Follow the subtle trail towards the Christmas storyline climaxes in Ambridge - discuss The Archers here

[PseudoBadger]

So many possibilities.... A visit from the Titcheners Snr? Baby of the wrong gender? A ruined wedding? Re-housed Grundys? RuthRex?

Maybe we could start a list that has prioritised a contrived plot over character

Pat is eg one
Grundys eg two

Seriously, you wouldn't put yourself on the sofa bed rather than do that to Joe? Really? Clarrie and Eddie could really bear that? I don't believe it.

I don't listen until the morning so haven't heard tonight's but I am so angry over the Grundy's homelessness situation! TBH it's Clarrie I like/feel sorry for (which?) and Joe is funny but you couldn't live with him as he's so set in his ways and his walking through the lounges at GG in his dressing gown made me chuckle in an awkward way.

Didn't like the way that Rob kept going back to Jennifer for ammo against Adam - he (Rob) is fast developing into an extremely cold, sinister and (not forgetting) dangerous man (and that's not the half of it I fear) and makes me sometimes reluctant to even listen to TA.

Rob is turning into a cardboard cutout villain

When the grundys had to leave their farm I'm sure a big deal was made about them having to stay together.

I don't get how joe can just go into a care home? If there are no care needs, who would fund it?

poor research (again)

There must be loads more intra-family help for the Grundys even if neither Will nor Ed could put Joe up. E.g. What about Nic's mum? Nic and the two kids were all living with her before they moved into Keeper's so she clearly has space.

The bull must have some spare bedrooms

What about the cider shed?

That wouldn't work because you could only get a sofa bed in there

I'm pretty sure I heard Justin ask Brian to invite Rob as part of his 'Rob is fab, Charlie is crap' nonsense.

I think you're right, but really, why on earth would Justin conclude that Rob is fab? Borrow was presumably running OK whilst he was there but it doesn't sound as if it's performance was stunning, particularly with the iffy fertility figures.

So far as Joe is concerned, I find it very difficult to believe that any council would rather put him in a care home than offer housing to relatives who want to care for him. Even crappy care homes are very expensive and councils are closing them down whenever they can. Social workers would normally be sobbing with gratitude for family members who are ready, willing and able to look after their 94 year old relatives for free.

Don't get me started on contrived plot over character. Anything involving Brookfield, the bypass, the move North, the Volte Face, the death of HP, the eviction of Jill, Ben's kitchen reorganisation, Kirsty becoming Health Club Manager, Kenton spending his money before he'd got it, his apparently having no insurance for the pub, his overnight reconciliation with Dave ...character is now entirely irrelevant, Jenny has amnesia, Pat has been replaced by someone who believes women are better off at home, whole swathes of people have disappeared or been replaced by people who sound exactly like other characters. It doesn't matter if you've never listened before because nothing that happened before is relevant unless it's a ridiculous contrivance like the Fairbrethren. Sorry BOOP can't think of a single BOOP at the moment.

The "with Helen like she is" comment.
Like what? Pregnant like millions of other women. I canmot believe Pat didn't say come on Rob surely at least one of you needs to be working.

Well! All I can say is they've got four weeks to get the Grundys a home to live in WITH Joe or they'll have a death on their hands.

BOOP for Joe sticking it to Rob about the shop looking like they were selling computers. Exactly!

(whispers) Can someone please explain 'boop'? Thank you.

No ordinary woman is pregnant with Son Of Knob. (Maybe not even Helen).

BOOP = Bit Out Of Practice, a regular on this thread, who thinks we are all too negative. So when we find something we did like, we call it a BOOP point. Some weeks they're a bit thin on the ground. Tonight the closest I got was Joe's straight talking about the shop design.

Poor old Joe.

For a moment with Pat and the news about Rob turning down the job he was never offered, I thought it might be old Pat. But by the end of the episode, we were back to Patbot.

Poor Joe, I had a tear in my eye when he got upset

Me too :(

I've read only half the thread, though I'm a long-time lurker and an occasional poster on previous threads, so please forgive my tuppence-worth here ...

This has probably been said over and over - but I do agree with vixsatis and mummytime upthread, who predict that the Grundys' woes will be sorted when Caroline & Oliver decide to stay abroad, and then install Clarrie, Eddie, etc. as house-sitters in Grange Farm.

In other words, hooray for a sooper-dooper Grundy Christmas, with Joe rescued in the nick of time from a fate-worse-than-death care home.

BOOP is me, innit?

I thought Clarrie played that last scene very well. Voice slightly breaking but trying to jolly Joe along. Poor Joe

I notice they're beginning to speak of January as The Archers' 65th anniversary "celebrations" - which is never a good sign. I daresay we'll be treated to something cataclysmic ...

I do hope Joe gets a beautiful Grange Farm Christmas.

I hate to be the voice of doom but I do hope that they aren't bringing Joe home to Grange Farm to die at Christmas. They have been so many Jenkins of him being 94 this week it's sounding ominous.

Perhaps Joe will die at a service station on the way to his care home and then Eddie will join Ruth in New Zealand after blaming Clarrie.

Archers newbie here, only started listening in the last few weeks. I am hooked!

This thread is very useful for background info when storylines made no sense. The poor Grundys.