We never thought we’d feel sorry for Will. Although of course it should have been Pip! Discuss The Archers here (Titled edited by MNHQ)

[PseudoBadger]

Welcome all! I was really touched by the potential for Ed and Will to reconcile. But wonder if Will can accept Ed’s support.

As ever, no spoilers here (there’s a thread for that) - discussion permitted as soon as the pm episode is broadcast.

The BBC tv FS about ten years ago was good, too.

I don't agree that it takes gumption to LEAVE a farming community

Exactly. I was feeling a little upset at the insinuation that anyone with ambition or initiative would leave. As someone said upthread, the next generation is vital. Leaving for the bright lights or better opportunities (Brenda, Debbie, Kate even) is tempting for all of us, as is returning later for the 'Good life'. Staying in a rural community often requires dedication and sacrifices.

I would also question the description of Brian and Jenny as landed gentry - to me that implies deriving income from rented land, not farming themselves.

Trollope and misogyny - I think that sometimes the narrative voice is (consciously? Unconsciously? Deliberately?) mysogynistic, but that Trollope’s gift for portraying a character’s interior world breaks through that mysogyny, in a way which is all the more effective.
I think Trollope is consistently incredibly nuanced with characterisation and motivation in a way that Dickens rarely is - in The Prime Minister, for example, the father is clearly right not to want Emily to marry Lopez, but for all the wrong reasons, and she is right to reject her father’s biases but falls down hugely on creating her own alternative rules on how to choose the right man to marry.

Do you mean the one with Gina McKee and Damian Lewis? I think that was ITV.

Re Trollope - I don't see him as misogynistic. Much better at creating young female characters than Dickens but who isn't! I love Dickens but he clearly had all sorts of hangups with women. Trollope didn't have a good relationship with his mother either but seems to have got over it and had a much better marriage.

What does this have to do with The Archers again?

Sorry, yes, the ITV FS.

Agree about Trollope. Lily in The Small House at A is allowed not to marry and remain with her mother in her own home after a disappointment in love without the feeling that she’s bound to become a sour old maid.

Francis! Helen is nominated for a NATIONAL award dontcha know!

Where did Johnny go to? He's just disappeared

Thanks DFW .

In the general sense C8 ; Brenda is amazing because she's left for a high flying job, as was Alice , until she returned.

Helen is part of the younger generation who run the farm.

Yes exactly just because we are not party to the meetings doesn't mean she doesn't contribute. She's a partner

She was instrumental in that decision to chuck out the kefir, it wasn't correct, but it was a decision.

I have just caught up and I know we all like a moan about TA but there have been some lovely scenes recently. I though the bit with Kenton and Alistair was a lovely portrayal of the disintegration of a marriage. Alistair is not a bad man, he loves Shula and knows her better than anyone, even her twin. But in a sense that doesn't matter because for shula it is not enough. Many marriages end in this way, not with the drama of infidelity but with the slow drip drip of everyday hopelessness. I thought it was really moving.

Yes bird The scenes with Joe and Ed were good too. Emma trying to talk to (and organise the funeral) the emotional brick wall who is Will, is also sensitively written .

She’s a partner but there has never been any suggestion she has anything to do with actually running the farm, far less actually do8ng any of the farm work

I don't think Brian wields a hoe very often but he ran Bridge Farm. I don't see the technical skills in managing a dairy as less than the skills in growing pigs or carrots.

We know of at least three standard cheeses they produce and hasn't Helen talked of doing Christmas lines? I'm sure I remember herbs, garlic and other additions mentioned for seasonal lines.
That isn't so different from other small producers where the dairy is one part of the business rather than the primary function.

That requires hard labour and specialised knowledge.

Yes, it does but there is nothing to say that a partner has to provide the hard labour. I can be just as valid a part of our dairy farming business doing accounts, wages, administration and strategic planning, as if I got up at 5 every day to milk the cows, or drove a tractor, or bedded down the sheds.

Who is to say Helen doesn't do the paperwork for Tony's Angus herd? Or does the accounts?

I can't believe I'm defending the role of a fictional character!

Who is to say Helen doesn't do the paperwork for Tony's Angus herd? Or does the accounts?

Yes I agree - Tom may be running off all over the place looking at products they can't sell but Helen seems much closer to the financial planning and has been more engaged in the potential plans for the school.

I can't believe I'm defending the role of a fictional character!

Fictional??

Who is to say Helen doesn't do the paperwork for Tony's Angus herd? Or does the accounts?

Have we ever heard Helen say this? We've heard plenty of others mentioning paperwork but I'm not sure that I have ever heard Helen mention it.

Doesn't cheese making require specialised knowledge?

Why don't you LA to the last 6 years episodes in case you missed it R4 ?

Just because a character is unpopular doesn't mean she doesn't do any work. Oh, I forgot for a moment, she's unpopular because she's working part time on the farm and bringing up her own children.

DFW