#102: Fatted calf is off the menu - will the Easter Bunny save Lower Loxley's bacon, or will there be egg on Russ's face? Will Tom's sausage business get the chop? Join us here to discuss The Archers!

[GabrielleNelson]

Thanks due to @PseudoBadger for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and to @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit. Thanks also to all those who contributed to the thread title, principally Dumdedumdedum and MikeUniformMike on this occasion.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to be Susan's best friend or other odd unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from this thread, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

So, to business: will Helen's new cheese be a success? Will Kate succeed in keeping her visiting Brummies under control? Will Pip, Toby, Tom and Natasha fall into the slurry pit, leaving Rosie to be brought up by Anthony Head Robin Fairbrother? Will we ever hear Lee again, and will he casually drop in a mention of his fine collection of framed Bruce Lee posters?

It was Carole Boyd - they’ve just said!

Do you know what that was such a stormer of an episode I listened to it twice. I even loved “playing with a magnificent organ” fnar fnar.

Dear God the universe is avenging Kirsty through the medium of Natasha poetry!

Fallon was a star. And it sounds like it’s all over the village.

Is anyone running a book on how long this will last? I’m thinking it’ll all be over by the flower and produce.

How can Will have sacked Pete? He isn't his employer.

But then, how could Martyn Gibson have threatened to throw Will out of his house? It belongs to Brian/Home Farm, not to Borchester Land; there was a whole court case about getting Sammy Whipple out of it so Greg could have it, and that was before Borchester Land existed. If Brian sold it to them we ought to have been told on air.

I don't think they have ever sorted out who is in charge of what or owns what of the shoot, but I am quite sure it doesn't all belong to Borchester Land, because the Home Farm bit of it would be quite valuable and Brian has never sold it to them.

Nooo, I want them to stay together and see that pathetic little twerp miserable for a really, really long time.

Nooo, I want them to stay together and see that pathetic little twerp miserable for a really, really long time

Yes, I agree but unfortunately the Samuel Butler quip about Thomas Carlyle and Mrs Carlyle doesn't fully apply here. As long as Natasha is around there is scope for Natasha to make plenty of other people miserable.

Ah, I see, I didn’t hear her being named.

I think I need to listen again.

What the fuck is Natasha up to?

Has Rob employed her to destroy Bridge Farm from within?

Fallon has had a go at Freddie and now Natasha. I know that she explained to each why she is cross with them but do we think that there is another reason why she is feeling out of sorts ...?

I don't know. She sounded like she wasn't going to tell Natasha why she didn't want the treatment, but Natasha kept pushing it, trying to pin down another date, so she lost her rag.

I thought Jakob sounded like Alistair.

a screech of expensive tyres!

Tyres bought on credit, mark you.

Is Natasha Knob mark 2? She’s gaslighting him isn’t she - first over John, now over getting rid of the pigs? What she hasn’t worked out yet is that expensive presents are not the way to win hearts and minds at Bridge Farm. And also that being married to a farmer is going to involve at least some farming. It is a joy to listen to because Tom absolutely deserves this. Please can we have a scene with Fallon and Kirsty - I feel as though we the listeners are Kirsty as we discover what Tom has let himself in for.

When Chris first started talking to Jakob I was sure he was Dodgy Tim, who offered Ed a driving job recently. I wish they'd try harder to differentiate the newer characters' voices. Old Chris was completely distinctive.

Natasha is poisonous. If Tom wasn't such a fool I'd feel sorry for him.

I'd have more faith in the pig storyline if there's been even a smidgen of a mention of Tom approaching the issue commercially. I know nothing about farming, but surely you don't make a decision to get out of a major product line in a couple of days: wouldn't you do a full profit and loss analysis, talk to your accountant, check up where you were going to source your meat and what the pricing and transport implications would be, consider how it would affect the marketing when you can't claim you're using home-produced meat, take employment law advice, and produce a full business plan? To say nothing of having a discussion with the people you're in business with rather than presenting them with a fait accompli.

Just listening to yesterday's episode now. What was Shula wittering on to Jakob about "Oh, as long as it wasn't me....?" I have a horrible queasy feeling this is her idea of flirting. Ugh. But what was it all about?

It did sound like Shula going all needy. Echoes of her attitude to DocLocke and one or two others.

Shula explained that later when talking to Freddie - she dropped an unintended innuendo.

Jakob clearly thinks Shula and Alistair are both bonkers.

I think Shula was worried that she'd embarrassed Jakob by telling the congregation about his significant organ. That's what the conversation with Freddie seemed to imply.

“It did sound like Shula going all needy. ”

Hmm. I think if I’d dropped a clanger like that in those circumstances, and in front of someone so incredibly -let’s be charitable- socially awkward as Jakob, I’d be a bit needy as well!

X-post with Bagpuss!

I like Natasha. Anyone who continually bollocks tiresome Tom is a good un in my books.

Re Tom I agree wholeheartedly. I think he’s rash and likes to make big decisions (e.g. getting rid of the dairy herd ), has never looked after his staff properly, and is also showing off to Natasha with his ‘decisiveness’. But it makes no sense at all that he hasn’t at the very least lined up another supplier.

Doesn’t Tom buy all the weaners from Neil/Rex?

But what is Natasha up to? What’s her plan? I think I was prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt until that bit of poison she dropped into Jazzer’s ear. He wouldn’t have walked if she hadn’t done that.