💀 Archers thread #132: The Grim Reaper joined the cast; The Bard of Ambridge breathed his last. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

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 think Shula will make an excellent vicar, or other unusual things.

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 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/4197199--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-6-Cant-wait-for-7-02pm-Join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed.

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: 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 - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to many of you for title suggestions. @JanglyBeads said that this thread had to be a Bert tribute so needed a rhyming title. From an excellent field, I chose the suggestion from @BorsetshireBanality (who also has a cracking username).

Check out the last thread for the other suggestions and various poetic offerings inspired by Bert Fry's passing. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/4349822--Archers-thread-131-A-time-to-plant-a-time-to-reap-Discuss-The-Archers-here

So, who'll get the bungalow? Rex, Stella, Pip? If Rex has to move, will he doss down beside his pigs at Lower Loxley? Or will Rex be a resident at Her Majesty's pleasure, having bumped off Trevor for being the world's most boring man? Now Freddie's on the case, are Russ's days at LL numbered? Will we ever hear Jill again, or was Bert just the first of many older cast members to be dedded?

Over to you!

Because they're absolute twonks @ButtonSister

@FoxgloveSummers

Because they're absolute twonks *@ButtonSister*

Because it was not their money? The farm is in Pat and Tony's names, with Helen and Tom as signatories on the business cheques (it being the Dark Ages in Ambridge) but having contributed nothing to the purchase of the land or business apart from more-or-less working for it sometimes.

But it's a family business surely? Do Pat and Tony actually do anything to make money now? How does the income from Helen and Tom's businesses/bits of the business work? Surely the "kids" don't just let the parents take all the money, they must get paid. Perhaps a better question is "why don't pat, tony, helen or tom care that they're paying rent for no reason when they could be home owners?" Possibly makes a bit more sense for Tom who wasn't settled for a while, but Helen has lived there forever.

@FoxgloveSummers

But it's a family business surely? Do Pat and Tony actually do anything to make money now? How does the income from Helen and Tom's businesses/bits of the business work? Surely the "kids" don't just let the parents take all the money, they must get paid. Perhaps a better question is "why don't pat, tony, helen or tom care that they're paying rent for no reason when they could be home owners?" Possibly makes a bit more sense for Tom who wasn't settled for a while, but Helen has lived there forever.

Pat and Tony own the farm. They bought it, taking out a mortgage which they pay out of the income from the farm. Tom and Helen contributed nothing to this.

Tom was and always has been clear that his business is his own and not theirs, even to the extent of using a different brand-name for it. Helen similarly, though she has cheerfully taken her parents' charity to cover her costs since she was twenty-one and was given a shop as a birthday present.

but hazel has to give 2 months notice... or it would be an illegal eviction. t&n are 'safe' until mid feb

She also has to make sure that she serves the notice on the right day - on or before the day the rent is actually due. She can not simply do it in the middle of the month and count the two months from then.

T&N do not have to move out after the two months are up. Hazel will have to go to court and in Covid times the wait is quite long. Some courts have six month backlogs but even in pre Covid times it took at very least one month. Assuming the court supports her, which it will if she has got the paperwork right, they will then have another month to vacate - so end March at the earliest. If they still choose to stay put she would then have to return to court - end April - and get an order for baliffs to evict them at which point they would actually have to leave. So my bet is that they can safely stay put for at least six months if they are stubborn enough. This may not turn out to be the quick and easy interim solution that Hazel is hoping for.

yep, can take a while...

will this be a PSA like with jazzer's redundancy?

Whenever I hear Hazel I think of Mrs Danvers in Rebecca (the original film with Joan Fontaine as the new wife ?)

I'm wondering if Hazel hopes Tom will appeal to Peggy who will then offer Hazel a longer stay at The Lodge?

Or perhaps Hazel really has changed after her illness ?

Btw I have missed a few episodes - what is happening to the bungalow and Rex ?

Hazel hasn't changed

Rex is leaving the bungalow, but I think he'll end up at Prickyard Cottage and Pip and Toe B will end up in the bungalow

Maybe Hazel will end up in Bloody Hell Cottage

Bungalow and Rex - as far as I can recall, Rex is still there but nobody has talked about what happens next.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Bungalow and Rex - as far as I can recall, Rex is still there but nobody has talked about what happens next.

He has been told he has to leave in the New Year.

Thanks, Asking, as ever!

New thread here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/4420580--Archers-thread-133-Woolley-socks-it-to-them-Discuss-The-Archers-and-its-Woolley-thinking-and-plotting-here

It's the insincere, frail, poorly voice going on about Daddy and how Ambridge is the only place she was ever happy that makes me think she is lying and has some dastardly plan up her sleeve. I think that is what we are supposed to think.

It's also noticeable that Hazel's post-Covid feebleness seems inconsistent. She didn't seem to have had much of a problem with going around the rewilding land, yet was collapsing all over the place with one flight of stairs. And she got over that quite quickly when it came to telling T and N to get out.

Hazel can remember exact details to her advantage, but failed to remember what the garden she was being so lyrical about had been like when she was living at Ambridge Hall (at that time not called that, because it was renamed after Jack sold it).

I can't make out whether she was perfectly well aware she had evicted Fallon from the flat above the shop for no reason or not, but it seemed as if she had forgotten that.

She has forgotten telling Lynda on a previous visit to Lynda's house that she'd had a horrible childhood in Ambridge: Lowfield remembers, though. 31st August, 2005.

"Lynda loses no time in seeking to ingratiate herself with Hazel by inviting her and Jack to look over Ambridge Hall (with an emphasis on her Borsetshire Life appearance) and stay for lunch in return for giving feedback on her creative endeavours.
....
"Hazel seems subdued as they go on their tour of Lynda's home, and admits that her childhood memories are not happy ones."