Robbieeeee! It's meee, it's Jessieeee! I've come home. I'm so cold! Let me in-a-your window. The Archers pay homage to Wuthering Heights?

[PseudoBadger]

A new thread in time for the film this morning.

What was particularly odd about Foxbreath's behaviour? The salacious haw-hawing over the shot girls? Or did I miss something odder?

Ha ha - love thought of horse dropping and rolling!

Of all his faults I didn't have Oliver down as a suck arse who would organise/ask for such crass entertainment

I guess they don't have carefully orchestrated horse-tripping-over-pheasant recordings. Perhaps they should try coconut shells. Totally OT but that reminds me of a lovely little moment a couple of years ago when we were visiting Doune Castle - used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail - and we heard clip-clopping ... sure enough there was another visitor 'riding' round with coconuts. (and there were swallows swooping below the battlements.

The route B thing must surely be that's just the one they want to go for, it must still have to go through all the planning, consulation, public meetings etc. Price of Brookfield will be blighted which hopefully will put spanner in the works re quick sale and buying of Northumberland stock farm, and whatever is going on with the borsetshire natural plumbing will emerge in time to put paid to the idiocy of David leaving Brookfield. Ideally it will turn out to be a fantastic natural mineral spring which will make them rich enough to buy the Northumberland farm as well, Ruth can go up there to look after it and HeatherPet, with Pip to help her well out of earshot.

Justin will offer them an amount they can't refuse (unsure why he would want to live near a big road though)

So is carol lady macbeth?

They're angling to get Fallon back with PC Plot, aren't they, otherwise she wouldn't care a jot about the lovely Justine.

Or Fallon will once again thwarted, once again shag Jizzer.

Route B. Tain't gonna happen but I reckon it will go to the wire they will put it up for sale, bid on northumberland farm only to get 11th hour reprieve. But there will be much panic and long term falling out repercussions over the money.

Was there any overt suggestion that Carol is a murderer? I thought she was more hinting the marriage was unhappy and possibly open.

I am hoping Ambridge is invaded by zombie pheasants caused by summat in the water.

I'm puzzled about what route B has to do with BL and Annabel. Surely it's a Dept of Tran decision if it's a trunk road and a county council decision if it isn't.
There's no way either of those bodies could or should be influenced by a single company or that one of their board members would be the first to know the decision,
There has been no assessment of its archaeological or environmental impact. The public consultation has been ridiculous. There was no consultation that we heard other than a meeting at which they were told it would be one of three alternatives. There has been no mention of any proper survey of the route having been done.
Also no one has mentioned the political ramifications, locally and nationally.
No one has lobbied the MP, for example.

'Tis bollocks.

The 2nd séance.........
Another absolutely bizarre story. Assuming JT 'said' anything such as 'Carol killed me' what can they do? Report it to Harrison who has conveniently reappeared?
There could be fun convincing a prosecutor that there's grounds for a conviction on the evidence of a séance.

But I wouldn't mind if Carol was taken away in handcuffs, incarcerated and never heard from again.

Caro said very clearly that she and John had split up "went our separate ways" I think is how she put it. Then she nursed him at the end, but only as a vompanion rather than a wife, was my take on it.

Jill is like an impressionable 12 year old with her giggly worship of Carol.

Jill's strangulated "noo, noo" at the end was OTT and very bad acting. Reminded me of Kirsty's howl in that it took a genuinely dramatic and shocking moment and turned it into farce.

Hmm, I may have accidentally coined a new word - "vompanion"- a good friend who holds back your hair whilst you are being sick.

I thought Jill's cry was a very poor effort. Sounded like a cow with indigestion.

To add to the list of ridiculous plots. Fallon's cakes and upcycling business. Everyone knows this is only an option for women with rich husbands.

I may be being thick but has nobody else noticed the flaw in Daaaaaaveeeed and Ruth's plan to move?? They keep saying its cos of Route B but isn't it also to support her Mum...who will still be ill if Route B doesn't go ahead so what's going to happen then? Eh? Answer me that Ruth!!!

i know primadonnagirl. it's baffling. either it's about her mum, in which case time is of the essence - moving house takes bloody months so how long is moving a farm going to take?? heather needs help right now. or it's about route b, in which case as you say, what happens to heather?

THERE IS NO LOGIC

Yy to Jills no. I bet the actress winces when she hears that back.
Surmising :Annabel knowing is an indication that BL have insiders in the council - has been hinted at before. No doubt it will be tidied up later as to how they would know once they read this thread

Route b is preferred option now which presumably means now the surveying starts in earnest. They find the sink holes and surprise surprise route b doesn't happen after all.

Deevid and Ruth stay on a soggy Brookfield and moan on about pasture for many more years. And Heather Pet conveniently dies or is hospitalised there having been no plan B for her care.

Or Roy decides older women are his thing, falls for her and moves in to be her devoted vompanion.

Public bodies in thrall to big business is all very plausible in RL but I am surprised that it's being shown so blatantly on TA.
BL has also effectively bought off the hunt as well with all that sponsorship and I would have expected the hunt to oppose the road.

Route B won't go ahead - the Ambridge Fairies will make sure of that.

They'll no doubt take advice from the Iceland Elves

Boore

That Elf story is by far the best thing I have read all year! Thank you for the link, utterly brilliant and uplifting... Er, Ambridge faeries needed urgently SW, please take note!

Er, actually seeing the date, the magical time of year, seances, spirits, the ghost of JT... Why shouldn't Ambridge have it's own Elves?!?

The whole thing is utterly ridiculous ATM. There were several issues that had me shouting at the radio this week, including Fallon's unattractively teenage behaviour over PC Plot Device, the Hunt Ball with its 'shot girl' (WTF, has LoLo become Spearmint Rhino or something?), and the bloody seance.

And, perhaps most infuriating to me currently because I'm facing similar problems, why is Ruth being such a dingbat over HP? Why would they allow an-already-very-fragile elderly woman just out of hospital, and now with a newly-fractured wrist, to 'manage' by herself, and not INSIST that she comes back to Brookfield with them, even just for a few weeks so they can look after her? Especially as they're supposed to be such a close and loving/supportive clan?

As for the road nonsense.....I agree, it'll never happen, but I'm not sure I can stand several more months of agonising before they put a stop to it.

guineapiglet it made me too!

And no more unlikely than other giant plot devices they have served up in the past.

It would definitely make sense for Heather to stay at Brookfield until she's better. I don't know how many bedrooms they have but there's always Rickyard Cottage to fall back on. Pip could stay in there. I'm sure Heather wouldn't insist on Ruth being away from the family and farm so often - and she might like it at B'field and decide to stay.
There would then be an interesting story of inter-MIL friction and another marmalade war!

I'm convinced a survey will show instability underground and that will be the end of route B but now we have another well known actor being introduced and a plotline to go with it. I hate the obvious artificiality of some of the recent plots.

To be fair, I suppose the Heather issue is slightly less urgent as she has carers helping while her wrist is in plaster. If they're supplied by the council, though, they'll presumably be withdrawn when she's deemed able to cope without.

However, given how much money R and D stand to lose over Brookfield, it might well be cheaper for them to organise private carers.

I think the editor is now channelling the spirit of the 50s and 60s Archers which did have a number of totally daft and dramatic storylines alongside very effective ones. So there was Jennifer's baby (Adam) but then total nonsense fest when Adam was kidnapped for ransom. The village was under threat from mining I think, Phil Archer had a pretty racy love life, obviously Grace died in a v dramatic fire etc. I think the return of Carol is a conscious signpost for this but a lot of the recent stuff - Roy/Lizzie, Tom's jilting and obviously the new road plays in to that. Alongside it you have the 'real' storylines - I am gripped by the return of Johnny to Bridge Farm. Very interesting when Tom finally comes back....Also obviously Rob and Helen.

I sense that plots are being created for big name actors though and that's what I don't like.