Archers thread #203: It's Affair Cop! 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 would love to attend Pip's wedding with Natasha and the starry twins, 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.)

Starting the new thread a bit early as I'm not sure I'll have much internet access for the next few days. Fill up the old one first. And then - over to you!

(Credit for the thread title goes to @TripleSulko.)

She had to be stitched up which implies it wasn't plain sailing.

She had an idea in her head about birth, and that wasn't what happened. Birth is hard anyway, without layering on her expectations and her grim reality. She seems very realistic to me in her response.

This. Hence my comment about giving birth in 1980 with no internet or social media and therefore no unreal expectation of a lovely birth experience. I was fortunate that mine was uncomplicated and pretty similar to Amber's and not traumatising at all. I had stitches and couldn't feel them being done. I was under the impression that episiotomy was quite routine then but maybe things have changed. It didn't feel like a big deal at the time.

She was a successful influence because she was always on, always available, always producing attractive content, keeping her fans watching.

She has run into the reality of the birth process being hard, personal, scary. And now she's going to run into being too knackered to keep up the pace. It has the scope to be more interesting development than anyone else around the village.

I'm very fed up of the pensioners having to keep working for ever, whether the Grundys or the Snells.

I think she just had a tough, painful birth. She’s too young to have any friends to talk to about it (if she had any friends). She couldn’t have the epidural she wanted. It was only a few days ago. She’s not seeming traumatised so much as shocked and will be ok, but I feel like she may stick to her word that she’s not doing that again.

Not sure why we’ve got to the idea that birth has to have unusually dangerous features to be a huge shock to the system. I know tonnes of women who’ve given birth over the past ten years and every birth has things about it that stick with the mother for a long time after, whether life threatening or just painful, emotional, unfair (poor treatment), exhausting etc.

I'm very fed up of the pensioners having to keep working for ever, whether the Grundys or the Snells.

Particularly the Snells. They are about 80, surely they didn't expect to continue to do the B&B till they died? They clearly cannot be short of money and would presumably have made sure they had decent pensions and investments for their retirement. It's just so out of character and unrealistic, simply to keep the dog field story going.
How much income would this dog field bring to them personally? Whoever lets the land will want paying for use and a share of profits, I can't imagine it's a massive money maker for the Snells.

I just googled dog fields as I know nothing about them, given I dislike dogs. There's one in the next village to mine, a 7 acre field which costs £10.50 per hour for up to 3 dogs, open 10 hours a day. The people running it own the field though.
At that cost people surely wouldn't use it every day, would it be a once or twice a week thing?

More knowledgeable people will answer more fully, but they lost all their money, that’s why they started the b&b in the first place.

WitcheryDivine
I feel like she may stick to her word that she’s not doing that again.

Only the fact that the vast majority of women over the centuries have not stuck to their word about never doing that again has meant the species continued! Everyone I knew who had babies at the same time as me (and we tended to get stuck with each others' company: "Oh, x has just had a baby too, you're sure to get on" when all we had in common was we each had a baby, and the babies were nothing like each other either either) was adamant that was it, that baby was going to be an only child; most of them went on to have two or three, or in one case six!

@WitcheryDivine ,not London, Sunningdale.

Robert had his own company, which went bankrupt in 1994 and left them without income. He insisted on paying all his creditors what he owed them, which left the Snells without savings. Lynda gave up her car and started to ride a bicycle, and got a job working as a chambermaid at Grey Gables; after a bit Caroline took pity on her and promoted her to reception. Robert, now unable to get a job in computing because of his history, started to find employment as a handyman in the village (much to Eddie's fury, because he was getting, and doing well, jobs which Eddie would have botched up). So in 1995 their only asset was the house, which at that point did not have a mortgage on it because they had bought it outright with the proceeds of the sale of their house in Sunningdale plus cash from what was then Robert's successful business. If it has a mortgage now, it's one they didn't take out and I suggest they ought to ask some searching questions about that!