Exeunt, pursued by a sow. And so on, for the next 60 years of The Archers.

[PseudoBadger]

It's all about the Sons at the moment. Tom is having an identity crisis, Dan is off to Sandhurst, and poor old Adam is working his socks off.
Follow the undulating Ambridge pastures here!

I loved the shades of white conversation :o It was however taken straight from Frasier...

I was waiting for the "they all look white to me" line and they didn't fail me

Tom kept saying "I am a fraud" which we took to mean "I can't fill John's shoes". Looks like he meant "I have broken the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of organickness".
It wasn't Krusty he ran away from, it was the inspector.

I reckon so too R4.

But why would Tom have been so stupid as to buy a load of non-organic feed for his sausage porkers? Short of cash because he was overspending on the wedding and he was too much at loggerheads with Tony to talk it over with his parents maybe? Peggy's money was all future promises not current cashflow, so I suppose that might explain it.

Ah, ok thanks Gypsy and R4, I see what you mean ... yes that could be true. And thanks for clarifying my other question unitarian - I was clutching at straws, but what you say rings a bell unfortunately.

Agree with you too Errol - completely bonkers. Surely he would have paid cash for non-organic pig food so it didn't go through the books if he really was that desperate. He would have known as he ordered it that the Inspector would go through the feed invoices with a fine toothcomb. Although he probably wouldn't have got away with it even if he'd done that, as the lack of ANY feed invoices over a certain period would have also raised flags with the inspector.

Sad really but then again I never felt that Tom was as passionately organic as Pat and Tony - more that it was a system / situation he tolerated rather than embraced. I could imagine that once he was in charge he'd ditch the Organics.

Tom has never been ideologically totally sold on organics, but he's very keen on his 'Tom Archer' brand which is what presumably will be ruined by this.

He can't have hoped to hide the feed invoice at an inspection. He might have paid cash but if he's bought it because of cash flow problems then he would buy on account and that would generate an invoice. Also, as Libra says, the inspector would notice if not enough feed for x number of pigs was being put through the books.

It's beginning to look as though he's been having problems meeting his bills, tried cost-cutting, realised the pig poo was going to hit the fan very soon after the scheduled wedding and flipped. I also think there are some other nasty surprises in his accounts as yet undiscovered.

He rather hoped that Tony would ruin the farm before he did by having introduced TB infected cows which is possibly why he was so keen to take the moral high ground over that.

But then I've never liked Tom.

I felt sorry for Tom with his angst over following in John's footsteps but I suspect unitarian that you are right and he is to be revealed as having ruined it all. If so it will be interesting to see how Peggy handles it.

Hello everyone I'm back!!! well quite a bit has happened on TA since I was away (understatement of the year!!).

Blimey o reilly so that dastardly Tom is bringing everything down then effin ell!!!

Welcome back!

Have you been away from the radio or just from MN?

it will certainly be an interesting listen when (if) he gets home......

Thanks Zero Heaven forfend that I'd be away from a radio!! No only a compooter it was refreshing like the old days! You get a lot more done when you're not on here!

i was on a work trip this weekend but managed to use my VERY limited internet access to listen to friday's episode

you're right ppeatfruit - the amount of work i get done on the laptop when it's not connected to the internet is extraordinary! i don't get distracted by incoming email so get through my backlog of work at a rate of knots

of course then i have a backlog of emails and the cycle continues...

I had a cheeky thought about Peggoi Gypsy I heard a delighted gurgle in her voice when she mentioned the organic inspector ;I reckon she knew (or maybe even instigated) the use of none organic pig feed

Does anyone know what the teaser blurb is for tonight?

Tonight's synopsis is:

"There are challenging times facing Bridge Farm, and Rob speaks his mind."

This is a good site for blurbs and synopsis if you miss an episode:

www.lowfield.co.uk/archers/thisweek.phtml

Sorry, that should say blurb for tonight - synopsis will be posted after the episode has aired.

Y'know I wouldn't mind if they shifted the serious stuff to somewhere other than Bridge Farm. Or delivered Pat and Tony some good news. Overinfestment (you may have missed it ppeat ) is beginning to weigh me down.....

Hello-I'm back to the 'film' way of listening, too. I gave it a go the 'daily way', but I prefer it all in one go. Now,now-you know I mean listening to TA!
Cheminotte mentioned Stockhausen syndrome-is this en eclectic mix of Stockholm & Munchausen syndromes?

an^^ not en!

ppeat I missed that but I wouldn't put it past the malevolent biddy.

Re Stockhausen syndrome - Sir Thomas Beecham was once asked if he'd ever conducted any Stockhausen and he replied no, but he'd once trod in some. Maybe Charlie was flirting with Adam as a weird neurological side effect of an effluent-related incident at the mega-dairy? There must be a constant ... um.... flow to deal with.

Haha toldmywrath I meant the one where the victim falls in love with their persecutor, so Adam with Charlie. Is that Stockholm syndrome?