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 can't tell you how bored i am of the road SL already. i don't know why, i have just taken agin it

haha at bolloxfest!

have just caught up

so showdown on friday then. what's the betting the old bat shows up anyway?

sorry for multi-posting

what is peggy's interest in bridge farm? does she own part of it? also, what is her farming knowledge based on? where has this idea of her as some business oracle come from?

i don't know enough detail about the history of BF to be able to work out to what extent she is a genuinely interested party or interfering busybody (of course she is the latter anyway, but more appropriate if she actually has a stake in the business)

They're getting rid of the young members of the cast; Kate is in South Africa, Debbie in Hungary, Pip up north, Dan at Sandhurst and now Tom is in Canada & goodness knows where Kirsty has fled. When did we last hear about Cathy?

But luckily they've kept Helen :o

Yes the road storyline is boring already.

You've clearly been following my "Class division in youth opportunities" theorising East. (Latecomers should refer to erm... "Why is Lillian Allowing..." or other previous threads where I have rehearsed this prize winning argument.)

It seems quite natural that the better educated young of Ambridge should create and take opportunities to get as far away as they can. Those (of that group) who stay exhibit clear signs of frustration and distress.

The less well educated (Grundys, Carters etc) having little experience of life outside (and therefore desperately anxious not to be pushed out) make shift to fit themselves into the jobs available - but they must always remain at the mercy of well off and well educated incomers for whom Ambridge is the opportunity.

Thus (oh yes ) it is inevitable that the SWs must always be working with these groups; the settled elderly, the discontented educated youth looking to flee, the truculent youth reconciled, or happy, to stay and disruptive incomers who take advantage of this situation.

... truculent because they are no match for the incomers and are condemned to remain at the bottom of the pile despite their heritage.

Zero so Chris will be able to leave Ambridge in time for Susan to be forced into a nursing home? I forgot about Brenda leaving & Lucy all those years ago & miles away in New Zealand. I think my dad regrets sending us to 'good' schools as we don't live within 10 mins walk (the way he & his sister did when they got married).

Hmmm, I think (for the moment) Chris is "Look, there are good jobs for the rural working class if they're prepared...etc etc." (That was the Coalition's awayday in Birmingham under the old regime...)

He's well qualified but his apprenticship was local (ie not like moving across the country for old-style university.) So he's not anxious to leave - look how he reacted when poor, stuck Alice wanted to follow her own trajectory.

It's funny but when I went to the Character Invasion thing, I was having a go at the SW because there weren't enough escapees. They mouthed some platitudes but must have been inwardly thinking "hah! just you wait a few months".
My own two will probably leave Hollerton when the time comes. DD has a job that she can do anywhere so will probably relocate to the demands of bf's more geographically-located job (they are Chris and Alice - reversed in careers but not reversed when it comes to which gender trails after the other). DS likes his current bright lights city living at University and probably won't come back because there aren't the jobs/careers to suit his aspirations locally.
There are jobs out here in Borsetshire but they tend to be fall-into sort of things, not careers eg we have friends in landscaping, online retail or marquee hire. The people who are in careers are the mid-lifers who started in Birmingham and now commute, having priced locals out of the property market.

Yeah - the "pricing out" seems to set up a false sense of insecurity amongst the Ambridge young. I know Ed's job has some prospects (with luck) but he and Emma could probably have a much better standard of life if they weren't so scared of losing their tenuous foothold in the village. And surely Jamie should be thinking of moving out soon?

Marquee hire?

" What did you do to save the world mummy? "

" I sent all my marquees to Oxfam to be used in refugee camps darling. "

Oh god I am just hearing last night's on the repeat now and I'm am barely refraining from throwing things at my iPad.

Rob needs stringing up.

The Demise of Peggy might need to be very carefully planned from a logistics POV, if they planned to bring lots of the grandchildren back to ambridge for the funeral and give them speaking parts

Sounds like a plan, toomuch. There is something seriously scary about someone apparently disliking her own offspring quite so much, and why is Peggy falling for all Rob's crap, anyway (apart from the fact that he says Tony is wrong about everything, of course)

I've been trying to work out exactly which piece of Shakespeare or Hardy features such a chilling cuckoo in the nest plot.

Just look how Rob has sauntered in from nowhere, effectively (through encouragment) pushed Tom out and established himself in his number one (grand)son position. He only has to sit and wait for Tony to die - or use Tony's rejection to torture and isolate Helen even further.

Are we all agog for David and Ruth's Horrible Shock?

My god he's clever isn't he Knob? He's got Tom out of the way in Canada and has a clear run at Bridge farm. He's got the awful Peggy on his side and is chafing for them to get rid of the organic status. I think he fancies himself as the lord and master of Bridge farm.

OH NOOOOO

Do listen to Front Row! One of the newer SWs is on.

Back at you, Lillian!
Oooooh NOOOOOO!!!