Archers thread #177: Will Bridge Farm get a PassiveAggressivHaus? Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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Over to you!

It just came hard on the heels of "Ed helped Fallon change a flat, they must be about to have an affair" and for some reason I found the melodrama too much, briefly. Sorry about that.

So it was Freddie that rescued Lynda, I knew it was one of the young men just got that wrong.
I said Gavin had consumption because his cough sounded very pronounced, well it did to me, and the rain and cold didnt help. I also thought of a Christmas Carol recurring theme in T A at the moment.

This is the exact reason I set the consumption ball rolling (sorry to anyone who thought they’d missed an official diagnosis!). He sounds like the two little Dickensian orphan children in The Simpsons.

Heaven’s sake - I’m not quite so uneducated that I failed to grasp the reference! I found it very funny.

But then people started speaking of TB as if it had been mentioned in the episode. And I recalled that there has been Royal Pneumonia in the news lately - so it might turn out to be that instead. (Though I have no idea of the likely symptoms.)

Police absolutely should be made aware of a convicted criminal lurking about the village! might as well tear up the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act then.

What exactly does anyone think Gavin is going to do? Imprison and enslave local youths?

And what are the police supposed to do about him anyway? Tell him "I've got my eye on you laddie?" in best Dixon style?

Food festival. Joy was helping Pat.

How about the utter bathos of the final Robert and Lynda scene, this evening? I roared with laughter over the washing up.

How many rooms does Lynda’s b&b have?

did they have to rewrite Robert when they introduced the new actor? He sounds so wrong somehow

i wasn’t listening during while Philip was on and for the fire. I feel that was fortunate.

why is Kirsty so wet?

@Bruisername In reply to your four points:

I would guess the appropriate number of rooms to fit that day's script.
I don't think any of the current scriptwriters can remember Old Robert (RIP).
This is not a question, but you did miss quite a lot of tosh.

As to why is Kirsty so wet ... well, she was left at the altar by Tom. No self-respecting woman would have let that happen, as she wouldn't have agreed to marry him or, if she had, she wouldn't have turned up herself. Natasha is different. She married him for financial reasons.

Gonners
I don't think any of the current scriptwriters can remember Old Robert (RIP).

Tim Stimpson wrote today's episode, and he started writing for TA in June 2003, so he damn well ought to remember Old Robert. He wrote lines for him in November 2012, December 2013, March 2016, October 2018, July 2019, November 2019, February 2021, and November 2021, too.

He just seems to have elected not to write the character as consistent with what he was like before.

Haha fair point. I think I had brain bleached that episode 😆

I was angry. Another blasted man deciding what his wife wants and not letting her speak for herself.

Whilst Mick acted off his own bat in lodging the complaint about Emma at least he Joy and he discussed it, listened to each other, came to their own decision on it and neither tried to overrule the other.

And as for Natasha - she really is vile.

Whats with Alan and the turn the other cheek type thing. Firstly he agreed to christen Helens ex knowing what he had done, now Gavin, he loves a bit of lost sheep, mind you he hasnt got much else to do I suppose. He was very forceful when it came to the stain glass window thats seems to be another story line that has gone by the way side.
I can understand Robert being upset and I think Lynda will do want Lynda wants to do regardless.
I would love to give Kirsty a shake she is quite soft. Why dosnt she just sell the house and give the money to Gavin, Phillip, Lynda, Freddie and Oliver, and the Three boys that Phillip and Gavin used and sold, and not be able to buy herself a place even though she is going to be homeless soon, but thats ok as long as she feels she has done the right thing
.

I knew exactly what you meant and thought it was funny! And apt!

It made me laugh!

Also - consumption! It’s obviously a joke!

I’m assuming the storyline about Mick being intolerant of Emma is because Joy has done something similar. The weak part of the whole thing is that Emma actually called the police on her own son, which is a huge thing to do. I think there would be as many people that would judge her for that as those that judge her for not doing it immediately.

Whats with Alan and the turn the other cheek type thing. Firstly he agreed to christen Helens ex knowing what he had done,

No, he didn’t. He passed Rob on to another vicar.
And whoever heard of a Christian priest propounding or espousing turning the other cheek? It’ll be love thy neighbour next, you mark my words. Shocking.

It just came hard on the heels of "Ed helped Fallon change a flat, they must be about to have an affair" - it's so much more than that though isn't it? This is a very slow burning storyline IMO. Ed and Fallon have history - in fact hearing the two of them together makes me remember who Fallon used to be before she got together with Harrison. Her marriage has been given a serious jolt with Harrison's service for the unborn child she never even wanted, not to mention his earlier Christian conversion and now almost complete personality change (even more so than Robert and he doesn't have the excuse of being played by a new actor). Ed was frozen out by Em and his brother during the George debacle and now, slowly but surely, Ed and Fallon are being given intimate scenes together - starting with Emma's birthday party. The flat tyre scene was building on that. You can hear their connection. Gavin's reappearance OTOH feels like an extension of the Dickensian Christmas theme - I think his consumption stands in for his gaunt and ragged appearance (as suggested by a PP). Lynda sounded as if she'd seen Krampus for real. It's all a bit manufactured and not helped by the fact that Robert and Lyndy's relationship no longer rings true since the arrival of New Robert which is annoying because I think it's the way he's being written rather than the way he's being acted. Finally (sorry this a v long post) I thought there were further hints of a forthcoming battle over the Bridge Farm when Tom said he didn't want to think about buying any house for a few years to see whether Pat and Tony were going to downsize. We of course know they've privately discussed Helen and the boys moving into the farmhouse because Tom and Natasha wouldn't want to live there!

I'm still cross that when Rob turned up and expressed a wish to be baptised Alan didn't just reply 'oh good, that might help you, here, come into the study, I have a bottle of holy water and I'll do it now'.

Arf! "Usha! Can you just stick your head out of the door and call in a couple of silent blokes to act as witnesses? You'll do for the third ..."

I get that Alan is a vicar and therefore must be all on the forgiving side, but he is too bloody naive for me. FOR SURE the first thing - the very first thing - he should have said to Rob was "i don't think it's appropriate to do it here, i'll put you in touch with X of Y parish". Not faff about like he did.

And with the Gavin thing? All he had to do was say what he had come to say and then "i'll leave you to think about it, take all the time you need but i'll leave the ball in your court". That was it.

Wasn't there a comment from Lynda to Robert that he wasn't being himself? I was shouting "that's because he's an imposter written by the work experience kid!" at the radio.

As for PTSD - there is sometimes no telling what will set someone off, and i found it extremely plausible that Lynda would have such a reaction. (am unfortunately friends with several people with PTSD - all military and this time of year is awful for so many of them, even when they thought they had pretty much conquered it).

And i really do think, given the history, that it would have been perfectly fine for Kirsty to mention to the local police officer that someone who was part of an awful crime ring, had been looking up the village online and just turned up out of the blue when i was on my own. If only because if/when something happens later, there is a record. (but then, again, coloured by my own experiences including a friend nearly beaten half to death by her "wouldn't hurt a fly, always helped old ladies across the road" ex fiancée - having been ignored by police over a period of years when he was stalking her) I can accept that YMMV on this.

I'm sorry about your friend
I agree, Gavin was stalking and this could just be the first sign

He was not ‘stalking’ her in any meaningful sense. It’s not a recurring pattern of behaviour (yet), for a start.

But I prefer to think of happier things, particularly Tom treading on Lego.

I suppose he was monitoring house sales in the ambridge area🙄

I think Gavin intimated that he'd looked Kirsty up because he wanted to know how she was, and the house was where he knew she lived (or thought he knew). If he had been stalking her he'd have known she hadn't been living there during the entire time since he was let out of prison, I'd have thought.