The Archers No. 94: Freddie’s doing porridge, Tom gets his oats, but will Home Farm be toast? We’ll have to wheat and see ... Serial production is in full swing in Ambridge

[witchmountain]

Thanks to LilG for the title, and DDD for starting the last thread and the tradition of the thread starter nominating the next thread starter

Lurkers are always welcome to unlurk and join in, including asking questions of the many very knowledgeable posters with a long Archers-listening history.

Don't post spoilers based on forthcoming plot synopses that you've read, there's another thread for that (and we'd love to see you over there). Once an episode has aired then it's fair game.

Oh welcome newbies , I'm going off line today, it's not an insult!! see you all in mid Nov.

fluffy white teapots brilliant! There are some silkies in an allotment near me and that's exactly what they look like

I thought it was Jill who discounted the possibility of going for larger hens? Yes, she said something about no longer being able to catch a hen that large.

I thought it was Jill who discounted the possibility of going for larger hens?

I bet Jill thought that it was Jill's decision, too. I have to hand it to Josh, it was excellent salesmanship.
Josh: "Here are some sensible solutions. They lay eggs, which is the whole point, but I have picked ones with down-sides (diva, too big). Oooh, look, Gran. Here we just happen to have some totally unsuitable solutions. They don't really lay eggs but they will look pretty in my photos. And they are docile so you and Rosie can play pretend-farming together."

I know that fellow posters on this thread have unaccountable blind spots about Josh-but if any of you think Josh is genuine in his behaviour to Jill about these here hens, I have a lovely bridge in London I can sell you........

Do David and Ruth really have three children? This mythical Ben! Why is he never heard?

I hope this isn't a spoiler, but I gather he's due to have a bit of a SL soon. Has he ever emerged from that cereal cupboard before? And who put him there in the first place?

Wonderful thread title!

I think the safest assumption, Baxter, is that if it hasn’t already happened it’s best alluded to only on the other thread!

I don’t think Josh is completely psychopathic and that he was genuinely sorry, albeit not in the sense that he would necessarily change his behaviour in the future. But it says something that he’s intending to market his business with photos of another kind of hen than the ones producing the eggs, in a different setting - that’s just deliberately misleading. The kind of thing that Tesco would do, but someone on Josh’s scale is more likely to be selling based to people who think they are buying a nice local product, so trust is more important.

I hope this isn't a spoiler, but ...

I'm afraid that is a spoiler. We only discuss stuff that has been broadcast on this thread. Those little plot-teasers on the "Next On" pages on the BBC site count as spoilers. There's a dedicated thread here if you want to discuss spoilers.

Meant to say, totally uninformed speculation is welcome on here, but anything based on something read in the Radio Times etc is for the other thread.

Bearing in mind a beloved poster's dislike of 'self-styled TA experts taking over the thread' I can only suggest that from what I have seen over half a century's listening they do generally rest characters between cute tiny-childhood and independently active late teens. I daresay it's not easy to keep a child actor in the regular cast - but I'm guessing the bigger reason is that between say 7 and 16 any child storyline will inevitably need parental (character) input as well - so all a bit cumbersome and possibly expensive. Once the offspring reach an age where they're off doing stuff without parents (and also making the most of their teenage hormones and recklessness) they're more useful in the show.

Nb Anything 'heard' elsewhere is a spoiler! Speculation out of your own clever head is not!

Cross post. And Baxter, you’ve already joined us over there, so settle in and make your predictions there.

We did used to hear from Ben, didn’t we - I didn’t imagine that? Or did we just hear more about him?

I missed that, Quater. I personally love hearing from people who’ve been listening forever. And I love that that they don’t all agree. I also find it fascinating how differently we all hear and interpret things!

Oh heck! Not 24 hours in and made my first mistake. Very sorry. I'll be very careful not to do it again.

I don’t think Josh is completely psychopathic and that he was genuinely sorry

But he used the situation so that Jill ended up with the henhouse and hens that he wanted for his business. Just like he was, apparently, kind enough to give Johnny some work experience ... but - on closer inspection - it turned out to be exploitation.
He is very good at framing stuff-that-is-good-for-Josh as philanthropy.

Yes, he did. But he could be genuinely sorry and then go on to use the situation.

The Johnny stuff was all about Josh. You could tell from how utterly insincere all his praise sounded. And also it was obviously unnecessary- it’s not like the Bridge Farm lot would have just left him with a herd to milk with no help first!

Don’t worry Baxter. There’s a lot worse you could have posted. And we welcome your enthusiasm

But it says something that he’s intending to market his business with photos of another kind of hen than the ones producing the eggs, in a different setting - that’s just deliberately misleading

I know that objectively that is misleading, but I would struggle to get worked up about it. Does anyone apart from a few very hardcore foodies either know or care what breed their hen eggs come from? And if anyone bases their buying decisions on how pretty the hens look on the packaging rather than quality or taste, they almost deserve what they get.

I know that objectively that is misleading, but I would struggle to get worked up about it. Does anyone apart from a few very hardcore foodies either know or care what breed their hen eggs come from?

No, but I do buy free-range. I'm not sure that Josh's are free-range - if he was shutting in his flock for the night then he would have shut in Jill's flock, too.

I expect that’s what Josh would say, Volant!

People base their buying decisions on all sorts of things, many of which are outside their conscious awareness. What Josh is doing is the reality of how lots of marketing works, but it’s pretty cynical. I think the setting is more important than the breed because people will make assumptions about welfare conditions based on that. But it’s more the principle that is you are selling eggs and you use a picture of hens in your marketing then people will assume those are the hens the eggs are coming from, so you’re lying to your customers.

I’m not a hardcore foodie and I’m not bothered about the breed, or the colour of the yoke which is simply influenced by what they eat, hence the presence of yellow food colouring in chicken feed.

I buy organic free range eggs because I understood that for free range they were still allowed to clip their beaks and often do.

Just listened again and pip’s enunciation has enraged me. Why can’t she just say words without sounding on the verge of laughing or gargling or blowing a bubble or whatever tf it is she’s doing with her face when she talks. It’s so distracting.

Is Anna going to give Lizzie some real talk? I do hope so. Bless Johnny he is being a good friend to literally everyone in the whole village. What a saintly lad.

I am looking forward to Anna's talk with Lizzie too. I can't imagine that she would have some strategy that would reduce Freddie's sentence that has eluded every other criminal firm in the county. But perhaps that's what she's for in this plot line. I hope not: it would be great to hear some objective perspective.

I am not as invested in finding Josh wicked as other posters, and I can't get too excited about the purity of his motives replacing the henhouse. However, in the light of the sheer lack of interest and encouragement from his numpty parents, I am impressed by the elasticity of Josh's entrepreneuralism. He gets knocked down, he gets up again! There's something irrepressible about that lad - he's the Benjamin Franklin of Ambridge.

Try as they might, the scriptwriters just can't get me interested in Pip and Toby. Or Tom and Hannah. In fact, they seem pretty shit at couples in general - Harrison and Fallon? Yawn.

When Josh talks about his chickens -are these the ones that Rex manages? So he would normally expect Rex to shut them up.

Peartree - do you really mean Franklin? or are you thinking of Thomas Edison, as I always think of him as the archetype for trying over and over again, eg with lightbulb filaments.