It's odd though - it's been high stakes for so long now, and this thread has flown with such a hot topic.
We'll be back to such fare as heatherpet croaking on the motorway, and when Real Tom jilted Kirsty, once this is all over! I won't mind though - I like it here

Rob is doing his best to get back into normal village life (well his version of it!) just before the trial! Coaching at the cricket club, securing a job, hiring a nanny to look after Henry (and Jack) whilst he is at work. All done, no doubt, to present himself as a responsible citizen at the court case in September.

Helen had better watch out!

Freddie's back

Hope he's going to be troublesome...


How dare William say Eddie's despicable. Disrespectful little wretch

Eddie's argument for bagging a couple of birds every now and then seemed pretty sound to me, but what do I know of country life?

The Archers! thread aka The Deadly Assassination Squad

I'm the opposite - I was cheering Will and (even more so) Clarrie on. Eddie is putting his son's job at risk and those birds are not his despite the whinging attitude he's developed in recent months. Both Joe and Eddie are getting on my last nerve now with their sense of entitlement and total refusal to accept any responsibility. The world does not owe them a living and their ingratitude to Oliver and Caroline is awful. I imagine we're supposed to find them endearing and sympathetic. I don't. Quite the reverse now.

Joe and Eddie have really annoyed me too with their attitude to Grange Farm, but an occasional bit of poaching by locals seems pretty harmless to me. And, imo, there is no excuse for Will speaking to Eddie the way he did tonight, in his stupid croaky voice.

I feel the same as you.

It's always been frowned on throughout history with very severe penalties. Even now you can be fined or jailed for it, so it's not harmless. It's stealing someone else's property and theft is always wrong.

I'm the other way - rooting for the underdog.
I think it is morally questionable to throw tenants off land they've farmed for generations, albeit with breaks and a mottled history! If it were a council farm I doubt it could be done.

As for the poaching - I'm ambivalent about that too.
We only lost the right to forage when the toffs enclosed off all our land. Granted that was centuries ago but poaching is a kind of legacy of the rebellion against that. I love the 17th century little verse:
"The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common;
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose."

I missed that part of the storyline; did the listeners get to hear that phonecall- do we know why she made it?

Loving the sinister "Oh no- he's found fresh meat!" overtones to the sweet and trusting Charlotte being taken in by Rob's version of events.

She's needs to run a mile. She came across very timid and acquiescent.
The bastard is lining up a new wife.

We did hear the call, and Helen was mostly blaming herself for what was happening but she did, after gentle coaxing, more or less admit that Rob had raped her. Helen had to end the call abruptly but the person at the end of the phone line gave her a reference number to quote if she should call again, so there is obviously a record somewhere of the call.

We agree again, Welsh Lad!

I once went beating on a shoot. The guns took over 100 brace of pheasant that day. Most of them ended up being buried in a pit.

I'd prefer them to be stolen and eaten, frankly. Sporting shoots are ridiculous nowadays. The covers are so overstocked that a blind person could get a reasonable bag. I could have caught several brace with my bare hands, the damn things are so reluctant to fly.

The guns were all city banker types who'd paid upwards of £500 for the day, just to kill birds that were thrown away.

It was also the hardest day's work I've ever done and the beaters were paid the princely sum of £18 for 6-7 hours work (about 13-14 years ago, admittedly). And as for the wonderful shoot lunch: we sat in a smelly barn and ate whatever we'd brought with is, no lush Jennifer Aldridge grub for us!

I've missed a couple of episodes this week. Must catch up - I haven't a clue who Charlotte is.

Henwee's new nanny.

Oh no! Pheasants are so backward aren't they - they even fly in slow motion.
There are loads near me: they saunter into the middle of the road and just stand there even if you drive up to them and rev. Totally thick.

Freddie is glorious - so grouchy and petulant
And now appalling GCSE grades!

Thanks I bet he does have her lined up as his next victim.

Alice's voice tonight Worse than I remembered - I didn't know whether to laugh or crawl under the table and rock. She sounds so spoilt and whiny. I hope Adam does kill her for wrecking the tractor/drill thing. If not I have a great idea for the next village fête; Alice sticks her head through a board and people throw wet sponges at her - every fifth sponge to be replaced by a large brick.

Freddie getting pissed after getting his rubbish results I love Freddie. I hope he's going to be Trouble.

Lizzie seemed very grateful to Doc Locke - him being so 'good with Freddie' is going to make her see him as a possible life partner I think. Just in time maybe for Shula to get free of Alistair. I wonder which sister will be disappointed... I've got a feeling Richard would choose Shula, and I prefer her to Elizabeth, but either way would make a good storyline.

Doc Locke would be mad to shackle himself to St Shula of Sanctimony. Lizzie is so much more fun, and probably doesn't smell of horse.

Freddie is fab. Ambridge is overdue for a proper moody teenager causing trouble.

Can Adam not just try to kill Alice and get Pip instead in a case of either mistaken identity or caught in the crossfire? I feel Alice is still salvageable. I do not feel the same way about Pip.

To go back to the Eddie/Will/Clarrie story, I would be more inclined to turn a blind eye to a couple of pheasants (although I'm afraid I'm annoyingly sanctimonious about respecting other people's property and Eddie's seeming disregard for Will's job also got on my wick) if it wasn't for the fact that Eddie's and (even more so) Joe's insufferable ingratitude and sense of entitlement with regard to Grange Farm hadn't been scratching at my nerve endings for so long now. Joe in particular is peeing me off to such an extent that I'd quite like to personally size him up for his wooden overcoat.

I feel sorry for old Joe - it is his home after all, and he is very old.
They sometimes have items like this on the news i.e when an old folks' home closes and how distressing it is for the elderly people who have to start over in an unfamiliar setting.

The writers have made a meal of this though I agree. It's mischievous of them to also not give Oliver and Caroline a worthy reason for selling it (eg to pay a medical bill or something) - instead it's to pay for the grotesquely bourgeois Tuscan villa!!

There have been more than a couple of story line threads left unravelled - for instance when Rob taunted Adam about "the lengths your sort will go to protect each other" or WTTE when he learned that Ian was acting as character witness for Helen. Surely Adam would have asked Ian about that?

Hopefully tonight's event will shock Helen into action and she wil be on the phone to Anna asap.

Anyone else notice that subtle little mention of the plot of Madame Butterfly and Brian's response. Rhuaridh (!) will be on the scene soon I have no doubt.

I'm assuming Caz tried to top herself.
This story is seriously starting to rattle now; tonight was farcical.
Using a suicide (which is very serious) as a mere catalyst for Helen's epiphany in another story is very un-Archers like imv. Pity.

Toby slobbering over Pipkin wasn't welcome either.