Archers thread #172: Come on, Clive! Spill the beans and put us all out of our misery. 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 Clive sounds deeply misunderstood, 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 https://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.)

Fete over, cricket season over - can the Flower and Produce show be far behind? I don't think I've heard a mention of it this year. Have I not been paying attention?

In any real village, preparations for the Christmas show would already be under way, but not in Ambridge, of course. I am probably in a minority of one in regretting this.

With any luck, though, by Christmas this incredibly protracted tale of Alice, George and the crash will be behind us at last. Do we think Clive's really gone? I don't believe it. We won't be rid of him that easily. Will he go to the police himself? Will he attempt to blackmail his family or extort money from the Aldridges in return for information that would secure Alice's acquittal? Do we care? I find I don't really, unfortunately. I did enjoy hearing Clive for those few brief exchanges but I've had enough now. Unrelieved nastiness is not really what I want from TA.

Over to you!

I don’t think I’d have been able to resist walloping Ian, if I were Adam. Shut UP, already!
And I’m also expecting Sheep Gate WA to spiral into homophobia and hurt feelings.

So shouldn't it be "giffy"? Ah, I see - it's a search engine and datastore of animated gifs.

When does a gif become a meme? Is it when it starts being spread?

It was inevitable that Adam would be presumed to be the grandad, isn't he pushing 60? Lots of my (middle class, educated) friends are about 60 and have little grandkids

Adam was 57 in June. It's perfectly reasonable to assume he was the grandfather. He's only a month younger than Neil, and Neil has grandchildren older than Zander at the school.

Adam and Neil are the same age 😱

@MereDintofPandiculation ,Giphy is the name of the company responsible for the database and search engine.

No, Neil must be older than that. More like 67. He used to be older than me, and probably still is.

Got a job at Brookfield in 1973, so must have been at least 15, probably 16.

Emma is 40 and he certainly wasn’t 17 when she was born

George V or what? Mad, isn't it? I like to get things right, but know I often don't. I couldn't find a way to pause the GIF.

Obviously, this is the most pressing issue on TA at the moment, what with Xander starting school and the litter picking.

I thought the continuity announcer said a name I didn't recognise for the child starting school. I thought, who the hell is that, whose kid is it? It didn't sound like Xander - did anyone else catch it?

ETA: obvs I know it was Xander, just curious to know what the CA said.

Neil was born on 22nd May 1957, and Adam on 22nd June 1967.

Phew - I was shocked to the core at the idea of them being the same age!!

No they aren't. The bios on the BBC characters list say Neil was born 22 May 1957 and Adam 22 June 1967.

My mistake! Neil is 10 years older than Adam.

But when Neil was Adam's age he had an 8 year old grandson.

Thanks for the thread.

Finally....

I could almost hear Susan not wanting to believe it. The fall out is going to be good. If only Clive wasn't involved.

This got me thinking. I'm close to 70 and none of my peers, all sprogging 35 onwards, have grandchildren.

Actually, when Neil was Adam's age he had three grandchildren - 9 year old George, 3 year old Keira and baby Poppy.

I couldn't find a way to pause the GIF. I didn't even think of looking! I was just interrupting my vision, because if you can get the frequency right, you can block out either all the head views or all the tail views, and so you can see whichever you haven't blocked out a lot more clearly than if you're brain is frantically trying to keep up with the alternation.

Grrr. Your.

It's quite a thought that you could have a grandchild at the age of 33 with no laws being broken at all. If laws around age of consent were broken, it could be a good few years younger than that. I was 30 when my first child was born.

I am so glad my children were through the school system before WhatsApp came along. The idea of a class group chat fills me with horror.

@MereDintofPandiculationHow to Stop GIFs From Auto-Playing in Your Browser (pcmag.com)

Brian was older when Ruairi was born than Adam is now.

One of the girls at school got pregnant at 15. I think she was a grandparent at about 34. She seems to have done alright for herself.

Most people I was at school with, their own children are exam years at school or uni, or just graduating. We're early 50s, so it's possible more will become grandparents in the next decade.

I was 34 when I had my first child and I was the first of my friends to reproduce. I was 69 when my first grandchild was born and I have another due in a few months. Hardly any friends of my age have grandchildren yet.

By contrast my own grandmother was 50 when I was born and she was older than most of my friends' grandmothers. My mother (aged 94) is a great-grandmother to four under twos, but I very much doubt I will see my great-grandchildren.

I worked with women in their early 40s who already had grandchildren and I did rather envy them, but I am very glad I didn't have my children in my 20s.

Susan and Neil are going to be absolutely mortified, as will Clarrie (who we don't seem to have heard from in a very long time).

Are the actors on a retainer or do they only get paid when they appear in an episode? (Shades of Tony Hancock.)