Surprise surprise - Kirsty has a Mini Sausage Roll in the oven! Discuss the Archers here

[PseudoBadger]

Happy New Year to you all.

Ed was employed to clear the culvert discretely (and I'm not sure if it was Rob or Charlie who told him not to speak about it). Ed left the rubbish in the "field" but when he went to take it away it had already gone. I think Ed might have told David discretely that the blocked culvert looked suspicious.
I had an idea that there was more than one culvert/pipe in that area and the one blocked would have led to Berrow farm and the other led to the village. I thought the blocking was deliberate to save Berrow ignoring the consequences.

Has the new producer taken over yet? I thought he was about the 6th?

IIRC Charlie gave Ed a general warning not to speak of estate affairs when he gave him work. Rob issued a more specific threat when Ed found the debris.
Ed told David in confidence that the debris had been removed.

Yes, new chap credited as Editor this week and last. I must find out his name and stop thinking of him as the new chap.

Huw Kennair-Jones.

It was definitely Charlie who commissioned Ed to clear the culvert and to tell no-one! At that early stage it looked very bad for Berrow. Stefan hadn't come forward yet.

Charlie acted fast to save his own skin. If he'd allowed David, in his capacity as flood warden, to see the evidence, questions may have been asked. But at that stage we didn't know there'd been a witness to the blocking.

Don't know why I said the same thing twice there! Just reinforcing the message that I don't like Charlie I think!

Knob definitely to blame for Charlie's potential drowning

The flood happened because of a rise in the am and also the water table - whilst the blockage may have made it a bit worse in the village - I don't think he can be blamed for Freda's death. She would have behaved the same regardless of the water level and the outcome would have been the same.

I thought flood week made dreadful radio!

Have just been skimreading reaction on Mustardland. A good point raised there - where did Rob get the money he used to pay Stefan off before? Did he perhaps take it from Berrow Farm?

I rather enjoyed flood week. I also liked Charlie and miss him. (Just to be perverse. )

Charlie was very promising and well acted (unusually for new actors at the time).

They just tied him up with Ian/Adam too much and he became a bit part in their story rather than developing into a character of his own

Much better than the fairbros!

Good point about where Rob got the money from to pay Stefan to leave. However, at that point Rob was on a good salary and might not have had a joint account with Helen at the time. They weren't married then I think. He should have been able to lay his hands on a couple of grand.

If he stole money from Berrow then Charlie failed to spot it. Maybe the milk yield figures Charlie was investigating were part of a financial scam but I don't think Rob is bright enough to invent an undetectable fraud. Far too lazy. I think he was just making up figures so he wouldn't have to work hard.

Agree it was laziness rather than fraud. Probably why he had so many jobs in Canada - you can only do so for so long before reality catches up with the figures

He's already showing it here. He will probably make up some of the quotes for example.

After he'd stopped being Justin's apparatchik I really liked Charlie - I remember a time Helen & Henry came in to see Rob with some cookies or cupcakes or something. Rob was really snarky & Charlie was just lovely.

Maybe Charlie can come back now, help get Rob done for fiddling the books (among other things), & settle down with Helen and/or Adam and/or Ian (a ménage a quatre would be a new direction for TA)

I'd really like Charlie to come back too.

Finally listened to last night. As much as I want loose ends tied up I'm not wholly sure about Stefan returning as a cartoon blackmailer. I hope they don't run with a daft storyline just to get shot of Knob.

And, sorry should have not pressed send so quickly, would Miranda really have left Justin alone in the room with Lils? He's a smarmy git...oh what I would give for Tiger to return and Lils to drop Justin like a hot spud.

oh what I would give for Tiger to return and Lils to drop Justin like a hot spud.

Given all the recent returnees, I wouldn't rule it out. Fingers crossed!

Just logged back in and thank you for the reassurances that culverts can, indeed, be titchy. Titchy enough anyway.

My other current obsession is No Offence, which I am watching online on ITV catch-up. You can't skip adverts, so during ad breaks, I switch to Mumsnet, especially this thread. I"m getting nothing done, I tell you!

Tiger was a nasty piece of work - remember how he treated the elderly couple he wanted out of the house? Lilian is better off without either of them...

Tiger was a nasty piece of work.

I agree Herbal Ley - I don't get all the love for Tiger on these threads. Can't forget how he enticed Alistair into "friendly" games of poker and then forced him to pay out £100,000 he didn't have - nothing loveable about that. Or about the way he didn't just leave Lillian, he stole all her money. Not a nice guy at any level.

Nice to know I'm not the only one Lucretia. My Dad absolutely can't stand him and regularly rants about it - he tries his best on the Facebook group, but is definitely outnumbered by those in Team Tiger.

I also can't stand Matt. I thought he was really cruel and ruthless, a horrible man. And his geezer cockney accent wound me up (it is my genuine accent and his sounded so fake; I also lived in Northumberland so Heather's accent used to get on my nerves too).

It may have sounded fake, Fink, but I believe it was his genuine accent too!

BBC blog post about Matt here

Oops, posted that before checking - IMDB tells me that Kim Durham grew up in a well-heeled part of Surrey. So scrub that remark about the Matt accent.

Tiger is a character that I don't like but is done well. Yes he was a bastard but he did show a softer side. Him leaving the way he did was very odd I thought. Xref Justin who is supposed to be in the same mould bit hasn't been rounded off at all

Helen has al ways been a character I can't stand but she is still well rounded and believable. Xref pip

Everyone has good and bad in them to varying degrees - that's w hat makes them interesting - but the mix has to be plausible