#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?

How much younger and thinner we all looked back then! - that was trip down memory lane. I am slightly concerned at how fascinating I found it to read back through that thread - listening to The Archers and keeping up with this thread wastes takes up enough of my time without going back to re-read the old ones (tempting as it might be )

BOOP for Peggy again totally having the measure of Kate "make a profit first dear, then you can be a free spirit" Nor sure that is how Kate heard it though 😁

I was also irritated by Jim's gossiping to Leonard (our of character), Helen's sanctimonious assessment of Tobee's business skills (albeit very much in character) and the pairing of Jim and Shula.

That said I am loving having Freddie back, he says all the right things about Russ including his musings about why he isn't working.

My children have been running around this morning whilst singing TA theme tune. Still too young to appreciate listening but there was a slight swelling of pride on my part!

Are BOOP and ZeroFunDame (originator of the BOOP concept) still on these threads?

Crystal ball to whoever predicted Tom getting rid of the pigs and Pat losing her shit.

I can't decide on Natasha still. There's so much she doesn't know, but they've been together about 2 weeks.

I quite enjoyed Nasha laying into Tom about him not giving her forewarning. To be fair, there's probably a lot which happens in families which is understood without ever being put into words, and it can be difficult to understand when you haven’t been involved for years, even if someone does explain. But it's just more evidence of them not getting to know each other properly before marrying.

I'm quite enjoying Natasha blaming Tom for everything.

Meanwhile Johnny's star glitters all the brighter.

What will Jazzer do? I can't see him doing the veg boxes (who is doing them now?).

Natasha is manipulative.
Poor Pat and Tony.

I think whoever is available does them. There was that time recently when Tom was being all snide about how badly Johnny was doing them. I think this is going to be Jazzer''s big chance, though.

I don't understand how Tom can just dump the pigs. Surely he has an arrangement with the farm over use of land and buildings, and surely he hires Jazzer so can't just expect Bridge Farm to pick up his salary without any discussion.

How do you see this as an opportunity for Jazzer, Bearhug?

Jazzer's not going to want to do the veg boxes, he'll resign.

Also, notice how Tom said he'd told Natasha earlier in the week? He said the same to Jazzer about moving the pigs, and I'm sure there was another time too. He's either doing this deliberately, or losing his memory.

And Will tonight, going off at the deep end again at Rhuari and Mia.

Will’s behaviour typically Will though. It was obviously going to happen.

At Bridge Farm, shouldn’t Helen have been included in the meeting/announcement? I thought she and Tom, and Johnny for that matter, ran the farm business together. I wonder what will happen. Natasha’s going to get fed up with her marriage - she commented on there being so little space above the shop. I wonder how soon she’ll walk. I’m trying to think what other things at BF should she have heard about had they had a longer courtship? I can’t think of any really but there must be several.

Further to the point of information request earlier, I've created the following thread. May future thread-starters could link to it in their OP? Feel free to add to it.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have?watched=1

It's a brave move to close the John Archer Memorial Pig Unit. Shame it's for the wrong reason.
Pat has it all wrong, as per usual. It's been unfair on Tom all these years to expect him to carry on John's 'legacy', his parents should have absolved him from his self-imposed burden a long time ago.

Memorial Pig Unit...arf. Forgive me for being dense, but these are not the same pigs as John was tending, are they? I"m sorry to be so unkind, but this 'The pigs are John! who will think about the piiiiiiigggs?" schtick is very unconvincing. Next they'll have Pat picking up a link of sausages and sobbing over their poignancy. Did Pat lose her shit so comprehensively before when Tom (whom I always think of as Tommy The Teenage Pig Breeder, pace Nancy Banks-Smith - and whither Nancy, while we're on the subject?) decided to stop the pigs.
Tom is an idiot, but I do feel he has drawn the short straw with those overbearing parents. Natasha annoying and all wrong, all wrong; but she does have a point about Tom allowing her to blunder in and not having her back. But, as has been mentioned multiple times, they've known each other 5 minutes, so what can you expect? Especially from an idiot like Tom.

This story line is so ridiculous on so many levels.

Natasha is horrible and Tom is an idiot.

They are descendants of John's pigs though, surely?

"I am Aelfpig, son of Aelfpig, grandson of Aelfpig"

"We must drive the Danepigs out of Wessex"

"Destiny is all!"

Not a single pig now at Bridge Farm is related to any pig of John's in any way as far as I can make out.

Peggy bought Tom a boar-pig when he took over, so the sire of the pigs was not the same as when John had pigs. And that was many years and several boars and lots of different sows before Tom gave his pigs feed that wasn't Soil Association approved so that they all had to be got rid of (and then ran away to Canada).

I suppose Neil might have had some pigs from Brookfield, which I think was where John got his from. Possibly. Many years ago, because Brookfield gave up pigs even before Phil retired. How long does a sow live if she is farrowing twice a year?

Fuck me-Pay has had some shit in her life! Why do people hate her so much?

It irritates me that Tom's made a major decision about a change of direction for the farm within two days of Natasha suggesting it. As we all keep saying, why can't he grown up and settle down and learn to concentrate on something instead of constantly running after the latest new toy in farming terms?

Didn't someone predict Will blowing up at Ruairi and telling him to git off moi laaand?

The pigs are a bit like Adam’s soft fruit. An arbitrary decision made without consulting the other partners.

How do you see this as an opportunity for Jazzer,Bearhug?

Because he's going to go into business with Rex, and they will both settle down with women who deserve them. I have decided. (The scriptwriters might not have, though.)

Also, I know it's to get Mia and Ruari bonding, and Will true to form, but do we all need the basic maths education?

Can we do number bases next?

*"I am Aelfpig, son of Aelfpig, grandson of Aelfpig"

"We must drive the Danepigs out of Wessex"

"Destiny is all!"*

Ha ha ha ha!!!

I am Aelfpig, son of Aelfpig