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.

No Shula was at the Hunt Ball all night , she was organising it cupof She did 'cry on Philip's shoulder' while there though which was mentioned recently!

I found Will somewhat menacing tonight, which actually ties in with comments made in the last few months about him being controlling of Nic. He doesn't sound like a great Dad to George and Ed and Emma do need to get out of Grange Farm ASAP.

I really felt for Emma tonight. Of course Clarrie should have talked it through before they all moved in. And what about money - no way of keeping finances separate with all the kids needing feeding. Will has always been controlling about that.

And where is everyone sleeping? It must be a crush if Clarrie and Ed had to move in and out of their room to make way for B&B guests.

I know Shula was meant to be at the hunt ball, but she was very irritable with Harrison trying to question her. I thought she was hiding in plain sight.

I was very wrong though

Will was very pointed about brothers getting along and keeping secrets, piggy-backing it onto to boys' bickering, which had nothing to do with tattletaling.

Very creepy. Telling Ed to keep schtum. Also ganging up on Emma.

And where is everyone sleeping? It must be a crush if Clarrie and Ed had to move in and out of their room to make way for B&B guests.

I was under the impression that there were plenty of bedrooms but C & E used theirs because it was en suite and the nicest room.

I did wonder if Jenny will get a dog? She was very keen on the one Linda was walking, and a month or so back she said something about Brian only liking working dogs, not pets in the house.

Yes it sounds like Jenny will get a dog and thumb her nose at Brian!

Blimey I'm not sure I'd give guests with a Pyrannean mountain dog a room, it'd take up all the space! Without having to clear up it's hair afterwards!

Was it Sunday still in Ambridge tonight? Do Easter bonnet parades happen on Easter Monday?

Good to hear Elizabeth again. I wonder if we might just possibly hear Richard Locke at some point.

I find it slightly unrealistic that Will would move to Grange Farm - especially with Jake and Mia. It would be slightly more believable if it were just him and Poppy and he felt as if he was rattling round in their own house, but the idea that he would uproot the kids from their own rooms when they only live round the corner anyway is a bit of a stretch. No wonder things are strained - accommodating an extra four people (even in an incredibly expanding Ambridge house) would test anyone.

I don’t know if we’re supposed to believe that grief, and dealing with domestic practicalities in the context of grief, would make a person do something quite as unnatural as moving in with their ex-wife*. And the brother she went off with.

I guess we’re also supposed to believe that emotional upheaval could render Clarrie so tone deaf. It’s not wrong to want to help Will - but not to consult Emma first?

Perhaps, SOC-like, the SWs were so focused on moving the pieces around the board they forgot to make things truthful. Obviously Ed n Emma can’t stay at Grange Farm while Will is there. The friction would take over the whole story.

*I seem to recall this situation arising within the biographies of one or two artists/writers/whatever. Not gamekeepers though.

I reckon that the SWs have a problem with a happy family. There's Shula and Al. Will and Nic. (of course) Jenny and Brine. Chris and Alice aren't that happy! Dave has disappeared. As has Lilian.

Oh Jill and Shula too.

Even Lynda and Robert are reading from different pages!!!! (sorry)

Harrison and Fallon are doing OK.

I was trying to remember how many bedrooms there were at Grange Farm. I didn't think it was that big even after Oliver/Caroline had enlarged it.

When they were doing the b&b did they not have to shuffle bedrooms to make it possible?

But they now have Joe, Eddi &Clarrie, Emmur & Ed, Will plus five children from 4yr old to teens?

Perhaps Will is sharing with Joe....

Maybe that extra bedroom that magically appeared at Blossom Hill Cottage a few years back will float across to Grange Farm...

But we don't know how many bedrooms there are at Grange Farm, maybe someone is sleeping in the living room or something, or in the pigsty\shed ? Or the boys in their own room and the girls in another.

We know that Poppy and Keira get on well, Jake and George don't (which is, of course, normal esp. because Jake is grieving for his mum (he is probably subconsciously jealous of George who still has his Emma )

Even with Will sharing with Joe and the three girls in one room, both boys in another that still assumes 5 bedrooms of a size for 2-3 beds each.

When the Grundys lived at Grange Farm in Ye Olden Days did the boys not share a bedroom implying a three bed house? It certainly was never described as very big.

I forgot Mia she could be in with the other 2 girls. It's just for Easter though, Clarrie said.

Jake and Mia will go back to their Dad's after the holidays I suppose.

Just caught up on 6 omnibuses (omnibi?), and have skimmed this thread. Has anyone addressed the fraud Brian is committing by claiming on his insurance for the contamination which was his deliberate act? All the partners know about it now, and it’ll be the partnership/parent company putting in the claim, so they’ll all be liable. Adam front line if he takes over from Brian.

What a bloody mess. I can’t see how they can get it of this unless the cancel the claim and pay for the clean up themselves, which it doesn’t sound like they can. They’ll go bankrupt, and up in jail and the farm will be foreclosed on.

God those typos!
*Get out of this
*unless they cancel
*end up in jail

Plums - the fact that this isn’t being addressed at all (despite all the anguishing over telling the family and Ruth) suggests to me that the SWs have some sort of get-out clause up their sleeves. Because yes, surely they’d all be complicit?

You must be right, Gruach.

The more I think about it, the more I think this storyline is being very poorly dealt with. Environmental contamination is really serious. Fraud is really serious. Brian’s an old hat, he’d know all this, but he’s carrying on as though it’s no big deal. Ruth would know all this but isn’t taking it seriously enough. Same goes for Adam. It’s pretty poor really!