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.)

Wasn’t Ian the one who stirred up Adam to go and see a lawyer in the first place? He was very anti-Brian at one point and suddenly now he’s being accommodating and conciliatory. Bit inconsistent…

All the baybee stuff is boring to me but clearly people with children are enjoying it. I’m just glad the Aldridge feud is back on the agenda. Too much of Emma and Susan fussing over pads and Amber failing to bond will soon wear thin. I suppose it’s only been a few days…

All the baybee stuff is boring to me but clearly people with children are enjoying it.

Not all of us. The only baybees I was interested in were my own and the ones my own had.
I will be interested in how Amber and George get on looking after not-Joe but I had enough of stitches, pads, discharge etc the first time round.

I think the problem with the Brian cannot see Zander route that Adam wants to take is that they live in Ambridge. It would work if they lived a long way away but they live in the same village plus I can’t see Alice not inviting Brian to Martha’s party or Brian not going to see the nativity or whatever at the church and he will undoubtedly see Zander who will then be wondering why he can’t see his Grandpa

I think Ian being charmed into feeling sorry for Brian and letting him set up the gardening station was very believable. It's the reason so many people on here love Brian and the reason he was such a successful philanderer - he is very charming. Let's be honest he has to be - because otherwise he would just be thoroughly despicable, it's the reason any cad or conmen is able to get away with anything. In full charm mode he comes across as perfectly, amiable, reasonable, benevolent and benign. But what he said to Adam was unforgivable - and all too reminiscent of the way he treated Jenny, the mother who is no longer there to talk Brian round. He made it very clear where Adam stood - despite the fact he had been promising him the earth when Adam stepped him to help him out of a hole of his own creating when Stella left. It was quite simply the final straw for Adam - who has experienced this turning on and off of the golden light of approval all his life. It was a moment of clarity when he realised he had never really had Brian's approval or acceptance - except when he needed a favour - and he wants to save his own son from the same disappointment. Xander needs to quite literally plough his own furrow so he won't wake up one day at 60 and find it's all been snatched away from him (if it was ever there in the first place).

But didn't Brian turn on Adam when he realised he and Debbie were plotting against him?

Absolutely spot-on post @LillianGish.

"However, what stays with me from the experience is when I got pregnant the second time a colleague of mine (a Nurse, no less!) asked me if I was “going to do it properly this time?” So much for solidarity and any level of support. Thanks a bunch."
Shocking comment from a nurse, @Prestissimo.

Agreeing with this. I hope the storylines are not going to be George, Amber and (?)-heavy.

Jethro Grundy, yes!

She could call him Ro for short, which has influencer vibes.

Poor Jethro doesn't deserve a Jethro Grundy. He loathed Eddie and was very unhappy indeed about Clarrie's marriage to a man he (rightly) regarded as a waster, and he'd find his name being linked to Grundy a disgrace to it.

Jethro is a cool name though

( ooh! I’m a poet and I didn’t know it!)

Jethro in NCIS tends to get called by his surname, and Chegwidden in JAG goes by AJ rather than by any of his names. It would be nice to have a Jethro this side of the pond.

Maybe Amber will combine babes eg Gordon Grundy ?

I was wondering whether William may make it after George’s Dad and Ambers Father ?

Combine Names even (!)

NN Jet?

Good grief. Are you all telling me that Amber had this baby on 25th and it still doesn't have a name four days later? Is the TA editor hoping this will improve listener figures or something?

They did the "keep everyone guessing about the name" game with Kate; they did it with Emma; could they just give it a rest?

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime , that's not unusual, some have no name for weeks. They had a name but Amber is having doubts. Name regret can be a sign of PND.

I repeated the bicarb tip on another thread and it was not well-received. At least I learnt that one can get postpartum pre-eclampsia.

I agree too. i remember Pip being a baby and I didn't want to hear another baby when I had one a few days older than her.

Billy? (I'm sure that has been suggested before).

Archie? Bit of a wink to the fourth wall.
Or perhaps Amber should ask her followers what she should call Grundy McGrundyface.

Given the number of people on Mumsnet who seem to be starting to choose names for their baby the moment they've had the first scan, I am slightly surprised to learn that something I have never encountered in real life is not unusual.

Strong disagreements between the parents about the name, yes, often, but those arguments have generally been well before the actual birth. Making a list of a dozen or so possible names is frequent (and the lists turn up years later inside books, and the children in question wince and howl over them). And sometimes the baby arrives and both parents are quite clear that the name they had ready just doesn't suit that person and they've fallen back on one of the others they'd had in mind. But no name for days and weeks is not something I expect at all, unless it's a religious thing about having a use-name until some official naming ceremony such as baptism, and I somehow can't see that as a reason for either Emma or Amber (I suspected that Kate was just not naming the baby and calling her Baby in order to wind people up; she tended to enjoy causing others discomfort).

Mind you, if the name was to be Joe I am absolutely with Amber on not using it: memorialising that horrible old man is a and b the c of d.

George's father is Ed. William is his uncle. I think they had a paternity test after Emma and Will tried to leave the country, Emma having DTD with Will the night before her marriage to Ed and found herself pregnant and hoping Will was the father. Joe is awful, Joseph good. Billy is a baby name, not for an adult male.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime , a sibling's DC1 was named before he was born but the DC2 didn't look like any of the names they had in mind.

@muddyford , George's father is not Ed. You've got Ed and Will mixed up.
I know some adult Billys. It's fine.

I meant Gordon Grundy as Gordon is Ambers surname & William as William is George’s Dad and Bill is Ambers Dad ,apologies for being unclear

@muddyford - you’re going to need to listen to the last quarter of a century of episodes again … 😹😹😹