Archers thread #195: Run, Amber, run! 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 19 is an ideal age to have a baby with a convict, 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.)

Emma spoke sense to George and Amber tonight. Goodness only knows where this storyline is going. I can't see George being Father of the Year. Oh dear.

Over to you!

Who's at it with Brad!

I hope not... 🤞 I think it would be a very odd match, as his maturity is clearly much lower than hers.

Also, is there not a massive age difference between Esme and George?

I don't think there is anything 'suspicious' about the cows getting out.
Josh was a little careless in an unfamiliar environment, not unlikely.

George looked to see where they had got out, spotted it and sorted it. No point waiting as otherwise the cows could get out again. He was doing good husbandry.

George knows what he's doing at a basic+ level. He's been brought up as a farmer and was doing agriculture of some sorts at college (even if he dropped out? He did drop out didn't he? There would have been probably too much talk and writing assignments for his liking.)

Yes, she must be mid thirties. George's parents are very early forties. She's closer in age to an parent than a peer.

(Not that age has to be a barrier... look at Stella and Pip, for example. But George and Esme's levels of maturity are vastly different).

I like that George's character has some nuance to it, which is being written pretty consistently. He's got a massive chip on his shoulder, has a problem with women especially in authority, often blames everyone but himself for things going wrong, and has form not once, but several times, for letting others take the fall for stuff he's done: all very unpleasant. But he also has form for caring about animals, and for being a hard and competent worker when it's work he likes and when he's being managed well. I don't think Esme will fall for George (I don't think she was seeing Josh off, precisely: I think she's oblivious that he's got a crush on her), but I do wonder if George will fall for her. He has form for falling for women significantly older than him (see Fallon), and for turning nasty when they turn him down. Complicated by his relationship with Amber, this could get very interesting.

George is not yet twenty-one; Esme has been away from Ambridge for over twenty years, according to her, so if she left to go to university and never went back after qualifying as a computer professional she must be almost twice his age.

About George and animal husbandry: I haven't seen all that much evidence for his having been good with animals in the past. He has a dog which was never properly housetrained (not his fault, he was given her for Christmas in 2013 when he was eight and he wouldn't have known how at that age) and which he has not mentioned since early 2014 until this year when someone else was looking after her and he took back what was his; he took over care of a very elderly pony and managed to keep it alive for longer than people expected; he didn't bother to protect pigs in his care from possible contamination with pork products when he happened to want to eat pork in their housing. (And he was not regarded as satisfactory in his treatment of them in general during the seven weeks he worked at Berrow.) And following the examples of his grandfather and great-grandfather would be no way to get a grounding in good husbandry, because Joe and then Eddie have always been absolutely lousy farmers: that is why they went bankrupt and lost their farm. Ed kept dairy cattle, and now keeps sheep; has George ever been mentioned as having much to do with either enterprise? His prowess has mostly seemed to be harvesting and flinging bales of hay around.

Not that I remember it myself, but George is supposed to have helped with milking at Bridge Farm (presumably doing a few shifts is all you need to be a good cowman). If I were a farmer I think I’d find the whole Meadow Farm SL a tad patronising! Should some of the cows be calving this Spring?

Is ANYBODY going to bother to ask Keira why she ran away?!!

Place marking.
Fav character: Ed
Worst: Joy

they just played the scene with Amber and her parents on Pick of the Week

Just popped back to say I heard this - first time I’ve heard any archers this year and very glad I’ve stopped listening tbh! Getting a quick update via this thread makes me even gladder!!!

My main feeling was "Goodness, PotW is scraping the barrel a bit".

So they didn't want to open the can of worms that is his siblings shares? Mad.

They could have said it was still under discussion and they where considering I dependent advice.

And isn't it the estate not the inheritors that pay the tax bill?

So it's not Pip that pays. If they'd sold the 30 acres and the cottage that might have gone a long way to paying the tax bill. So what have they ear marked to sell?

Josh is going to decide he isn't going to be unpaid labour in the general farm and make plans to decamp somewhere.

Ben seems to have come out of he situation badly.

And Ruth saying that the farm would never be sold. Naive in the first degree.

Pip will have to pay the IHT out of her farm income as there doesn’t seem to be any cash in the estate. But who knows how the boys pay their share of IHT on their inheritances—again perhaps there’s a large amount of cash put aside in the estate.

When I die I shall be leaving my sibling's house to one of my children. That is what David and Ruth are proposing to do, so it must be all right and tight and legal.

When Jill dies, Glebe Cottage will belong to Elizabeth and Shula, under the terms of her and Phil's will: she has a lifetime interest until then. She and Phil bought it after they retired, and it's no more part of Brookfield than The Bull is part of Brookfield just because Kenton lives there.

I can't wait to hear Elizabeth's reaction when she learns that her cottage is being left to someone else!

Wonder what Stella would have done if Josh had got the farm…

To avoid inheritance tax, all they have to do is pass on most of the farm and stuff 7 years before they die. (Keeping a cottage where they live and a share of farm to live off if they haven't paid into pensions).

Wonder what Stella would have done if Josh had got the farm…

That would have been much more interesting! Pip and Stella are the most unconvincing, dull couple in Ambridge.

It's a close run thing between them, and AdamanIan.

The SWs missed a trick there. I love the idea of Stella ditching Pip and making a play for Josh!

Good thing Stella proposed before that conversation...

Sadly I have no relatives in the UK so, having thought this through, I have decided to leave the house at the end of our back garden to the local Hell's Angels, as technically the downstairs extension they built (before we bought the place) encroaches on Our Land ... in the sense that it was (technically illegally) built right up to the boundary and the overflow from the downstairs bathroom hangs over our garden by at least two inches! This makes it mine, right?

Honestly, you would think the Beeb would have at least one very junior intern keeping an eye on - say - Mustardland. On the other hand, playing Spot-The-Nonsense is probably why most of us listen.

Otherwise Pip might worry in case it was "love me, love my farm."

Was Josh's oversight with the gate the SWs' clumsy way of foreshadowing his not inheriting Brookfield, the dairy farm?

I thought David was awful, "consoling" Josh by praising his get and go spirit, i.e. you're a good sort and will make your way so this is why you're getting less.

It comes up a lot on MN threads which have flourished post-Covid now that the dreadful Boomers, who didn't deserve to live having had their time, have got the message and died

Bit speechless about Glebe Cottage, frankly.

Speechless.

😡