In honour of how The Archers threads began: Why are the SWs allowing this to happen?

[PseudoBadger]

The very first thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/a1740045-Why-is-Lillian-allowing-this-to-happen

40k posts later....

Slightly bizarre that Knob should blame "the management" since I thought he was the er manager until he walked our was sacked I do hope someone notices this.
Ian clearly hasn't talked to Adam yet - I have a feeling that's going to end badly.
So glad no one was killed in the fire, but glad in a funny sort of way that they burned the shed down since the idea that they would keep Grange Farm slick and span and be model tenants would have been too unbelievable.

Maybe Justin will read the article and decide that he knows all about how to make Berrow succeed, and will put him in as joint manager with Adam. He won't be able to tolerate working with a gay man, with any luck Adam will discern that and start digging around and checking the books and the Truth Will Out.

Gruach, I vaguely remember Titchyknob making a passing comment, too. He really is a nasty piece of work, making out to Justin that everything was Charlie's fault and that he left because he couldn't bear Charlie's incompetence (that's how I heard it, anyway).
V glad it was a false alarm about the fire. Mr Archer and Mrs Archer just get more and more annoying. Ugh.

Rob must be feeling very confident that he's covered his tracks well.

I have mostly been reading synopses and group postings since the Bridezilla episode, so I'm not sure exactly what Rob did or didn't do. Bodging low cow fertility rates, blocked culverts causing flooding and missing Polish workers are the things he is accused of by avid listeners, aren't they? And in some circles, he is suspected of fudging figures and possibly fraud/theft?

There are lots of rumours and un-provables but Justin said that Berrow is not financially viable and it will have cost him a million pounds. This could be creative accounting - conflating capital costs and running costs - but Demara see no point in keeping it running. Rob started in Jan 2013 and resigned ?Aug 2015. So Rob ran it for 2.5 years (from scratch), Charlie 0.5 years (inheriting Rob's legacy).
So Rob may be entirely innocent of skullduggery but he is guilty of being a poor manager and not making profits. We have seen enough of him at home and at Bridge Farm to suspect poor management and skullduggery.

Totally bizarre that any businessman worth his salt could think the business failed due to poor management in such a short time!

It's all been rather sketched over for dramatic purposes, but I agree R4 that as Knob was effectively the only manager until he left in slightly mysterious circumstances (and I still don't really know why Charlie wasn't more upfront about it) it's hard to see how he can have come out of it smelling of roses. I think we just have to allow for a lot of poetic licence to enable him to continue unhindered in his evil ways.

I thought Joe sounded a bit vague about the kids he saw playing with a Chinese lantern, reckon he had something to do with the shed blaze.

Loved the escaped piggies making a nest in the field!

Just introducing the DCs to the delights of Blackadder Goes Forth (my favourite of the series) and can't stop picturing Justin as Melchit and Knob as Captain Darling - considering Justin seemed such a fearsome boss whenever Charlie referred to him in the past he seems to be remarkably dim in noticing what is actually going on.

Oh I thought it could have been Alex's friends by the shed. If that was the only one Joe thought he recognised, he might not want to instantly drop them in it. He also had enough trouble with his own sons to not want to falsely accuse anyone (especially to the police).

What we know about Rob and Berrow is: the figures had been "massaged" or incorrectly entered, Rob blamed (to Helen at least) someone else for this "mistake"; Stephan said he'd seen Rob by the Culvert, and the culvert was blocked, and Rob behaved oddly on the night of the flood. But I think Justin's decision might be more closely linked to the Road route. I wondered if he'd be interested in Bank farm?

Stefan saw rob stuffing the culvert - not just near it

Which is why Jenny's amnesia about it is so weird

I got the impressive he was falsifying documents and that the income they were getting didn't reflect what the income should have been if he was doing everything the way he said he was. Hence Charlie wanting to look at original source papers rather than robs summaries

Makes no sense that Charlie wouldn't have continued that investigation after robs stroppy resignation

Lilian Rob became very homophobic to Charlie IIRC sort of threatening to out him, I get the feeling that Charlie is still in the closet where his employment is concerned.

Gruach I remember Rob speaking to the press about the opening of the bridge farm cafe and implying they'd been quite insistent, when probably he'd phoned them up. I don't recall him mentioning the berrow interview, but I could have missed that.

Surely Justin is not going to be too happy about Knob's bigs reveal in The Echo - I thought he wanted it to be hush hush. Sorry BOOP being very picky today. Maybe that's how Knob will come unstuck - he'll overreach himself. By trying to cover his traces he'll end up exposing himself.

Is it just me or does anyone else wince when Roof says Ireland, she insists on pronouncing it "ayaland"

No Lilifer I quite like Roof and her accent esp. now she's cheered up .

I know quite a few people who say "ayaland".
And I laughed when she said "who? Me?"

I am waiting for her to say "It's day 8 in the cow shed."

Funny how we're only hearing about Peep and Matt. turning Rickyard into a love nest consummating their affair through Roof and Dave.

Rob stuffed the culvert and his fertility figures were way down so that Charlie examined them because low fertility meant the profit margin was cut to the bone. Rob also took excessive amounts of time off and his staff were frightened of him. He was manager when contaminated material got into the silage.
Charlie managed an already barely profitable business during a botulism outbreak and clearly related very well to the staff and animals.

Justin doesn't like bad press but it's Charlie's professional reputation that's on the line.

I'm wondering if Charlie might fight back, if Stefan is living locally and has read the paper, if the Berrow staff might take their redundancy money and speak up for C.
Most of all I wonder if David and Jennifer might get over their amnesia and if Adam will risk his relationship with Ian to defend Charlie's reputation.

At the very least, an article in the Echo should get the villagers talking about Rob and putting two and two together.

The thing with rob is that he believes everything he says. That is his reality. If you recall shulacommented that he was chilling because he believed what he had said about the sab incident. Shame Shula has forgotten that!

That's true BYOS He lives in la la land and his aggressive persona seems to force pursuade others to believe his alternative reality.

I think -hope- that all the chickens are coming home to roost at once quite soon. That's why we've been frustrated by characters' selective amnesia, forgotten SLs such as culvert, botulism etc.

They've all been put on hold for a great denouement at the same time as Kirsty galvanates Pat into taking notice of Helen's condition and really talking to her.

He once forced a promise from Helen that she would stand by him no matter what. I'm betting she won't.

I hope she doesn't stand by him, but I think there will be quite a bit of shilly-shallying until she doesn't.

Is it the drinks party tonight? Could be good. Hope it's not a case of Ian losing it while Rod smirks on the sidelines.

Could be that Justin offers Rob the job but he turns it down which given he and Helen are job sharing one shop manager (?) post would obviously be madness.