Loxfest is over. Locket-gate is upon us. Discuss Mowgli, Rob's new secret and of course the new road here with other Archers fans.

[PseudoBadger]

New thread for hopefully an exciting Sunday episode. Poor Hayley.

Jessie - unfortunately I think a lot of men people thank that if two people are in lurrrve everyone - including their own young children - will totally not blame them for anything they do under the influence.

Forgive the indulgence but I am re-posting my post of June 23:
I think the Roy Elizabeth thing goes right back to when Caroline lent him to Lower Loxley after Nigel's death. Of all the recent plot twists I find it the most believable. Roy was the person Elizabeth lent on in the very early days after Nigel's death, he helped her keep the business going and in the end she poached him from Caroline. Since then they have worked very closely together - just as Elizabeth and Nigel worked together before his fateful plunge. I think Roy is slightly in awe of Lizzie - he can't believe his luck and after the Brenda and Tom bombshells he's more ready to do the unthinkable. I think Lizzie is going to be the one to regret it - I don't think Roy is her type but she probably feels safe with him at the moment for all the reasons outlined and she got carried away in a drunken moment. I think if he persists (and he will because I think now this happened he won't be able to look at Hayley in the same way) she is going to get very irritated - being a woman who always likes to get her own way.
I don't believe Lizzie ever loved him even when she said she did - as someone has already pointed out the only person she loves is herself.

Sorry, meant to add what is more shocking to me is that appears the entire Tucker family are about to be written out which would be unprecedented. I know various characters have been banished to Hungary, New Zealand, South Africa or gone mysteriously silent but I can't think of a single case where the whole family has disappeared.

why though? is this to make way for an entirely new family?

You could be right Lil'G - with Brenda disappeared and Tom gone there would be almost nothing to connect them to the village any more.

Except Phoebe. Perhaps Kate wouldn't want her being dragged off to Birmingham and might swoop in? Perhaps Brian and Jenny might raise an objection? (In the sense of "She should come and live with us..." Although she'll be at university soon...

Maybe she'll be packed off to join her mum in South Africa.

good call lilian

...If they can pretend that the whole "Kate having an affair and Phoebe arriving home traumatized" thing never happened.

(It did only happen on AmEx.)

Roy is at core impulsive & easily led (Usha attack, anyone?) It's the blind selfishness of latest events that I find out of character. But then lots of people surprise me, so I shouldn't be surprised, I suppose.

Is Phoebe at college with her stellar GCSEs, what are her ambitions? I imagine she must have quite a few.

They are probably planning to replace the tuckers with a slater style family.

Or perhaps a family rehoused from central London.

They just don't want to deal with a pesky sn imho

Ed and Emma could do with a house. Come on Ambridge Fairy!

Testing

NC to say that family men can be real shits. My dad, who would do anything for me, and on the face of it is besotted with my mum, has been carrying on with another woman (family friend) for years. That certainly surprised me.

Gay yah in Africa near her mum then off to uni. Has Phoebe ever actually done anything interesting?

"They just don't want to deal with a pesky sn"

But, er...surely they wrote it in? Beth didn't have to have DS.

But Ambridge DC don't say anything at all for years and years - so they have plenty of time to wrap their heads round how they want Beth played, surely?

Yes to this family men can be real shits My dad was too Karl

I always felt that Beth's DS was not something they thought through properly, but rather the storyline gathered its own momentum and went that way of some notion of neccessity.

Vicky is moody and thinks she looks old, but that's a red herring: she's pregnant! So Brenda can be annoyed.
But hang on - Vicky is quite old to have a first child - wouldn't they at least have to think about the possibility of DS?
Now that they're having amnios, wouldn't it give a dodgy message if all was well - how do you write those conversations? ('Thank god, the baby is fine - hurrah!)
So she has Beth and Beth has DS, and oh shit, what are we going to do with that character as she grows older? We'll have to research it, and either get an actor who also has DS or one who can convey it over the radio, which might lead (rightly) to all sorts of complaint.
Much easier all round if they bugger off to Brum and we get the occasional letter home 'Dad says Beth's doing really well at her school, bless her!'.
And then off course RichJonny's family can all move to Ambridge and shame Susan all the livelong day by being related to her.

But what happened to Elizabeth's cricket loving maths tutor for her son? It looked like he was going to let her examine his slide rule.

Elephants - the old ed introduced Beth. I don't think the new ed wants to deal with her. Which is sad.

Ifty the maths teacher was rebuffed and ha been quietly written out. Again a shame! Although lucky escape for him - can you imagine being paired off with lizzie!

I don't doubt that Roy, as a family man, could be a shit. I just think they've changed his personality and I don't find the way he is acting believable

Lizzie on the other hand has always struck me as a duplicitous self interested person so not surprised at all by her!!

I don't think Mike and Vicky will go to Brum - I think the fall out from the affair will mean that they have to stay in Ambridge to support Hayley and the kids.

IME there are very few men who (despite their family situations) will refuse sex if it's offered on a plate. Therefore Roy is entirely believable, we'll have to agree to differ BYOS

at MrsJavier - Elizabeth said recently to Shula that she liked Ifty's ruler but she wasn't ready at that point for a relationship - now she is.

Don't you think it's believable in the context of them working so closely together, Roy being flattered by how much Lizzie has started to rely on him, coupled with his ambitious plans for the festival coming to fruition and giving him a new sense of being at the heart of LL's future? His head's been turned by the glamour of it all.

Oh I don't think him shagging someone is unbelievable. I just find the way he is being portrayed as unbelievable. I think he would be exhibiting more signs of guilt for example. I don't think his character is consistent.