Archers thread #199: Kaboom! The Aldridges are self-destructing, and it's GLORIOUS. 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, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd drop everything to help Helen create a new cheese on national minimum wage, or other 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 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-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.)

If you haven't heard last night's episode (Friday 22nd May) you really must. It's episodes like that that keep me addicted. Funny how often they involve the Aldridges, the most dysfunctional and also by far the most interesting family in Ambridge. Also very well acted on the whole. How lovely to hear Tamsin Greig in TA, but I wonder if we ever will again.

Some cracking posts towards the end of the last thread, which is here: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/5518503-archers-thread-198-josh-sent-to-patagonia-pip-stays-put-wrong-way-round-discuss-the-archers-here

Over to you!

Brian really does sound like he's losing it

I hope Brian has a word with sensible and competent Miranda and that she advises him to simply sell the land and walk away, perhaps giving his shares in the partnership to the three who are his blood relatives (Kate, Alice and Ruairi) thus increasing their income but not Adam's or Debbie's and giving them the ability to outvote the others. And also make a new Will in their favour.

Adam could then contest all of this, lose both cases. and die (preferably on air) in a fit of rage, Debbie would just shrug, silently, in Hungarian.

You can tell I worked in probate, can't you?

Is the partnership viable without Home Farm land?
To make having all the machinery viable they need to be farming sufficient land.
And I don't understand what, without Brian's land, the non farming offspring bring to the table.

Probably not. So they'd have to dissolve the partnership. Goodness, how sad!

I said months ago that Adam should move to dissolve the partnership. The complexities would probably take it to the brink of bankruptcy - which is probably the only thing that would force the non-farming siblings to actually bring their dad to his senses.

That wouldn't matter to Brian, though, as the land is his and not linked to the partnership.

<on edit> Also, I don't think Adam has enough shares to invoke dissolving the partnership. I'm not sure how this stuff works, but I assume everyone else - or at least Brian and a couple of the others - could just outvote him?

🤷‍♀️ I’ve forgotten everything I was ever supposed to know on the subject …

This ep was especially good for Martin setting Brian off: talking about the joys of retirement when he was on the money about the need for everything to be tight. Though now I think of it, Brine's flounce enabled the Martin and Adam to talk with him not there.

Hang on. Presumably the BL contract is with the partnership to farm BL land (and not for production on home farm land?) in which Adam can get on with that. The Land Rover belongs to the partnership and so I would expect that all heavier plant machinery would do too (the Land Rover is the most plausible to belong solely to Brian….)

God, the years of my life I’ve spent listening to Adam and Brian discussing the cost and purchasing and use and care of combine harvesters costing more than the homes occupied by the vast majority of humans on this planet.

This storyline is a fecking outrage.

(So they’re doing something right … 😅)

It’s very confusing. Brian has withdrawn the land, but the rest is complete fog. I guess we just need to suspend our disbelief and try not to scream.

Did Ed really say he’d checked the deer, or is Adam gaslighting him?

It was good hearing David standing up for Adam.

(I wonder how Miranda is getting on in her big farmhouse…?)

Maybe they've all escaped. Or died. 😱

well, brian (the village newcomer) is NOT an archer after all...

I meant gaslighting Brian btw, hopefully that was obvious.

They can’t all be dead because the end of this story is King Lear Brian living out in the woods amongst the deer, besmeared in their blood and wearing a deerskin cloak. Surely.

It is unclear what the Homw Farm land brings in terms of income though - it must be something tho or Brian/the partnership would be reliant solely o the BL contract and surely a brilliant businessman like Brian wouldn't do that? So maybe there are other contracts that we don't hear about (like Ed & Adam's contracts? Presumably both are employed by the partnership?).

So after the 30 days are up and the HF land is withdrawn, Adam & Ed just carry on using the partnership equipment for the BL contract? Or does withdrawing the land dissolve the partnership (cannot believe that)

I know what you meant but if nobody had checked them ... Never mind.

I went to the "The Archers Live At 75" show in Manchester on Sunday. The cast we saw were Jazzer, Tracey, Brian and Lillian. Jazzer and Tracey were lovely and I think Charles Collingwood and Sunny Ormonde just play versions of themselves. I am not suggesting that either of them are adulterers or river poisoners though.

😡

Look - I don’t even like Hannah. She’s always seemed incongruous in Ambridge, and doomed to involuntary loneliness.

But bloody hell! Not a single person in that village gives a fig about her. I’m sick of her being shoved from pillar to post to suit other characters’ agendas. Why are they all so selfish?

It’s just not on. At all.

I can't stand Pip.

15 minutes that made me want to never listen again unless they find a way of dedding Pip.

Pip blethering on about how the strain of Not Knowing was killing her and Stella, next minute saying she'll ignore all that until after the wedding. Ridiculous.

Men can carry the faulty gene too, so if Pip is carrying it and Ruth isn't, that'll put the frighteners on Josh and Ben.

I think most of Pip's faulty genes are brain-related. Come on Cleo, you know you want to bite her (and Rosie)!

I'd prefer them to be eaten by a vengeful badger.