Archers thread #199: Kaboom! The Aldridges are self-destructing, and it's GLORIOUS. 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 drop everything to help Helen create a new cheese on national minimum wage, 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.)

If you haven't heard last night's episode (Friday 22nd May) you really must. It's episodes like that that keep me addicted. Funny how often they involve the Aldridges, the most dysfunctional and also by far the most interesting family in Ambridge. Also very well acted on the whole. How lovely to hear Tamsin Greig in TA, but I wonder if we ever will again.

Some cracking posts towards the end of the last thread, which is here: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/5518503-archers-thread-198-josh-sent-to-patagonia-pip-stays-put-wrong-way-round-discuss-the-archers-here

Over to you!

Google says it’s 4 years since Russ departed. That is a very long time in your twenties.

Surely no one wants 2 Fat 2 Rosieous? Even Pip has never said so and in general this is the kind of thing couples discuss??

Wonder if Pip will be slipping an image of a womb on to the mood board.

Felicity Finch will be on Woman’s Hour today talking about the current BRCA storyline:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002xdkt

Fat Rosie and Fat Rossie? I thought Fat Sammy was a better name because despite their history, Dave and Ruth would still think the sun shone out of TWFL's backside.

The possibility of wanting children should have been discussed prior to their engagement. Instead they've been speeding through the wedding plans.

What on earth does Stella see in farming heiress Pip?

Section starts at 10.24 am.

If Stella is younger than we thought and still fertile she would be perfect to provide Brian with a son.

Many of us were angry at Ian & Adam using a surrogate. How for you feel about women using sperm donation?

I think sperm donation is very different.

The man isn't at risk medically themselves through donating sperm (compared with egg donation and/or surrogacy).
The baby doesn't gestate in the man so there is no removal from the human that has grown them and they have connected with for the previous 9 months.

The DNA link to the parent is an issue however.
However again many children grow up with absentee fathers.

Henry was born via sperm donation.

The baby gets to stay with its mother (by gestation and birth) so removes that trauma.

But I'm fairly anti Pip, so there's chance anything she does will be wrong.

I overheard chat at knitting yesterday that included news of someone in the village who had just had an elective double mastectomy and hysterectomy because BRCA. There was an expression of sympathy and no surprise.

I don't think Stella's age has been specified other than she's nearer Ruth's age than Pip's. Pip's 33 and Ruth's 58. But it is Ambridge.

I have extended family who are impacted by this down the generations including preventative mastectomies. The children have been told they can do genetic testing with IVF to try to not pass on the gene.

To my mind, Stella feels mid-forties (though that hasn't stopped the SWs from deciding that this is the perfect age for Kirsty to get pregnant).

My biggest issue is that there is zero chemistry between her and Pip. I'm not sure whether the pair of them don't get on in real life (but it certainly sounds like it). I'm beginning to wonder whether they will even marry.

I hope they don't.

Kirsty is not the first 40-something to get pregnant very easily in Ambridge.
I know of some who have in real life but not many, and unless they said it wasn't planned, I've not asked.

I like the Stella actor but not Pip and the chemistry just isn't there.
Most of the twosomes work - Pat & Tony, Helen & Tom, Tom & Tash, Kate & Jakob, Brad & Chels, Frilly etc.

@TeenToTwenties , same here. I don't trust Stella.

I'm not sure what I'd prefer... Pip jilted on her wedding day or a messy divorce before the year's up.

Silent (on Pip's part) split after Stella makes it quite plain that Cleo will not be rehomed.

Pip is being clear she wants another child.
Stella needs to woman up and say she doesn't, not just avoid the subject.

If Pip wants another child, let her have it herself - or adopt one. But if I were Stella I'd run! I'm sure it's a very nice farm, but it can't be so great that it's worth spending a lifetime with Pip and Row Zee.

To be fair, we don’t really know that Kirsty has got pregnant easily - she’s been bonking Eric for ages and assumed it was not going to happen (I think she said they were wiling to take the risk so clearly not using contraception). I don’t think we have been given a clear idea of how much time they have spent together.

To be fair, we don’t really know that Kirsty has got pregnant easily The impression that I got was that they hadn't tried to not get Kirsty pregnant.

Pip and Stella wont get married. There will be A Drama.

Wouldn’t it be brilliant if Stella were to realise that she’s well into her forties and prefers older career-orientated women. I’m here for Anna and Stella getting together!

That would at least explain reintroducing Anna to the listeners.

That would be excellent, @Madcats. Anna is 56 (57 in September), intelligent (okay, only up to a point, but I do empathise with her problems with Carol) and doesn't have any children. They could abandon Ambridge forever when Carol inevitably carks it, which (at the rate she's going) can't be far off, leaving Pip to magically become heterosexual again and try to steal Rex from Alice. (Not that he's worth fighting over.)

Anna and Stella would be a good couple, but I really would love Stella to declare that Pip has put her off women, and take on Home Farm, Brian and all, instead.