Brian is over a barrel, Alice has drained the barrel and Shula has given it to Alistair with both barrels - The Archers is not exactly a barrel of laughs at the moment.

[PseudoBadger]

Thanks to @LillianGish for the thread title.

I must say Lass I couldn't quite get used to the idea of Ian and Adam being there, with Lexie at the 'transfer'.

Will Adam actually make it to the transfer? I guess he has to but it’s all too much for me to think about before 9am. No sound effects please.

Has Iain just assumed he and Adam will be at the birth? NO WAY would they be there at the business end if I was giving birth.

Is anybody else finding it all a bit “ meh” at the moment?

I'm quite enjoying Helen realising she's over estimated the demand for her cheesemaking.

I know, the number of people in a 30 mile radius of Ambridge who are interested in cheesemaking and don't already know how to do it must be miniscule. Maybe next she'd like to do chicken keeping in your backyard. Or jam making.
What she needs to do is get the urbanites camping at Spiritual Home or whatever the yurts are called.

Helen needs to spend less time faffing around with cheese and more time teaching her ( surely by now 21 year old) son how to speak properly

MrsGrindah!

(I’m happy with a bit of meh-ness though.)

Oh, I think I know where they are going with this. Adam is very busy, even more so than usual now that Brine has been deposed. Ian works anti-social and long shifts at GG. They have a baby on the way. Helen wants to build a space for food tech lessons. Cheese-making is too niche. If only there was a chef-with-a-reputation who could do demonstrations and who needed a P/T, work-around-the-DC job ...

How dim must Helen be to have assumed she would get large numbers coming to one-off cheesemaking classes every week when she's only advertised locally? Surely anyone with half a brain could work out that that wasn't going to happen?

Helen’s business strategy nearly sent me straight to this thread to comment on how unutterably dim she must be, but I still needed to finish cooking the supper.

Oh, but this is an excellent episode!

Not sure if it was an April Fools but Prince Harry having his stag do at Spritual Home, crossed my mind .

Agree Gruach wonderful episode. Everyone entirely in character, no need to suspend disbelief for a moment. Brilliantly capturing the tensions at both Grange Farm and Home Farm. Loved it.

I’m dying for JD to completely lose her rag with Brian. What a petulant man child he’s being, it’s laughable really. The arrogant gall of the man to say that Jenny isn’t supportive! He’s such a good actor isn’t he? Fantastic episode, I also loved Ed’s ‘amnesia’.

What a petulant man child he’s being

Sometimes the SW are spot on with the minutiae. Normally, Brine would be unburdening himself on David or Justin but that is impossible. Who is his companion instead at the moment?: a man-child (Ruairi)

Ruarhi must be wondering what he's done to suddenly get so much attention.

I notice Adam has become "your son".

I wanted to hear the rest of that conversation between Brine and JD - the bit where she pointed out that if he wanted to know about consciences being troubled by betrayal he only needed to look at his own history.

It's crystal clear now whether we're meant to be Team Will or Team Ed. Will is only convinced Ed will spill the beans or hold it over him because it's precisely what he would do. Whereas it never so much as occurred to Ed to do so, no matter how unpleasant Will is.

The ‘your son’ v ‘my son’ battle is going to be epic. (If the SWs are up to it.)

But what I’d like right now is a breakdown of the earnings of all the Grange Farm residents. (With an assessment of any male/female pay gap.) Because I’m on MN most days but I don’t think Emma can have found her way here yet. Why does she (exclusively) have to be the one to take time off work during school holidays? I felt so sorry for her yesterday - but annoyed that it never seems to occur to her that things ought to be different.

I enjoyed it too. I do hope they split up and we have an epic divorce story, but I still wish they'd done that 15 years ago when Jennifer found out about the affair with Siobhan. They bottled out of a divorce SL then and I'm still huffy about it!

Re time off - everything I know about farming comes from TA, i.e. I know diddlysquat , but isn't this a busy time on farms, ploughing, fertilising, sowing? Ed is now employed full-time on the tractor at Home Farm, so might not easily be able to get time off from now till the autumn. But yes, this needs planning. However, it has never been the Grundy way to sit down and have a sensible conversation ahead of time to pre-empt problems, has it?

Normally, Brine would be unburdening himself on David or Justin but that is impossible. Who is his companion instead at the moment?: a man-child (Ruairi) Brilliant observation R4 - nicely setting up the your son/my son battle. Also interesting to see Brine helpless - not something he has any experience of, he is so used to being in charge and pulling rank - ironic it was his idea to divide the farm into shares and now he is finding out exactly what that means. Interesting too to see Jenny finally standing up to him - will this be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Parallels too between Will and Brian - Will is terrified Ed will spill the beans, Brine should be worried too and in his case there are far more people with beans to spill.

Yes the other parallel between Brian and Will is their shared belief that as the man they can unilaterally decide what’s ‘best for the family’ and heaven help anyone who holds a contrary view!

It's unusually inconsiderate of Clarrie to take Will's children in and expect Emma to lose money in order to provide free child care. Will is really going to have to bite the bullet and get a child minder if he doesn't want Poppy to go to nursery.

But Clarrie thinks Will is suicidal. She would do anything to keep him in her sight. She doesn't realise Will thinks he might go to prison!

I just had to pop on this thread to rant about Brine the man-child and his insufferable petulance.

There.