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!

And we could rename Mick, Dick.

Well Ed n em are unlucky enough to have HMRC query the gift no doubt!!

Welcome! Not sure most of us here want a happy ever after ending for Helen, but we'll see. So far Dane seems to be relentlessly cheerful, which would drive me to distraction, but maybe it's just what Helen needs.

A few weeks/months ago we heard Ed and Fallon together and many of us thought they were getting on extremely well. They were an item at one point, and most of us would put money on Harrison not coming back from his secret msision, so maybe we're building up to Emma and Ed splitting up. Emma could marry Will again, perhaps. That would put the cat among the pigeons!

I am a very greedy person and so was totally in sympathy with Ed over his longing for the chicken pie. The idea of being given a free dinner in a good restaurant and turning it down is incomprehensible to me. However, in Emma's defence, she must be worried sick about George. When's he due for release? In real life, he'd be high on the list for early release given the massive overcrowding in the prison system, but the TA production team can't be that responsive to current events.

Yes, I completely agree.

Thanks for the new thread @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g .

Agree about Lilian having the added burden of Jennifer to process again, that and her increasing age - feelings of her own mortality.

Helen and the Great Dane are clearly not a match. I would be furious with Ian if I was Helen and he had stood by without giving me a full appraisal of the Dane. While he may not want to stickybeak, he is meant to be her best friend.

I felt royally spoilt last night (like Helen with the tiramisu!) No Mick/Rochelle/Joy! No Maliks! Not so much as a mention of any of them!

Setting aside Cheery Dane, it’s good to have GG back in the story, even if most of what goes on there makes no sense.

It should be good to have Zainab employed there - drawing in her parents, brother, Chelsea, possibly Ben. GG might return to being the social hub it used to be, without all the grim ‘comedy’ of the Tracy era. Ideally the hotel could support her in taking some sort of Hospitality Management degree / apprenticeship - if it appealed to her. It may not be what her mother hoped for, of course.

I say again, there is no way Lily Pargetter would be loitering there during her uni vacations. It’s ridiculous; she hasn’t been so necessary to the story that the SWs couldn’t have sent her for far more realistic internships in - I dunno - Davos or Washington or Yakushima. It’s so extraordinary to make her the daughter of a stately home and then give her nothing; not a single trapping of gilded youth and privilege. This desperation amongst the current writers to iron out every possible social inequality between characters makes for incredibly colourless and tedious listening.

Am I incredibly cold to be finding Lillian (77 years) being so upset by the death of her 100 year old mother odd?
It's wholly believable to me. Lillian has not long lost her sister - a huge shock which she would have shared with Peggy. She also saw her mum nearly every day (even if we never witnessed this). She can't just forget for a moment and imagine her mum happily pottering round her garden at the other end of the country until it suddenly hits her all over again, Peggy's death leaves a huge gap in her daily life. I think it's quite easy to be dismissive of people who have "had a good innings", but when it's your mum or dad it's never long enough.

I always pictured this branch of the family a bit like the royal family. Peggy as the queen mother, Jennifer as the queen and Lil as princess Margaret. Well imagine how sad and annoyed princess M would have been to be left with just prince Charles or something. Lillian and Tony have very little common ground whereas I always felt that Jennifer and Lillian (and their mum) were also friends.

I think it’s particularly hard re Peggy, because she seemed in fine fettle to the end.
Losing an elderly parent who is confused, demented and/ or physically suffering is sad, but brings a relief with it. You are relieved for them even though it hurts you. Peggy was frail, but sharp as a tack and trying it with the windows and funding rewinding. Though I’d much rather have that and the window nonsense than a painful decline.

I agree with that. My mother had advanced dementia and didn't know where or, even, when she was. It was a relief when she died, a release from a tormented last 3 years for her.

I'd rather her attitude than Tom and Natasha's grabbyness over how they were going to spend the inheritance...

I bet Dane has a girlfriend in every port

He's supposed to be a temporary manager so why is he dating locally?

@Bruisername , I think you missed out a word.

"imaginary"

I've taken a striong dislike to him just in case it wasn't obvious.

I think that she might - Brian only said that she had a query about the will, so could be more than "why have I only got £290.74" or whatever the amount was,
Given that Kate had moved in with her, could have been left the house?
although it sounds as if the will was written post The Laurels.

He can date Zainab then as they're both at GG.

The house was sold

i suspect Dane works as a temp manager because
a) he’s shit at his job
b) he picks up a local lady and then gets bored and legs it

The house was sold.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
in Emma's defence, she must be worried sick about George. When's he due for release? In real life, he'd be high on the list for early release

On 10th October last year he was sentenced "for the charge of dangerous driving, one year, and for the charge of perverting the course of justice, two years, to be served concurrently." I'm not sure how many months he'd serve of a two year sentence, but surely more than seven?

TottersBlithely, I agree with you, and also I don't think it can even be Lily's university vacation yet: it's only May for goodness' sake!

Isn’t it 40% of the sentence now? Hasn’t got that much longer then?

He's done a bit of fighting in prison, which might alter that.

40% of twenty-four months is what, almost ten months?

Well if they re being topical it sounds like they are desperate to get them out of prison asap

Genuinely, is Zainab allowed to work in a hotel but not a pub?