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.

We have discussed their ages, just after Nic died. I think Mia is 12-14, and Jake 14-15. Can't remember exactly.

And I think Andrew''s wife is Ellie.

Thanks EBear. So not doing GCSEs this summer then.

Mrs Grindah I did notice the thread has slowed but I reckon TA is better for it's tediousity, there has been too much gratuitous drama and now the SWs have to sort it out. That'll teach 'em.

Exactly wot ppeatfruit said.

^^

We've averaged 19 posts per day in the last week, which is indeed very low. We normally manage at least an average 30 posts per day. We last dipped this low back in the summer doldrums (July and August last year).

^^

Oh and is Pat having a late mid life crisis?

Bad scriptwriting more like.

I can believe Pat worrying about the ethics/direction of the farm but that snark about middle class housewives was sexism of a type she hasn't produced before. They also got organics off the ground by selling first to those with the money to buy it - Pat knows that perfectly well.

Andrew was painted as Not A Nice Man towards Nic after they split

I thought he was basically a bit feckless and useless early on, and ten years down the line has grown up and is an engaged father. Jake and Mia go to him regularly. I can't see why they would not want to go to him permanently/mostly, especially Mia.

Low engagement on thread is due to shit storylines at the moment.

Or possibly due to last week's heatwave.

^^

I'm enjoying the storylines at the moment. I'm with Helen re Olwen. Olwen knew how important the visit was to Helen, guessed that they were trying to keep her away, and still let rip at the first opportunity. It's not as though she put her foot in it inadvertently, she just didn't seem to be able to stop herself. I'm guessing that there are a limited number of jobs open to her, if she can't regulate what she says and to whom.

And to achieve what? To try to change the content of a radio 4 programme. Olwyns activism appears to consist of expressing a range of opinions. By that definition the posters on this thread alone should have changed the world.

Ambridge didn't have a heatwave, nor did those of us north of Ambridge. We just had a few pleasantly warm days. Warm enough to sit outside for lunch, not warm enough to keep us outside at 7.02pm

I’m finding it hard going at the moment, I’m afraid.

Harrison and Fallon - don’t care about either of them much. Can’t make head or tail of a relationship where they seem either to be competing (the cringey sport relief thing) or Fallon whingeing about not wanting to get married or be ‘tied down’ or look further into the future than a day ahead. Well, fine, don’t then . Move out.

Widower Will. Obsessed and creepy. ‘We just need to pull together as a faaaaaahmly’. Repeat. Endlessly.

Brian the pantomime villain, tiptoeing around swirling his cloak and winking elaborately at the audience.

Olwen...I used to work with someone like her and we were all reduced to near nervous breakdowns while she sailed on regardless. Nightmare. She’ll be back

As noted upthread, the only blessing is the absence of a certain expectant person....

Dadx3 of course you might do your stats with the help of technology but if you think about taking the holidays, the weather and plot lines into account etc. even you might be daunted ! ! if not bored-

It also seems odd that Pat should want to speak about the potential future direction of the farm with Olwen, who seems to have zero business knowledge, never mind common sense. If Pat wanted to change the world through her business practice, she should have created or joined something that was scaleable, not run a small family farm with high production costs that could only be profitable if sold at a premium to those with the money and desire to pay.

Yep, ppeat, I've told StatBot that and he's sitting in the corner sulking.

I do have a life, so I'm not going to waste it on even more pointless data collection.

Peartree That's a cynical way to look at organic farming, if every farmer only went for huge profits where would our health and the environment be?

Organic farming does a great deal of good , saving beneficial insects and bees, birds, rare breeds both arable and animal etc.. The more organic farms there are, the better our environment will be and the cheaper the produce will become. We pay more for our organic food, factory farmed produce may be cheap but it tastes horrible.

Dadx3

We've had a version of this conversation before, ppeat - about capitalism, I believe! (you believe in 'benign capitalism', I recall). It's not a binary choice between organic and factory - there's lots in between and it tastes just great. Lower yields, requirement for more land, rejection of genetically modified crops, rejection of all synthetic nitrogen, possible blocks on no-till methods make organic farming methods less, not more, environmentally sustainable. This is not surprising, since environmental protection was not the goal of the organic movement when it began over a century ago. Nor is it possible to feed the world through methods that exclude all synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.

But in terms of the story, small isn't even beautiful any more: Pat is surveying her life's work and feels dissatisfied with the scale of her ambition and the failure of strategy. They haven't ever been able to do more than be a sort of showcase for organic production and serve a small, affluent market. Tom wasn't able to get the brand listed by a supermarket (although many organic producers do) and they've even had to sell off land to a developer (bye-bye, birds and bees!) to secure the financial resilience of the business. It's not surprising that, at the end of her career, she's thinking, "I wish we could have done more - how can we go bigger in the next generation". What's surprising is thinking that Olwen might have an answer!

Ppeat and if you see what several large organisations are saying (hidden) in the news today - soil is in crisis with only 60 more harvests left in which there will be enough food to feed the world.

I find the conversations between Dan and his parents completely unrealistic. I've never known any young adult want to discuss the ins and outs of their parents' relationship ever.

I don’t think Shula has given a satisfactory answer which is why Dan is pursuing it. If she’d said it was his gambling, or that he’d been unfaithful or even if she’d mentioned her own affair with Dr Lock or her hankering for Philip then I think he would stop there and not want too much information. Or even if she’d said I’m so bored I think I might die of boredom (as we have occasionally felt when listening to her and Alistair in recent years). As it is, Shula is trying to end marriage in the most Shula way possible - with no blame being attached to her in any way at all just a determination to be be content with her “family, faith and the village” and no thought of divorce either. Perhaps she’s hoping Alistair will be killed in a random riding accident.

Hear hear @Geoff1969

I agree with Lillian. Shula has ripped apart Dan's family. He now thinks that his childhood was a fraud and he was duped. Of course he wants explanations for why she has placed a bomb under his life.

Shula had decided to divorce her husband, she has said she no longer loves him. I really have no idea who it would benefit for her to say I no longer love him because he is boring, leaves the toilet seat up, doesn't want to have sex or whatever the reason is. Whatever she says will be even more hurtful. There is no explanation it is the slow mundane end of a marriage. No affair, no big drama. It might be irritating but I actually think it's really good scriptwriting.