The Archers: The Crook, the Vet, His Wife & Her Lodger - discussion #80

[DadDadDad]

In full acknowledgement of PseudoBadger's great achievement in providing the previous 79 threads over the past 4 years (and credit to R4 for this thread's title)...

Discuss TA (The Archers). New posters encouraged - it's not (too) cliquey here and plenty of regulars are happy to answer questions.

One rule: no spoilers (ie no mentioning future plot teasers from Radio Times listings etc) - there's a separate thread for that.

So, is Phoebe pregnant? will Anisha dob in (dobbin - geddit?) Alistair?

PS I don't presume to take on PB's role permanently - hopefully the job of starting new threads will rotate among regulars until she returns

not sure why any of the three you named would be interested really

How about realising, when Oliver gives them the news that he's selling, how much they want to keep their jobs? Roy, Kathy, Kirsty are all managers of one sort or another (and Linda would somehow get herself involved ...)

I can't see them not being interested. (And it would at last make sense of all the musical chairs with jobs that we've had to endure over the last few years.)

I meant brine, peggoi or Justin

cheminotte can you explain a bit further about the "reality" of TUPE, are you saying it's not effective?

I am struggling to think how a contractual obligation to a vendor to keep staff on (i.e. What Oliver says he wants) could be any more effective- yes it could be drafted but enforceability would be tricky.

TheAntiBoop Just plucked those three out of the air as they are minted

Really not an expert here but staff do transfer automatically to the new provider under TUPE but they won't necessarily keep the same terms forever. Some companies will do a 'harmonisation' exercise to get everyone on the same terms. In better companies there may be a financial package to accept new terms in others it's more like - here are your new terms if you don't like it you can leave. I believe TUPE doesn't need to apply if bmo (business, management or organisational) reasons exist why justify changing terms.

Tupe works for handover but there will be reasons to make the managers etc redundant as they will claim they have existing staff etc etc. And they only have to keep you on for a minimum

I don't think peggoi or Brian are minted enough. Justin may buy it as a vanity project I suppose but not for business reasons. And no guarantee he would keep the staff

If Ollie is so strapped for cash he should sell the Italian house - sunk cost theory and all that. He doesn't want to live there and it doesn't give him an income. Plus the exchange rate is good at the moment

Vango - I agree with every single one of your posts on the last few pages

Ah bless you Lillian. I'm relieved that someone does! 😁

I'd be I retested to know if the employees could legally be better protected by way of a contractual agreement than they would be by TUPE. For a start there would be a complicated third party beneficiary issue if any of the employees needed to invoke the contract, not impossible but definitely not the same as eg a business owner who sells and requires that he himself be kept on for a minimum period. Also a contractual obligation couldn't be open ended, so the argument that TUPE obligations don't last forever doesn't mean they can be bettered. Just random rusty lawyer thinking here, have been on maternity leave for a year (back next week!) and this was never my field...

Interested. I sincerely hope I am not going to be "retested"!

There's no way anyone would sign a contract saying they would keep someone on until they retire or leave. As soon as the new owner does something they don't like they would put in minimum effort

Quite TheAntiBoop- not only is what olly wants probably legally impossible to implement, it's also commercially unachievable.

Although this is the archers so they'll probably negotiate with a chain that will promise to pay all existing employees seven figure salaries for the rest of their lives

At this rate Alice will have overtaken Pip as most unbelievable and annoying character by the next episode

Why are they writing all the women to be unlikeable?

Award for most unbelievable drunk person goes to....

I wish I was that clearly spoken when I've had a few

Why are they writing all the women to be unlikeable?

I'm a big fan of Alice....and Phoebe....and Lily....and especially Anisha. Oh, and Fallon, Jolene, Clarrie, Pat, Lynda, Lillian, Jennifer...even Helen these days! I like most of the women actually.

I was waiting for Alice to land on her ovaries. After almost cheating on Chris to writing off some expensive farm kit and now trying to jump out of a tree, she is the most odious drunk.

I don't like the way most of them are being written at the moment. Alice and Phoebe and Jennifer being examples. I hope it's a blip

I foresee Chris and Alice splitting up now - but that would be a shame

Boop I totally agree it would be a shame if C and A split up although it does look as if that's the direction to which we are heading

It was only Alice's "starter marriage" after all!

With regard to Grey Gables, Oliver himself said it was barely breaking even. So anyone buying it is going to have to make changes in order for it to be commercially viable.

It's definitely a business that needs to be owned by someone who loves it

After 40 plus years of listening to this programme I am close to giving up. I really can't be doing with Alice morphing into a clone of Kate. Alice and Phoebe used to be the most likeable and sensible of the girls and the latest character developments are not believable in my view.

I am struggling to think how a contractual obligation to a vendor to keep staff on (i.e. What Oliver says he wants) could be any more effective- yes it could be drafted but enforceability would be tricky

There is no way that could be created as an enforceable contractual obligation.

I don't think Alice does see the prospect of babies in the same way as Chris, and I suspect this will lead to the end of her starter marriage, but I'd prefer to hear them discussing it and reaching an agreement of some sort instead. Also, Phoebe, Noli and Sipho are Jenny's only grandchildren to date, and with 4 adult children, you'd think that more than just Kate could produce some.

How old is Alice? The whole tree climbing thing was crap

Emma certainly identified that Chris' wish for fatherhood will be hard to achieve at present