Don't blame it on a Grundy, don't blame it on Route B, don't blame it on Sean O'C, blame it on the badgers. Discuss The Archers of Prudhoe here.

[PseudoBadger]

Perhaps we should lend David and Ruth DDD and he can do a spreadshit for them.

Of course it does unit Jill just wants to part of a farm (doesn't seem to matter which one) so she can remain at BF and continue in her support role .

CBA with the film this week, first time in ages I haven't listened but the updates on this thread are so infuriating that I just can't bear it. How can they get it so wrong?!

I live in That London, but my parents live in a very Ambridge - esque village. Started listening at my mother's knee. She is v pissed off with all the ridiculous, unbelievable, plot driven changes too.

I haven't listened since R&D visited that 'perfect' farm & Heather sounded dead, & don't plan to any more

Sean O'C has outdone VW & seen me off

I will keep reading however, just in case it all stops being so extremely silly...

Jill wanting to be part of a farm is one thing that rings true to me so she wouldn't be happy living at a pub with Kenton and she'd be bored out of her mind at Shula's. She'd be quite isolated at Lizzie's so being part of David & Ruth's family unit is very much what she's suited for.

Somehow I can't see her sharing a kitchen with Ian!

This whole business of the Brookfield shares needs to be knocked on the head.
It's now proposed that the sibs retain an interest in the Prudhoe farm as the family business. Now presumably Pip or Josh or Ben will want to continue farming. If they have to divi up their inheritance then they're left with naff all but if the shares remain when they inherit then the sibs will never get any money before they SOTMC.
In other words, it's not real money. They'll never get it so they might as well give up on it.

I know it's small in the scheme of things but it's this panto business which has really got to me.
Has there been any explanation of why Lynda has now decided to put on a show, having previously first decided completely inexplicably that she was suffering some kind of morale malaise and decided to can it after a zillion years' tradition (just months after turning down the possibility of a work promotion in order to focus on her community activities explicitly including the panto) , followed by an equally unconvincing u-turn and the decision to put on a one-woman show....
And now we're back to an ensemble cast (with suddenly magically compliant volunteers where just a couple of weeks ago nobody could be coerced into it) and a play which, though a departure from the traditional panto, is certainly well within standard boundaries for a village Christmas show.

I know that different people write different episodes but this was either a massive continuity fuck up or it was a ridiculously ham-fisted attempt to kill off the panto followed by a swift reverse ferret.
Either way, slow hand clap for Mr OC.

Nobody messes with Lynda and gets away with it in my book.

Oh AND while I'm having a moan (sorry everyone), the smug clever-clever cultural references (that poet; Babette's Feast) irk me.

I loved Jill's "I'm one of those awkward people who can't just live for themselves". It reminded me of the classic answer to the interview question "what would you say was your greatest fault?" which is of course "my relentless drive for perfection". She's turning into a silly self-aggrandising old besom to rival Piggoi.

"my problem is I just care too much"

Agree about Lynda - thought it was a one woman show?

"Well I can change my mind can't I?" again.

I'm also not really going to pay attention to the film this week. It'll be on because R4 always is but I won't be doing any shushing.

I live in a small town on the coast - the sort of place that has a wool shop and an ironmongers. We're surrounded by arable farms so there is a constant stream of tractors up and down the main road. My sister lives inland a bit in a very Ambridge-esque place. She has horses and dogs and cats that live outside and bemoans the fact that my freezer isn't big enough for us to split one of her neighbour's cows between us. She's a bit like Shula (but not so saintly)

Justwhateverreally. ' reverse ferret'. Love it!

PSA: if you are bothering with the film tomorrow then it's on early (9.15) because of the Remembrance service.

More than one plot needs a 'reverse ferret'.

Btw forgot to say, love the thread title. Except that I've had that song stuck in my head for days now...

Agree that the sw think they are being oh so clever and intellectual but, as with most bbc produced drama, they just think they are cleverer than they actually are

A bit like teenagers. This, and the fact they don't know how to write teenagers, is leading me to believe they are in fact teenagers

And yes, why is Damian still going to nursery when it allegedly broke Helen's heart to drop him off every morning?

I suspect Damian will ensure Peggy's haircut goes wrong. And the party

Ooooh well I am decloaking to admit my enthusiastic lurking here. I am 43 and have been listening since about 19/20 though couldn't explain how it happened!

I remember the grundys as farmers and the kids little, Nelson and Nigel's mum and Margery Antrobus and the tractor accident...

Current affairs have me very pursed lipped. I thought knob rob was a sign plots could have slow burn realism but the enormous hash of Brookfield is a proper turkey.

I need some Matt and Lillian to cheer me up

One more thing. Just one more. There are many other things but I'm trying to restrain myself.

If we have to put up with these nonsensical plots, the least they could do is let us hear the fallout from them. I wanted to hear what Mike and Vicky thought about Roy, I want to hear what's happening with Hayley now the initial shock has worn off, I want to hear the gossip going around and the village shop being a hotbed of excitement, I want to hear Jim making some classical analogy in a slightly pompous way in the Bull while Jazzer speculates about Lizzie's abilities in the sack.
Not to mention David and Kenton and Shula all pondering on the revelation, and Frilly coming to terms with it and being cosseted by Lizzie and how those family dynamics have been disrupted.

We've had none of that.

And it's not the only recent plot line which has been handled so casually. It is so frustrating.

The road! Why have we not heard the campaign? Why was there not a high stakes council meeting where it was passed? Where has Lynda been? What happened to the butterflies? What happened with the brick throwing stroppy teenagers and why has that never been heard of again?

... And so on...
breathes heavily

What annoys me about the business with Lynda is that the choice of Blythe Spirit is just so ham-fisted. The SWs are clearly chortling away at the cleverness of doing something that references JD's seance and all the stuff about John T, but it's too heavy- handed - particularly the way it's sprung out of nowhere when previously Lynda allegedly couldn't find anyone at all who was interested in acting this year.

That's because they're not clever! They're in a cosseted bubble where they all think they are clever and it is full of self congratulation and nespotism.

Agree (again) that they ramped up the drama with the affair and have now got bored if it. Lame lame lame

Wish they would get bored of Brookfield sale and bl

Seances! Not one but two! Held by middle aged women who have previously showed no interest whatsoever in the supernatural! I mean just wtf kind of bollocks patronising 'silly women' crap...
Following on from the new kitchen and the haircut and Fallon's furniture business and teenage flounces about PC Plot and Soosan's sofa and various other examples, it couldn't be clearer that there is absolute contempt for women...
I must stop, my blood pressure is soaring .....
sits on hands

Oh yes just - I think we discussed the misogyny in the last thread too