Don your paisley tabards, feel the static crackle, and join our Archers thread team hug.

[PseudoBadger]

Chocolate Chip cookie anyone?

But you have internet access. Why can't you listen? iPlayer, podcasts...

He might try for constructive fismissal just to make waves. Charlie may be reluctant to go down that road. Then they agree to not check the fraud if he drops sexual harrassment / prejudice accusations. Or that is what Rob will be hoping. I reckon Charlie is made of steely stuff and will go for truth over convenience.

Please will someone who listens by conventional means fill us podcast folk in on CA gems? They really should include them.

I can't remember what the CA said this evening, but I remember appreciating it.

He ended with something like: Hellin is sympathetic even though I am sure most of us wish she wasn't.

Cutted I feel for you! But surely you can grapple with the technology and listen again/download podcast or something? The fact that this is now possible has made a sad middle-aged woman me very happy

Ah BYOS It's quite normal in this youfcentric society to give under experienced highly qualified youngsters jobs, which they can't cope with. Then they leave the job and the older people have to clear up the mess.

I doubt if Charlie can be convincingly accused of harassing Rob for being straight. He took a lucrative contract away from an openly gay Adam not so long ago.
If Rob chooses to say he's been harassed about 'ditches' then Stefan might make a reappearance, especially now Rob is no longer manager.

Charlie might be worried about Rob outing him to the Board so Charlie should take a leaf out of his book and go on the attack. Firm up the evidence about the culvert, find out more about Rob's behaviour on the night of the flood, talk to Harrison.

Oh, Helen mentioned the joint account last week. She said Rob would keep his business account in his own name. Why does an employee have a business account?

Also Rob's only reason to make insinuations about Charlie's sexuality is Helen's word about seeing him with Adam in the shrubbery.

There's no way he'll have a case for constructive dismissal or get a compromise agreement or anything. He threw his toys out of the pram and resigned. No coming back from that. I thought the way he spoke to Charlie was appalling (Team Charlie).

So now the stage is set for a showdown with Tom plus a takeover of the village shop/Ambridge Organics merger.

And, yep I agree, Pip will get Knob's job but then where will HP go? The bloody Laurels, as we've all been screaming at the radio for weeks, surely??

Maybe Adam could stand in for Rob for a bit?

So we can add 'odious homophobe' to the v. v. long list of Knob's failings. He really is a miserable excuse for a human being…..

Nah - we knew that already ...

I wonder if Helen will feel a tad guilty about telling Rob of the goings on in the shrubbery. Most likely she'll carry on living in la-la land.

"You're the last person who would do that"
She really is clueless isn't she.

Why is Rob backtracking? So disappointing!

In pretty much half a century of listening I'm not sure I've heard a more unpleasant episode. Both David and Rob lying, lying, lying; twisting the truth to suit their agendas, taking advantage of a sensitive subject to manipulate the person who most loves and respects them. The only difference was that one was too smart to be taken in.

BOOP for utter disgustingness.

Are we really sure David's lying? I think what he said made a lot of sense......

He doesn't want his sickly DMIL living at Brookfield. He doesn't want to share his wife's attention. He thinks only his own DM counts for anything. So he's taken a limited number of facts and twisted them to paint the most horrific picture of future domestic life. Nothing he said made sense. Heather does not need a full time carer - at least not in the sense of needing someone at her bedside 24hrs a day. Any assistance she might need could be bought in and merely supplemented by family members. It isn't a stark choice between Ruth-care or a home.

I thought she did need a lot of care- that's why sheltered housing or care in her own home wouldn't work. I would be doing anything I could to talk my partner out of being a full time carer too. And Ruth hasn't said anything about being prepared to buy in help.
And, however you look at it- booting Jill out at short notice is a pretty shabby thing to do. AND if she wasn't there they'd have to have someone to do housekeepery things......

I listen to R4 whenever I'm in the kitchen so catch the Archers quite often but I've yet to get a good enough grasp to seek it out. Am I right in thinking that at the moment the the main characters, Man Archer and Woman Archer are planning for Woman Archers elderly mum to move in to soon to be daughter Archers bedroom. I forget her name but it's terrible middle class. And daughter Archer is about to build a farm in South America or something? Man Archer has a brother who is a bit of a ladies man/wheeler dealer. Is he up to something with some geese along with Man Archers son? Common sounding shop lady and snooty sounding shop lady are worried about their shop being upstaged by a new enterprise. Oh, and snooty one hates the tabards. Some couple just got married after eloping but they sound middle aged. Who are they and how do they fit in? Who's the older lady the eloped lady is always having a heart to heart with. It's not snooty shop lady and no Woman Archer. I might just be an avid Archers follower if I can fit these few 'hangers on' into the set up.

And is Woman Archer ever, ever anything but capable and calm. She must have some skeletons in her cupboard. She seems to good iyswim and I'm finding that hearing her voice makes me feel like a chaotic, neurotic fishwife in comparison.

I love this description, HeadInHands!

And just to note, the geese boys aren't Archers but their Dad did have an affair with Man Archer's terribly posh sister. Her husband died after falling off the roof. Wheeler Dealer goose boy is after Man Archer's daughter, but she's having none of it.

Here you go headinhands.

After that - Wikipedia and a weekend with this thread's archive should get you up to speed. There are also some books floating around I believe - though, as Olivia indicated above, they lack the breadth and depth and sheer insight of the combined MN listenership.