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?

Bit misleading, we don't have parakeets in the neighbourhood but loads on the nearby open space. They've definitely got their eye on the residential areas but the seagulls may see them off! I will start an exchange programme, 1 bittern for 10 parakeets or 5 parakeets with 5 seagulls (better eating)

Wouldn't Kenton's first thought be to talk to his sisters who are being far more sanguine about it?
If he had talked to Jolene before booking the 'surprise' trip then I'm sure she would have said wait and see.
Anyway Jill will give him a talking to.

Is Alan going to approach Knob in a well-meaning way and get the full force of Knob's anger?

I'm hoping that all we hear of the funeral is the last strains of Jerusalem. Kenton and Jolene seem to have forgotten that they were planning to sack Freda.

Errol IIRC all Charlie seems to be worried about is J.E.'s reputation being stained by the meeting which will of course reveal the state of the culverts, the fact he could well have died in one of them is obviously not important .

I wonder why? Someone else upthread mentioned that there might be more to his and Justin's relationship that we don't know about.

Just listening to yesterday's.

Fallon is so annoying. Jolene and Kenton need to snap out of it. So entitled!

Parakeets are very localised, according to RSPB distribution map - just the SE corner of England.

Mind you, I don't think they'd be much more likely to encounter a bittern in Borsetshire either, unless it was having a rest on its way up to the northern pocket.

My french convo teacher has storks nesting in her fields !!! And hoopoes!! The twitchers would wet themselves here

Hoopoes! I've never seen a hoopoe, even in countries where you'd be more likely to find one.

Adam was a bit pathetic in that convo with Charlie, wasn't he? "I can tell this means a lot to you so I'll do a 180 degree turn on my previous position and by the way do you want to come and have another look at the polytunnels now they're erect?"

Totally agree with enoch. I mean how old is Kenton, 14? And it would be great if Alan gets a Rob-blasting, then he and St Smugula can compare notes.

And I too hope we're spared Bert's funeral poem (not a patch on this thread's efforts).

I thought it was a bit out of character for Jolene being so negative about everything, she's normally the one jollying everyone else along. She's obviously allowed to be sad about Freda, but as others have pointed out it's not like they actually wanted her around at the Bull for much longer. Or maybe she's worked out for herself that Kenton mainly has himself to blame for his troubles?

Ebearhug They fly up from Africa at around the end of May. Some even make it to England We saw some in out garden 4 years ago, heard them last year, but they are quite shy.

I know. I have never seen one in Africa or Europe, nor here. I have always wanted to, because when I was a small child, one of my great aunts had a print of one on the wall.

A hoopoe landed right in front of me when I was relaxing in a deck chair in Italy. I stayed still and it wandered round for quite a long time.
Then I went to look it up because I had no idea what it was.

They are at the beginning of In The Night Garden and I thought they were designed by the art department!! So needed to look them up when i saw them in our garden they're so strange with their crests and beaks, lucky you enochroot.

Poor bert. Why the lack of love for him? I think he's a heart of gold type.

I'd rather hear bert than carol!!! My grandad was crushed when my gran died so I empathise!

Kenton is a brat!!

I shed a little tear for Bert tonight. Gutted we didn't hear the poem, though.

He's just so dull and hearing all about Freda's many opinions now is just weird. For a voiceless woman she seems to have said an awful lot. Shame they couldn't have let her speak before her final gurgle.

I can't be doing with Bert. He's a cipher for the bumpkin-with-a-heart-of-gold, not a lifelike character. I was a bit worried that Mrs Toboggan might be about to offer to send him to join Freda with one of her special herbal decoctions - Ambridge's very own Dr Shipman.

I wonder if Ms Bron is getting bored yet. Carol isn't doing anything interesting atm and it can't be very thrilling turning up in Birmingham every so often just to utter platitudes.

Really by this stage she ought to be rather more woven into village life - needing or needed.

Ive always felt that the Frys were plot devices, created to provide an alternative to Joe Grundy with the countryside lore and working old folkiness. There are other old folk but they're not "salt of the earth"

What we need is some Knob/Hellin/Jess update. Let's face it, that's what we are all dying to hear. Maybe she'll come round unannounced and somehow get in the house for just long enough to nab a hair from his coat or something that SHE can then get tested. And - ta-dah! Paternity proof sorted .

Actually - I don't think I want TA to be that kind of soap. I'm happy to let Helen and Rob lie fallow for a while and just catch up with other snippets of village life.

I liked Bert particularly when he first started as a tour guide at LL; it seemed a clever way to connect Elizabeth's old life as a carefree farmer's daughter to her responsibilities as châtelaine of a stately home - and the village to the Orangery and other delights. I don't see how they plan to maintain any connection between the two places now, with Roy and Hayley disappeared. The odd Archer pops into LL for tea and plotting with Lizzie, she very occasionally appears incongruously in the village - it's not really enough. Unless Frilly acquire Ambridge love interests in the near future there isn't really going to be much story that naturally (as opposed to melodramatically) involves both. Although Debbie might be a nice link once she's passed her finals.

Meh, I can take or leave the Jess/knob baby. I think it is ott and unnecessary.

I like the ea story and would have liked that to be focussed on with a realistic conclusion rather than the baby business

I kinda trust them with the Helen/Rob story.

We sussed him over a year ago but there's only so much of him telling her what dress to wear etc. that they can do. It's interesting to hear him in other situations dealing with other characters, then lying to her and so forth.

Most of the interest now lies in wondering which other character is next going to see the nasty side or whether he can maintain the facade indefinitely, whether Helen is going to stick by him regardless and will the pressure push him over the edge.

He maintains control inside his own household but increasingly seems unable to cope with external pressures, the greatest one coming from the wife who slipped her leash and went out of his control.

I now think he's mentally ill and that could be a very brave storyline.

That could be a brave storyline as long as they don't turn it into mental illness means you should stand by your abusive man because its not his fault storyline. It's not why he does it but what he does.

I however think there is a lot of s ope to see what knots Hellin will twist herself ibto to deny to herself that she is with an abuser. I think having previously considered herself strong and independent she will find it hard to admit to herself he's a controlling twat.

Although a more EE storyline might see her secretly colluding with Jess over DNA test thinking it will vindicate Rob only to find out horror of horrors it doesn't.

I think it is time to see a bit more rebellion from H to see how he deals with it.