Cold Comfort at Bridge Farm: Lonely Cow, Dead Cow, Greedy Cows, and Poor Blind Besotted Cows... Follow the growing herd and discuss Ambridge here!

[PseudoBadger]

Will this thread make it to the wedding? Will it outlive Tony?

I remember feeling somewhat discombobulated by his moving on as well.* I suppose these things do happen. Was it at a point where Shula started to become more sensible while Elizabeth was still up for a lot of fun?

*Not half as much as Laurie moving on from Jo to Amy. I am still not over that...

I thought it was Mark in the cornfield but, according to google, it was Simon Parker (editor of The Echo).

I certainly can't remember the details.

But I did fall asleep last night giggling about Nigel and Neil's mutual commiseration session at the gate of the field.

Delighted to find I could still be so childish....

Didn't Margaret Thatcher pass on one of her boyfriends to her sister?

I also knew someone at Church (I was a teen, he helped as a leader at youth club) who tried both of a pair of sisters before marrying someone else. They both married other people too.

Nigel was seen as a bit of a joke by Shula, but his sense of humour was far more appreciated by Elizabeth. Shula was pretty big in the Young Farmer's and had far more fun than Pip seems to.

I read something earlier today saying that after Nigel's father died he took over Lower Loxley & Elizabeth started working for him. She then had her brief disastrous relationship with Cameron Fraser & after that she & Nigel got together. My secret but now revealed view is that she wanted to be rich and so chased him. I think she was very competitive with Shula & wanted to 'marry up'. Her pregnancy with Cameron Fraser's child came just after Shula had had a miscarriage (or ectopic) which struck me as being really callous. Elizabeth was a teen in the era of the scary AIDS ads, condoms were a big thing then.

Yes... but Elizabeth was running around with Nigel before the Cameron Fraser business. It was a lovely carefree period in their history. (I've probably forgotten some terrible tragedy....)

It was only after he had to take over LL that everyone suddenly got sober and serious. They then embarked on a more mature and solid relationship.

But we don't know what Pip's been up to in Yorkshire, mummyT

I always liked the way things went between Nigel and Elizabeth. Nigel and Shula were never that serious about each other, and initially it was like that between Nigel and Elizabeth too. But he fell for her in a big way eventually and had to bite his tongue when he saw her throwing herself at Cameron Fraser. CF had gone out with someone else in Ambridge first - was it Caroline? Elizabeth was utterly besotted with him so pretty pleased to find herself pregnant after the initial shock, while it was clear to the listeners that he was aghast, but she just couldn't see it. I don't think the pregnancy was in anyway a calculated decision of Elizabeth's.

After CF abandoned Elizabeth at a motorway service station instead of eloping with her as he had pretended, she decided to have a termination. I don't think I've imagined that Nigel had offered to marry her and bring the baby up as his own. He was very, very supportive to her after all this and in the end it paid off and they got together again.

Hang on... if memory serves, Jill has always been a (relatively, for Ambridge) lefty, pacificist anti-blood-sporter. Wouldn't she be more upset than anyone about Daniel joining the army, rather than spouting all this follow-your-dreams stuff?

OM NOM NOM SHORRY ABOUT BEING A MARMALADE SHTRAITOR MUM. Will you close your mouth when you eat, Deevid?

on the archers insider thingy a little while ago keri whatnot was saying that one of the reasons why they're eating is because it's one of the natural times in the day that farmers and their families come together and talk (required for radio obv)

i totally get that, but they still don't have to talk with their mouths full! clinking cutlery and other sounds would be perfectly illustrative

Why isn't Alice doing the ringing round? And why did she not proof read the invitations?

TheOriginal my DS wanted to be an air-force pilot. I was scared as shit that he'd succeed, but you have to let them do what they want to do with their lives, regardless.

Shula's scared (like I was), Jill knows that you have to let them go away (and hope and pray that they'll come back). That is even more important than being a pacifist, perhaps?

And with what happened to Mark, and Dan being an only son and all, I can sympathise with Shula.

thesilverypussycat a friend of dp's joined the fleet air arm but dropped out during training to become a chartered surveyor. his mum was very relieved!

I wondered whether Jill would be a pacificist, but I think she's probably of the sort of age where most CofE folk would be 'just war', Remembrance day sort of vibe (not putting that very well but I know what I mean...).

I don't really get why the natural response to wanting to "give something back" would be to join the army. Surely it would make more sense to start working with a charity, or go into something like medicine - or even follow Shula's idea of becoming a human rights lawyer.

I don't think Jill was especially anti-blood sports. Shula used to ride with the hunt.

Jill is very anti blood sports- I can't remember when it came out......

You're right Silver, it's just I do remember her being vociferous about similar issues in the past, so would have thought that, do-what-you-want-with-your-own-life notwithstanding, and being supportive in front of Daniel himself, she would have said to Shula 'gosh, I can see why you're unhappy with that', at least!

Martorana wouldn't it have come up around the ban?

That squirrel analogy was subtle, wasn't it

I do like Willyerm's commentary running alongside Annabel's coup at the BL board meeting.

OMG - a masterclass in dramatic structure.

Beautiful. Beautiful.

(And Justin is pretty. I can tell from his voice. Bagsy )

loved the structure tonight too - the unsuspecting squirrel juxtaposed with Brian's capture.

I didn't hear pretty - I heard \link{http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harvey-Jones\something like this}

Your ears are playing tricks on you. He's definitely thin and handsome and wouldn't go near a moustache.

Now - who can he be married off to - once Annabel has been persuaded to remove her grasping claws? There's Elizabeth of course.....

On another note - Alice as wedding planner has been so badly handled that I'm inclined to think it was left over from the previous regime and couldn't be removed. Makes no sense whatsoever. Why was Kirtie's dad (?) checking the invitations and why were T&K running around giving altered times and whatnot. I hope the new Archers team feel properly ashamed.

Did I hear the other day that Kirsty has an Uncle Javier?