Tis the season to be jolly, Fallon, Alan, Helen, Lillian; Deck the Hall with boughs of Holly, Lily, Will and Jill, Tilly Button. Celebrate Christmas with The Archers!

[PseudoBadger]

Thanks to SmallLegsOrSmallEggs for this thread title way back in November!

TA on The World Tonight atm. (10.15)

SOC saying they wanted to go back to the essence of the show.

Ooh ... Rob/Hel being played out in real time - so no celebratory explosions.

Tension between being a farming Dick Barton and being real life overheard. Ultimately TA is about a family farm.

Jolly good ...

I loved it. Right back where it should be. Was despairing of the melodrama and after 47 yrs listening was about to give up - so upset by so many characters behaving against type... Pat being the most ridiculously written character at the moment. - but tonight has restored my faith for another day.

I never knew the word 'fruit' could be loaded with so much significance for no obvious reason - but I did enjoy the episode.

I kind of liked it too.
And I agree it made agricultural sense, bright me back to discussions I had about energy flow on farms - um 25 years ago. The idea was that with fertilisers and fuel for machinery you are wasting a lot of fossil fuel to create relatively little energy in terms of food.

Now if we can have more discussion about Land management to prevent flooding...

Oh and the year of Soil has just finished, now it's the year of Pulses (peas and beans).

Sorry. Not with it.
We ship Ruth off on a ridiculous mission to NZ and ruin Brookfield's Christmas just so we can go 'as you were. business as usual'? Wasn't there a less bizarre way to achieve this?

I agree with the analysis above that SOC will say different things to different people / will say whatever you want to hear / will say whatever gets him out of trouble.

I liked it too.
It is true no other soapwould make an entire episode out of milk prices with only a bit of fruit cake to lighten the mood.

For once SOC did actually pull of a surprise....by making TA sound like TA.

What happened to Ed's Jersey contract when he gave up his cows? He sold his through Moike didn't he? The round got sold? Is that an outlet?

Also would it bot be oraginic (eventually)
So could be sold to.BF now they no longer have an organic herd?

Despite my dislike of Ruth, I did like that episode - and I had to hand it (reluctantly) to SOC and the SWs for making it genuinely not like other soaps. The likes of EE would certainly have gone for disaster for the anniversary, I liked it that this was a gentle good news episode that was very very firmly based in what TA is all about. I would have been seriously pissed off if someone had been killed off just for the sake of having a dramatic episode.

It was a bit dull. I don't mind that. I mind it being ALL about the Archers*. I like the Grundys and the Carters and Lynda and Jazzer and Brine and all those folk. That's who I want to hear being dull. Not just the Brookfield Archers.

*I do understand that the clue is in the name but still.

Is that a grin of satisfaction or of relief Gruach ?

I LOVED that episode. Huge relief that The Archers finally sounds like The Archers again - not sure we needed all the preceding nonsense to get to this point (the road, the non-move, the flood, the whole HP nonsense including the throwing in the towel at Trowell, Ruth's stropping off to NZ) but finally something I can actually believe in, something that sounds like it might be a real farming plan with characters behaving in character. Please let David and Ruth continue to farm Brookfield in an undramatic way (except for a bit of agricultural drama). SOC can get his EE fix from his sub-plots. As far as I'm concerned there couldn't be a better start to 2016.

I am very rudely laughing about Joskar's complaint that it was all about the Archers.

I can't decide whether I liked it or not. After a solid 24 hrs of pestering Google for pre-show news it was disconcertingly free of all the things there might have been. But Brookside has been dull and this more realistic change of direction might actually inject some solid interest into the story.

Oh! Crossed you LilG and we said much the same thing. Excellent start to the year.

And the absence of melodrama deserves a BOOP.

Not for the first time

I actually rather liked the way it was spelled out that David and Ruth are the new Phil and Jill who were the new Dan and Doris. Their children can be involved in a few melodramatic sub-plots along with any number of peripheral characters, but TA should be rooted in the rhythm of the agricultural year which is why even Jill's fruitcake has its place. I want it to be reassuringly bucolic at its heart - it's only that way that you can believe it will go on and on forever like real life.

Here's to a peaceful year and endless X posts.

I don't believe it. I've finally given in to my inner Scouse and misnamed Brookfield. The number of times I've had to change that word. Ah well ...

All we need now is a couple of months of episodes written by the former archivist. Then all shall be well.

I thought your Brookside slip was quite interesting - as perfect example of endless high drama resulting in self-destruction.

Totally.

I write it every time and usually manage to spot my undeliberate mistake.

But possibly Brookside embedded itself more deeply in my consciousness than any other TV soap ever has. I missed it when it was gone.

There's no doubt a secure Brookfield will be a nice counterweight to all the other stuff.

Why are you still up?

Also would it bot be oraginic (eventually)
So could be sold to.BF now they no longer have an organic herd?

No, it wouldn't be organic unless they chose to convert the farm to be organic. Otherwise they will still continue to use fertiliser and wormers etc as they always have.

I do think it is the logical step for Brookfield, and far more realistic then shelling out hundreds of thousands on robotic parlours.

To those saying it is a return to the roots of the show, having only listened post Nigel, I have heard mainly the over dramatic stuff but last night did have a ring of one the early shows I found a YouTube link to a while ago.

I like having a reasonably credible storyline for Brookfield again.

But I didn't really get why Ruth's proposals will save money apart from having a lower cost herd. Can anyone explain it?

The whole system is low cost

Present system:new system

Feeder wagon + tractor + fuel + man to drive it: No feeder wagon or tractor running costs, fuel, labour

Bought in concentrate feed, maize: much less bought in concentrate, no maize (maize is expensive to grow and harvest)

Autumn calving, herd needs to be housed and fed silage and concentrate at the peak of lactaction: Spring calving, cows calve as the grass starts to grow so they are out in the fields eating grass when they are making the most milk, and need little if any concentrate.

Making lots of silage, incurring contractors costs and the cost of feeding it out again: Eating the grass straight from the field - much less cost!

Seasonal calving, both spring and autumn, mean that the labour requirement is more seasonal, ie calf feeding at one time of the year rather than all year round, the same with artificial insemination, etc.

I have just realised that spring calving will conflict with lambing time - I wonder if Ruth will want to get rid of the sheep, and even the beef cattle? Most spring calvers I know only have cows. It does go against Brookfield's mixed farm ethos though.

I had another thought last night about yesterday's episode. It was about the past (Phil and Jill etc), and the present (Ruth and David) but it also made a nod to what will happen in the future - Pip and Mathew. They are being set up to be the next Posh n Becks of TA - hence Pip breaking off the Important Discussion to take a call from him.

I have found Pip unbearable over the last year (since I became a listener again), I'm hoping true love might mellow her. And I'm grateful she didn't get sucked in by the Fairbretheren. (unless that's going to be a later plot twist :( )

Gruach I'm very grateful to early Brookside - Karen Grant and Amanda Holden helped show me there was a way out of my dead end career (and relationship) by getting myself an education as a mature(ish) student.