Knob throttlers form an orderly queue at Blossom Hill Cottage! Discuss the Archers on the Official Thread

[PseudoBadger]

Do you know that I was 3 months pregnant when the first thread started - DD was 2 yesterday

That must also mean that Poppy Grundy's 2nd birthday has passed by unremarked upon...

waves sorry, busy with real cows yesterday

You certainly can insure stock, ours are insured for various things, including theft but I think for the small number Ed has he probably hadn't considered it, after all theft is pretty unusual, especially beef cattle which aren't known for their cooperation! They have to be loaded into a trailer in the gateway which would be pretty noisy- did the thieves know Oliver and Caroline are away? And has anyone checked the house? Seems a random storyline to me unless there is going to be a hunt or poacher link, but if it was the hunt it would be daytime, surely someone would have seen them, and they wouldn't have disappeared into thin air. If they turned up in someone else's field they have a tag which can track back where they should be a bit like a microchip on a dog.

The Fairbrethren... I am assuming they must have some kind of agricultural background, though they are likely to come unstuck at some point simply through lack of experience. My bigger concern is a that Toby is full of big ideas but doesn't put the hours in. All flash and no photo, as Joe would say

"They would do well to have given her on-air mother lessons on how to act 'grief' in the run up to HP's demise."

Not just her. We keep having discussions between A and B about how C is upset. We don't actually hear C being upset. It's Frilly and their miming all over again. It's artificial and false and doesn't work.
But Ruth's version of grief (or, to be charitable, her script?) is pants. I remember when Shula was widowed and her grief was much more convincing - when she went to the top of Lakey Hill and lost it, screaming her anger at God/the universe.

I have no trouble believing that Ruth is grief-stricken, or that the grandchildren are very upset - lots of us have/had a granny who lived further away than the other, but it doesn't mean we're less sad when they die.

What does stretch credulity for me is the whole village giving a shit - 'Oh Heather always took such an interest in Ambridge' and 'have you heard The News?'; 'Yes, isn't it sad?' etc. But hey ho - it's the slow grinding to a halt of a silly storyline, so I'll bear with it!

At the moment I just feel cheated if it's a non-Hellon-and-Rob episode, so all of this is just so much unsatisfying filler for me

"did the thieves know Oliver and Caroline are away?" - ooh, good point! Must narrow the field of suspects…

What does stretch credulity for me is the whole village giving a shit

That's a point. Half of Ambridge was at the funeral, giving a shit. Didn't hear one of HP's famous gaggle of friends. Where were they?

Dillying and dallying on the way, R4?

I had an awful thought in the middle of the night.

Roy and Kirsty!

Ahem BOOP:

AskingForAPal Fri 02-Oct-15 14:48:51
Er would it be foul to suggest that given his proclivity for workplace affairs, this might trigger a Roy 'n' Kirsty relationship, thereby causing much angst all round? Or is there some reason this couldn't happen (other than Roy's supposed friendship with Tom, which we so rarely hear)?

I also think Roy is acting really well at the moment. I thought the pause where he decided to tell the truth to Phoebe about Lizzie being on the phone was very believable.

2rebecca at wor nanny's a maizer HA.

Oh sorry Pal, I missed that! Not sure if this s a case of great minds think alike or fools seldom differ

Hurrah for Roy. I actually thought Kate did some halfway decent parenting in that episode too.

Ruth is absolutely doing my head in at the moment. Yes to the 'little voice' - it's pathetic and ridiculous.

I thought "don't get cold" was about the only genuinely parental, selfless thing I've ever heard Kate say to Phoebe

I thought that was what David said to Heatherpet regarding how soon he wanted the burial sorted....

(Sorry).

re Wor nanny's a mazor. this is the nearest I can find to the version that used to be played on long car trips when we were small. I don't think either of my nannas would have wanted it at their funeral though!

Hello another delurker here (usually I have nothing to add as you're all so much better informed and more eloquent).
But... what with all HP's imaginary close friends in Prudhoe and her having lived there her whole life, it is yet again ridiculous to suggest her funeral would be anywhere but there. So frustrating!
I'm another who loves reading this thread even more than listening

HAHA Seek, too true.

The funeral was in Prudddder wasn't it?

Echoing earlier comments too about how everyone in Ambridge was really upset. I can just imagine how saddened everyone in our local village would be if a farmer's mother-in-law who'd visited (how many times? once a year) had died at a ripe old age after a longish illness: Not at all. Well, maybe another old lady who used to chat to her at church, and of course everyone would be really sympathetic to the family. But going up north to the funeral?! Whyyy?

Oh no sorry
Typical, I delurk having not actually listened to last night yet but got that impression wrongly from all the comments about half of Ambridge being at the funeral. Anyway, I shall swiftly relurk and please ignore me

HP's funeral was in Prudhoe wasn't it? Just nothing to indicate it was there other lots of references to making the journey up. I don't have a problem with Ruth's grief - only child, now an orphan. Totally get what she was saying about there now being nothing left to connect her to Prudhoe. I don't understand why she thinks HP's death was so terrible - she was happily singing away, saying how happy she was and Ruth was with her (much worse if it had happened while she was alone in the care home I would have thought. I also find all the nonsense about we should have moved up there ridiculous - in her situation I'd be thinking thank goodness we didn't move up there. It could very well have been mid-move when this happened - uprooting themselves to live with someone who died before they arrived. I don't understand why she can't take more consolation in her own family (thank goodness she doesn't have an only child etc) and in David's - she was the one who was so keen for Jill to move into Brookfield at the start. I'm finding the MIL antagonism very forced. It doesn't fit in with what we know about Ruth thus far

Please don't relurk elpth. That's the whole point of this thread - to clarify things which aren't always clear.

On the 'what you call your grandparents' thing, when DD was about 7 (10 now) she decided to call her Grannies 'Tea Granny' and 'Whiskey Granny'! Guess which one is my mum . One Grandpa is Grandpa and the other is Grandad, but DD couldn't manage either word when she was a toddler and they're still called by the names she called them then. Very cute and all that.

We called ours 'Farm Granny and Grandpa' and 'Newark Granny and Grandpa' when we were young, then used 'GP Surname' as we got older (not least because the latter GPs moved from Newark).

*Granny's location changed to protect the innocent.

I can understand her being grief stricken - it's the way it has been written and acted that is crap

Totally agree BYOS (and others), the SWs need to hand Ruth a grip tout suite!

Well I think Ruth is moaning about the wrong things. I thought it was an okay way to go really, fairly quick, feeling loved and happy, and the last words singing.
But I'd expect Ruth to be madly stressed about now being an orphan and feeling pathetic, and all alone now (not being a real Archer). And I would expect her to have dreams where Heather isn't really dead but abandoned somewhere.