Archers thread #198: Josh sent to Patagonia, Pip stays put. Wrong way round! Discuss The Archers here.

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Not feeling greatly enthused about what's going on in Ambridge at the moment, tbh. I'm annoyed at Brian's hypocrisy about Ruairi given the furore over George's attempt to frame Alice as the cause of the accident. I do hope we don't have a slow drip drip drip now as one after another the members of the Aldridge/Archer clan find out what really happened and endlessly agonise over what to do. Frankly I don't care. There! I've said it.

Pip's OK. Well, good, but what was the point of that story, I wonder?

I suspect I'm in a minority of one in rather enjoying hearing (a) from Bert Horobin and (b) about Fletcher. I surmise Bert is here to stay for a while because the BBC has (amazingly) updated his character page: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/1wQP3mKR6yr9LVs05jddxcY/bert-horrobin (prominent actor photo warning). Given how out of date a lot of the other character pages are, this seems odd, but there we are.

That's all I can be bothered to say! Over to you.

Seriously, why would Debbie think she should inherit the land?

Team Brian!

It's the SWs' twisting of character out of their previously demonstrated behaviour and attitudes in order for his claim to make dramatic sense, hence the trip to see Debbie which could have been a video call and enabled Brian to see him as unreliable (even though he has relied on him for ages), the repetition of "power" out of nowhere like some rural would-be Palpatine. I don't know why they didn't have an audience say "he's behind you". It's all ramped up in the last few weeks. Bloody ridiculous.

Not to forget that Brian did promise him the running of the farm, then backed off.

However, great episode.

I especially liked the bit where Brian said the good quarterly results were down to Ruairi's efforts. I know others had honourable mentions but Ruairi did zip.

Loved the "not my children" bombshell. What an unspeakable shit he is.

Loved the "not my children" bombshell. What an unspeakable shit he is

But they're not his children. He never adopted them and Debbie was hateful to Brian after Jenny died

I've listened 3 times now! Love how, after Debbie stamps her foot and says she's done with the partnership, Adam says "Brian, you can just leave the land to me."

😂

The Archers has returned. Excellent news, I was do bored with the replacement programme.

They are his children when he chooses.

All of them are the product of Brian and Jenny’s relationship and Brian’s King Lear parenting style.

I know we all know thus, but it bares repeating.
Farms are often left to one child, the main farmer, as otherwise they get split down the generations and become unsustainable.
Hence all the talk about how many families they can sustain, and bringing up children to diversify.

So in my book Adam isn't entirely unreasonable in wanting to inherit. However he should have realised ages ago that Brian would have made it clear already years ago if that was his intention.

Pat and Tony have encouraged diversification.
David and Ruth have named Pip.

Brian has delayed, manipulated and prefabricated, and produced chaos.

I absolutely loved that line from Adam. Just summed him up really. Desperate, deceitful and willing to stab his siblings in the back without a second thought. He is actually worse than Brian.

Adam really care about the future of the land and the farm.
I don't think the others do in the same way.

Kate would want the bit she keeps her yurts on - surely that is Home Farm land?

I would love a snoop around Spiritual Home. Where does she do her yoga? Where is the reception area? I can’t believe it’s just a muddy field somewhere so where did the investment come from?

Makes no sense that she would miss this meeting, either.

Won’t Brian need to buy out the partnership? I thought that was what Debbie was building up to when she said ‘I’m out’. I’ll take my share now please.

I’d love to hear more about how the partnership works. They all get an income from it, but some do no work apart from the odd meeting, so they must have shares.

I wondered was I confused, but the mustardlanders also reckon Shula owns the Stables including the house, although Lilian put some money into the business and purchase of the extra land. Shula is living a couple of hundred miles up the road, not on Mars. I was delighted Debbie turned up at the meeting, just to make the point that Ambridge is accessible to the outside world. There's nothing to stop Shula dropping in for the odd weekend or special birthday tea.

At this stage I really want

EITHER

Shula to come back (if necessary with a different actor) and claim HER share of the cottage and of the entire stables set up, with a good lawyer (not Usha or Anna) to make sure she gets it. And Lizzie backing her, because she wants her bit of the cottage, too.

OR

If they are being sentimental about not replacing Judy Bennett, then Daniel to turn up with paperwork from Shula signing everything over to him, expecting to claim his rights.

This writing Shula out of existence is lazy.

Yes, that was yet another very good bit of a good episode, the hint that there is a complicated financial background that will be unpicked, with lots of fallout.

Re Glebe Cottage, wasn't there some throwaway reference to David and Ruth having bought it from Shula and Elizabeth? (The scriptwriters just chucked that in when the listeners pointed out that it wasn't theirs to leave to anyone.)

But don't trust me on any of this, as these days everything Archers-related just goes in one ear and straight out of the other.

But how can you buy something from people who haven’t yet inherited it?

There was, but I'd like to think that was the acquisitive and greedy Dopey clan hoping to get something for nothing, Joe Grundy style, and that in fact the buy out was something they dreamed up and never put on paper.

I want more succession fall out in more families please.

Lower Loxley too.

Yes, technically it may still have belonged to Jill for her lifetime. In that case Shula and The Widow Pargetter have much to complain about.

Pretty sure Shula owns the Stables property because that's where Lily, Paul and Ben are renting. The business I think is now Lilian's and Justin's.

It wouldn't be difficult for the scriptwriters to keep a list of who actually owns which properties, even if the archivist has gone.

It’s even better second time round…

Thank goodness for a decent and enjoyable episode. The last couple of weeks have been simply dreadful.

Clearly Adam was behaving disgracefully in 'demanding' the land and Tamsin turning up and saying her character should have half of it was a bit of a curveball but Brian seems to have forgotten his pathetic falling apart when Stella left and that he needed Adam to come back quick smart.

His gung ho 'I'll go it alone' didn't kick in with Stella's departure did it?

Debbie invested in it right at the start.

@Darker IIRC Debbie put some initial funding into Spiritual Home. There was a wonderful episode a long time ago where Debbie was visiting and she, Kate and Alice went out riding together and discussed their lives and prospects. Debbie specifically said ‘that ship has sailed’ in relation to having children. I don’t recall what Alice said, but Kate was wanting to set up something worthwhile for her own life and Debbie was encouraging and said she’d be willing to help with money towards whatever. Shortly afterwards Kate started Spiritual Home.

I don’t need Mustardland to tell me Shula owns her own house. 😄 It’s a great source of annoyance that Justin and Lilian were able to invest in The Stables business - but I don’t think The Stables house was involved in that deal.

I was a bit disappointed that neither Adam nor Debbie moved for a dissolution of the Home Farm partnership - which was what I’ve been anticipating. That would probably have taken Home Farm close to bankruptcy - at which point I’d have hoped Brian would see sense and Adam would get what he’s always wanted.

They could have given Debbie stronger and better dialogue regarding that. Just bleating ‘Ive had enough. I’m out. was a bit useless. She’s an experienced businesswoman (even though employed not self employed) and would surely have arrived with a solid plan to back up her claim to half the farm. Poorly written, to my mind, and hardly rewarding for TG to act.

I assumed that what David and Ruth have bought is Shula and Elizabeth's beneficial interest in the cottage, i.e. effectively their right to inherit.

The thing is - there’s no earthly reason why Ruth and David would have wanted Glebe Cottage!

They already have Rickyard and The Bungalow (and probably one or two other oddments I’ve forgotten about) on Brookfield Farm anyway. And they’re always wringing their poor hands over money. They pretty much have heart attacks whenever Kenton needs to borrow thruppence- and didn’t they get into humiliating trouble borrowing money from Vince? The idea that they would take it upon themselves to acquire a property that’s of no use whatsoever to them is patently absurd.

Really, really poor show on the part of the TA creative team.

Poorly written, to my mind, and hardly rewarding for TG to act

I don't get the Tamsin Greig love on these threads. I didn't know her when she was young Debbie but now she voices the character with an annoying stammering style. She's petulant and thin-skinned. And, I believe, into intensive farming of poor animals.

Eta I realise I'm conflating TG and Debbie! Hopefully, TG isn't into factory farming. I just don't think she adds anything to TA when she appears these days.