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!

WIll really got to me tonight. Very good scene with Clarrie.
The bit with the flowers too, recently some friends lost their adult son. V tragic and when we went round they had a room full of cards and the flowers were everywhere. Very much appreciated of course but you have to do something with them and the smells mixing over each other. You do get a but 'jjust shove them in the sink!'

After dp's father died unexpectedly he couldn't bear to have flowers in the house for ages. He still doesn't like lilies and it's 7 years now....

*I only have to hear of a local death and I’m reaching for my soup pan

For a moment Bertrand I thought you were giving a colourful indication of the volume of tears you shed at such news.*

Cannibalism was where I went, first

Where do you think I get the stock for the next batch?

Is Pip handing the project management over to Ruth as a sign that she now understands how life changing having a baby will be? Is she being petulant? As in "Well, you were after getting on to me about how I won't be able to do anything after I have a baby so here! You do it! Or is this an actual grown up acknowledgment?

(Hello, btw. This is me delurking after two years. I read the thread most weeks though.)

But surely this parkour will be expected to last for 20+ years. She's going to be on maternity leave for what? 6 months? A year? Totally ridiculous business decision

But she may, like many women, decide to work part time whilst her child is little, and/or go on to have further offspring, so could be out of action for longer.

Yes when he said he couldn't remember what she looked like it was dreadful.

Agreed, he did well.

No topical references to the weather, but maybe it's not affecting the Midlands. I'm probably being London-centric in being unable to think about much else except snow at the moment!

Hello, Joskar, hello other delurkers and lurkers! Good to see (or sense) you all out there.

Oh I must be very hard hearted, I am just catching up as off work due to snow. My first thought was the actor who plays Will isn't really up to this kind of storyline. I thought ed and Emma sounded suitably upset. I like the way Clarrie is stoically coping and looking after them all.

No topical references to the weather, but maybe it's not affecting the Midlands.

Not much snow here, despite being at altitude (well, what passes for altitude round here). It is very cold though, I feel sorry for the animals.

They've got to move Will to Grange Farm, if only for a short while. Surely Poppy must be wondering where her mum, brother and sister have gone and who are all these strange people visiting the cottage.

Title suggestions to get the more literary minded of you going (I prefer numbers)

"Won't someone consider the weaners?"

"Confessions and Confusions"

"Parlours, Pigs and Pestilence"

It will turn out to be all Brian's fault by allowing toxic chemicals to be dumped on his land. Things to blame on him

• Neal's recent illness
• Kirsty miscarriage
• Pip will have a defective baby
• Nic's sepsis
• Any other health related issues will be put down to him
• Maybe Matt found about about Brian's actions and was blackmailing him so Brian ran him down

Now what else is there, hmmmmm ......

No topical references to the weather but these are farming people. R4 yesterday scurried into N Yorkshire to get some interviews about how bad the snow was, unfortunately for them met a farmer who just grunted "well it's just a normal late winter flurry, isn't it?" His wife conceded" well it's probably worse than the last five years. Not like what we used to get of course".

Mere - as a SE townie I have to say this snow is nothing like we got about 7 years ago for a few years and apparently they got regularly about 16 years before that (ATBG - according to book group, the font of all local knowledge).

But I have seen pictures from the East side of the County and they seem to have had it much worse. Although most school closures are due to boiler malfunctions.

No topical references to the weather....admittedly I am a few miles further south from Borsetshire, but we've only had a couple of days this year when the local canal has frozen over (used to be like that for days on end even 4 or 5 years ago). It is a bit chilly in the wind, yes, but I've been enjoying the bright sunshine we've had for a lot of the past week.
Anybody remember "The Big Freeze" in London (1987)? Now that was annoying and went on for a while.

Anyway I have a nasty feeling that the scriptwriters are building up to something bad happening over the Easter weekend.

Title suggestion
It should have been Pip...

Ruby - excellent suggestion. And yes, it should have been Pip!

Yes, that's a winner!

I wonder if the SW are having a joke with Will not being able to remember Nic's face...it is radio after all.

Bekabeech As another townie, it's nothing like I remember from childhood in Borsetshire, when we'd get a few flurries in November, then at least one period of "proper snow" in Jan/Feb which would hang around for at least a week. The 6" we have here at the moment really didn't count as proper snow. Although I know we're only in an "amber warning" region not in a "red warning" one. Even as and adult when I was in the final couple of weeks of pregnancy there were a few days when we were cut off by road and rail from all hospitals and I had high hopes of a helicopter ride.

Love that Francis!

Ahem . Those of you criticising my criticism(!) re people not sounding sufficiently upset. I was referring to the every next episode after Nic died. I realise weeping and wailing isn’t good radio but not to hear any gentle sobbing even sounded a bit odd. I know people grieve in different ways but my point was nobody sounded even wobbly voiced You can’t count Clarrie cos she always sounds a bit like that. I really hope you lot display more emotion when I shuffle off !