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.

David's being remarkably open-minded, isn't he?
Maybe he knows perfectly well the b shares will knock the plan on its head without him having to do anything but appear to be going along with it and maintaining marital harmony.
Or is that too subtle?

Roy's a blockhead. Hayley's going to chuck him out and Lizzie will welcome him back with open arms, then regret it to her dying day.

Hang on, what's supposed to happen to Jill if they move to Prudhoe? Roooth made such a big thing about not wanting her to live on her own and being dead keen for her to move in. She's heard Jill say that there's no way she would want to be uprooted from her community. How come Jill's wishes suddenly come second to Heather's?

Actually, if they were being realistic, as soon as Roooth mentions the idea to Heather, Heather should slap her about and tell her to stop being stupid, and announce that she's sold her house and sorted out a lovely flat in sheltered housing, and tell Roooth to bugger off back to Ambridge.

Northumberland's not all bad, mummytime! (Despite some home counties ex-MP declaring it a good place for fracking because no one lives there.)

Marking place. I need to catch up on last wk. it all sounds outrageous.

Northumberland is gorgeous

Maybe David is playing along knowing that it will become clear how unrealistic it is

Icimoi I think Jill could move in with Elizabeth, after all when she moved into Brookfield Elizabeth was all sour about it & 'what about poor widowed me?'. Now Daniel has joined the army Shula has room for her mother. I wonder what has happened with Alistair & networking with a practice on the other side of Borchester? I guess E having the affair with Roy & then Alistair going off with someone would polarize the two sisters.

I think Northumberland is gorgeous to look at, and would be a great place for some people to live, but as farming land?
I think that Politician corrected himself - apparently he didn't mean the North East but the North West (what is amazing is he could have thought that was an apology).

Is anyone else getting 'None available' when they try to download the omnibus podcast?
I've a load of jobs that just NEED it to get me through them!!

CA says Jill will be bemused. No doubt. She's probably wondering if the sw have ever listened to the archers before.

^^THIS

Northumberland has loads of farms! (It's not all coast and castles )

The potential move up North is ridiculous, however, and is really annoying me. It just makes no sense at all. Gah!

as trev says there are lots of farms in northumberland. i imagine though that it would be very different to farming in the west midlands, and very difficult to learn to farm in a new area when you've been farming the same patch of land your whole life. it's not something you could realistically do on a whim

Thats what I was trying to get to, I'd assume farming in Northumberland is more like farming in Yorkshire than the West Midlands, especially an especially fertile bit of the West Midlands with all that arable.

Maybe this is because the SW know very little really about farming?

Maybe this is because the SW know very little really about farming?

What, then, has Graham Harvey been doing all these years?

There are also large areas of arable land in Northumberland mummytime, though I expect the upland areas are more extreme than those found in Borsetshire. To a certain extent farming in farming wherever you are, and equally a move 20 miles down the road could be equally difficult in terms of different soil types, logistical issues etc.

I think the main reason the storyline is unrealistic is that I can't imagine anyone would uproot a whole business and family that far based on looking after an elderly lady. Plus the threat of route b will surely devalue Brookfield hugely. I wasn't a listener when the a and b shares were divvied up but I suppose if Ruth and David wanted to sell Brookfield to buy another farm then in theory the investment of the b shares is maintained- it's not as thought R & D would be pocketing the cash for their retirement. But if they sold before route b was resolved either way, they would be devaluing the b shares, possibly unnecessarily, if route b then didn't go ahead. Does that make any sense? All in all, I don't think it will happen!

Totally unrealistic - but it must have seemed a brilliant idea on paper - or on the new Editor's "challenge one fundamental thing in every household" spreadsheet. Archers farming Brookfield is so fundamental it's almost funny.... Is this simply a joke that we're all supposed to enjoy?

It would only work if David and Ruth took early retirement and left Pip and Josh jointly to run Brookfield, with Jill keeping an eye on them.

But would it still be TA without David?

mummytime Sorry if I sounded snappy. Didn't mean to at all.
I lived for a while in Cumbria and have visited Northumberland quite a lot.
Yes, he did correct it to North West but he meant the same thing! Living where I do I have fairly sensitive antennae for rural property prices.

Either side has the Pennines (I live at the southern end of them now) where there are hill farms mainly sheep based but the lower lands have really lush mixed farms.
I can't see D&R having much change left from the sale of Brookfield to buy one of them if they have to pay off the siblings, pay moving and legal expenses etc. and allow for the drop in value of Brookfield while the road scheme hangs over it. I think these factors will absorb more than the difference in farm prices. The capital gains tax situation could be interesting......

But it's out of character and utterly ridiculous given that Brookfield is the core of the entire series.

Mini hijack to let y'all know about the Woman's Hour web chat today
More on ridiculousness of no Archers at Brookfield later

Roy was unbelievable last night! As if the harvest supper will bring them all back together! Assume Lizzy et al will be there - massive showdown?

Yeah, a harvest supper is just what a teenager wants.

He made a big mistake taking such an interest in the Hunt Ball - it shows that he hasn't moved on and is still emotionally involved in Lower Loxley and therefore Loathsome Lizzie too.

I know we aren't in the states but am I the only one hoping for a showdown at the hoe down? Phoebe and Hayley vs lizzie and Carole in a line dancing fight with Roy standing ineptly to the side, Freddie trying to trip his mum up and lily sketching a quick tableau. Everyone else will just be looking bemused

Carol is clearly not a normal Ambridge resident - she appears to be able to keep a secret. Unless she's planning to enlighten Jill about what's wrong with at least one of her children whilst playing sous chef.

Oh, and Ruth.... even apart from all the other reasons why the relocation idea is ridiculous, couldn't you hear how miserable David sounded?

But there's noooooo other way! I am Ruth and like all female folk at the moment I will show that all women are hideously selfish. Poor menfolk.

It's like the ed has drawn a family tree/historical web of each household an decided a story from there without understanding the characters. So it is now storyline driven rather than character driven. Which is why the new characters are so bland or one dimensional.