The future at Brookfield looks Rosie, and will Home Farm be home no more? Discuss The Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

And there’s some rubbish about an ex-stripper policeman?

Weren't you paying for the accomodation?[at uni]

Yes, they knew the budgets they had to work inside, a list of key things to check and that I'd be their guarantor if they went to private rented (if living out was even an option). They sorted out their accommodation themselves.
As a guarantor for private (mostly not until second year+) I checked the contracts and the landlords.

Much as we did in my day really (although my place was mandatory living in at least for first year).

When they said the had accommodation confirmed it would not have occurred to me that they were making it up.

It was a load of cobblers, wasn't it. Ian wouldn't delist without first giving warning to improve. And what happened to Bridge Farm's own quality control? - surely someone does regular checks for taste/texture/etc.
What happened to Pat's goats milk?

Wouldn't Helen taste each batch of her own cheese though and notice a difference?

I didn't understand that. I assume its meant to bring back angst about selling the herd but the implication of zero quality control of the cheese going out which is at odds with all the practices we have heard in the past. Artisan cheesemakers make their living out of ensuring quality even if there is variation of flavours/styles with seasons.

“
And I've been lured out of lurking by the need to ask, re Lexi ....... Does anyone else think that maybe, actually, the last IVF attempt didn't fail, and she's gone home because now she's pregnant she can't actually face handing over the baby?”

Oooooooooooo

This is intriguing

I like it

BUT

I think if TA was going to do a surrogacy storyline they would make it all nice and uncomplicated and lovely and happy ever after

Maybe she’s gone home because she is pg and can’t face months of JD in her face fussing over her diet/bowel movements/hair dyeing regime or whatever

The sale of the herd was ages ago. Certainly not in the few months since F&F awards. I don't remember a change in supplier being mentioned.
I think Helen being listless and off-key (and this translating through to substandard cheese) and Henwee needing male company (for football etc) may be a precursor to Helen finding A New Man. And Tom's New Woman Nuffield colleague is visiting on Thursday.
Changes afoot at Bridge Farm?

Re Lexi, I don’t think so. When they first talked about the surrogacy she said that when she got pregnant said she would like to spend time at home with her girls. She referred back to that when she was leaving, saying she had expected to be pregnant by now and hence to have gone home, so I think she’s just overdue a visit.

I think she will come back for the last try but I think Roy’s had it, although that might just be because I don’t understand his appeal.

Yes, I k ew that Ian was going to say “off the menu” before he said it, gloriously satisfyingly predictable scriptwriting. I also loved Neil telling Lizzie exactly why he couldn’t give that reference....though he was admirably restrained about not pointing out that the crucial difference was that he believed Helen was innocent!

Totally love Neil.

(didn't he have a thing with Shula back in the day? Imagine how her life would have panned out if that had come to pass).

Has Henry at last got a real seven year old boy's voice or am I imagining things?

No, you are imagining things. He still sounds like a toddler.

Whilst that was very satisfying to listen to it is wildly improbable that Ian would have not warned any regular supplier, not just Helen, before dropping them.

That would just be normal, wouldn't it? "Look, the latest batch if cheese we've had in... have you changed the milk or the production method at all? Because it doesn't taste as we'discussed expect." You wouldn't just leave it.

Does anyone know what sort of sales of cheese there would normally be in a hotel restaurant? I never seem to see that many people ordering the cheese in restaurants, so I'm wondering how much difference losing the contract would actually make.

Of course it would. It’s utterly ridiculous. And Ian is one of the few people who always behaves professionally. I really wish I wasn’t addicted. I blame my mother.

I really wish I wasn’t addicted.

This would make a t-shirt. Or since its R4 probably a mug.

It's all my DF's fault.

I would imagine Gay Grables serves a lot of posh ploughman’s lunches. So a decent quantity of cheese.

The more I think about it the crosser I get. Helen has been supplying them for ages. And Ian wasn’t satisfied, waited two deliveries, went out, found another supplier, placed an order then told Helen she was dumped??

How likely is it that the new cheese maker is someone who came on Helen’s course? IRL probably not realistic but in Borsetshire?

Blue cheese is not a favourite of mine. I've vaguely assumed that Borchester Blue is more like Stilton or Blue Vinny than Dolcelatte. I also assume that harder cheeses need a long time to mature after making. If this is right, the cheese that Ian has found bland was made last year or very early this year. What was happening then? Could it be to do with Olwen? The batch that did so well in the Food and Farming awards would have been made last year for sure.

It's not very plausible, agreed, but I did enjoy hearing Helen so discomfited.

I imagine Borsetshire Blue to be a Cambezola type.......

I came on to say what BikingBeatrix has already - Helen’s been usurped by one of her own students. Or (implausibly but pleasing to think) by Olwen.

Anyone else suddenly getting MN adverts for Alex James' Big Feastival?
[resigned, wry smile emoticon]

Yes, shite script writers again.

Totally love Neil. didn't he have a thing with Shula back in the day

I think he had a thing for Shula, not with. Not reciprocated. She only goes for Professionals (solicitor, vet, doctor, priest). I suppose she might reconsider now he's a Manager. Look out, Susan!

I bet Susan's chilli is better than Shula's anyway.

I think he had a thingforShula, notwith. Not reciprocated.

Reciprocated, I think? Not sure if it actually went anywhere.

Neil started as an apprentice at Brookfield in the mid-'70s. Shula was quite keen, I think. I have a memory of some clip from "memories of the Archers" sort of thing being played, possibly it's 4th or 50th anniversary, which had a clip of Shula and Neil, and I remember being shocked at it, and it's associated with an image of them snogging in a cornfield to a backdrop of Lake Hill, butI'd be happy to admit my imagination went into overdrive, and happier for my mind to scrub the image entirely.

I don't really remember Neil before the Susan years, though my listening years started in utero in the early '70s.

Back in the old days of O-levels, many would have taken O-levels and A levels with JMB, the Joint Matriculation Board (think it's now been subsumed into AQA). It was set up in 1905 to provide the entrance qualifications for the Victoria University which later split into its constituent parts to become Leeds, Liverpool and Mancheser Universities. So, yes, matriculation originally involved "doing something", although now it's more to do with formally registering on a university course.

I'd come to the conclusion they'd decided to ruin the entire Archer family. Shula/Alistair will ruin themselves over divorce legal fees, Home Farm and LL are in complete melt-down. Flaw in the theory was the Dopeys ... so will this cheese failure presage the collapse of Helen's business and everything else will slowly tumble down behind?

Kenton is still OK, but I'm never convinced by him as an Archer, or even as a character come to that.