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?

He's definitely mellowed to Shula over the years. It was more the " we" but that confused me ...I wondered whether I'd missed something.

Iwant I wanted a mega-flounce too but it's not to be.

Hopefully Jim and Shula will have some discussion about Rob and the rescue.

The joint acceptance worries me - has Jim fallen prey to Aunty Cardboard's corrugated charms? I think we should have been told. And what about poor old Jazzer, where's he going to live?

I think the Ruth thing went like this in SOCs head- cancel the move. But Ruth will be pissed off. How do we make her not pissed off? Crisis at the farm. All fixed.

All very convenient. And like the whole plot contrived and implausible.

Aunty Cardboard's corrugated charms?

Jazzer might stay at The Bull. That would be interesting for Fallon and PC Plot...

Good point Errol. Jim and Shula in the same house - comparing notes not only on the flood rescue, but also over sab incident and Knob's outburst at Jim. His cover is blown!

It was mean of Shula not to mention Jazzer. And strange that Jim didn't even mention him!

Perhaps amidst all the complications the SW forgot that he lives in Jim's house.

Oh I hope so Enochroot

How is Shulas house liveable if they were sheltering in the hayloft?

I wondered this, because at one point, Shula tried to get Alistair to go back to the house to see if the landline was working and he said something like, don't be ridiculous, the water's half way up the stairs already. I suppose he could have meant the hayloft stairs, but haylofts should have ladders, not stairs.

I am sort of prepared to suspend judgement on the whole day-lasting-a-week thing, though as I was listening last night, I was thinking, they're now on last week, how can they catch up? But I don't like the changing details to fix plots, like ignoring Jazzer living with Jim and so on.

Also, Ruth came back to help save the farm - but where's Ben? Did she leave him at the school gates or something (as it was so imperative they get back for that?)

Well, Jazzer has his own family in Meadow Rise, seems plausible that shila was only concerned about hers, and Jazzer is young and able bodied and won't be traumatised by loss of his home or too troubled by a bit of bunking up. For practical reasons I think Jazzer will stay at either Bridge farm (to be near the pigs)? Mike and Vicky's or Grange farm (for milk round) or maybe even with Roy.

I'd have thought that Elizabeth would have rooms galore (even without counting the guest rooms in tje diary conversion which may be booked out ). She may acvommodate Bert and Freda given bert's long service at LL.

Ruth said Ben was in the house with Jill.

I half listened to last night's episode. I feel silly saying it but I am bored of the flood. More than silly - I am cross at myself because I have a better attention span than that.

Then I realised that the problem is the same as it ever was. TA used to be a long, luxurious dip in and out of several strands of storyline all happening at the same time to lots of different sections of the community; everyday eavesdropping. Then we started the six weeks on / six weeks off routine where we focused intently on one story & a few characters for a period and the rest of the village dropped off the radar.
The flood is a continuation of that scenario. I was fooled for a bit because they have incorporated a lot of the characters (which is a welcome return to how it used to be) but it is the intensity of only one story for the whole week that is doing my head in.

It might have helped if the script was better but it has been a succession of "are you alright X?", sound effects, "do you know where Y is?", more sound effects. It wasn't good listening. It would have been so much better to have Real Time and reported speech after the event. I can just imagine David phoning Ruth or Susan leaning on her broom and saying "did you hear ...". We would have had decent descriptions instead of the awful aural-clue clunkiness you normally get in radio drama eg "I'm putting my coat round you, Charlie"

Oh no...I've just realised the most awful consequence of the flood.

Kate won't be able to get a decorator for her cottage for months!

I'd also thought that the Stables were flooded from what Alistair said. And it was very odd that Jazzer didn't even get a mention or indeed the saintly Ben (with his strange obsession with Heatherpet)

I think the hayloft must have stairs/steps a bit like the way up to where the stable hand lives in "Heartlands" - a wooden staircase. They hayloft is obviously not just used for hay, and Auntie Christine in her 80s couldn't be clambering around up ladders surely?
The yard is flooded, but the House must be higher, although Alistair's Surgery is flooded.

I quite enjoyed it, and the film was easier to understand - but even the disjointedness of the week night episodes at least made it a bit more gripping.

Ruth has had a bit of "Ambridge Fairy dust" but as long as that is all we get, I'd like more of the other consequences worked out throughly.

And find Jazzer a home!

But Jazzer really isn't that young ... I said on the last thread that he's beginning to sound old - must be at least as old as Ed who's into his thirties. (I've generally assumed Jazzer to be slightly the elder of the two.)

I must say I don't like to think of him going into his forties living on uncertain manual labour with no "proper" home of his own and no one to give him a non- pitying hug.

Jazzer is young compared to Jim and aunty Chris! And I will repeat for R4 s benefit- Ruth said Ben was in the house with Jill.

As Errol says, Jim and Shula are bound to compare notes on Rob sooner or later.
Though Jim has always kept to himself Rob's bullying snarling at him last summer.

Hey, it was OddFodd not me!

I'm sure a conversation about rob will happen over the stables dinner table. Alastair, Shula and jim have all seen his nasty side now.

I'm still feeling a little nauseous over fallon and plod singing. Totally put me off listening to the rest of the omnibus.

So how did Ruth and Ben "walk" the last mile into Amb.? Do they both have thigh high waders ,or a boat, specially purchased for the occasion? Is the road cleared now? We need to know !

I don't recall a Rob/Alastair incident, which is not to say there hasn't been one.
Christine might have mixed feelings too. She might feel obliged to be grateful for the rescue and she was dithering but I got the impression he pulled her off the windowsill by the feet while she was still clinging to Shula.

Jazzer would be easy compared to HWMNBN

Alastair was in the boat when rob was being a knob

Sorry R4?scrolled back too quickly! Oddfod? pay attention at the back!

I too wondered how Ruth and Ben managed the walk, but perhaps they could come over paths/fields that were not flooded rather than having to stick to roads? [clutches straws]