The Archers #96: Is that a rat I smell or the whiff of Snell? In Chaucer’s famous Tale of Two Torsos, Brian’s ‘still got it’ and Poldark is searching for scything opportunities in Susan’s kitchen.

[NotdeadyetBOING]

Welcome..... I'd concocted a longer title with all sorts of references to bitch stitching and pasta bakes, but was thwarted by the pesky character limit

I loved Josh’s joshing. Everyone else is going to tiptoe round Russ, it’s lovely that at least someone can take the piss

Jessie, Josh doesn't even know me...

Whilst it may not be how most of us would behave the Russ storyline needs more of the likes of Josh and Kenton to mix things up a bit.

Married middle aged men hitting on 17 year old girls in their charge is weird and predatory.

Middle aged men moving in and expecting to be financially supported by their 18 year old student mistresses and their widowed mother is insufferable to put it mildly.

It's okay not to be okay with this too, although I appreciate the going along with it and keeping close strategy is probably better for Lizzie.

Thank you for that link Quater. A Boxing Day treat. I love that song (though it always makes me think of my old Latin teacher ) I can't believe he performs the whole thing with a joint between his teeth. Extraordinary.

Oh heavens! Is that what it was? (I never know these things. Just assumed it was a cigarette - and that seemed shocking enough.)

Yes, it may be slight but the song conjures such vast (non-MN approved) imaginings. I always associate it with L P Hartley's The Hireling, which is a relatively disappointing story - but does bring one full circle to the past being a foreign country ...

I'm not objecting to Josh's needling of Russ per se. Just think he could have varied it a bit.

Did anyone else notice the "you look fantastic in that dress" Russ to Lizzie? Boak.

Could also have throttled Pip for telling Lilly that it's obvious Russ adores her, it's not going to make any scales fall away any time soon.

I remember Jude, particularly all David's huffing and puffing, but don't remember the details, was he Pips teacher?

Just a thought, as he's been getting a lot of mentions lately, has Martin Gibson bought Home Farm?

Birdsdestiny on the Archers advent calendar this year there is a great clip of David and Ruth going to collect Pip from college and seeing her “talking to one of the tutors, oh look they seem to be getting on really well, hold on, what are they doing, are they KISSING Ruth, let me at him...noo Daveed, noo ..”

It’s hilarious. I don’t think Jude was a teacher though, just a mature student. Can’t quite remember the details.

Jude was a student in his mid or late -20s IIRC, and Pip was a 6th-former. Pip was so in lurve but Joood dumped her with by phone with a 'Bye-ee!'

I think Jude was a perpetual student, still trying to find his path in life.

Oh my - John Finnemore has excelled himself tonight. My ribs are aching.

Anyone else worried about Ben and whatever he's caught in the ditch?

Loved John Finnemore's Pachelbel's Canon. It would be worth getting married again to play that. Dooby-dooby-dooby...
Yes, surely Ben is being set up for tetanus or some disgusting ditch-borne bacterium.

Nicholas really kisses Alison's crack - I mean pornily so. "Womyn hef not beards', is the line. It's not a demure kiss on the cheek.

Yes, surely Ben is being set up for tetanus or some disgusting ditch-borne bacterium

Have we had a leptospirosis story yet? I was expecting one with Kirsty was caught in the polluted water.

I'm going off Kirsty; she was unnecessarily unpleasant to Brine. Talk about kicking a man when he's down! She can get very sanctimonious at times and will turn into Pat in her old age.

Kirsty has a long history with Brian and ecological differences. He has consistently dismissed her and belittled her viewpoint as "eco warrior" nonsense whilst causing a local ecological catastrophe.

I feel a great deal of sympathy for Jennifer and Adam but Brian made money out of breaking the law and polluting the environment. Charming he may be but lets not forget he was entirely architect of his own current problems and many of those his family and the community have suffered.

Rory looks set to be a chip of the old block. Charming but quite calculating and self serving and his attitude to the plebs is quite unpleasant.

I can't see them going for another infected wound story so soon after Nic's.

I found the Christmas lunch a Damp squib too, other than Josh’s amusing needling of the slimy “Mr Jones”. And im afraid the Canterbury Tales special (yawn) is no compensation. As for Rory, if that’s what boarding school does to shape a person’s character, then I’m glad my DS went to the local comp (though I realise it’s not helped by his somewhat strange upbringing).

Adam and Kate were privately educated, I think maybe Elizabeth was. Freddie, Lily and Daniel were.

Jill was very anti private education.

Actually, I realise that reads as a bit of a sweeping generalisation about private education. More about Rory (Ruarhi?) having apparently spent most of his schooling boarding. It was written quite poignantly, I thought, in that he was clearly wishing he lived in a sort of messy setup where everyone has to pitch in (even though if it were me I'd not want Pip as a big sister for anything).

Ruarie clearly not got the farming bug, though. Wants to make the break, with a bit of light shooting in the holidays. I wonder if the others have twigged.

It's Ruairi. It gets pronounced differently by various characters.

I seem to remember Rory, now spelled Ruari, was originally spelled "Ruaidhrígh" by Siobhan, (pronounced Shovehorn) but that was evidently too complicated for the non-Gaelic amongst the SWs, cast and the rest of us, so it got changed after her death, I think?