Culvert operations in Ambridge - discuss The Archers here. It's not his baby by the way.

[PseudoBadger]

Is Ed's wedding very soon?

Is it me, or are there a lot of double entendres in The Archers tonight?

Borsetshire Organics Natural Knobch ... BONK!

Carol is a bit oo er Matron, isn't she?

Can anyone explain the last bit with Ed and Charlie- is Ed in trouble? I was distracted by work

There are always double entendres when Carol's on. I think we're supposed to be rolling about laughing.

I've just had to iPlay stilllearnin (train went through a tunnel earlier). Ed isn't in trouble - they weren't talking about Rob (as we might have expected) but about the dreadful increase in price per acre that the brethren were quoted by whoever did it. (Rodways?) Anyway, Ed spoke about how it impacted on his honeymoon plans and how generous and helpful everyone had been with wedding prep. And how the one small thing he'd been asked to do seemed to be beyond him. (He didn't spit it out but perhaps Charlie will coax the Will problem out of him.)

Please tell me that Charlie won't end up as Best Man.

That occurred to me - but it does seem rather far fetched. Not as far fetched as Will being Best Man though.

Can I nominate just one of us to listen to Friday's episode,that's the great bird chase day, isn't it? Let us know if it's worth anyone else listening again?

A great big telescopic lens is hardly the thing for taking photos of birds in a time-limited competition, surely? By the time Robert had it set up and got it pointed at said bird, the bird would have flown, no?

Love the ScruffHound, cba to comment on the rest of the tedious storylines so will stick to nit-picking

Thanks for the stats, DDD! I can't say I'm surprised to see the posting rate is down. Not too gripped at the moment myself.

Glorious alternative storyline there, Bore. If only.....

it feels like the bird watching sl has been shoehorned to give the boring old complaining farts something to enjoy

it's just all so unbalanced

Maybe Robert will accidentally capture something interesting(preferably that incriminates rob in some way) with his phallic big lens.

I am ROARING with laughter here at the commemorative knob cheese! Thank you

I don't understand the birdwatching competition rules- if photos are only optional what is to stop teams just making up sightings? Do such competitions actually exist in real life?

Thank you zero. The Charlie thing is often more interesting than I think it'll be. He's being pretty human with ed but I just suspect he'll turn pretty quickly. Presumably he doesn't know ed spoke to david about the culvert.

Perhaps we are supposed to think Robert will capture some knob evidence with his giant thingy. I haven't spoken to my dad about TA recently, but the last time I did he was saying how great knob is - because he let H choose which dress to where when they went out for dinner (bloody wind up merchant)

^ wear ^ obv

The only birding competition similar that I know of is the BBC Natural History one on New Years day - when a group of them try to see the most birds in one day (1st January). They do have the whole country.

I suppose if you saw something really unusual you might need a photo.

I did like Linda's reaction to the Telescope thing last night: cross because they are supposed to be buying for the house; then supportive in competition with Jim; then cross again when she finds out how much it cost.

mummytime me too re Lynda, though you forgot "excited when she realised how great the magnification was".

So how do they verify the sightings in the BBC thing?

These things are done on trust unless you are Jim. They are only for the glory.
Although any really implausible sightings would be queried. E.g. in the big butterfly count you often see sightings mapped that would make sense in the Borcetshire but not in Banff. As the BButterflyC is done by amateurs but still used for species data I assume the recorders discount the implausible sightings.

There is also as RSPB count every year. And we used to do the RSPB sponsored bird watch. Was quite good fun- and we also made a route map. Thing is you want as many species not glamour species. So i presume he is not going to photograph sparrows, starlings and black birds etc.

i am still laughing at bore's SL

I'm starting to worry for your mum stilllearnin!!

The anticipation of who is going to win the bird watch is killing me. Oh wait, no it's not.

Love the idea of the long lens catching rob beating cows or something in the distance!

We spotted an unusual Goose nearby recently and reported it on one of these online things - we got a query back. But it was accepted when we described how close we got and the fact that we thought from how it acted (not at all frightened of people) that it could be an escapee that had attached it to another group of geese.

The bird watching is going to be a damp squid methinks. Lots of getting lost, tension about who's winning, perhaps a flat tyre and the inevitable quarrel about the result.

Why is Kenton taking part? Shouldn't he be festering in hatred back at the Bull or is he buttering up Jim as an investor?

Ah! Kenton and Will both estranged from their brothers and out of contact while their brothers are trying to offer the olive branch. Is that the theme?