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!

Yep Pseudo

But it's been Christmas. Eddie's probably been in front of the fire with his feet up - and only now started outdoor work on the great pig enterprise.

It is very stressful looking after someone else's pretty house.

Wips nothing exactly happened. Clarrie worried about the dazzling and complex fixtures at GF and then discovered Eddie's pig plan. She's very torn.

I do hope we're not going back to Eddie as "hilarious" comedy yokel. I much preferred him as supportive son/father.

Perhaps if Home Farm gets the Berrow contract Adam will insist on recruiting Charlie as an assistant, cue big crisis with Ian. Or he'll decide to expand the beef herd and give Pip a full time job.

I completely love the idea of Adam as Boss of Everyone.

Grauch - thank you so much - all becomes clear.

Thanks everyone I've got a ticket, now I just have to negotiate how I get the day in the middle of half-term to be there.

Yup. It was the hobbit comment. Thank you elpht

I would love to go to that conference but it's impossible.

Mummytime we will need a code to recognise each other

You could coo and offer each other fruit cake.

does anyone else find 'feebs' irritatingly complacent and full of herself as is Jennifer (all in the genes obviously)
she passes her driving test first time - meaning 'oh brian' will shell out for a car
she thinks she is going to Oxford to read PPP when she had previously shown only an ability to be a stroppy rude teenager (it is hard to get into that course)
I do hate it that no-one seems to fail, get their comeuppance, fall on hard times through no fault of their own (even the Grundys come up smelling of roses)
I call it the pip syndrome - she (pip) has the few available village men after her, she gives up a job because it was not good enough for her, she has secure employment back on the farm (where her father takes note of every whacky idea she espouses), and her veterinarian and farming expertise is second to none

I do hope we're not going back to Eddie as "hilarious" comedy yokel. I much preferred him as supportive son/father. The beauty of Eddie is that he can be both - brilliant, complex character of the old school.
Well remembered for finding that link Gruach - was it really only a year ago? It feels like we've been Booping much longer than that - I see you were on there with your old moniker - luckily BOOP has kept hers.

I don't know, poor Ed seems to fail through no fault of his own all the time alrhough hopefully if Adam gets Berrow there will be lots of work for Ed.

Strangely I will always remember that thread as being tied up with the ecstasy of all-day War and Peace on New Year's Day last year. For several days afterwards I felt exceptionally mellow and embracing towards my fellow humans.

I have little patience with the comedy yokels script - but they have been fairly consistent (if sadly uninformed) in trying to show how incredibly tough it can be to exist in a rural landscape while in possession of neither inherited land, inherited wealth nor education.

Which is why the contrasted portrayal of f'rinstance Pip and Phoebe (like Johnny an accidental-Archer) is so thrilling.

I noticed that a year ago Johnny's dyslexia was a topic. He'd got the blame for the shop receiving the wrong fruit order. Interesting because Rob has pulled off the same stunt a year later and because what might have been an interesting story has been dropped like a stone.

Perhaps he won't appear all year ...

We'd have to start calling him Poor-Johnny rather then Rich-Johnny.

They didn't even tell us where he spent Christmas!

Whilst I know what you mean about phoebe - I would like a female character to have some success

I so love the fact that we can feel nostalgic about a previous thread - it reinforces my feeling that I now find this thread as enjoyable as the programme itself and it is definitely what keeps me going when I feel frustrated with SOC. I'm obviously not alone as I believe there are people who have actually stopped listening, but can't leave the thread. Pseudo

I don't think Phoebe is being smug or presumptuous at all and I find the character progression entirely plausible. She was clearly shown to work very hard for both driving test me Oxford application. She is much less grabby towards Brian than her mother was/is! Do hope she gets in - let's not forget she'll still need the exam results even if she is offered a place ("Three E offers are rare nowadays") so we won't know for certain till the summer.

She has to get in or it will lose even more credibility! Sick of the will they/won't they so that invariably end in a 'oh no, let's forget we even thought about it'

Must say I'm finding the Berrow Farm thing highly amusing. I don't recall being able to see what they were doing in past decades - now the editorial plan is, in parts, laughably clear. Just as Brookfield was shaken for all it was worth (and more) only to land back in exactly the same place, so too with Home Farm. Having stripped Brian of his premier position on the BL board and wrenched the BL contract from the Aldridges, lo and behold, a few mere months later Berrow Farm has given everything back with interest. The only real change has been the fractious passing of power from one generation of the family to the next.

Still can't see how Bridge Farm's troubles will be resolved though.

I can't see that Phoebe is making any assumptions about getting into Oxford, and it's hardly unreasonable for her to think she has a chance of getting in when her school says so and they've invited her for interview.

Wasn't Johnny's dyslexia cured miraculously with a little extra help from someone - possibly Tom? Though I would hope that at the very least they involved the college's special needs department. I think he passed his English GCSE? Maybe they applied for extra time for him.

FGS moaning about poor Feebs now, who stated clearly that she DIDN"T want Brian to get her a car, because she didn't want one in Oxford.

It's JD who's making a thing about it not Feebs. Also she 's been an amazing teenager considering what she's had to put up with from the adults, a lot of teenagers in RL would've gone right off the rails.