Archers thread #202: How are you finding your visits to Ambridge? Fill in your feedback forms 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 working as a hotel receptionist is a perfectly reasonable career choice for a graduate from a family with a stately home, 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-12-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.)

Over to you!

Madcats
When is the baby due?

Conceived on 23/24th December 2025? Someone else can work it out from that; I can't away with a system in which someone can be pregnant for two weeks whilst remaining a virgin at the same time.

Assuming the last period was on 14/12/25 then 21/09/26.

Assuming her periods were regular. And that if they were regular, the variation observed when I was at boarding school (anything between 23 and 33 days between periods, among the dormitory dwellers) doesn't apply.

I speak as someone whose due date was the same as that of my best friend, but our children arrived a month apart.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother...
Equinoxia Gordon-Grundy sounds good to me.

Oh bugger, the equinox is on the 22nd or 23rd. Should have checked.

Get yer calving chains ready Jakob.

Your post sounded reasonable until the last line.

Why did you feel the need to make such a nasty offensive comment?

Good on George! Telling Esme where to get off trying to lay the law down.

And, come on!

Lily and Harrison are so still going to get together! It's obvious!

(regarding @muddyford 's original post)
Perhaps because George is an odious little scrote?

Firmly Team Esme.

As she said, it was all about trust being broken.

Well, I don't think I'd like to meet you in real life.

He isn't real 😂

The admiring comments from Amber and sundry other women suggest that George might be a quite large odious scrote.

With muscles developed when he was in prison.

He's been an odious scrote more-or-less since he first spoke at about the age of six.

Goodness me, he's a radio character, no need to be so personal!

George really is a scummy lowlife.

Perhaps you've only recently started listening so you don't know his true nature?

I thought "odious little scrote" was quite complimentary, bearing in mind it was George.

Firmly Team Esme here.

I look forward to George being caught driving and returned to prison. I can't believe the scriptwriters would miss this opportunity ... well, I can, but let's be optimistic. It will of course be Not His Fault in Grundyworld.

For real? He's double-timing, collecting sick pay that she can't really afford, while also being paid elsewhere...she'd be well within her rights firing him for that. Just because he has a baby on the way, doesn't mean that that's an excuse to break employment law. His girlfriend also has a job (is she on mat leave yet?), and they are not needing to pay rent. As usual, he's professionally acting "hard-done-by", while in a situation that isn't so bad, and which is of his own making, as well. Weirdly, none of his female relatives (e.g. Mia, Keira, Poppy...) show any signs of such entitled behaviour...though they have their own issues...

Oh Esmee, Esmee you really ought to have spoken to Usha. You aren’t auditioning for “The Apprentice”; employment law doesn’t work like that (and quite why an IT consultant would decide that employment vs freelance was the way to go is beyond me).

Esmee wasn’t really eligible to take over her dad’s tenancy in the first place, so I’d be happy to help her pack her suitcases.

Wouldn’t it be glorious if the Gordons sorted out the tenancy for George and Amber?!

Something good will have to come from this merry mess otherwise the SWs will surely have to address Universal Credit etc.

Ahh - of COURSE

My bad, as the teens say!

How does employment law work against Esmé? I am definitely not an employment lawyer, but I would have thought George hasn't been working there long enough to gain any security of employment, and it's clearly not a discrimination situation. He quite clearly did lie to her. I'd also question whether he really wants the taxman to find out about his activities, so she can always hold that over his thread if he threatens litigation.

The actor is so good that he can make George both an odious little scrote and quite endearing.

And I don't think it reasonable of her to say that he can keep his job but drop his hours.

Does she do any cow work or does she just design websites and worry about money?

Apparently (according to google) it is not against any law to work one job whilst getting sick pay from another. You are allowed to work as many jobs as you like/can and if your ‘sickness’ prevents you doing one job but not another then crack on.

Also #TeamEsme

Assuming they have an actual contract, there should be a probationary period, if that is not finished, she can fire him whenever she wants.

But i think that isn't the point of the whole (huge scroat)George and Esme situation though. He is a typical Grundy: she "has a farm" so she is rich, they simply do not understand the economics of her (or any actual farmer's) situation. She is working her proper job and running the farm on the side, in an attempt to keep her father's life's work going.

She can't afford to pay SSP and another casual - it has simply never occurred to George that she isn't taking a salary from the farm, he is assuming she is rolling in it, because of the massive Grundy shoulder chip.

Did anyone else get confused at the beginning of the ep? I didn't realise it was Lily and thought it was Amber.

I agree, @SockPlant .

George seems to have some morals - he was annoyed at Eddies wonky gatepost - but he turned against her the minute she wasn’t giving him what she wanted.

The whole George-the-provider bit is very annoying.

@JudyCoolibar , She didn't need to take him on as a permanent employee. He could have worked for her on a contract basis.
As a contractor, unless otherwise stipulated, George could have worked for others. Esme, a freelancer/contractor would have been aware of this.
AFAIK, George would have 2 sessions at Meadow Farm, morning milking and afternoon milking,
Him being a full-time employee on sick pay doesn't really make sense.

Then again, it's The Archers so a lot of it doesn't make sense.