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.

Poor Shula obviously hasn't much sex appeal and would like an affair but she's had no takers!

I think Brian will tell the family, Alice will get pissed and doing something awful on her way home.

Speaking of Dr Locke, where has he gone? Did I miss him officially moving out again or has he just been in bed with no visitors for the past few months?

DocLocke is currently in limbo, another casualty of the endless changing of Editors. One brought him back, and it appeared he was about to be part of a major S/L with Lizzie, the next put him on the back burner and we are yet to discover what, if any, plans the new one has.

I wish there would be some discussion of the fact that Alastair radically changed his work and life plans to accommodate Shula's Hunt Master ambitions. I haven't heard any sign of her working out how to repay him for any extra expenses he's funded.

Is it commercially sensible for Helen to be telling her cheese customers how to make their own cheese?

I guess the assumption is that the customers are unlikely to want to make cheese on a commercial scale - with all the complications that would entail. (Pseudo ?)

So they make theirs and share with their friends - thus generating more interest in the tuition. And everyone involved becomes an enthusiastic and loyal customer.

Otoh, Shula already took a big financial hit from Alistair's gambling, so it's 6 of one & half a dozen of the other there.

Shula is so excruciating.

OMG.

Poor show, Script Writer.

Really poor show.

I liked it.

I must be easily pleased, Gruach, because I loved it! That was more like the old Alice, the one who tried to get into the RAF and refused to be supported by Brian while she was training, so got a chambermaid job at Grey Gables, all because of Brian's affair with Siobhan. Desperately hoping we will hear from Debbie.

Where was Kate? Could the budget not stretch to all the Aldridges or is she in a ditch somewhere? It doesn't take that long to get to Brookfield and back.

But. They missed out the crucial speech. I feel completely cheated.

WTF is Shula doing offering Philip soup?

I was squirming. She is deluded.

Yes we could have ditched the whole Shula/Philip scene in favour of the Home Farm cataclysm.

[Horrible afterthought].

Please don't let this be leading up to a restaurant scene where Philip dumps Kirsty for Shula.

Only is Shula's brain stormy. Surely?

The 🔮 every other Wednesday, Bore? Thanks!

Shula doesn't really have a reason. It's a combination of mid-life crisis and empty nest syndrome. And that's exactly why I feel so cross. Marriage isn't "as long as I feel like it", it's supposed to be for life. And while I wouldn't want spouses to stay together making each other miserable, if the other one isn't being abusive, it's just that you have changed, I do think you should try your hardest to keep things going (even if you ultimately fail). And that involves talking to your OH and both working together to try to improve things, not suddenly one day announcing you're leaving, and not giving them any chance to try to mend things.

Is it commercially sensible for Helen to be telling her cheese customers how to make their own cheese The famous Betty's tea shop runs cookery classes. Not sure if they teach fat rascals though.

We potentially have an interesting juxtaposition of Will getting over Nic, and Alistair getting over Shula, with the difficulties of mourning a wife when she's not actually dead, and still around the village.

I believe making tasty cheeses is actually quite difficult (at least, that's what my perusal of home cheese making kits as a possible Xmas present for DS led me to believe) so maybe Helen is banking on them doing the course, then trying to replicate it at home and failing and so doing the course again. could be quite a good business model.

I can’t decide if I liked that episode or not. Good to move the whole barrel thing forward (roll out the barrel - I just can’t stop myself), but find BL contract talk sends me to sleep. I tend to agree with Gruach (just for a change ) I would have liked to hear Brian make the announcement - it felt a bit bitty cutting backwards and forwards to soup at The Stables. I felt each strand fell a bit short

The soup at the stables was just annoying. Its just another rerun with Philip instead of Doc Locke. And of course Alastair would then feel that again Shula has two timed him with a friend (and this time confidante) and suspect that the dissatisfaction had only been since Philip arrived.

I was trying to remember signs/symptoms of Shula's great misery-in-the-marriage before Philip arrived and I can't remember anything beyond the odd normal disagreement.

Mere yes I generally agree. A part of a long term relationship is understanding and working with change. That doesn't mean staying together if it actively makes you both unhappy but I'm struggling to see "doing ones utmost" as consistent with never saying a bloody word to the OH.