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!

Thanks Bore but oh no, "nooooohhhh" to the possibility of Lillian leaving! I doubt I could bring myself to listen again if that came about!

Just read now on BBC website (under Shula's biog) that Usha was a former partner of Richard Locke too; hadn't realised that as haven't been listening that long. Dr Locke has certainly had an active past for one so leaden in personality (and hopeless when it comes to practical matters such as arranging tables for his drinks do).

Gruach yes I see, that does explain a lot actually.

NO to Lilian disappearing!!! And not only because she is one of the few characters left with a distinctive voice…..

Unfortunately that distinctive voice can be assumed to be, partly, the result of a too joyous imbibing of gin and cigs. I fear Lillian may be obliged to die of an excess of life.

Not if Joe is still with us she won't.

I think thete will be more Lillian to come as thete is some mileage in the sl of her still being in JD and Brine's house.

Just read now on BBC website (under Shula's biog) that Usha was a former partner of Richard Locke too

I can't find that blog; is it written from Shula's POV? Does it explain that Usha was a 'former' because Shula stole him from her and broke their relationship? Richard was equally culpable, of course. And his medical ethics were questionable too (getting involved with a patient's parent when they were vulnerable).

Our local newspaper had an article on the 65th anniversary episode and quoted someone's caustic summation on twitter:
This just in: 'Farm sells cows, gets other cows'

Cor blimey R4 no it didn't explain that was on biog not blog Fascinated though!

And at summation!!

Gruach I'm sure this will have been suggested before but perhaps all listeners could contribute to an archivist fund?

Actually I have just realised that Locke is a bit of a twat to move back to the same village where the ex he cheated on still lives and is an integral part of the community. Of all the villages in Borsetshire why come back to haunt Usha's?

Since the sense I get is that the SWa want to portray him as a nice guy. That is not at all nice.

Doc Loc uses Kirsty as a guru ...

But Kirsty didn't cheat on Tom Gruach .

She did nothing wrong so unlike him should not stay away out of shame.
Not that I think she should have come back, but it's a different scenario.

Oh, I agree, different scenario. But I'd say they have equally strong reasons for never coming within 100 miles of Ambridge again.

Rob's gaslighted her before by tampering with an order at the old shop, hasn't he?

Very true!

DocLoc uses Roy as guru? (cheats on partner with Archer girl. Has to face the village gossip machine)
DocLoc uses Nigel as guru? (starts with Shula, ends up with Lizzie)

Didn't Rob tamper with a veg order and blame Johnny, who readily accepted it was was him as he was dyslexic? I can't recall if we ever knew it was Rob for definite but everything pointed that way. I miss Johnny, time he came back for more storylines.

Ha, yes R4 - chest on partner with Archwr girl then agrees to star in play in front of whole village as True Love of said Archer girl! Though at least Calendar Girls wasn't on in Hayley's local Birmingham community centre I suppose.

I do hope Hayley has been able to share and enjoy the Oxford application stuff. All the years she (as well as Roy) must have put in, building forts and testing vocab. (Or whatever they do in schools now.)

Considering that David was getting so twitchy about the ghost of cowman Sam, why isn't Alistair getting twitchy about the all-too-real flesh and blood of DocLoc?

Has Shula got Alistair tied up in a dungeon somewhere? Or is it another case of an actor leaving but it takes them six months to summon the courage to tell us?

Happy New Year - sorry I'm late. My New Year Resolution is to always keep up with the thread (well that's more fun than dieting or exercising) I too hope that Patbot is disappearing.

IIRC R4 Shuls was very twitchy about the reappearance of DocLoc. Alastair don't give a shxx, which says it all about their relationship doesn't it? He's always 'working late' obviously

I simply don't buy that all of Ruth's concerns about not being on the outside of the Archer family, about not being given a say, and her ambivalence about her future, are suddenly all ignored in favour of making the decision that the farm should switch to grass feeding I think part of the problem is that Ruth has been behaving out of character for so long to fit in with SOC's ridiculous plot contrivances that when she actually behaves in character it seems wrong. For me, the whole change of cows scenario is much more in keeping with how they might behave at Brookfield than the change of farms that we were supposed to believe might happen. I feel as though Ruth has come back from NZ as herself and hopefully we can forget all the contrivance of her feeling pushed out and being at war with Jill (who let's not forget she invited to move back to Brookfield in the first place).

Ah, yes, Jessie's right. Rob put the blame on Johnny for a messed up order. That was before he found it more satisfying to turn J into a disciple, along with Tom.

I think you're right, Lillian.
SOC would probably say he has been rationalising some inherited plotlines when, in fact, it seems to me he's been thrashing about for the past year and been too influenced by social media and ratings.
Let's hope he's on the right track at last.

Rob messex ip Johnny's order.
Also the manager in the AO got let go for over ordering. Not sure if H ever sooke to her about it. Did Rob not just 'handle it'.

So it looks like he has form for messing up orders then stepping in to save the day.
But he didn't quite pull it off at Berrow though, did he?