Alas poor Nic! I sacked her, Kenton. Death comes to Ambridge. Discuss the remaining Archers here. (Title Edited by MNHQ)

[PseudoBadger]

So it’s taken a sad, untimely death to bring me out of retirement. How I have missed you all
Welcome to thread 86!

I'd have thought the police would have asked around local garages about cars in for repairs on suspicious-looking dents. Therefore if Brian's car was being repaired, it should already have been checked.

I don't know if Brian and Jenny will divorce - a couple I knew with a large estate just lived in separate houses on the farm (nice to have the option) - divorce would have probably meant the sale of the estate, and be the one responsible for that after about 300 years and generations of it being in the same family. Mind you, Brian's only had Home Farm for 40 years.

This British Medical Journey research into death rates amongst soap characters really needs to be repeated and extended to TA.

I thought Angela Piper was magnificent tonight.

Not sure why people think we’d lose Brian from the programme if he and JD were to divorce?

Interesting upthread that someone has found that Susan Grundy was only 46 when she died. So Joe will have a lot to share with Will about coping with being widowed at a young(ish) age.

@Francis(?)Crawford
poor nigels plummet. basic pest control. It's a rural soap, no ue getting sentimental about culling of the weak and useless (see also: Grundy, Nic)

Is there a law / tradition that resigning editors have to kill or maim someone before they leave?

Yes.

(They have to prove to their new gang that they’re willing and able to do it in cold blood.)

We know what SOC and VW marked their departures with; does anyone remember what William Smethurst did to leave his imprint on Ambridge when he left in 1986?

Isn't Pip pregnant, though? That would be quite sad if she died while pregnant, although she annoys me, too.

Brian and Jenny won’t divorce - they’ve been through worse. Jenny will use it as leverage to get something she wants, that’s how their relationship works. Bit disappointed that the poisoned barrels storyline overshadowed Nic’s death last night if I’m honest - I put that plot in the category of the flood and the road dramatic events that are (IMO) just a bit too big for Ambridge. For me, the upset between Brian and Jenny prompted by the barrels is the equivalent of the great move north story prompted by the road - I don’t think it will come to much in the end. Much more interested in the ramifications of Nic’s death which will send out lots of ripples - I sobbed on Friday because I believed what was happening and felt for so many of the characters. The poisoned barrels leaves me a bit cold.

(They have to prove to their new gang that they’re willing and able to do it in cold blood.)

The trouble is that it will be considerably more difficult for Brine to buy Jenny off this time, given the amount he's having to pay out and the fact that, if this comes out, he will have to resign from the board of BL and their brand will be as toxic as those barrels.

766 posts since Friday evening!

what was in the barrels ? waste product from what ?

did Brine know what was in them other than being dodgy ?

Yep, Gruach, 766 posts, your comment (the gang one that Vango liked) wins for wittiness -

Is this moving faster than Hel'n'Rob?

(This will be an outlier in the stats though I think, since so many posts were about title - five bar gate.)

TCE was in the barrels - an industrial solvent used for degreasing which was banned in 2016. It wouldn’t just be in normal builders rubble - it’s illegal dumping. Could land Brine with a large fine and a custodial sentence.

Forgive my ignorance but if TCE was in the barrels but was only banned in 2016, how can Brian be held responsible for it having been on his land for 40 years? Or have I missed something completely crucial here?

Suspect that before it was banned it still had to be disposed of properly and not just dumped in a pit on agricultural land. So the dumping would have been illegal even if the substance itself was not.

Oh my word, I've just caught up with the omnibus. Close to home for me as I was ill with sepsis last year. Will have to listen to last night's ep at 2 and then listen to tonights, I'm interested to see how it pans out

Thank you, JessieMcJessie for kindly giving me the answer without pointing out how stupid I am not to have thought of that

This TCE thing doesn't make sense (but I didn't really pay too much attention to the Archers as a small child).

Are we to believe that Brian Aldridge arrived in Ambridge in 1975 (sad enough to have checked on BBC website)...marrying Jenny a year later and promptly decided it was the perfect spot to bury a load of barrels of TCE? I don't think he was strapped for cash back then.

Joe and Eddy on the other hand.....

TCE would be controlled / hazardous waste, and expensive to dispose of properly. I doubt Brine would have been above being bunged some cash if he thought it wouldn’t come back to bite him.