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!

Yes; I'm trying to imagine what the modules might be called. "Dressing to Impress"? Something about Personal Branding? Extracting Valuable Presents with Minimal Strings Attached? I can see a lot of overlap between Gigolo Studies and Business Studies, tbf. What is his degree meant to have been in, if he had a City internship? I assumed something businessy...

It’s such a long time since I’ve heard Brian being supportive to anyone other than Alice! I was slightly afraid.

But I can never forget how much he leaned on (poor, useless) David during the Siobhan era, so I’m glad he’s being kind to Josh.

If Glebe cottage is owned by Jill maybe the Brookfield family deal is that Jill has agreed to leave if to Josh solely? Does that make any sort of sense?

Will Jill tell Shula and Elizabeth, or will she leave that for someone else to do after she's dead?

It does seem a mess if Phil's will says his share goes to Elizabeth & Shula. If he left it to Jill she could change her will. Given the Peggy inheritance non-story it seems plausible the writers will ignore E&S completely.

Where does Josh live just now?

Isn't Josh at the Stables with Lily and Paul?

I hate to say it but presumably the SW have written all this Brookfield inheritance storyline so it can be adapted at short notice.

OT but can anyone remind me why Ruairi went to boarding school? I don’t think Alice and Kate did?

I thought he and Brian were very good value last night.

"Jill, hyped up on crisps" - that made me laugh.

I can't forget her words to George "I'd rather be with Brad than a loser like you". Was that the real Amber speaking?

Essentially Ruairi attended boarding school because Jennifer didn’t feel up to being the full time parent of a small child again. This was completely reasonable - she’d have been much older than the other mothers (and it would be mothers) at the school gate, let alone having the energy for the full social calendar of a well kept child. (And the prospect of relentless, daily, local gossip about them.)

On the whole the writers didn’t do a terrible job of showing that boarding meant continuous to-ing and fro-ing from school, and that he was home for vast amounts of time, including lots of weekends and long holidays.

I seem to recall Kate was expelled from boarding school? Don’t remember about Alice.

Afaicar Granny Bridget wanted Ruairi to go to a Catholic school. I had theorised Downside, in the right part of country to have played cricket etc against Sherborne, so Brian could believe it existed.

Hmph - I didn’t mean ‘small child’ above, I mis-spoke. I meant prep school age onwards. (I think he attended des prep and senior school as a boarder?)

The ownership and history of Glebe Cottage and the Brookfield bungalow are described in the Archers Encyclopedia, published by that obscure entity, the BBC. Messing around with established facts seems pointless as well as irritating.

I think Alice was expelled, too. Didn't Alice go to the Cathdral School in Felpersham as a day girl, and then insisted on doing A-levels at Borchester Hreen? Or am I confusing her with Freddy & Lily?

Alice was very much not expelled, and she didn't go to the Cathedral School. She got brilliant GCSE results but stunned Brian and Jennifer by telling them (earlier in year 11, I assume) that she didn't want to stay at St Margaret's for the sixth form. I can't remember if she ever explained fully but she insisted on transferring to Borchester FE College to do her A levels, where she again did brilliantly, emerging with top grades. It may have been because St Mag's, as I think she called it, was a small fee-paying girls' school and she found it claustrophobic. I think she'd been there since she was tiny. Small schools like that also sometimes struggle to provide a good range of A level subjects, so that might have been a factor. Brian was aghast - he said something about her fellow students at Borchester not having opposable thumbs, I think.

I don't think either Lily or Freddie were expelled either. They both chose to go to Borchester FE College for A levels. Freddie was so academically challenged that he probably couldn't have stayed on at the Cathedral School, but Lily was another top grade student. She met the ineffable Russ at the College, of course.

I always get confused about whether Kate was expelled or just asked not to return after her O levels or GCSEs. Elizabeth I think was expelled. Alice was the only Aldridge not to board. Debbie went to Cheltenham Ladies' College and I think Kate may have been imposed on them too. Adam went to Sherborne, Brian's alma mater (and Charles Collingwood's).

I think that under the terms of the will made by Phil and Jill, whichever partner in the marriage survived the other was to have a life interest in Glebe Cottage and on that second partner's death the original intention to leave the property to be divided equally between Shula and Elizabeth was to come into force. (I think this might also have been to avoid inheritance tax, when those wills were made? The property actually vests in the two legatees not in Jill any more?) I'm not sure how easily Jill could alter that. Someone who is a lawyer, please tell us!

I think if you make mirror wills, either party can change their own, before or after the other party's death and (if before) without telling them. They are quite separate legal documents and not dependent on each other. The beneficiary of a will can also change the distribution of the assets with a deed of variation.

So (for the sake of argument) even though MrG and I have mirror wills I can change mine tomorrow. If he dies first, I can then inherit his dosh (avoiding IHT by passing any taxable amount on to, say, UNICEF). I can then leave my own money to, say, my 28-year-old toyboy or the local cats' home. Or vice-versa.

If it was an IHT dodge would Jill have to pay the full whack if she messes with it?

My parents had mirror wills leaving everything to the other, and when my father started to get 'forgetful', but before any formal diagnosis, she went out on her own and changed hers to benefit me.

My FiL and MiL had wills leaving everything to each other; he died, she didn't change hers, and the lawyers took a lovely long time getting probate through.

Hoping this will be free to read:

https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/radio/the-archers-at-75-stars-celebrity-fans-newsfeature/

She can't do a deed of variation of Phil's will now! There's a time limit of 2 years after death, and he carked it long ago. So whatever she inherited from him is hers to dispose of as she pleases. If she only inherited a life interest in the cottage then all bets are off, and I'd have to look it up ... it's been about 25 years since I hung up my probate hat and I can't remember where I hung it. Also, I don't care as the SWs will just invent whatever scenario suits that week's plot.

True, they will. They will find the only example in history to back up their story so that they can say it is possible, and say that it was thoroughly researched, too.