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!

So , BabyBlessing ... To be written as a serious, longstanding plot line or turned into a comedy device when Pipsqueak returns and announces her concurrent pregnancy?

This man has stepped up the mark in difficult circumstances, ie unexpected birth of a child with a serious disability - Mike.

Both these young men are loving partners and fathers and work hard to support their families - Ed and Will. (OK, they are not very loving when it comes to each other, but nobody's perfect.)

This man had a dubious past but was a devoted son and a good friend, employer and neighbour to many - Nelson Gabriel.

This man was an amiable idiot in his youth but matured into a good husband and father and made a success of the business he built up from nothing to secure the family estate - Nigel Pargetter.

Does anyone remember how awful Jim was when he first arrived in Ambridge? And now he's fabulous.

If I were going to run away with any Archers man though, it'd be Kenton.

I have a bit of a soft spot for Adam, who hasn't been mentioned. Although not in that way Oddfodd .

I don't think Jim was that awful when he arrived- I think that small minded suburban types like Shula bring out the worst in him! And I bet she would again- they just don't seem to meet that often nowadays.

Oh he was. Okay so Shula is (really) annoying but he was querulous, pedantic and really demanding.

In retrospect he was very unhappy but at the time I just thought he was an utter pita

Yes, recently bereaved, and no longer doing the job he loved. Poor Jim, I too have a soft spot for him.

AND he had a broken leg!

Hmmm - Mark Lawson seems to think Wiggins was ok.

Guardian review.

But the comments aren't all so enthusiastic....

When they first brought Jim in someone was writing ridiculously stereotyped 'militant atheist' lines for him (and some extremely weak counterarguments from Alan which were played as though they were wonderful responses). Much better now.

I remember those arguments from Alan, Errol, they were all along the lines of "and who do you think made the little bunnywunnies and the spring flowers?", weren't they? I really like Jim now and I love the way his relationships with Alan and Jazzer have developed. I assume he's just worked out a way of tolerating St Smugula which makes him a better man than me.

I think they've rounded out his character a lot. He was a bit one dimensional at first but he's really believable now.

I do like Adam to whoever mentioned him ( am on my phone so can't check) but he's a bit of an annoying posh boy at times

I'm still cross with Adam about his Polish interlude. What the heck did he think he was playing at?

Good point Northern - I'd forgotten about that. He's very lucky that he got away with it (although will Pawel turn up again this year?)

I think the Polish Interlude was one of those bizarre non-plots that The Ancien Regime were forever inflicting on us. I imagine La Whitburn furiously scribbling on a flipchart pad in front of a crowd of sullen and bemused SWs, who would then contrive to lose the flipchart sheets and kick the plots into the long grass.

Bluestocking ah, yes, the woman who called us the wrong kind of listeners.

I do wonder what kind of listeners she would have preferred?

Ah yes - I also wondered if the Polish Interlude was one of those things best forgotten.

GypsyFloss Remind me.....

Yes. I have a terrific sense of release now Vanessa Whitburn's reign over Ambridge has been curtailed. The storylines managed to BBC be both tedious and chaotic at the same time.

I thought it wasn't very realistic, the Ian/ Rob scene.

Mostly people don't challenge the partners of their friends unless things have got to a really bad point. Also it wouldn't help Helen for Ian to declare open enmity with Rob and he's intelligent enough to know that - once Rob's aware that he's on to him, he's going to do his damndest to make sure he breaks up that friendship. That's one of the reasons people don't challenge the partners they don't like of their friends isn't it - because they know the result may be the loss of the friendship. It just didn't ring very true to me.

Yes. I have a terrific sense of release now Vanessa Whitburn's reign over Ambridge has been curtailed. The storylines managed to BBC be both tedious and chaotic at the same time.

When I move to Ambridge I shall not be able to resist Jazzer. I just won't! Yes I was a bit disappointed in Ian overall. I too thought he'd have played that a lot smarter. It was like we'd missed a few episodes.

I worry that we have not heard the last of Pawel

I read it discussed on the BBC archers board that she was questioned after Nigel's demise and the whole Shake Ambridge To The Core palaver and said that anyone who complained about it were the wrong kind of listeners.

Hence the trawling for new, hip, compliant listeners on 4Extra?

That went well....