Rejoice, for the Dopeys are staying in Ambridge to feast on Oedipal flapjacks. Or at least David is. Discuss The Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

Will Peggy make it to the end of this thread?

I have just scanned the thread and could not listen tonight. But I was very struck with The Quiets - sound just like my kind of show

I'm pleased to see from the 'timeline' :
The B&B's resident llamas have been successfully moved to higher ground.

Good, I was a bit worried about them and Robert.

No wonder poor old Aunty C was nervous - if you were entirely made out of cardboard, you wouldn't be happy about the prospect of risking immersion in water. She'd never be the same, she'd dry out all wrinkly.

Rob was fantastically cowardly - you could practically hear him twirling his cad's moustache as his beady little eyes twitched about and he tried desperately to think up excuses to get the hell out of there instead of sticking around and helping to rescue people from the Ambocalypse.

Still think it's the Hellmouth opening. Shouldn't Willow be young? One of the Buttons, maybe? They show promise. The luscious Christopher Carter is Angel. Not sure about Spike. Johnny perhaps? Or Jazzer?

I was a bit surprised when Rob turned from trying to nobly rescue the contents of the village shop to commandeering the boat (does anyone know where that came from? I've never heard of a boat in the village anywhere before. ) - as that did seem like a somewhat risky thing to do. I suppose he just can't stand being told what to do by anyone else, certainly not from some northern oik. Quibbling about whether the policeman should be trying to organise things because he was off duty FFS.

Rob was looking for opportunities where he could be the hero in charge (without actually doing anything or putting himself in danger,) which is why he was shouting at Harrison. I think he massively miscalculated the danger:hero ration that the boat rescue was going to be, and wouldn't have done it, had he realised he might actually have an accident because of it. In any case, I reckon they'd have been fine in the hayloft overnight. (The stables have always been up a bit of a hill in my mind, so I was a bit surprised to hear the water's half way up the stairs.)

If they write Rob out this way, it's a massive cop-out and I will feel cheated about them not bothered to conclude the Rob/Helen storyline properly. But I do fear that Scruff is going to turn up floating bloated and dead on the shores of Mount Ararat (aka Lakey Hill) as the waters recede.

There was a brief mention of the boat being from the lake at that other Hall. I want to say Arkwright but it can't be, can it? The one that's often mentioned but no one seems to live there.

Methinks Rob's going to get hero status and Shula will change her witness statement.

I hope Scruff turns up alive. I couldn't bear to listen to Linda's decline. I want her cajoling villagers and directing pantos for many years yet.

Yes, Lynda's panic seemed badly out of character. I'd have expected her to rise to the occasion and start organising the rescuers or dashing to Grey Gables to sort out accommodation for the rescued.

I interpreted Lynda's deep distress as being due to remembering the last time her home was flooded and made uninhabitable.

anything spring is really on the way with you! Lovely.

What do we want?
The waters to recede.
When do we want it ?
By Friday at the latest 'cos we're all confused as to what day it is.

" the Ambocalypse to end" would have been a better second line in hindsight.

I think scruff will perform a heroic deed. Dogs are usually ok when they fall into water.

Rob will also be ok but will milk the wounded hero angle. Reckon it is just further divide Ambridgsters as to his character.

I really don't want a dead Scruff. Perhaps he could rescue Pip a la Lassie?

Maybe he'll be missing a while and then fetch up safe some miles downstream. (Scruff, obv, not Rob).

If Rob tries to play the injured hero, if he'd listened to Burns (or was it David?) telling him not to go off in the boat alone he wouldn't have got hurt. He didn't think through that trying to get people into a boat and controlling it at the same time in moving water is asking for trouble.

Hopefully Bert realised what was going on and is helping Pip at Brookfield- he's a tough old countryman.

Hope they wrap things up tonight floodwise. They can't drag it out too long - Ruth was only supposed to be away for the weekend, wasn't she? Ben should have been back at school on Monday.

Poor Scruff . It made me a bit tearful to hear Lynda's desperation, imagining my own two furry little chaps in the same situation - I do know it's not a real dog but still

I was rather gripped by last night's episode actually. Was it a new Alistair? Or just ages since we've heard him?

And what about Peep?

I expect that PC Plot will be able to take his revenge on Rob and his insults by booking him for various speeding offences when the waters subside.
The boat was "coming" from Arkwright Hall. The next moment it had turned up ... where, how? ... and Rob was off to save Shula and Alistair. Surprised Rob wasn't carefully guarding "his family".
Also, did anyone hear the remark by Ed a couple of episodes back about the river being flooded back to Hollerton (famous railway junction). I misheard it as Holland and thought for a moment that England would become two islands ...

Agh pseudo I am reading this at work when I should be doing my work! I only just managed to cover up a guffaw at "brown shitstreak butterfly" by cramming my apple into my mouth

Same here trevors, except it was Peggy clutching her pussy that nearly did for me!

i actually am quite worried about scruff

I felt sorry for Lyndy. She has been here before remember and not that long ago - I'm not surprised she was trying save some of her stuff having lost so much of it so recently. I think she wasn't being rational because she was having to act in the heat (or rather the wet) of the moment and she was distressed because she doesn't know what's happened to Scruff. He's the least of my worries, but she does love that dog - remember she has no children (not that I'm suggesting only people who don't have children can love their dogs!). I'm sure she will soon come to her senses and leap into super-organised mode and Robert will do a fabulous job of consoling her and reminding her it's just stuff (apart from Scruff of course - though I'm expecting a tearful reunion there!) Also once she realises that the flooding has scuppered the road plans she won't care anyway.

Won't care about her stuff - not Scruff of course!

I enjoyed it!! Rob was being an uber pratt though.

Yes - 'pussy clutching' finished me off on the tube…..

I thought the Freda stuff was ridiculous but I enjoyed the rest of it.

Was cheered by Rob being such a dick with Shula etc but now worried that his bang on the head will give him unwarranted hero status. The stuff with the shop was just odd. Was that supposed to show that he cares more about things than people? Also, I was a bit confused thinking at first it was Ambridge Organics he was trying to open (it was the village shop, though, wasn't it? Why does he care about it?)

Also worried about Scruff. I hope he's not the only casualty.

And I hope everyone else noticed David making frantic calls to his mother, but not his wife...!!