As Frilly stress Lizzy out, did the SWs forget her heart defect? Will there be long term llama drama karma in The Archers?

[PseudoBadger]

Oh I heard that bit, Tony's eyes lighting up. And I thought it was good to hear Helen assertive, ducks in a row (yes Tom, she'd done costings) after being so completely ground down, confidence utterly destroyed not so long ago.

If she is so concerned about Henry's welfare, why did she shack up with then marry an abuser?
Were you not listening during that period, or did the storyline somehow fail to get across to you how abusive relationships work?

Never listened to it in my life.

Mike, abusive men don't wear a pirates hat or a troll mask. They are usually charming attentive men who slowly slowly ramp up their behaviour until it becomes abusive. The woman concerned ends up being so controlled and isolated that she begins to doubt reality. If men like Rob came with a sign around their neck it would be sooo much easier.
On the farm decision, I actually think Helen as she gains in confidence could be quite good at reigning Tom in, I actually think the business would fare better if Helen was quite clearly in charge, Tom just makes everything so bloody wooly.

Of course he was wearing a pirate's hat, a troll's mask and a big cloak and waving red flags.
Helen moved in with the then married Rob very quickly despite having a young child. If only she had been on MN, we could have pointed to the angry red bunting outside Blossom Hill Cottage.

He might have been wearing a pirates mask and we just didn’t know with it being on the radio and all that..

I really dislike Helen.
She is being assertive about cheese - but only because she got a wake-up call from Ian. She's spent the summer moaning about the Magickal Baby - and has only worked out the solution when Emma tells her what to do.
For someone so "independent" she really has no gumption.

Who is supposed to run the micro-dairy: Tony? Tom? I'll bet it's not Helen who will be up before dawn for milking.

Yep she automatically shuts down any suggestions from Tom and Pat and Tony just put up with it.

Who is supposed to run the micro-dairy: Tony? Tom? I'll bet it's not Helen who will be up before dawn for milking

The economics of Bridge Farm don't really stack. I think I read somewhere it's around 200 acres. That's not big. They are diversified into all sorts of niche areas (which they do at best only barely competently) The Aberdeen Angus are practically a hobby and let's not mention kaffir.

Despite this it supports Tony, Pat, Helen and Tom and provides employment for Jazzer, Susan and Clarrie. And Johnny (and at some point I hope Pat and Tone man up and tell Tom and Helen that Johnny has equal rights and status with them)

Nobody actually seems to do any work consistently except Jazzer and Johnny.

Yep she automatically shuts down any suggestions from Tom

To be fair Tom's latest suggestions are pretty rubbish.

Don't know why Tom thought he could convince anyone without presenting the research and models, only offering to do after being poo-poohed by Helen, though I agree she's only thinking of her cheese.

and provides employment for Jazzer, Susan and Clarrie.

Clarrie and Susna work part time- lets say 20 hours each a week? So 40 hours at minimum wage is £7.38 and then employer on costs. So a salary bill of £350 a week minimum

Thats a lot of yoghurt just to cover the wages.

No one can possibly take Toms proposals seriously, it must be like having an excited puppy yapping at your legs, Johnny was practically weeping the other day when
Tom explained his latest brainwave.

If Helen’s cheese is such an important income stream, what the hell is going on with the yogurt, the pigs and the shop?

Yep she automatically shuts down any suggestions from Tom

More diversity when the already have too much?

Helen originally opposed getting rid of the dairy herd precisely because the cheese was important to them and they could not guarantee the milk if they were buying it in.

Tom The Biz insisted she was wrong and that they needed to focus the business more and not spread across too many areas. He was wrong then, he is wrong now.

The economics of Bridge Farm don't really stack

True-ish historically, but don’t forget they recently had the injection of cash from selling land to Justin. So are probably feeling a bit more relaxed than they otherwise might.

Can’t remember if the new-build saga came up in conversation with the lovely Natasha. (Was that her name? )

Thinking about it, apart from the organic sausage line which he took on as John's idea how many of Tom's own ideas have been a success? He is consistently presented as the business/entrepreneur type but what successes are his own invention? The ready meals possibly?

The dairy and the shop (until Rob got involved) were both successful Helen with Pat initiatives.

National Living Wage is £7.83 for people of Susan and Clarrie's age.

i can’t imagine they make much on the veg.

What has happened to Helen’s cheese school?

What has happened to Helen’s cheese school?

Not many takers - I think that's one bit of diversification they'll stop. Wasn't the idea to use some of the development windfall to build a fancy training facility? If they're not doing that maybe they can use the money to buy a good herd and small milking parlour. Presumably they only need their own milk for the cheese, not the yogurt and ice cream, that's ok with the bought-in milk so the herd wouldn't need to be as big as before.

Who is supposed to run the micro-dairy
Ed?

Not many takers - I think that's one bit of diversification they'll stop.

She already has dropped it at least in current form. But she had the sense to do a try out before building the fancy facility which is possibly the difference between her and Tom. She is more cautious, Tom is more of a risk taker.

Errol - in the spirit of being helpful, I think you keep trying to put things in bold and all we see are the asterisks:

this when we should be seeing this.

I think the problem is putting a space immediately after the *.

On spoiler rules, I think once the episode has aired, it's fair game to talk about its content. Last Friday, I was posting while listening at 7pm - something I don't normally do, but was fun, especially when a couple of us were speculating who was phoning Russ.

Whatever happen to Helen's legal bills?

I see it as bold.

Also this and this look the same. On the iPad app you don't have to footer with asterisks because you can just choose it as an option.