As the Archers threads age like a fine wine, or a cheese, come and join us - it's nearly time for the Ambridge Flower and Produce show

[PseudoBadger]

Hopefully we can go back to an ordinary tale of country folk?

Spoilers are frowned upon.... There's a thread for that.

Just listened again to yesterday's episode. It was still great but I did notice Adam's over acting when talking to Rob.

I liked the Adam conversation about what was going on - Roy chipping in with his relevant experience was really nice. BOOP.

I agree that Rob's decline isn't improbably swift, and it isn't the case that he's suddenly going around deliberately antagonising people. Within his own limits his initial approach to Emma was reasonably polite, as was his initial discussion with the cricket team, albeit that that was pretty arrogant and founded on the assumption that they needed him to rescue them. It's highly likely that word of the episode with Emma has spread very quickly, and that may well have tipped the balance with others in the village - he clearly was about to attack her physically, and people will realise that that strengthens Helen's case that she was the victim, not Rob. Plus I assume that the cricket team would have been influenced by the fact that Adam and Jonny would walk if Rob stayed in the team, and Harrison is probably not keen anyway, especially given the rape and coercive control issues which he may have to deal with professionally.

Mind you, I also think that these are the scenes the SWs have been dying to write and have been stopped by SOC. One of the really frustrating aspects of the storyline previously was the way Rob kept getting away with things virtually every time. He obviously thinks that that will happen now, and it's an extra plus that the people who are frustrating him are precisely the women and lower class types whom he despises most.

Rob's delusions are a sight to behold. I cannot believe the arrogance of the man when he first arrived at the team meeting. Even by his usual standards it's quite something. Maybe it's his attempt to brazen it out.

I loved the way the straight men all sympathise with Adam's predicament & can talk in a natural way about his feelings for Ian without a hint of a snigger or any snide asides

Yes, Dudgeon, I agree, but I'm not sure how realistic it is. In my small rural community we have had both a gay couple & a lesbian couple move in and both are regarded as rather exotic by some of the older neighbours.

What is the Jill / Fairbrethren back story again?

Oh do fuck off David and Rooth.... an old person'/ tantrum?!!

Erm, surely Pip was the unreasonable person in all that? Who invites someone to a party without telling the hosts and when the person the party is for dislikes the person coming?

And yet David and Ruth think Pip is the one who was hard done by?!!

Spoilt brat.

Pip seems to have complete amnesia about every bloody stupid thing Toby does. She doesn't mind that, through sheer stupidity, he killed a load of chickens. She doesn't care that, through equal stupidity, he humiliated Jill. But she should have been capable of remembering that Jill might care. I really don't understand why David and Ruth seem to think that Jill is the only person responsible for spoiling her birthday.

But Jill is usually the voice of calm in that hysterical family.
I thought they might be planning a dementia SL for her, but then I remembered we've had one of those with Peggy's Jack, and it would be very strange to recycle the same story, (except when it involves sibling love rivalry)

Tonight's episode made no sense. Why did Pip think Toby would be welcome, or that she could invite him without running it by Jill first? Pip owes Jill an apology! Very odd hearing David and Ruth's opinion (at odds with all the listeners I'd imagine).

Has anyone on the Archers ever had a hip replacement? They are one of the few conditions where you CAN make a miraculous recovery, unlike coma inducing brain injury, which approximately half the village have suffered with no long-term effects whatsoever.

Where are they going with this, usually it's Pip 'n' Jill against the world.

David and Ruth were initially shocked about Toby's invite, so why didn't they have more respect for Jill's views?

wips, others have a better grip of Ambridge history but Grace (Phil's first wife) was a Fairbrother and last year Jill told Carol how much she always felt she was in Grace's shadow.

Then Lizzie had an affair with Robin F which resulted in a pregnancy and abortion when Robin went back to his wife.

Robin is Toby and Rex's father.

Lizzie had a pregnancy and abortion from Robin?

That was Cameron Fraser.

Or did she have two?

Wasn't it Jill who has the conversation with Rex in the garden? Or am I getting my Archers old ladies confused.

I reckon Burn is right, who invites someone to a party and does not ask the hosts or the main person, especially when it is obvious that the birthday person can't stand the guest.

Pop is so fecking self obsessed! She has no empathy for her grandmother. And David and Rooth were so patronising.

Jill was uncomfortable when Elizabeth went out with Robin Fairbrother, the half brother of Phil's first wife Grace. When Robin turned out to be married, Elizabeth ended things with a well-aimed glass of wine.

From here

And, no doubt, the past repeat itself when Toooobs also turns out to be married to someone in Brighton.

You are right, it was Cameron Fraser. Lizzie and Robin just had an affair.

will repeat itself

Jill appeared to have a total personality transplant in that episode. It was most baffling.

Was there not a massive age difference between Lizzy and Robin?

I think the oddest thing about tonight's episode is Jill's behaviour. Pip acted true to type, tactlessnessly assuming her Gran will happily welcome Rex to the party despite knowing that Jill despises him!! David & Ruth indulged their daughter's rudeness. But I would have expected Jill to simply ignore Rex and make her feelings clear to Pip privately I think the SWs must be hatching a dementia SL for Jill.