Rogered by a hobbit in the LL undergrowth, buried in a raised bed with Bert or harassed behind the arras with Adam? Pick your Ambridge fate here.

[PseudoBadger]

A big showdown tonight I hope.

Thanks to Zero (I think?) for the great title.

It's probably fair to say Pat used to be the plot device caricature of her day "strident feminist" - obviously she is much more rounded than that now, but long time listeners will remember her time as the token feminist.

Sorry meant to add in a sea of farmers wives and traditional stay at home types she was the token feminist.

Pat also used to be Welsh though, iirc

She still is - though not in quite the same way that Ruth is a Geordie (waits for someone to come along and give correct terminology for Ruth's antecedents )

If Adam features tonight then we might, just might, hear from Ian at long last.

Sorry to disagree, Zero, but I had the distinct impression that Ryder was referring to Adam's private life. In a packed episode it seemed to have some significance, though I appreciate D&R wouldn't want it generally known that they're having a valuation so it could be heard that way.

I wonder what 'truth' he's going to find out.

for the stats fans

jill said "it's like we're all pretending we might have to leave brookfield"

you and me both

do you think graham ryder went to the same acting school as jess?

...with its dedicated traditional audience listening in their kitchens and living rooms, while younger, tech-savvy fans catch up online.

Blinkin' cheek! (But interesting nonetheless...)

Don't be sorry for disagreeing unitarian. In truth I hadn't considered that Graham might have been referring to Adam's private life. I'll have to listen again....

there are lots of people who listen twice - once on the wireless and later on the podcast/catch-up, especially if it's an interesting episode

i listen in the car most i think, on my way home from work

If by that you mean 'I've got a small part and I'm going to give every sentence heavy significance,' then, yes!

Lillian Why did Rob encourage her to join the hunt ? She does enjoy it. It's not as if she hasn't got a big family either is it?

Maybe Graham was passing the field where Adam and Charlie were combining

So those cabs don't have chintz curtains?

They must've forgotten to close them (there was a mini fridge for the beers too wasn't there?).

I didn't think Graham the land agent was portrayed very well. He seemed indiscreet and unprofessional when he saw Adam go by and having been on several farm and house valuations myself when I was a student I found his yeoman farmer comments strange and pretty insensitive. I did agree with him about lotting up the farm but I'm not too sure about his valuations. Brookfield is 469 acres. If they lost say 20 acres to the road, that leaves 450 acres. Savills reckon arable land in the West Midlands is worth about 8500/acre. I know there is devaluation because of the road but as Graham pointed out there will be neighbours keen to buy land. (Does anyone know who borders Brookfield? BL for example could presumably raise the cash?). So if we said, conservatively £8k/ acre that's 3.6 million, which only values the land and buildings at 90k, which seems very low. I'd be getting a second opinion if I were D&R. One of the nationals must have an office in Borchester?!

Also his comment about not wanting the road to go through didn't ring true. His firm stands to get plenty of business acting for landowners affected and I would have expected him to mention that he could act for D&R if it came to it.

I agree, DFW. I thought the way that Ryder was practically guaranteeing that Brookfield would end up as a second home was really insensitive, causing yet more pain to poor David's achey breaky heart. And using the phrase "generations of yeoman farmers". What a prat.

I also agree that his going on about Adam's "getting about" was odd and had a bit of an overtone. Has Ryder been stalking Adam on grindr, or the farmers' equivalent - tractr?

tractr

It values the house etc at 900k

It's a silly story. Whilst Brookfield would be different wouldn't you adapt?

I was puzzled at Ryder's comment that there is a shortage of farms for sale. Surely this works for them as well as against them - and he did show that Brookfield is eminently saleable, albeit for not enough to divvy up and move.

Plot device, innit. Designed to get Roooth angsting about how if they don't get a move on they might miss the loovly farm in Prudhoe, come on Deavid, why wait around for the axe to fall, why don't we just go anyway. Whilst Deavid has if anything been pushed the other way by all that talk of city types living at Brookfield. All designed to lead to lots of lovely arguments and fill up several episodes.

tractr that is hilarious

I seem to remember a major plot with Graham Ryder in it- with Cathy or someone? What was it?

www.thelwell.org.uk/images/phocagallery/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_fullcry.jpg

Making he join the hunt was an example of Rob controlling Hellin. She really didn't want to, it goes against all her principles - hence the fact Pat was so shocked. I think that was to demonstrate that she is not her own woman anymore and he did it because he wanted to see if he could. Also he wants to do what he wants to do and she has to join in whether she likes it or not.

It's not shocking any more though is it? They don't hunt foxes any more FGS. Just a bit of a rush about the countryside on an 'orse. She said she liked it and she's not become a Stepford wife (yet) so wouldn't do it if she REALLY hated it (well IMO anyway ).

it was an easy win though

he knows she likes horses and riding, but gave up hunting on principle. so persuading her back to hunting was relatively easy. what he has now is an example he can bring up when he's trying to persuade her to do something that she really doesn't want to do: "you were worried about the hunting and you loved that didn't you? i was right then and i'm probably right now"