Archers thread #163: Too much aggro, not enough agri! 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, 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 @LikeTalkingToLassie for the thread title idea! She and @LillianGish had fun with this theme on the last thread:

More farmer, less drama
More ploughing, less rowing
There's mileage in silage.
More sheds, fewer beds.

All good points. Fair to say nobody on the last thread was delighted to see the return of Harry. I think we all agree that Alice is a blithering idiot to get involved with him again. Most of us also think that Miranda is up to no good. Other storylines in play at the moment:

Alistair and Denise, with the massive complication of John and Paul
Ed and Emma - another doomed Grundy enterprise? Does Will still have the will to wang them some wonga?
Whither George - YouTube sensation or Borchester Magistrates' Court?
Will Markie cause mayhem at The Bull?
Will Harrison haul him in to Borchester nick?
Will Hannah get off with Chris?
Will we ever get used to the new Robert?
Will there ever be a new Roy?
Why do we hear so little from Brookfield now? (Although if we never heard Pip again, I for one would be delighted)
Will Stella dump Pip?

There are probably others I've missed. Over to you!

Thanks very much, Asking, when Johnnie Walker and I conclude our regular Sunday afternoon tryst over Sounds of the 70s, I'll catch up with young Blayke.

It's very short, but he seems an articulate sort of chap.

Just went back to LA and she did indeed say he 'hates' cricket……I suppose that’s a hint to me that listening in the car on the M1 is probably a bad idea….!

How did Alastair get so undressed and sweaty after such a short snog?

Well that was better. Had some pigs - how realistic is them being on the lawn by the house?

poor Azra being dragged around by Joy - she’s going to get tired of it! Like how she keeps putting her foot in it!!

still annoyed by the Chelsea thing and Kenton and Natasha to conspire to keep her on min wage because ‘she’s lucky to have a job’

The pigs will not have been meant to be on the lawn. Pigs and lawns don't mix.

No I meant more would they have reached the lawn from where they normally live. Is Rex on lower loxley land now?

Rex is at his father's.

There may have been a suggesting of grazing (do pigs graze? browse maybe?) the pigs in the LL woods over winter some time back, an ecologically sound suggestion. Still having them there in spring, not so much I'd have thought.

But where is his base for the pigs I mean. He was on Brookfield land but he had to leave I think? If so, where did he go?

He keeps them on LL land permanently IIRC, by arrangement with Elizabeth. And Neil is involved either at the beginning or end of their rearing.

We didn’t hear who the failing pig sitting friend was, which seems a shame. Though pigs on the stately lawn seemed only a preamble to Fairfatherly heart disease - which might have implications for the business and financial fortunes of Toby and Rex. Perhaps Rosie, even as we speak, is counting (aloud) the likely profits from the wine business she might inherit along with a fraction of Brookfield?

Rex has rented land from Elizabeth for his pigs, and sold pork to The Orangery, since April 2021. The pigs are on some rough ground with woodland, "on the Lower Loxley estate, out of sight of the house. It's a big site, with a lane for access onto the road." according to the synopsis

He was keeping the pigs at Lower Loxley. For quite a while, I think. Were they one of the attractions for visitors mentioned along with birds of prey for some event or other.

Must learn to refresh posts before I reply! Sorry to cross-post with those who know more.

You can see the pigs from Uncle Rupert's Memorial! I'm not sure whether that makes them a visitor attraction or not.

Tuesday 29th June, 2021
"Vince and Elizabeth are up at Uncle Rupert's Memorial enjoying the view, which includes Rex's pigs."

The uniform and pushing a name for the business! More signs of Will overstepping the mark. Chelsea's on the money in her assessment. Maybe Ed will go all Texas Chainsaw on Will. More likely Will, having interfered a lot will pick up a chainsaw thinking he's all that and voila! the accident the plot line has been waiting for.

I keep thinking Ed will wuss out or be allergic to wood or something and Emma and Will will end up having to work together in order not to waste their investment - that’d be a plot line with plenty to give.

But he's not overstepping the mark, because the marks haven't been defined. Ed and Emma think Will's just there to provide money. Will thinks he's got a right to have input because he's made the investment - but they haven't sat down all three of them and talked through how much Will should or shouldn't be involved in the actual running of the business, so they're all making mismatched assumptions which will lead to a massive bust up.

And yes, I think Emma and Will are going to end up the active ones in the business.

Do pigs root rather than graze not sure but somewhere in my brain I thought of pigs rooting and a tootoling if thats the right spelling. Most probably wrong.
Funny how Joy was just doing something ( gift shop),so she couldnt be heard.

Hasn’t Azra got teenage kids? Or did I imagine that, highly probable. How likely is it she’d want to spend Sunday pootling around LL with a woman she’s just met and her boyfriend?

Yes I wondered where the kids were - would have made more sense if she had brought them along to explore the area. They could have just said the kids were in the gift shop too!!

also where were they Friday night? I know teens don’t necessarily need a babysitter but given she’s working quite far from home and we know her DH isn’t in the country (or is he back?) then wouldn’t she want to get back home?

I’ve always quite liked on the archers that the kids on the main are acknowledged

Isn’t that Toby? Went to work in his father’s wine merchant business?

Rex lives in a houseboat on the Am, doesn’t he?

I think Joy (?) said Rex had gone to see his father because he was ill. He doesn't live there.

Apologies if this has been said before, but if Chelsea is filling in on jobs vacated by Emma then can't she do both jobs and why didn't Emma suggest this? The strangest thing about last night though was the appearance of Rex's pigs - surely pigs on the loose on a day LL is open to the public would have generated more urgency? In the old days the pigs would have been front and centre - now they are peripheral and almost incidental. Neil, Jazzer, Hannah - there are any number of pig wanglers who could have been called upon to round up the escapees. In fact when Chelsea turned up at Emma's asking for a favour I thought she was going to be looking for Ed to lend a hand. As @TottersBlankly observed, the pigs were merely there to signal that 'Bring me the Voice of Anthony Head' was potentially on his last legs, much as the appearance of Ed's lamb (also on its last legs) was there so Denise could discover she had competition via Ed's teasing of Alistair.

Chelsea can’t do both jobs because she wants to keep up the hairdressing. Not sure how her LL job tied into the tearoom hours though. Is the bull job mainly evenings? If don’t makes more sense to take that so she can have day hours for hairdressing