Can I PLEASE just have 13 minutes? 13 measly minutes to myself to listen to The Archers?

[PseudoBadger]

Come and enjoy awkward dinner parties galore!

Peggy didn't say a figure out loud but Tom did show her done figures he had worked out didn't he? Because Peggy said something like "you've obviously thought about this a lot" or similar.

I agree bout David. I wanted to smack him. Felt like he was railroading Ruth. My guess is that she will decide to have a termination against David's wishes.

BitOutOf Yes maybe Ruth 'll have a misc before she has to terminate. The 7 week timing has been made very clear.

Let's face it they're making Tony out to be a bleedin' idiot aren't they?

Yep Rob will not do as well as he imagined he would and will have a tantrum but not in public, never. He'll apologise by Sunday night and H will forgive whatever treatment he doled out to them. The T&K spendathon will come back from the brink. Or not...because wasn't there a time when super business man Tom had to get a loan to cover cash flow woes.

Also, nice JD analysis back a few pages...that's why I love this thread!

I hope Rob literally runs into the Smooth and Steady crowd and thereby (a) loses and (b) gains the enmity of Lynda.

i agree, tom has many times shown himself not to be the businessman he and peggy think he is

what was john archer like? he died a while after my mum stopped listening so i'm wondering whether he was as much of a dick as helen and tom

i know he was cheating so obviously not a paragon of virtue, but was he actually unpleasant like the other two?

i don't think pat and tony are saints either but not sure what they've done to deserve such godawful children

Peggy may have some misgivings about stumping up the deposit in the light of the extravagant wedding.

They're being idiots - they like the idea of being able to specify things themselves in this new build development, when are they going to remember Neil's advice and go the whole hog with self-build?

they are being idiots, but i sort of understand why kirsty might not want to do the self-build thing - tom and brenda didn't split up that long ago and if all the plans remain the same it's a bit like tom's fiancees are all interchangeable and she can just be slotted back in to the space brenda left (that was hers before). i feel like she's trying to establish something that is her own decision rather than his, and isn't tied into the farm

though you might think her eco credentials (and being financially prudent) would outweigh that

Surely it's not so much that they've done anything to deserve such children as that the children have become like that as a result of John's death?

P & T distraught and thinking endlessly of their lost boy. Tom consciously decides to "live up to" John, to fill his place, even to outdo him... Helen (unconsciously) decides to show that she is just as deserving of devotion as her late brother. (Never acknowledging that that wild adoration was for the memory of a dead person - and you don't actually want to have that relationship with your parents while you're alive....)

I can only vaguely remember John as a work hard /play hard good bloke. Determined not to be under his parents thumb. Very much valued as the pfb.

that makes sense zero - i wasn't listening back then so i don't know what they were like before (and presumably they were very young at that time too)

maybe i should cut T&H some slack

but i do so love to dislike them

I remember John as being very happy go lucky...he wasn't married but he did cheat on Hayley with the comely wench, Sharon, mother of Kylie and Rich.... Tony and Pat were heartbroken when he died and Pat had terrible depression...the other two have had a lot to live up to ever since.

wrt Sports Relief, I am hoping that Rob has a minor injury like a sprained ankle and unable to compete, and is beaten by Ian...who goes sailing past him on the back of Wiggo's bike ( excuse mixed imagery)

compos haha I can quite imagine Helen saying something like 'rob really doesn't like coming second' much to everyone's mirth and horror. Then he will show his displeasure when they get home.

mmm, wrt to him taking it out on Henry, you don't think it could be like Stella/Ben on EE?
(she was the new stepmother figure who abused him secretly, twas awful)

I thought it was very realistic the way David was so blithely delighted about another baby - of course he is, he's not the one doing most of the parenting! I've always got the impression that Ruth is the one who does all the childcare and even cooking, even though she's so bad at it - she's always burning everything and being incompetent in the kitchen and there's a conspicuous absence of scenes where David is preparing dinner, even though they're both farmers.

And what I really enjoy is that old slight tension between her and Jill, because Jill was a farmer's wife, whereas Ruth is farmer. Although Ruth seems to have got the rough end of the deal because she's also a farmer's wife IYSWIM. I love the way that tension comes to the surface every now and then (like with Josh's cake) not enough for it to be an ISHOO but just enough to be bubbling under mostly not interfering with anything. Brilliant.

I agree about the rough deal Ruth gets. They both work but Ruth has to do everything in the house. It's all a bit 1950s.

the brian being famished to the point of feeling faint thing is so unrealistic. is he sooooo busy and important that he can't even get to the shop for a loaf of bread?? i get him missing the homecooked meals and baking, but fgs he can go to the bull for a hot meal as others have said upthread

still, it got jd her own way

I thought that.

I wonder if Ruth is pregnant again to syock up on Brook field Archers to ensure the longevity of the programme. Perhaps theyve ccottoned on to the fact everyone hates Peep and a soap based around her and her tedious wet blanket of a boyfriend as the core farming couple wouldbe uutterly fucking horrendous?

When Ben was born they were all cooing over this surprise 'miracle baby' that Rooth and Dayveed had produced. Ruth would have been mid 30s at the time. Or was it more to do with her cancer treatment?

Willie doesn't Brian have diabetes though? That may be why he was feeling faint.

I thought Brian had epilepsy, brought on by being kicked in the head by a cow?

Brian doesn't have diabetes as far as I know. He did have epilepsy for a while but that was cured by the Ambridge miracle cure fairy.

I didn't listen tonight so I'm assuming from the comments that Brain capitulated? If so I am disappointed.

ah does he. i didn't know that. if he has diabetes then frankly jenny is risking his life by not having food in the house (though i stand by the fact that he could make it to hte shop)

Yeah, Brine had seizures due to a head injury - cow kicked him. He seems to have 'outgrown' it though. I can't be bothered with this storyline. In normal circs, a Brine-type would have got some food at the Bull or Grey Gables. I laughed when JD wanted Brine to apologise about his 'bad words' on Kingsley: why not for his 'bad words' about her - terrorist etc.

I think Ruth has always had a reputation as a lousy cook. Did they not live on pizza in the early days of marriage? But at least she tries. It's so one-sided and sexist that Daveed never seems to do shopping or cooking. I'm sure one of them, whilst in the office doing paperwork, could zip in an online groceries order. Or does Okado or whatever it's called not cover Borsetshire? Maybe it's got more similarities to Perthshire than just the foul weather.

My god - two phrases I never thought I would see on an Archers discussion forum:

fo shizz

and

BACK DA FUCK UP

As pp says - must work these into a conversation somehow....