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]

The whole sink hole thing seems weird to me. I mean these things get a mention the local news and sometimes even the national news, even on farmland, yet no one's mentioned it in Ambridge for weeks!
If you were selling land where a sinkhole has suddenly appeared wouldn't you be a tad anxious about it?

Perhaps *DadDadDad can apply his actuarial skills to predicting whether Peggy is going to make it past her 90th! The SWs usually write out the character after an actor has died but if O'Connor is running true to form then Peggy might SOTMC any time now.

Yes - why wasn't the sink hole exhaustively discussed with the Rodways Man?

www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/04/what-causes-sinkholes-florida-man good article on sinkholes in case anyone is over infested interested.

so could have been caused by the flooding or by drainage work related to farming.

David has gained a spring and Ed has lost his. Surely someone's noticed this!!

I vaguely recall that when Adam first re-appeared some listeners complained that there were now too many very similar-sounding male voices on TA - Alistair, Kenton, Adam are the ones I recall - and they found it hard to work out who was speaking. Adam's very distinctive delivery appeared as a way of dealing with that problem.

This may explain why VW thought it was a good idea to cast a Nottingham teenager to play Tom and didn't insist that he changed his accent. I always found that slightly odd but at least it meant there was no danger of not recognising Tom.

This is quite funny because as a Scot, Northumbrians and Brummies aside, everyone on the Archers has pretty much the same accent to my unattuned ears.

And I have a sketchy knowledge of English geography so no real concept of how far apart places are.

Gosh! I'm a Scot but I've lived in England since I was 9 - in Leeds first and I've been in London for about 35 years now. Maybe that helps. Can you really not tell the difference between Eddie and Brian?

I second what someone said back there about being irritated when they suddenly drop storylines. Are we supposed to assume that Roy is quietly festering away somewhere doing nothing? He did give up his job at GG, didn't he? What's he supposed to be living on? And is he still plotting/hoping to get back together with the Middle-Aged Tart?

We don't know if he gave up the job, no! He told Hayly he was going to, but then she moved out - and we heard Caroline exclaiming at his misery-face. One would hope he thought better of it.

well, also the sale Mike's dairy or whatever it is fell through. What about the buyer for the house? I remember Mike saying to Ed that he wasn't going to sell to someone, but then what? Have Mike, Vicky and Bethany moved? or not?

Did someone call? Well, it's really an abuse of actuarial maths to make predictions for an individual's mortality, when in practice we deal with statistical predictions for a large group of lives. But what the heck, Peggy is fictional, so let's get stuck in!

Based on the latest English Life Tables, if you took ten thousand women of her age, they'd be dying off at the rate of near enough 4 a day. So her chances of making it to the end of the week are pretty good.

In fact, she's currently in reasonably good health, she's got a good social network, not in poverty. Does she have any chronic illnesses or anything else in her history, such as smoking? It wouldn't surprise me if her mortality was more like that of an average 85 year old or even better. That suggests a daily rate more like 2 per ten thousand.

Overall, she must have around a 90% of making it to her 91st birthday. But of course, soap characters are subject to the capricious forces of drama not the statistically coherent forces of nature.

Now I must prepare for dinner with a thousand other actuaries at our conference. if you're in Birmingham and here a raucous celebration tonight, it's er probably not us. We'll be quietly discussing spreadshits.

Well Brine sounds posh. But Tom doesn't sound much different to Tony.

*hear not here

What Tom sounds like is anybody's guess Mink

Currently in reasonably good health....until she went over her ankle.
Death under the drier at hairdresser i reckon.
Rinse and very permanent set.

Oh nice one Mr CA - "Perhaps soon we'll be calling it The Aldridges"

DDD - love the fact that you've broken off from your actuarial conference to post on this thread .

I love these glimpses into the world of actuaries, DDD! A long, long time ago I was an accountant and as I'm sure you know actuaries have the reputation of being the only profession even more boring than accountants. A dreadful slur on a noble profession, clearly.

Peggy had a stroke not that long ago. She made a good recovery but are her chances of having another one increased?

'Capricious forces of drama!' Marvellous, DDD.
I still think she might pop her clogs this week, in unactuarial terms.

I'd heard that too Mimsy, but didn't like to mention it.

Who knows the difference between an Introverted Actuary and an Extroverted Actuary?

Please do tell.

Yes a knock makes a stroke more likely.
Who else is predicting she doesn't even make it to hairdresser? Nasty surprise for Hellin.

An introverted actuary looks at his shoes when he talks to you. An extroverted actuary looks at your shoes.