Badly done Helen, badly done - you're as stuffed as a Grundy turkey. Discuss The Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

New thread in time for Friday's episode...

Sorry, have a go at Susan?!

Also village hall sl.

I thought Rob was actually quite good with Henry at hospital.

Pip's investment in the cattle plus the robotic milker sorted, then.

I really am tired of the fact that Ruth can't talk about the housework without going into hysteria mode. As we keep saying, how the hell did she plan to look after her mother if she can't find the time to sling even her own washing into a machine?

OMG! The Grundy family evicted by the evil Hazel Woolley!!!!! Who saw that coming??????????????

Except everyone.

David is utterly crass, of course. It's not terribly surprising that he's thinking 'Half a million! All our problems are over.' but to start chuckling with pleasure in front of his recently orphaned wife - oh puhleeze.

Tbh it's hardly the end of the world. Deeply upsetting I'm sure but every one of the Grundys earns money. They ought to be able to find somewhere else. It's not as tragic as losing Grange Farm; when they lost their income at the same time.

(Anyway they'll be going back to Grange Farm soon... Though Joe may not live to see it.)

And.

Why are they trying to make us believe that someone as "canny" as Heather wouldn't obviously have had life assurance and discussed it repeatedly with her only daughter?

Nor do I believe that Ruth wouldn't have been taught anything about life assurance when she was studying to be a farmer. The idea that the Archer inheritors wouldn't all be fully covered against death is ludicrous.

How is it that Ruth still doesn't know how much her mother's house is worth?

This is a woman who can't work a washing machine

I reckon we need Amy (the vicar's daughter) to make a reappearance. A trained midwife and a history of poor relationship choices herself, she's the obvious partner for Fallon in Operation Helen Rescue.

Gah, I really thought they were setting Ruth up to perish in the storm that time she drove off in the night (what a shame she made it back) .. that character is really getting on my wick and the acting's crap. Ever since she had that ridiculous affair with the farmhand, she's irritated me no end.
Honestly, she makes out she was so close to her mother - she never mentioned her from one end of the year to the next.

Come back Jill, not because we want you to skivvy again but because we miss you

Yeah right

I was hoping Ruth may move in with her Mum to care for her and we would never hear from her again.

The life insurance thing is truly bizarre.

For those who listen to the omnibus, please remember it will be early this weekend because it's Remembrance Sunday. Possibly 09:15, but I wasn't paying full attention.

"It's not terribly surprising that he's thinking 'Half a million! All our problems are over.' but to start chuckling with pleasure in front of his recently orphaned wife - oh puhleeze. angry"

But he didn't! it wasn't that sort of laugh at all- it was a shocked, who'd have thought it sort of noise.

And the way Ruth slapped him down when he was actually doing something practical about getting a cleaner.....

Maybe so, Bertrand, but I don't think it was advisable to laugh in any way at all, and as others have said, surely it hasn't only dawned on David now that there is money coming their way from Heather's estate, so why shock?

People often laugh at inappropriate moments like that- I thought it was quite realistic. It was the life assurance that shocked them both - not the estate as such.

Just imagine Kenton's reaction when he finds out about the money... Ruth is utterly awful. And who under the age of 80 says sweater?

Did Joe exclaim "we haven't moved back in yet" last night?

If the two months notice is assumed to be valid then seven weeks takes us to Christmas Day and eight weeks to New Year's Day. I wonder if they will move back to the smart kitchen, leading to Christmas weeping and a January 1st siege. (And a last minute change of mind from Hazel?)

I'd much rather they never go back. Caroline and Oliver need to decide that they want to spend much more time in Tuscany so really won't need a full scale house in Ambridge. They could just keep a suite at GG and let Ed and Emma have Grange Farm at a peppercorn rent. There'd be plenty of room for the senior Grundys too.

But I keep hearing Clarrie (in my head) gazing around Grange Farm and saying "your grandad would have loved being back here ..."

I have to go against the grain here and say I think Ruth asking Jill to move back in is starting to get her character back to where it was before all the moving/HP nonsense. Ruth has always had a good relationship with Jill, it was her idea to ask Jill to move in in the first place after Phil died. I think in reality Jill would have been a huge source of comfort and advice to Ruth over HP - she herself had always got on well with her before she became a northern caricature. I think Jill of all people would have sympathised with Ruth's predicament of HP being on her own and having no other family. I think she would have been more instrumental in trying to persuade HP to move to Ambridge - thus avoiding the whole moving debacle. I actually found the scene with Ruth and Jill quite moving - Ruth has lost her mother but she still has Jill who is a mother figure and who loves Ruth - and is as wedded to Brookfield as David who couldn't bear to tear himself away. Jill belongs at Brookfield, there should be no animosity between her and Ruth because there was never any in the first place, this finally puts everything back as it should be before SOC's nonsensical tinkering.

Lillian - I agree and hope this is the end of the ridiculous sl they've piled on us and Brookfield will get back to normality character wise

Is anyone at the Mailbox Q&A atm?

I thought it was a 'wow, how surreal and unexpected' sort of laugh.

The scene between Jill and Ruth was lovely, Ruth needs someone to listen to her, and Jill needs to feel needed! Perfect restoration of harmony.

The Grundy bombshell was a long time coming- they need a massive change of fortune. This 'bad luck' has gone on long enough, it's become cartoonish.

I say sweater… i am not over 80.