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

[PseudoBadger]

Happy New Year to you all.

Stefan's going to come to a sticky end. JennyD will tell police what she knows and Knob will go daaahn.

Stefan isn't on the list of characters. I have no idea how often BBC updates these things, but his lack of presence is noteable. I think with my defective hat on that this might be because he is disposable... Dum dum daaaaaaaaaaa!

I thought Stefan sounded like he was being voiced by Kenton-actor.

Well that conversation between Jenny and Lillian was clearly to explain why she and David did nothing about the accusations against Knob. I suppose we just have to accept it - not really satisfactory, but a long time ago I think we just have to forget what we know. Huge Canoe is having to paddle his way out the creek SOC left him up.

I have no idea how often BBC updates these things

Anthea is still there. And Charlie, Titcombe, Hayley, Lucas, Mabel, Matt. They have only just added Frilly. I have no idea how often they update (apart from 'not very often') or what their criteria are.

Was Anthea ever officially let go? I think she must still be there running Amside through the medium of mime because let's face it Lillian never does anything (unless she needs to pop round to one of her properties so Jenny can have her memory jogged).

Is it just me who finds so few characters in The Archers actually likeable at the moment?

I like Neil, Kirsty, Adam (don't know why as I hate the way he lives under Brian's tyrrany), Ian, Fallon, Harrison and Johnny

Oh I agree. The Brookfield lot are awful. I'll add Roy to your list of likeable characters. There are so many unlikeable characters at the moment I'm even warming to Kate. I don't mind Frilly as they are so irredeemably shallow and selfish but they are redeemed by being nice to Johnny.

Lillian is annoying me a lot. Although minor boop tonight for her pointing out the implications of what Rob did during the flood.

Re-Huge Canoe, I've just remembered a family story where my dad (called Hugh) was sometimes known as Slug. Mum had a French pen pal and she wrote to tell of her new man and pen pal misread the cursive script and thought he was called Slug.

There are loads of annoying characters, and quite a lot of them far too prominent, but some great ones too. I like Jazzer, Jolene (and usually Kenton), Alan and Usha, Phoebe, Emma and Ed, Will, Clarrie, Adam and Ian, Alistair recently (didn't like him during the gambling period), Elizabeth, Lynda and Robert, Fallon ...

Also I like quite a lot of characters who rarely appear now: Debbie, Nic, Oliver and Caroline.

And there's plenty of others whom I find bearable: Jenny, Shula, Johnny, Freddie and Lily, Jill, Peggy, Rex, Bert, Roy.

I think the problem really (from my pov) is just like the unlikeable characters are given too much airtime relative to the likeable ones. There's enough good ones to outweigh the nasties but they don't get enough stories.

Now to the Archers, can the legal eagles remind me of what Stefan could be done for if it's revealed he took a bribe and so didn't tell the polis what he'd observed before the flood? I am thinking something like defeating the end of justice. Presumably in defence he could argue he was very scared for his life as Knob had threatened him, etc. But this would only come up if it was clear that the blocking of the culvert had almost deaded Chas and caused him serious injury (broken ankle). And Freda's death wouldn't be due to the blocked culvert anyway??

I've started to like Roy now - but I do wish he was stronger about Stalker Horribin. It's not that funny a SL, just a bit implausible and overdone. Most real people would have taken the hint by now, I think. Roy used to be awful IMO, definitely improved version now.

Stefan can stand by the fact that he was very scared of Mr Tichener, did meet two local worthies that he saw the culvert being blocked and it's not his fault that they didn't follow through.
As to blackmail, well it's Rob's word against his, innit? Or whatever the Polish version of innit is.

tell, not meet.

Thanks, enoch, and enough people now know what Knob is like. Even the judge and various lawyers and polis know he's a bad 'un.

They almost always start out as caricatures - Sid, Jack, Lynda, Jim, Charlie, Matt - and over time their edges are softened and they become more rounded This is so true (with the exception of Heatherpet who started life quite inoccuously and then gradually morphed into a comedy northerner).

Stefan can stand by the fact that he was very scared of Mr Tichener, did meet two local worthies that he saw the culvert being blocked and it's not his fault that they didn't follow through

Do we know who initiated the pay off in the first place? If Rob , then Stefan hasn't done anything wrong until his attempt at blackmail now.

Fink, you are right- there are indeed plenty of likeable characters (I'm one of the few who like Carol Tregorran). It feels sometimes as if the only ones the budget stretches to are the Brookfield lot.

Stefan blackmailing Rob does NOT fit with the Stefan that met Jenny and David in a cafe somewhere far away from Ambridge. I think Rob probably just paid him off. I think Stefan is now taking advantage of Robs 'fall from grace'. I still don't like it though. I like my goodies to be goodies!

I agree MrsArthurShappy. It's yet another example of Huge Canoe having to make the best of a bad job tying up SOC's loose ends. In fairness it is one explanation as to why Stefan disappeared never to be seen again - we thought he'd been knobbled by Knob in fact he'd been paid off. I find that part of the explanation easier to swallow than Jenny and David's letting the matter drop.

I only half heard the episode but was Jenny struggling to remember who Stefan was? That seems highly unlikely to me.

And yes, I agree, Rob paying Stefan off is quite obvious now. It certainly explains where the money Peggy gave them went.

I think Jenny was struggling to recognise him, not to remember who he was. There were several references to fair hair - I wondered if he'd dyed it.

I think Jenny was struggling to recognise him

Yes, but she's only met him once, in a dingy cafe (I think), and not at all for two years, and it was at a jewellery fair, not farming, so out of context. It's like meeting a colleague you don't really know in the supermarket or the swimming pool - familiar face, but can't place them.

Not surprising that she's forgotten what he looks like (and he
may well look different two years on) more surprising that she'd forgotten all about him in the first place. Tracking him down, meeting him secretly, hearing what he had to say - I don't think she would have forgotten that and can't believe (as many on here commented at the time) that she never mentioned it again to anyone after stab night when so many people were saying "I can't believe it he seems such a nice chap" or when he got the job at Berrow - she and David or she and Lillian would have had the conversation - I can't believe Justin's employing him again when you think of what happened during the flood, do you think we should mention it?

I completely agree that David and Jenny's total amnesia about Stefan and the culvert has been ridiculous, but I put that down to SOC.

Did Rob and Helen have Peggy's money at the time of the flood?

Did Rob and Helen have Peggy's money at the time of the flood?
I don't think so Mega
I think the money was a wedding gift - I remember Helen gushing about it being like a dowry and how wonderful that she now belonged to Rob.
The flood was Feb 2015; they married summer 2015 and Jack was conceived a few months later.