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!

Peggy does it again.....

Seriously I may have to stop listening. This awfulness of Rob is wearing me out.

How can anyone be so evil?

And now he's got Tom in thrall.

Lordy! What's Tom thinking?

Can someone explain the Tom call to me? I just don't get it. Also why would Rob lie to H when he saw it was Tom calling? Surely he'd say something like 'oh, it's Tom' and take the call?

I think that was a conversation that indicated they've been in touch for some time. As far as I can recall, we the listeners didn't know that till tonight but Tom said something like 'as I was saying, I need some advice' so they must have spoken at least once before. The plot thickens!

I think that was a conversation that indicated they've been in touch for some time. As far as I can recall, we the listeners didn't know that till tonight but Tom said something like 'as I was saying, I need some advice' so they must have spoken at least once before. The plot thickens!

I think that was a conversation that indicated they've been in touch for some time. As far as I can recall, we the listeners didn't know that till tonight but Tom said something like 'as I was saying, I need some advice' so they must have spoken at least once before. The plot thickens!

Oops.

Was it possibly at Tony's birthday lunch at the Bull that Tom mentioned Rob had given him some good advice or helped him out in some way?

So basically Rob has been operating Tom's strings for ages?

tom definitely said something like 'i could do with your advice again'

Does the vote count if I only voted No to go against Rob's opinion?

Ok. From the beginning Rob has been secretly persuading Tom to ditch the organic nonsense. He's seen the opportunity to move into the family farm (presumably as Tom's business partner) - and magic it into a mega-piggery...

His finessing of Peggy today was chilling. And then the phone call.

(But I guess people would be right to complain that all the skulduggery is a bit 'Enders....)

Why on earth would Tom call Rob though? It makes absolutely no sense

I guess Rob didn't say it was Tombs then Helen would have wanted to know what they talked about and talk to him herself. I thought Tom thought Rob was a rotter too but maybe he was just agreeing with Kirsty and now she's gone he'll forget. Meaning one less person for Helen to turn to. (or should that be one fewer?)

Tom as not Tombs!

Just listened. I don't think it sounds like they've been in touch whilst Tom has been away but I do think they had a chat about the organic status of the farm previously and maybe Rob put him in touch with a cheapy feed merchant. I thought Rob sounded surprised to hear from him tbh.

Smoozing up Peggy on the other hand was a master class in worming your way in a bigger inheritance.

I thought it was going to be Jess on the phone again. The conversation between Tom and Rob didn't ring tru

True

I was thinking, did Rob plant the non-organic feed? But then Tom seemed to say, silly me, I did it.

Tom definitely took full responsibility on the phone, and talked about coming back to sort it out. But it suits Rob better for Tom to appear feckless and irresponsible and not a suitable successor to the farm

I'm still not fully convinced by this SL but will reserve judgement until more has panned out

Over-infested? I've been thinking about this on and off all evening despite more important things going on!

In agreeing not to tell anyone else about the phone call Rob's done to Helen what Kirsty accused Helen of doing to her. Fascinating.

There was a reference the other day to the pigs being at Sawyer's Farm, not Bridge Farm. I think Tom's urgency (and he does appear to be manning up) is to separate Sawyer from Bridge in every legal way as soon as possible and declare himself bankrupt. The secrecy is so no one finds out until too late to try and talk him out of it and before anyone bangs on the door of Bridge Farm demanding from Pat & Tone payment of wages or supplies.

Tom knows at least as much about business as Rob does, if not more, so I suppose the call to Rob for advice is a plot device to turn the tables on Helen and see how she likes the person she trusted most in the world not telling her the truth. (Though he might need Rob's practical assistance to whip the pigs down to the abattoir before Jazzer gets back.)

It also demonstrates still further to us how underhand Rob is. Can Rob keep Helen from finding out that he's been in Tom's confidence? How will she react if/when she does find out? How will Rob lie his way out of it? Will Charlie take exception to BL vehicles being used to move 42 pigs on firm's time?

Also, if my ears weren't deceiving me, Helen is being more resistant to the Peggy/Rob anti-organic spiel than either of them might expect her to be. Is she actually going to stick to her principles?

I can see Helen sticking to her organic principles, she really does believe in it. However that is not to say that Knob won't wear her down over time.

Yes Tom has been running his own business for years, Rob has been an employee (albeit a manager) for years. I don't see why Tom would ask Rob for advice. Was also thinking Charlie might not be impressed at Rob nipping out to pick Henry up, I got the impression it was mid afternoon not early evening and he's at pre-school.

I'm quite intrigued about where this is going with Piggoi. She's usually depicted as the wise old bird, source of guidance to the family, etc etc. Yet she's totally taken in by Knob, and clearly her assessment of Tom was way, way off. So are we moving to the point where she is simply easy to delude and easy pickings for the stepdaughter?