Old (Hall), New (build), Borrowed (money). Will Ambridge be feeling blue the morning after? Discuss The Archers wedding and the aftermath here.

[PseudoBadger]

Roll up roll up for The Wedding special from Catheter Hall. Is the lark flying high? Will Krusty jam that ring on the porky finger?

The introduction of the Nazi documents and German honorifics is rather confusing in amongst the sausage trauma and wedding jilt woes.

It's NOT weird behaviour to arrive in foreign hotels and immediately check the wifi connection so DH and I could listen to TA podcast on my phone!
We landed back in the UK on Wednesday and jumped into the car just in time for the evening episode.

The wedding was very Hardy-esque and brilliantly done. Kirsty will now be 'saved' by Angel Clare/Patrick. Tom will run off with Brenda and become a property tycoon (if he has a bean left after paying all the debts) and Rob will see himself as future owner of Bridge Farm as well as Peggy's house.

And, since Germans (dear things) really do put their towels on sun beds at dawn I think the Poles should hang on to those documents as they have their metaphorical towel on them.

Wow nearly 700 posts already!

I have a friend who was told by the man she was marrying that he couldn't do it the day before the wedding. It was awful. I remember getting the phone call sitting at my desk next to suitcase and hat box (the days before fascinators) and I felt physically sick. It was the late nineties and to this day he has never given her a reason.

I think they were harsh on him, I would be angry with my son but I would also be really concerned. Tom is so dependable and this is out of character. I probably would have just stood there saying why to him. I think the courage comment was out of order from him - he was too cowardly to do it the day before.

I am also worried that he's going to do something stupid.

I feel sorry for Tom. I hope that he bunks off to Timbuktu for 15 years+ if that's how they all feel about him.

BOF there is a plumber from Colchester whose mission in life is to save is all from the angst caused by missing an episode. God bless him. Wish he'd been around in the days of tape malfunction when my friend (and the only other person who cares, apart from you lot) used to have to POST each other tapes!)

Here's the link (I hope, having just read the instructions below).

Archers catch up podcasts

All you need now is a spare year or two and you'll be up to speed...

I do agree that it is difficult to believe that Pat at least wouldn't have asked Tom why. But I suppose it was difficult to fit that into this episode.

I think Pat and Tony are embarrassed so they are shouting at Tom. Oh The Shame. :o They have spent years being exasparated with Tom, sometimes justified, sometimes not. So they probably don't know how to do sympathetic!

Someone please shut whingy moany Tony up - he wins the prize for the most irritating voice on the radio. I agree Tom has been a prat (mild understatement) but the viciousness of what Tony said was horrible, you can give someone a hard time without being so singularly nasty.

Tom so estranged with his parents he couldn't possibly tell them the truth how he was feeling. Pat so interfering she couldn't have just listened. I thought the comment on what John would think was deadly. John cheated horribly on Hailey, why hold him up as a model of morality?

But in the heat of the moment it's the kind of thing you do ... say things you realise afterwards you really shouldn't have said. Hopefully he will calm down and apologise to Tom at least for that part of his rant.

Everything else he said had full justification IMO. He's entitled to be moany and resentful with Tom because he's got a lot to be moany and resentful about. The eviction of the dairy herd, the mortgage, the fact that the whole farm is expected to bow down to the pigs .... Tom is a an entitled and selfish prat.

I find it extraordinary that nobody is supporting Tom at all. I can't stand him, and obviously she shouldn't have let it got to the jilted at the altar bit, but did they really want him to go through with it feeling the way he did?

Actually, the whole thing about "not knowing who he is", in the wake of evicting the dairy herd (the heart and soul of Bridge Farm) must be very, very hard for Pat and Tony to deal with. I think they were only able to deal with it in the context of it being a hard-headed business decision by Tom as businessman with a vision. If they now have to see this decision, heartbreaking as it was, as one in a series of flakey whims, no wonder they are disappointed and furious.

Getting married was Tom's idea, having a massive wedding was Tom's idea, not getting married at the farm (to scale up was Tom's idea), he also took some pleasure in telling Tony and Pat that he and Kirsty wouldn't wouldn't be living on the farm. Peggy has made him her sole heir - effectively putting him ahead of Tony when she dies - and he hasn't exactly been gracious about this. It's not hard to see why there isn't much sympathy for him. Tony is not much better with his petulant purchase of the beef herd - and Tom's lack of sympathy when it began to look as if they might be riddled with disease. Tony's own relationship with his own mother is similar - they are all cut from the same cloth that's why they rub each other up the wrong way. In actual fact it is those relationships and that dis function which should have been a red flag to Kirsty. John is a bit of a red herring - no one has been talking about him up until now - not Tom, not Pat and Tony, not Peggy, Hayley never mentions him. I think it's a plot device to reintroduce son of John.

Good point bluestocking - I'd forgotten to mention the dairy herd eviction being his idea.

Sorry Libra - don't know how I missed that.

Neil will step in and sell the pigs for Tom. Tom will go off to South America for some years. According to my tealeaves.

Thanks to Libra for excellent phrase "eviction of the dairy herd"!

Thanks teenybash

There are some people/families who think that money is everything, and anything can be paid for. Clearly this is the cloth Tom is cut from, and he hasn't been forced to think about what his behaviour has done to his own parents, let alone Kirsty, right until now.

What happened with the dairy herd? What on earth are Pat and Tony living off now?

Elephants, Tom railroaded his family into selling the dairy herd on the grounds that they could better focus their time/energy on his pigs other things like vegetables and yogurts. They now buy in organic milk courtesy of the Ambridge fairy from some organic dairy farm nearby.

Also courtesy of the Ambridge fairy, Tony in retaliation purchased a herd of organic suckler cows from a nearby farmer that was retiring.

Some of the underlying tensions and anger of last night's epi derived from these events but there's been a subtle build-up over a few months of other things as well like the bombshell of Peggy's will which favoured Tom over Tony. Much of Tom's actions in recent months have felt like a kick in the teeth for Tony (and Pat but not to the same extent).

Thanks Bluestocking btw, think we are of the same opinion but you put it more eloquently!

Elephants it was only the herd they sold. I think they now buy in the milk for the yoghurt, ice cream, and cheese (Helen's thing) they make and sell to both private buyers and other businesses (shops, restaurants...) They also have a thriving veg box business. And they own the shop Ambridge Organics in Borchester. I've probably forgotten something. But the idea was that they could run all the other stuff with less effort if they didn't have to physically milk, feed and house their herd.

I'm still hoping Tony's new venture will succeed.

:o Ambridge Fairy, hadn't heard that phrase before but I know just what you mean. Is it the same one that provides a seemingly endless array of educational institutions and employment opportunities within an easy commute of Ambridge?

I've been dipping in and out - got the whole omnibus of Will upset but missed the cows business so thanks for catching me up.

Who is the most likeable person in the Archers at the moment?

I've always had a soft spot for Jolene and Fallon - they're so much more go-getting than most of them. Bit worried about prospects for Fallon and Tom now though? Or is there some history there I've missed that means that's no go. They're both very entrepreneurial...