Archers thread #186: Eavesdropping on a home for the terminally confused. 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'd swipe right on Dane, the new Grey Gables manager, 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/radioaddicts/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/radioaddicts/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 @WitcheryDivine for the title inspiration. Over to you!

This is (disproportionately) disappointing. Lack of all continuity lately ranging from Neil down to small things like this is really making me fall out of love with it all.

As someone whose husband committed suicide I just wanted to say that I think it's perfectly fine for people to talk about suicide in a "jokey" or in any other way.

Not something I would do but it doesn't offend or upset me if other people do, especially if it's in relation to an actor in a soap opera where all manner of things happen to the characters.

I do think these days people can be so quick to take offence, and to try to tell other people what they can and cannot say, and that often includes people who haven't even experienced the thing they're taking offence about.

Sorry for your loss @Buxusmortus and thanks for giving your perspective.

Just to go back to Jill’s account of Peggy - it seemed very odd for me to hear her describe P as “sweet”. Not only because I don’t think she was 😂 but it just doesn’t feel like a way centenarians describe each other - not women anyway. Weirdly I’ve more often heard someone described as a sweet man.

Madcats
Who is the writer this week?

Katie Hims.

“Sweet” was an odd choice. Outside the food and drink arena, I would only describe pre-teens as sweet.

Aside from the fact that David is a dreadful narrator, I think they handled the scene with Jill’s tribute well (I’ll overlook the sherry muddle). I’m not sure that we’ll be hearing from Jill again after this month.

Alice really is into a bit of self-flagellation.

Why on earth doesn't David have done therapy?

Have you ever tried recommending therapy to a traditionally raised English man in his 60s? Most of them would act like you’d suggested they try on this lovely straitjacket.

No way would Justin not have cut to the chase and asked how much Peggy's legacy to the charity was!

Yes, Dayveed, I’m not at all surprised that you found talking to Ruth put imagined horrors into perspective.

And Ben, ODFOD.

Christine, alive and well !

Yet another blow-in tonight.

Arthur sounded rather like Harry, I thought.

Sick to the back teeth of preaching and PSAs.

What was Arthur there for?

He runs the dementia charity that Peggy left her money to.

It’s amazing how David and Ruth have bred both the worlds first lesbian and the worlds first health professional

arthur was such a waste of money and time - that whole thing could have been done in a sentence between Lillian and Brian or someone else

I'd quite like to know what meds Arthur is on and where can non-fictional characters get them.

So that Mark Carey can say he has played a part in the Archers?

So we don’t know what proportion of her money Peggy left to the charity?

I will be furious if the SWs have used this as a means to step away from giving the money to a member of the family and thus throwing turbulence and inequality into Aldridge family relations. That’s what TA is for; it would be a terrible dereliction of duty for them to have chickened out of doing it properly.

I'm sure he wanted to, but would have been too fearful of a tongue-lashing from Lilian later! (Pity - we the listeners want to know).

Arf! My guess is that Peggy left a specific and rather small amount for the (ghastly) family holiday and the remainder to charity ... possibly plural charities, but with luck just the one. In either case, hackles will be raised and fur will fly.

The thing is, Peggy's children don't actually need the money, do they? I mean they obviously planned to have it, but that's beside the point.

Where did the laugh smiley go?

It's been removed because people were using it sarcastically or aggressively or something.

I don't think he runs it. He volunteers there and is also a beneficiary of whatever it is they do.

Laugh emoji was being abused by some people, apparently, so MN has withdrawn it. Annoying, as I had got used to it and found it quite useful.

They may not need the money, but in Ambridge, legacies and inheritance bring about change - and it’s the consequences of those changes that drive the drama. (Not bloody Rochelle breezing in and then out.)

We’ve already seen how the SWs have turned a stately home, the residence of minor aristocracy, into a theme park run by (it would seem) one Pargetter by marriage, while the Pargetters by blood have been downgraded to ordinary jobs outside LL. They deprived us of the fun of seeing the Lodge pass to the next generation.

I suppose Peggy’s life (as story) won’t have been entirely pointless if there’s no major familial inheritance; if the preservation trust builds something lasting that’s a considerable change making legacy for the village, but still …

(Apologies - flogging a dead hobby horse …)

But if you're on a laptop I always am for posting on MN, you just hoick a laugh emoji off Safari. 😆, and so on.

Not seeing their point.