Male or female, young or old - Bad Stuff can happen to you in The Archers. Discuss the perils of Ambridge life here.

[PseudoBadger]

Not exactly upbeat at the moment is it

Precisely my point Mega! That's not what she said, and even if it was, why assume that the decision Tom has made, for himself, is connected to her? Listen again and pretend it's Helen speaking.

She's entitled to say that if Tom's motivation has anything to do with her, it's not what she wants, and I don't see that that's a selfish thing to say - rather the contrary. Come what may, a decision which directly relates to the pregnancy and miscarriage is connected to her. And I do think that, when you've just gone through a late miscarriage, you're entitled to be a bit selfish anyway.

Rex is/was a professional rugby player.

Which makes him perfectly qualified to identify a Doosra, and to note its difference from a Googly or a Wrong 'un. In a parallel universe where rugby is played on a 22yd strip of closely mown grass where both teams are wearing whites...

I love cricket

But I can't bear the thought of all these cricket sl coming up

I'd be seriously pissed off if I turned up for Jenny's dinner party to find out it was shepherds pie.

maybe that's the lesson he's learnt - look after yourself because nobody else really cares.

Apart from Granny and her cheque book.

I don't think Tom has had too bad a hand dealt to him. He himself admitted at bedside of otto'd tony that a lot of the pressure to live up to Tom came from himself.

He also can't blame John's memory for a lot of his falling outs with Tony and pat which tended to be because he and they disagreed about business. Tom was never so wedded to the organic thing.

The whole jilting was a crap ott sl and I felt the way Tony spoke to Tom was out of character

Peggy has unquestioningly supported his business ideas and trusted his business instincts.

I can't feel sorry for Tom. We get this story that he looked up to his golden big brother and felt obliged to carry on his pig business. How about he looks at his big brother who messed up his life by treating several women badly and got in a terrible mental state ... and Tom decides that he shouldn't go down the same route. Ooops, too late!
He has zero insight or introspection.

Rex and Anisha – was that cricket coaching that became a semi-date?

Now that Lillian may go to the party, what will she do with all those references to horn cornucopiae?

I thought it showed how they had both grown up!

I'm sure post otto Tony accepted he hadn't been great with Tom - said it to pat?

The whole jilting was a crap ott sl and I felt the way Tony spoke to Tom was out of character I agree. It felt forced in the way Kirsty suddenly became obsessed with having the perfect wedding and buying a new house as if they had to find a reason for Tom to get cold feet and it felt unrealistic that he would wait until arriving at the church to pull out. I am also irritated that Knob's part in the whole debacle and Tom's subsequent disappearance has just been completely brushed over. I think what is great about him as a character is that I can still feel sorry for him at this point even though he has been an idiot in the past. He's not one dimensional.

It did feel forced Lillian. If I remember correctly, Kirsty had two dresses at one point, it was completely out of character.

I'd be seriously pissed off if I turned up for Jenny's dinner party to find out it was shepherds pie.

I once went to a posh dinner party where the main course was sausages & mash.

The twist being that the sausages had been made specially for the occasion from the host's own organic beef & pork.

Also the ghastly Jeffrey Archer is known for hosting a "Shepherds Pie & Krug" party every year.

However, I think in Archers-land these subtleties will be hard to carry off ...

surely they are shepherd's pie canapes?
not an actual shepherds's pie?

Is it a drinks party or a dinner party?

Didn't they say the pies would be in ramekins or similar? The rabbit and veggie pies were going to have pastry crusts, I think, and the shepherds' pies were going to have a tasteful bit of rosemary stuck in to look like a tree . I assumed the shepherd's pies were going to be made from local lamb and probably be made classy by having red wine sloshed into the sauce.

So the mayor will be poisoned and blame Jenny and then it will turn out she bought a pasty from Eddie on the way which was full of broccoli

Or fallon will forget and use loads of broccoli as trees

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=t0.gstatic.com/images%3Fq%3Dtbn:ANd9GcTv1KF2IO8fDkXAa8w73eA2PB2JSOIPIHnBWieZhcyovXkFqtNy&imgrefurl=books.google.com/books/about/The_New_Enchanted_Broccoli_Forest.html%3Fid%3D-K17PwAACAAJ%26source%3Dkp_cover&h=833&w=638&tbnid=RAI_I7BVPdD3pM:&vet=1&tbnh=120&tbnw=92&docid=LwVa3CL_vbTrkM&itg=1&usg=__UD730oFbru2yTY2ygGK_HYDAsHU=&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizgZvNnLjSAhXIRhQKHcA7C9IQ_B0IfjAQ#h=833&imgrc=RAI_I7BVPdD3pM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=92&vet=1&w=638" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">do you think they used this book?

Also the ghastly Jeffrey Archer is known for hosting a "Shepherds Pie & Krug" party every year.

Thought that was a non-speaking character I'd forgotten, there, Grumpy.

i think it is a dinner party. because there was a separate discussion about canapés

so yes, yer actual shepherds pie in an individual size serving.

It would be tricky to do a shepherds pie canapé.

It will be made with (last years) Hassett Hills lamb, presumably.