The dog days of summer are approaching Ambridge. Freddy’s being hounded and Brian is in the dog house - can Jenny take the ruff with the smooth?

[PseudoBadger]

Thanks to all for the dog ideas, and special mention to Ppeatfruit.

Discuss the Archers here!

I can't get over how big the farms are in Ambridge, it can't be a real village at all, they all must be miles away from each other! My grandparents farmed around 100 acres mixed farming and made a small living from it (enough to sustain the family), my uncle now farms the same land and it doesn't fully support his family so he also works off the farm. Some of his neighbours have got larger farms which are still sustainable as family businesses, but they're only 300 acres odd each. I can't believe that's how much the Aldridges are getting rid of and they'll still have a whole farm to spare! This sounds more like the massive farms I was on in Australia!

Well, there are deer, (sheep?), horses, the arable, the polytunnels which used to sustain dozens of pickers every summer.

But I get confused about which bits belong to Home Farm and which to BL. I used to think Brian owned the shoot and employed Will directly. Jenny always behaved as if it was a Home Farm enterprise.

It's not just them though, that was the example that's coming up at the moment, what I meant was that all the estates around also seem to be huge compared to what I'm used to, although maybe not on the scale of Home Farm. For instance, on the BBC map, Hollowtree is at least half the length of the map away from Brookfield, so their lands must be vast too.

Brookfield is about 470 acres I think. Bridge Farm smaller. Grange Farm much smaller. Willow Farm - I think most of the land was sold. Presumeably The Stables has some land.
Can't think of any others.

Wiki says Home Farm has 1,922 acres. (No time to read fully.) The locations part of the Archers site is a little more circumspect ...

I don't understand why Brian has accepted a low offer from BL without making more effort to sell the land for a better price. Unless he stands to recoup as a shareholder?

It's just occurred to me that we might get some new characters if someone interesting buys the next parcel of land.

I grew up on a farm which was about 1500 acres (about a third of it woodland.) Ambridge farms sound reasonable to me, there's quite a mix.

It would be good to get some rural people or people with ordinary jobs.
I don't think the Ambridge farms are very realistic.

Mike aren’t we supposed to assume that these people make up the bulk of the Ambridge population?

Have the script writers ever even googled Arabs?

I don't think so. Nobody apart from Usha and Alice works in an office. The only nurse (midwife) isn't on any more. No teachers appear to live in the village. Hardly anyone works in retail, catering, sales and so on.
There are hardly any farms, surely there would be farmhouses (Nightingale Farm, Willow Cottage etc) that would have families living in them. Maybe some struggling smallholders.

I got very confused there. I thought Bert was talking about the "bulk of the Ambridge population". On reflection, I think she's talking about horses.

We have a token arab, Latif.

Sorry. Eccentrically, one of my most serious peeves is the depiction of Amir and Aziz...

Honestly? I doubt that many people on ordinary incomes can live in Ambridge unless they have wealthier family to assist financially. So, apart from the estate, whose name I’ve forgotten, I guess all those service industry people live in cheaper villages or in the local towns or suburbs of towns.

On another note - I’m glad they have finally got round to the inevitable Lily misunderstanding. Freddie’s enjoyment of it is hilarious.

I heart Freddie

I hope he morphs into his father.
I still haven't forgiven vanessa whitburn.

Nor me.

What is the misconception about Arab horses Bert? [too lazy to Google then re-listen]. Is it that they keep talking about power and stuff when they are actually quite delicate?

A most enjoyable episode, with both twins being knackered after their respective binges. What will happen on results day? Loved Freddie's glee at the crossed wires of Lily's relationship.

It does sound as if Lily might screw up completely, doesn’t it?

And what does one do with Biology, German and English Lit?

I gathered Freddie is taking History, Geography and ..?

No teachers appear to live in the village. Hardly anyone works in retail, catering, sales and so on

Well Cathy was a teacher and now works in hospitality as do Will, Ian, Lynda, Lexie, Kirsty, Fallon and Emma, plus Jolene and Kenton with Toby at The Bull and there is Lower Loxley.

Hospitality and agriculture both have sales aspects and of course there is Josh.

Is it that they keep talking about power and stuff when they are actually quite delicate?

My memory was not of delicacy but of distance/cross country practical horses of medium size and decent temperament rather than "raw power" and the large size implied in Shula's descriptions. The horses described sound more like Thoroughbreds but I'm not an expert by any chalk.

Well Cathy was a teacher and now works in hospitality as do Will, Ian, Lynda, Lexie, Kirsty, Fallon and Emma, plus Jolene and Kenton with Toby at The Bull and there is Lower Loxley.

• Which does illustrate my point above; every single one of these people (except perhaps Lynda ...) can afford to live where they do because of family or other close (friendship/employment) connections.

The people we don’t hear from are the ones who don’t have those connections.

I'm not sure I'don't call gamekeeping hospitality, going by the keepers I've known.

(Appropriately, my phone's autocorrect has gone all Deutsch.)