Our modest little The Archers thread has its very own radio celebrity! Join us for the hottest chilli in town, and await the impending doom as all plans go into reverse in Ambridge.

[PseudoBadger]

It's all getting rather delicious. I feel sorry for Kenton the fool

I was expecting a fairly muted response from the two guilt-raddled sisters - not too surprised by Lizzie though for the reasons someone has already given. She's got enough money, but she's lost people, so maybe has a better idea now of what's really important than some. Kenton though - and therefore Lillian and Jolene and Fallon - are all going to be hideously disappointed.

And I can't help feeling that JEs 'politeness' will be a mask for something else - he must have had major plans that have now been thwarted, to have been offering about 150% of the market value for Brookfield.

Not sure what will happen with Ruth. Although she probably should have realised that David wasn't happy, she didn't really push him into the idea - she floated it but I think was pretty surprised when he went for it. The sudden U turn with no consultation must make her feel very betrayed and belittled. Pip (the firstborn heir) will also be furious - so it's setting up tensions for the long-term (which TBH is good Archers tradition).

Ah - enoch I wonder if it's more fundamental than that. We've been twisting our heads for months, trying to work out how SOC will tie all the strands - road and dosh and broken wrists and robots - together. So many reasons for moving. And butterflies and sinkholes and what have you against. But in the end ta daa - look what a brilliant Editor I am ... the whole thing stopped for the simplest of reasons: David couldn't leave.

So none of the other stuff matters and they'll probably just ship it all off to that other dimension in which Catheridge Hall is now residing, never to be spoken of again.

(Although we insist on a sinkhole resolution.)

Route B still has to play out one way or the other. Maybe D and R will end up with his&hers farms either side of the road - Pip and R on the other side with a small robotic parlour, D and Josh and granny with ye olde style dairy and chickens. Ben will have to be shared, so they'll have to put in a sort of badger tunnel (If David could make it a one-way system for actual badgers he'd be happy)

Oh what a beautiful image.

Errol that's fantastic

We could still have Cutted Up Farm as a title?

Cutted up Farm would be brilliant!

There'll always be Starkarchers at Cutted Up Farm

When the Sukebind is in flower.....

Can I please make a plea for the thread title to reference the Archers only? Much as I am proud of our own Cutted Up Pear (and recall the very funny thread from which her name derives) I had never even heard of Cold Comfort Farm until this thread and I think a combination of an old Mumsnet in-joke and a non-Archers, somewhat obscure, literary reference is little bit cliquey...I'd like to get away from the idea that TA and Radio 4 are only accessible to those who have libraries of dusty old Penguins.

That said, I am now going to read CCF so thanks for the recommendation.

Anyway, back to the plot...fully agree with those who are surprised that Josh and Ben are disappointed. But the rift between David and Ruth is brilliantly done. What an utter tool he was to admit to Ruth that he had confided in Jill first. Well, he was stupid to actually confide in Jill at all, but the next best thing would have been not to let on to Ruth that he had had that conversation. He could have really ramped up his own desolate mental state, explained to Ruth exactly how he felt and asked for her support. But instead he presented it as a fait accompli cooked up between him and Mummy. Probably because he didn't want Ruth to talk him round. I'm not sure what the NFU see in him, he really is no politician...

I actually teared up a bit at Elizabeth's s reaction. I thought it was lovely but then I guess she was least reliant on the money.

I was also pleased to hear real shouting.in the argument between Ruth and David. Most rows on TA are too polite and restrained

It is a biggie for Ruth but she was happy before and we all know Route B won't happen. Really another split? It'll be tom's non anniversary soon

Yes, Shula is still worried about nearly eating a biscuit, hence the muted response .

Cutted up farm is a great mn and CUP reference - not to do with CCF is it? Which I have not read and so have no idea what you lot are on about- but happy for you all to carry on as a good percentage of my posts make no sense anyway!

I liked the fact that he discussed when to tell Kenton with his sisters. That was a very natural thing to do, I think.

I wouldn't have said CCF was a particularly obscure reference - probably required reading for TA addicts. Though probably there's other books which should be on the TA reading list* which I've not read (I've avoided most Hardy other than post xmas half-asleep viewing of films)

*that should be a Thing, shouldn't it?

I'm not sure that a TA Reading List should be a thing - it would only encourage SOC!
But Hardy would definitely be on it. And War and Peace? Wind in the Willows. The complete works of Shakespeare and Miss Read.

And Animal Farm. The creatures must have their point of view.

Agree with Jessie. The archers is what this is all about and I actually don't want to read books that may influence/be reminiscent of it!

Agree the sibling scene was well done.

CCF lampoons the work of Mary Webb, in particular The Golden Arrow. Her works should definitely be on the list, for example:

Gone to Earth is the story of Hazel Woodus, a child of nature with a pet fox who (that is, Hazel) simply wants to be herself, living among the remote Shropshire hills of the Welsh Marches with her harpist coffin-building father, but gets drawn into the world of normal human relationships through her great beauty, marrying a local church minister, but also becoming the object of the local fox-hunting squire's obsessive love for her. She casts herself down a mineshaft to escape, clutching her beloved fox.

I agree these very "in joke" titles must put a lot of new posters off. Some of them have been hard to identify as an Archers thread at all!

I've read CCF but have very very little recollection of it so it's wasted on me anyway

Pseudo is always careful to put an Archer/Ambridge reference in the thread title so passers-by can recognise it for what it is.

But sometimes the titles are very long and the archers reference is at the end and so doesn't show up on the most active tab when the titles are cut off

I don't mind them - but I'm not a newbie. I think they could be a bit quiche though

Aibu to be not so secretly pleased to be part of a quiche?

I think pseudo does a good job with thread titles as there are normally loads of good suggestions!!

I am a newbie but find them hilarious. As long as there is an Archers ref. in there somewhere I am all for it.

Kenton is going to do his nut down under….

Ben and the badger tunnel makes me imagine Arthur from Cabin Pressure scuttling through it 'It's just BRILLIANT!' .

Thanks to whoever said they liked my Amex updates (waaay back up the thread - have been having an epic catch up on both podcasts and the thread this week).

I knew a Shula when I was younger, she'd be mid-40s now I guess. No idea if she was named after Shula Archer. I'm pretty certain her brother wasn't called Kenton though!

If all this results in Jill selling Glebe and Carol having to bugger off away from Ambridge that would be a huge BOOP.

I'm mystified as to how both Brine and Jenny who display such good parenting tactics (Jenny's sensitivity about Phoebe, her taking Ruari on etc, Brine telling Kate to bugger off regarding money) raised such a brat as Kate; or did they both come to these decent parenting skills very late in life?