SOC has soaked Ambridge to the core across a never ending weekend. Discuss The Archers post-watershed here.

[PseudoBadger]

Deluged damp squid or not? And has Peggy been assisted off the mortal coil by Rob yet?
And when will JD and Brian remember Debbie?

I'm getting a bit fed up with the unsubtle writing of Kate's character. I know we love to hate her but the more of a cariacature they make her the less I can be bothered hating her. Jenny, Brian, Phoebe and Hayley are all very well drawn, Kate is a 2D villain by comparison. Witness her nonense about birth mothers and Jenny's remark about being a mother bringing up someone else's child.

I do hope Alice and Ruari were two of the 8 at lunch. I was going to say that Kate was possibly annoyed at lack of MD contact from her other 2 children but I checked (how sad is this?) and Mother's day in SA is not till 10 May.

I completely agree about Kate's portrayal. She was never so obviously drawn and I can't really believe that Hayley would have agreed to lunch. Their relationship has never been amazing and Roy has usually had to be the go-between softening communications.

I also can't believe that Phoebe would have agreed to Hayley being invited, she's very emotionally intelligent and would have been well aware that it would not be pleasant for Hayley to be at the same meal as Kate. Ditto Jennifer, don't believe she'd have suggested it either (though I do think Hayley and Jenny get on OK.)

It was just drama for drama's sake.

It was absolutely paint by numbers drama for drama's sake.

Pip's accent was on the piss again last night. I really need her signposted each time she's on otherwise I haven't a clue who I'm listening to.

I was not at all sure it was the same Pip. I listened really hard and struggled to recognize the person speaking. Both tone and accent were different to anything I've heard before.

Have to admit I lay in bed counting the Home Farm lunch attendees on my fingers. 8 + Kate? Peggy, Jenny, Brian, Lilian, Phoebe, Hayley, Abby and ? Adam without Ian? Or Alice without Chris? I'd be surprised if it were Ruairi since it was probably the final weekend of term so he's more likely to have been at school.

Although, while it was admittedly rather over dramatic, I'd imagine that over the past decade or more Roy and Hayley would have had countless (unbroadcast) Sunday lunches at Home Farm. I don't think Hayley would refuse if Jenny had gone to the trouble of inviting her - she'd be more concerned about Phoebe's happiness than any awkwardness with Kate.

Am very much looking forward to Kenton's return - is he back tonight? Do we suspect David will feel he needs to hand over some of the road compensation money to pay off the holiday debts?

I forgot to say in my previous post, as the audience came in for the Cabin Pressure play on Saturday they were playing vintage Archers, it sounded like plans for Susan's wedding...from what I could glean (and I only had half an ear listening due to DS excitedly pointing out various lemons and generally being very excited) she was pregnant when she got married? Clarrie was being slightly judgemental about it all...? Does that sound right?

Yes the road compensation money should be enough to put everyone right so come April 2016 we will be in exactly the same position we were in April 2014 (hopefully without rob)

Yes I agree Zero about the Mothers' Day lunch ; quite a few awkward lunches in our family too with ds and his exes. (not all at once of course!)

ButBut surely the flood will scupper the road plans, so there won't be any compensation.

They won't get any compensation if the road doesn't go ahead, though, will they?

And has Fallon said anything about The Bull's insurance?

I have to say the upstairs menu, above a flooded downstairs, with (presumably) no heating, sounded like a right barrel of laughs.

RnRN Yes I think she was. (Susan.) But then I confuse her courting history with Clarrie's. I'm sure the back of a van was involved for at least one of the couples.

The Cabin Pressure play sounds tremendous.

True. So we will be back where we started as Kenton will win the lottery and hand money out at a cracking rate

Hmm, I wonder how she managed to cook the chilli in the back of a van? Maybe she brought a thermos.

I agree that Roy and Hayley and Feebs and Abbie would have had Sunday dinner with Brine and JD many a time. But a joint Mother's Day dinner with Kate? Totally different type of occasion.

I'm sure the arrangement at The Bull is incredibly illegal. Their licence will have required approval from the Fire Service and will have been on the basis of the normal layout, and Environmental Health would probably want to check out their cooking arrangements.

I must admit, I did rather enjoy Phoebe picking Kate up on her false concerns about the effects of Roy and Hayley's divorce by asking her about her own. But it's true to say that it is becoming a little ridiculous that she is now regularly being picked up by Brine, JD and Phoebe about her monumental selfishness and all of it seems to wash off her. Surely she'd have to be verging on sociopathic not to take in at least a little bit, especially in relation to Phoebe?

Narcissistic personality disorder. Kate reminds me a lot of a woman I used to work with. We were close colleagues for many, many years. I learned an enormous amount about her family life, not by choice, but because when she had something on her mind she just sounded off about it. I didn't mind that too much because I'm extremely nosy always interested in other people's lives, but I did marvel at the fact that not once did she ever say to me 'And how about your children/parents/husband?' I don't think she could have told you how many children I had, let alone their approximate ages or genders. Extraordinary.

Re Susan - yes, she was pregnant when she and Neil got married. I don't recall whether Clarrie was censorious or not, but if so she soon got over it!

I only caught up with SOC's interview yesterday. It left a nasty taste in the mouth. All I can remember is:
he didn't address any of the listeners' concerns, even those threatening to leave.
there was a lot of avoidance - The Flood wasn't his baby, he's only doing things like they did in the past (it's not how I remember TA. And why did he keep harking back to the 1950s?)
he would like us to know that he has read some books; he is cultured, doncha know.

I'm falling out of love with TA. Again.

I find it difficult to believe that they've been working up to the flood for two years as SOC suggested. It was fairly blatantly inspired by last year's floods.

I was bemused by his enthusiasm for the apparently wonderful, eight month, light-hearted, Ayckbourn-esque kitchen drama. I read / watch / listen to quite a few plays and had so far managed to avoid Ayckbourn. Luckily there was one on the radio last Saturday. It was shit. Depressing, dated, unbelievable shit. But at least averagely convoluted, theatrical and possessed of a beginning, middle and end. Jenny's kitchen lacked even those basic qualities - it wasn't funny, it diminished previously interesting characters and it had no point whatsoever. Perfectly reasonable for Jenny to want a new kitchen, perfectly understandable for her to occasionally exercise the whip hand that she holds over Brian. Would have been a completely fine background story over the course of the months it took to install. But as comedy? Nope.

It's a bit worrying that he and I (and billions of others it seems) don't have quite the same sense of humour.

Oh but SOC is soooo clever and cultured and we are all a bit thick so what can you expect?

What I found bemusing about SOC's interview was his odd attitude to anyone who might have been alive, and listening, when they burned Grace Archer to death in 1952 ? and ran over 3 days, well eff my old boots (as they say round here!!!).

Indeed, ppeat. Being old enough to have listened to that (I'm not) is hardly a guarantee that one only wants stories about nonagenarians. I dare say any nonagenarians amongst us would agree that it's characterisation rather than focus on old age that's lacking at the moment.

Pip seems to be channeling Helen a bit.

And why have they given her the script of a middle aged woman? Mind boggling how they write for her and how she delivers it.

Yes I don't remember ! I was 4 though! I do remember Ddad making a fuss about the new ITV capitalist tv station. Which is why the BEEB wanted to 'upstage it' with a sensational SL.