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

986 replies

PseudoBadger · 13/11/2014 18:07

She's got a whole calendar to use!

OP posts:
TheOnlyOliviaMumsnet · 24/11/2014 10:17

@ZeroSomeGameThingy

VANESSA WHITBURN is on Broadcasting House right now!
what was she saying?
DadDadDad · 24/11/2014 10:17

Oh dear, time to come clean. A week ago, I wrote:

This thread will end on 23 November*

*terms and conditions apply, past performance is not necessarily a guide to future returns, mists of prophecy can be obscure, rampant bulls and character bombshells may result in increased levels of posting which may affect the maturity value of this thread. (And I think it's quite possible this thread will make it to 24 November).

In reality, this thread looks like it's going to take all this week to complete. What is going on? Now the discussion around Tony's accident has petered out, the rate of posting has declined significantly. I had hopes that Charlie's "bombshell" would kick things off, but apparently not.

Is this thread dying, and is it a sign that you just don't care so much these days? Sad

DadDadDad · 24/11/2014 10:21

Olivia - not much on TA it would seem - see Zero's comment from yesterday at 11:45.

Icimoi · 24/11/2014 10:23

Dad3, I fear we have been beaten into submission by the ridiculousness of some of the current storylines. There are only so many times you can comment on that without becoming repetitive.

Icimoi · 24/11/2014 10:24

Didn't Roooth say something about the extra £2 million making a decent dent in their overdraft? Is it normal for farmers to have overdrafts that size?

DadDadDad · 24/11/2014 10:31

Icimoi: I fear we have been beaten into submission

That's what I feared. At least you've got your Justin Elliott figurine to console you. Wink

BringYourOwnSnowman · 24/11/2014 10:32

Maybe with an overdraft so big it will be a repossession....

unitarian · 24/11/2014 10:49

My ears pricked up at the mention of the overdraft too, Icimoi. I don't find the selling idea particularly implausible, nor the road scheme. It's the whole finances thing that I find crazy.
They got the idea to sell up and move and yet seem not to have factored in the sibling shares or the overdraft. OK, they look like selling for more than expected but that means the sibs get more too.

I assume David has a responsibility to his shareholders to get the best price possible so I'm not sure if he can turn down Justin except by withdrawing it from the market altogether. Even that might be dodgy if a shareholder kicked up.

ZeroSomeGameThingy · 24/11/2014 10:52

Olivia I would answer you if I wasn't so freaked out by the NUMBERS that have just appeared on the thread. They are CREEPY. I feel watched ...

(She didn't really talk about TA disappointingly. )

Cretaceous · 24/11/2014 10:52

Fab episode... I'm talking about the old one, of course. Thank you for posting that! Love the continuity with today's Shula. Neil used to have a bit of a thing for her, of course. But it wasn't to be, as he was far too common Wink.

choccyp1g · 24/11/2014 11:07

But on the bright side DDD my android app now shows the number of every post. Unless someone else is typing simultaneously, this is post 809.

Off to listen to vintage archers. My mum used to listen every day so I probably heard it first time around.

choccyp1g · 24/11/2014 11:08

Damn posted too slow??

lljkk · 24/11/2014 11:16

Why IS no one talking about Tony? I think he's about to pop his clogs (Bridge Farm can have no luck).

Why does no one on TA ever die of cancer, is it bad Radio?
Or Heart Failure, that's another long drawn out illness.
Not one person seems to have T2 Diabetes, or any debilitating chronic illness.

PseudoBadger · 24/11/2014 11:21

Icimoi I heard an amusing anecdote about a dairy farmer who won £5 000 000 on the lottery. He was asked what he would do with the money and he said "I'm just going to keep farming until it's all gone"! It's a bit of a money pit....

OP posts:
TheOnlyOliviaMumsnet · 24/11/2014 11:24

I loved the old episode too
Sorry zero about the numbers, just looking into it now - tech must be testing something.

DadDadDad · 24/11/2014 11:30

Numbers are good! Can we get them on the desktop version too?

ZeroSomeGameThingy · 24/11/2014 11:34

I'm sure I'll get used to them if they're staying.Grin

lljkk Yup. I've often complained about the complete absence of run of the mill illnesses or chronic conditions in the primary cast. But Tony was mentioned last night. You may not have heard Sunday's episode yet so hope not spoiling:

Ruth reported that Tony had suffered a pulmonary embolism. Think she then said stabilised ... (Was distracted by all the £££ chat.)

AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves · 24/11/2014 11:35

lijkk, there was an extended mention of Tony last night after Ruth went round to Bridge Farm.

One and only death from cancer I can recall was one of Dr Death Locke's patients whose son took him to the GMC because he thought he'd overprescribed morphine to get his hands on the legacy the grateful patient had left him.

Type 2 diabetes - Walter Gabriel had that long ago. Mike Tucker had high cholesterol or high blood pressure or both and Betty put him on a diet. High time the rest of the village started dealing with issues like this, though. I bet a high percentage of them are overweight. We often hear about Clarrie's weight but always as a 'comedy' number, not a health issue.

dairyfarmerswife · 24/11/2014 11:50

I don't really think its unrealistic for D&R to want to make the best price from the sale. It has to be a business decision at the end of the day (though saying that, the motivation for selling in the first place seemed more driven by needing to be near Heather, at least initially...) There is a sense, when you farm, that you are only a custodian of the land for your descendants, and it makes sense to me that they would want to maximise their asset, particularly as they have 3 of David's siblings to pay out, and then the asset potentially has to provide a living for three in the next generation. It will be a tough ask for it to support three families in ten or twenty years.

Yes they would have a working overdraft, at least in three figures I'd have thought. It would fluctuate with cashflow throughout the year. For example at the moment they will be selling a lot of milk as they have just calved all their cows, and it would be at a higher price because there is less milk produced at this time of the year. They wont have much income in July/August as the cows aren't producing much milk and they haven't harvested the arable crops. And in December they will get their single farm payment, which always helps the bank balance!

trevortrevorslattery · 24/11/2014 12:24

Ooh hello dairyfarmerswife I was hoping you'd be here as I had a question - hope you don't mind! So - I think D&R are moving the cows up North to a farm where there is no dairy herd at the moment (might have got that wrong.. I know they need to spend some money on a new milking parlour but I wasn't sure whether they were building or refurbishing).

Anyway my question is.. how easy will it be for them just to move their business? Won't they need to have contracts in place to sell all the milk and crops they are going to produce? Or can they realistically just sort that out when they get there? And what about the contracts they are committed to locally to Ambridge - can they just bugger off part-way through with no financial penalty?
That was quite a lot of questions, not just 1 - sorry!Blush

I also agree with D&R taking the £7m. I think I'd always try and do the best for my immediate family and that's what they are doing.

Also Mimsy what a bombshell - Adam has RED HAIR??? In my imagination he is a strapping dark-haired dark-eyed brooding type!

mink could it have been St Anthony of Padua rather than St Francis you were thinking of? He used to preach to the fishes so was probably a cunning-zoo-linguist Grin.

New Pip.. hmmm. she sounds about 25! How old is she actually?

Did anyone see the Sunday Times Culture section yesterday? There is a column called Radio Waves and the columnist was asking people to send in their most annoying/hated things about Radio 4 - I think he's going to do a column about it next week - and he mentioned the Archers as a likely source of complaints. I've chucked the magazine out now but here's a link to the online version. It's behind a paywall though Sad.
www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/film_and_tv/article1485273.ece

dairyfarmerswife · 24/11/2014 12:42

Hi Trevor ! I am looking often here lurking... Firstly, someone mentioned earlier that there is no milking parlour at the new farm, so it will need to be built before they can move the cows. The other option could be to milk through what is known as a bail, which is a temporary milking parlour. I think you can hire them, which a farmer might do if he was upgrading an existing parlour rather than building a new one in a different place. DH says milking through a bail is a pain in the bum and to be avoided if at all possible. Alternatively perhaps they would time the move so that they stayed at Brookfield until about July, dried off all the cows and moved before calving, into a very speedily built parlour. Of course that would mean Rooth wouldn't be with Heather just after Christmas as she might have imagined... But we all know she's probably going to SOHMC anyway...

As regards contracts... I don't know where they sell their milk, but a lot of milk processors are national - Muller Wiseman, Arla, Dairy Crest. First Milk etc so perhaps moving a contract with them wouldn't be too difficult. If they have to move processors they would have to give notice on their existing contract. Most milk contracts tie you in for a relatively long period, often a year. I wouldn't fancy trying to get a new contract at the moment either, with the milk price the way it is. Some processors aren't even recruiting at the moment.

As far as their other crops, I don't suppose they have forward sold them, though some farmers do. And I think they sell lambs in the local market, so no forward commitment there.

BringYourOwnSnowman · 24/11/2014 12:43

As they've decided to move they should take the biggest offer.

I just find the way they have decided to move unconvincing. The only hint of emotion was when David was boo hooing to his mummy but that was more about not wanting to move without her. It's like we've missed loads of episodes where David agonised about leaving the farm of his forefathers. He just went straight from 'that's not going to happen Ruth' to 'woohoo let's get out of this dump' in the space of one episode.

As I said upthread, if the sw go ahead with this sale to Justin they are completely changing the program to a more industrial village rather than 'an everyday tale of farming folk'

babybarrister · 24/11/2014 13:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BringYourOwnSnowman · 24/11/2014 13:18

It seems lizzie is too busy to think about money when she has so much self pity to wallow in

Shula seemed to think a windfall would be handy

Kenton was keen to get a big lump but I think he would rather they didn't sell

trevortrevorslattery · 24/11/2014 13:22

Hurrah for dairyfarmerswife ! Thankyou!