The Archers - It's Full Of Pants! Listeners are allegedly leaving in droves. Will Peggy also FOHMC?

[PseudoBadger]

She's got a whole calendar to use!

i don't think selling/putting down the bull is equivalent to a dog that bites. for a start, you don't have the bull curled up on your hearthrug

i don't know enough about it tbh, but can see both sides - you would be very wary of buying a bull that had such a history, and P&T might understandably not want it to stay on the farm, but it is a valuable asset and i don't know how much of that value will have been reduced by the accident

Sounded to me like Pat decided she wanted Otto got rid of - probably for emotional rather than rational reasons - Tony wouldn't have been in any condition to discuss it and will be gutted when he finds out.

Good to hear Johnnie was carrying on with the farm work, though I predict that Sharon may (rather understandably) decide that farming is too dangerous.

I'm not sure about the complaints about too many plots - actually I think that quite a few many turn out to be quite cleverly enmeshed. The Brookfield exodus tying in with the Damora/Charlie Home Farm contract changes; Tom's departure, Johnnie's arrival, Rob's EA control and now Tony's accident all converging now. Not quite sure how the Roy/Hayley-Vicki/Mike changes play in but they may do...Ed may somehow combine his herd with managing the Bridge farm stock (with Neil/Jazzer on pigs) - Rob might support this as I doubt he wants Tom back. He's not too comfortable at Berrow under the new regime but knows how to play a long game and I'm not sure he would want to strike too early in taking over.

And I can see why Mr O'C has been avoiding Feedbacl (and for now, I'm sure webchat with us) - he knew what was brewing and was probably not at all fazed by the publicity before this.

He said the injuries were realistic but the medical chat was rubbish - why would Pat say he had 2 intravenous fluid bags going into 2 cannulas in his arms? It was a bit like the SW had had a chat with a medic and just inserted it word for word without translating it into normal conversation.

I predict damara capital winning the bridge farm telephone auction under a pseudonym

That's on the basis we will have a crisis as they buy up the ambridge farm land and turn it into one giant ecologically defunct field

Asked my Dad (told him you internet-folk wanted to know!!) and he was pretty sure IRL a rampaging bull that had attacked its farmer would go for Bull-burgers as nobody would want to buy it, and they themselves wouldn't want to keep it as a reminder.

I can't help feeling though, that Tony will be very upset when he finds out. But then again - it potentially would have killed one if not both of his grandsons, not to mention the damage to himself, so who knows. Maybe he'd agree with Pat.

Thanks waltzes dad!!

I suppose I had thought it would be viewed as an accident rather than a vicious animal attack

Thanks Waltzing - so good to have you on this thread. Our very own agricultural story editor

(or should that be gory...)

YY, the 'two bags of fluid into 2 cannulas' was nonsense - it struck me the 'patient' will have tubes in every orifice just about - and some more in ones he (and Pat) never knew he had ..... it is lousy writing. Again.

It is understandable about Otto, much as the fergie was a reminder, and they wanted rid of that too. Thanks to Waltzing's dad.

Would this change Peggy's plans re her will? Surely Tony has most need of all that money if long-term disabled? Making the farmhouse suitable for his needs? Bridge Farm needing to buy in more outside labour can't be good for its finances? Or will this force Pat and Tony to give up the farm and sell it to pay for his care (assuming the Ambridge health fairy doesn't wave her wand)?

I would imagine that whatever insurance the farm has for accidents (for themselves and their workers/3rd parties) would insist on poor old Otto being got rid of ASAP.

Re: Peggy - I thought she sounded a bit wooden tonight in her concern for Tony. Or maybe I just imagined that?

And this in turn reminded me of a 'Heroes and Villains' feature in a newspaper about 20 years ago. (Sorry: can't recall which paper it was!) As a 'villain', the writer cited Peggy as an archetypal small-minded, pursed-lip, disapproving sort of person.

I think the Peggy of recent years has been rewritten to change her from that narrow-minded stereotype. E.g. several years ago she pursed her lips at having a female vicar (Janet), but now she seems fond of Adam and Ian. Perhaps just to show how a scriptwriter person can change?

Hope that my musing here is not going off at too much of a tangent. I love all the discussions on this thread - especially the recent talk of Ottoburgers!

Maybe Peggy will plan to change her will but then the ankle will turn out to be the harbinger of her doom and she'll FOHMC before she can do it.

I thought Peggy sounded flat too. Especially as she was supposed to be being courageous.

Off to read the bbc synopsis to see if I heard rigjt

Um, well TBH I wouldn't overanalyse her nuances, June Spencer is still putting in pretty strong performances given that she's older than Peggy.

I was thinking more that she is getting fed up and wants Peggy potmc (that's pushed)

I wonder what Peggy would have said to Tony if she had been allowed near.

The omnibus version made much more sense of it all for me. The gradual build-up with health & safety, Pat's emphasis on being insured, the anxiety over Peggy, the plan to fix the guttering making us think someone would fall off a ladder, Ed being tired up all night with his own cattle. It was really rather cleverly set up.

I'm now wondering if Pat will have the stomach to continue farming after another tragedy. Knowing what David's asking for his farm might make her consider retiring whether or not Tony survives.

I know they've heard from Tom since he went to Canada but isn't it odd that no one is now mentioning him? Is Rob the only one who actually knows where in Canada he is?

Where be this Canada place you speak of? Is it yonder across the sea? Why we simple farming folk know of nowhere further than the mythical 'big smoke' of Birmingham.

I expect a mention of Tom tomorrow. Or he will just turn up as there has been plenty of time since Thursday for him to get himself on a plane

You'd have thought someone would have mentioned that they'd rung Tom and he was trying to work out whether he could get back.

I was thinking more that she is getting fed up and wants Peggy potmc (that's pushed)

you could be right - or she may know that she is being pushed soon and is fed up about that. I don't suppose when she started in 1950 they gave any thought to the fact she was a few years older than her character and that they might have to do this awkward end-game - do they kill off an elderly character in a planned plot or do they have to risk working around the untimely demise of an elderly actor. It's not a problem many shows have to deal with!

Or he will just turn up as there has been plenty of time since Thursday for him to get himself on a plane.

Remember the farce about Alice taking ages to come back from Canada when it was Chris's turn to come a cropper with a large animal? Tom is probably flying as we speak, via Machu Picchu and Timbuktu.

Ah yes - Canada really is impossible. He's probably over Outer Mongolia as we speak