella.

If The Archers was a romcom, I’m not sure whether it’s When Harry met Alice or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

It makes sense for pip to after the ridiculous Stella SL. Less sense for Lillian who I would expect to have tile her to have a bit of fun

And if Shula is angry enough to sell up - thus contributing to the gradual erasure of Ambridge. Couldn't care less about Justin and Lillian - he is just being his usual self (except when he's being convivial country gent Justin, but he hasn't been that for a while - no doubt he will revert if/when he and Lillian get back together).

Wonderful implementation of “put a word in for me”

I am finding Ian extremely tedious and utterly unlikeable ATM.

Me too. I’m finding myself muttering “Oh, for god’s sake” a lot.

Well when xander starts at the primary school Ian won’t need to worry as pip will have trailblazed that one 🙄

I have felt that way about him any time this past nineteen years.

If Shula sells up…. Would Justin buy it? Either to annoy Lillian, or ‘for’ her?

I couldn’t cope with Paul. but what on earth was that scene about - the reasons for being angry were just too stereotypical. Was it just a crappy way to get the inheritance story on the radar? Lily knows full well why it was left to Freddy.

I would say that being left the house is more of an albatross unless she is limited of imagination.

does pip ever feed Rosie vegetables?

I hope Stella runs off with bess

interesting how bad the family relations are - no matter what, spending Christmas with my family was always the highlight of my pre kids days!

If my family were Elizabeth I would be perfectly happy not to spend Christmas with her. And I notice that Lily is "so close" to Freddie and "feels a connection with him all the time" but arranges not to spend Christmas in his company either.

Paul always makes me think that he doesn't have much genuine emotion of his own, so he feeds off other people's and what he thinks they ought to feel.

I hate Lily. She's as bad as her mother.