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!

Peartree, I agree, the bouncy castle bit of it is not to my taste but as for the rest of it, it's nothing to do with anyone else. Kate should have just shut up about it. And if Toby is 25 and Kate is 40? , well that's nothing surely.

Oooh, new theory. Phoebe didn't want a massage because Phoebe is up-duffed. Imagine that: Kate having a competitive pregnancy with her own daughter. The SW would have a field day!

The thought of getting a massage makes my skin crawl. I even refuse the head massage in the hairdresser's.

Mike

Sadly I think that the Kate/Toby business is only a plot device to cause tension between Pip and Toby so that she ends up with Rex delivering the Toblerone in his taxi.

I didn’t hear it as Kate offering to give the massage herself, I thought she was more the manager than an actual therapist (when did she do her masseuse training)?

The therapist had gone home, though.

Ambridge has a GOTH! Mrs P would be spinning

Who was it who wondered what kind of massage therapist Kate would be?

Who on earth would want a massage from Kate?

I didn't realise Goths were still a "thing"! Any guesses about her accent? We haven't had anyone Welsh since Pat transitioned.

She has no skill as a therapist. I often wonder about the set up costs of Spiritual home, Yurts are mega expensive, if she has 6 or so, it could be £60,000ish then there’s fitting them out. Bank loan? Brian. Either way losing it would mean big debts. Perhaps she mortgaged the cottage? Another of the Ambridge finance mysteries.

Debbie and Brian backed her I think.

I have always assumed Brian funded it all. That's why setting up elsewhere was never going to work.

As I recall (never a good place to start) Brian let her have the land. And she moved out of her cottage and back into Home Farm to use the cottage for income. But it was Debbie who offered actual money to back the business.

Wondering now if Kate will expect the first half hour free withe agricultural lawyer.

The massage was very funny. Just how self-centred can you get?

It really does feel like the Fall of the House of Aldridge.

I wonder if we will have Kate, Adam, Debbie, against Brian and Alice. Jenny will not know who to back and Ruth will get pulled in to stand up for Raaoaoorrri

Maybe the kids will vote to sell up and divide the proceeds.

Adam and Ian could hang on to the polytunnels - the return of pick your own? - (or dump them because of Brexit) and Adam could keep on the contract work.

Kate could set up SH somewhere else.

Debbie & Alice could take theirs in cash. Alice could buy the Stables from Shula. Debbie could vanish for ever or until the plot demands her return in 20 years.

Jenny and Brian could retire to the house and Brian could carry on his business interests and farm a bit of prime land (deer or arable?) kept in trust for Ruari.

Alice could

telling Pip like that publically was seriously grim.

Yes - there's plenty of ground between keeping secrets and broadcasting something to the entire village, but Kate seemed to cross that gap in 7 league boots.

I could understand not lying if someone confronts you about it, but there wasn't any need to bring it up as she did. And she could have just said to Kenton that she and Toby were a bit pissed on the bouncy castle and her shoe got caught. The "...while I was shagging him," bit was entirely superfluous.

I didn’t get why anyone was making such a big deal of Xanthe being after Rex, if he didn't reciprocate at all, either.

(Haven't listened to Friday's yet.)

I assumed the Xanthe story was all about the total absence of outrage from Anisha. (Thereby introducing us to the idea that she’s losing interest in Rex - and Ambridge.)

Could be wrong!

I was thinking more of a legal battle if Kate sues Brian.

I assumed the Xanthe story was all about the total absence of outrage from Anisha.

But I'm with Anisha. If I think someone is fanciable, it's reasonable to assume others will, too. Some of them may make their feelings clear. There's only a problem if they're reciprocated. In this case, they weren't, so no problem, and not even worth mentioning, at least not in the way it was, with a big meal, which makes it look as if there's something to apologise for.

To be fair, Rex wasn't going to mention it until others suggested he ought to. But they're all making something out of nothing. It should have been like Lavinia at the hunt ball, just something to laugh about.

My take on the Xanthe episode was it was to underline the contrast between the brothers 7 their relationships.

Rex - does nothing wrong with Xanthe, but is paralysed by guilt anyway & so makes unnecessary confession to Anisha (who he's now in serious relationship with - did anyone else notice the "love You 'Nish'?)

Toby - one night stand with Kate on the eve of fatherhood, which Kate told him to tell everyone about, but tries very hard to keep it quiet, especially with Pip (with whom he is not in a serious relationship, despite impending fatherhood) until Kate bowls in...

I thought it was to remind us that Rex is a Decent Fellow, and Toby is a Bit of a Cad and even Not Quite A Gentleman.

I think Rex is still holding a torch for Pip.

I’m not sure that they had to have the whole scene with Anisha’s reaction to being told just to show Rex was a good bloke. Her reaction was obviously meant to signal something, but I really hope it was not waning interest inRex because that suggests that to be properly “in love” you have to be jealous of totally innocent scenarios where your boyfriend has rejected a woman’s advances and told her he’s attached.

What I thought was interesting was that Josh mentioned he’d always thought that Rex was keen on Pip because until then I wasn’t sure whether that was something that the rest of Ambridge had noticed, and was more just signalled by our “eavesdropping” private moments.