Right. I have two practical Archers questions that are really bothering me...

[seeker]

1. Why do Pat and Helen never do the milking at Bridge Farm? Never? Even when it was a real problem after Tony's heart attack?

1. How on earth can Hayley and Mike's egg business be worth £4000? What is Josh actually buying?

Bloody hell, Paul's going to top Matt, isn't he? Didn't think of that!

new Clarrie is actually the original (I think) Clarrie!

iirc

Clarrie 1 (ie this one) was sacked for taking time off to attend another cast member's funeral

Clarrie 2 committed suicide

Clarrie 3 (whose voice also took some getting used to after Clarrie 2) recently retired

then Clarrie 1 came back as Clarrie 4

we will get used to her soon enough!

I love falling over Debbie in things like Black Books & Episodes!

& it's great that she still manages to make time for an occasional Archers appearance

Ponders - why didn't I know that I've been listening daily all my life and thought there was just one Clarrie until recently.

I've been listening (as an adult) for 30 years near enough, Parey - plus used to subscribe to Mustardland until it died this year - the Clarrie inf just kind of filtered through

I remember the transition from Clarrie 2 to 3, 3 had a much harsher voice and I didn't really accept her for years!

Didn't know about Clarrie 1/4.

I can confirm that you don't need any kind of certificate to milk cows [blows dust off Guides Dairymaid badge].

Eddie is Tesco vege as club card points voice advert at the moment, I gleefully shot up from e sofa saying this, dh had no idea who u was excited about!

Just noticed that Olivia has had seeker's misplaced apostrophe removed

How nice to have friends in high places

Seeker must be sending in chocolate or gin or something.

I thought it was a Freddo Frog.

'Charlotte Connor, when not playing Susan Carter (credited as Charlotte Martin), works full-time as a senior research psychologist at the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation; her office is a short walk from BBC Birmingham thus she is able to fit her work around recordings' (from wiki)

indeed Ponders.

I am strangely amazed by this, though WHY I don't know. It's just that Susan sounds so convincingly stupid. She is my favourite character.

A small cone of ludicrously posh ice cream and they are mine to command........

And maybe a glass or two of Lower Loxley Chardonnay......

Possibly my favourite MN thread ever.

What I don't get about the chickens is that Josh said he wanted to put the huts on wheels so they could be labelled as grass fed. Which means they aren't free range So who buys non-free-range eggs at a farmers' market?!

Must have missed that!

Curiouser and curiouser.....

i think they are free range but he is suggesting they do the rotating pastures thing like the brookfield cows.

you can have free range chicken s that are still fed grain, no?

Well free range is not always what you think it is

Near us there is a barn that houses 15,000 chickens whose eggs are sold under a certain cheery chicken brand in the supermarket. They do open the doors every day so they can technically wander outside. But in reality only 5/6 are ever visible in the field. Chickens like to stay in a group, so stay inside even if they'd be happier outside. That's why eggs that you buy from farm gates taste so much better as they are genuinely free to roam

That's why I buy organic eggs - much higher standards, smaller groups, so hens do go outside and scratch about. I pay £2 for half a dozen at the supermarket, at the bottom end of the organic price range. I think Josh is onto something with his speciality grass fed hens!

Susan is so reliably awful that I love her too. I really enjoy Jennifer/Susan interactions as you know the crashing snobbery and social climbing of the respective characters will clash. Though quite why Jennifer is so hoity-toity defeats me. She was a bar-maid's daughter. Her parents ran the Bull and her father was an alcoholic. (I do like Peggy, though.) You'd think Jennifer was landed gentry sometimes.

Right
SORRY what happened with Tom and a mugging in Felpersham pls?

Matt sent a heavy to send a message to Paul. Tom intervened and the message wasn't fully delivered! Paul told Tom it was an attempted mugging.

Went to a talk by Michael Fenton Stevens (Paul) and he said Nigel was killed off because the actor who played him he complained too much about not getting enough air time!

They don't get a retainer they just get paid for what they.

He also gave a spoiler about what happens with the Paul character but I won't share that on case he was fibbing/ it upsets people to know what's going to happen.

While theres lots of Archers listeners here can I just ask: am I missing out on a lot by not listening to Ambridge Extra when its on? Because I wonder sometimes if stories get continued there and I'm losing bits of storylines.