Wednesday 21 December 2011

A slurry coloured Christmas at Brookfield: The Archers Thursday 15th December 2011

  • All because of badgers?
  • Lynda takes advantage of Fallon (and she likes it)
  • Molly and Tilly Button’s coconut dance
  • Now Lynda’s making Fallon scream!
  • Pat and Tony will get to meet Rich



All because of badgers?

There’s a slurry leak at Brookfield.

[David] “If it’s going in the brook as well, it’s a disaster”

Seems ‘something’ has given way in the slurry lagoon, and its leaking slurry.

[Clem – some bloke who know about fixing slurry lagoons] “You might be right about the badgers” 

It hasn’t reach Hayden Brook as yet (well, there’s no dead fish to be seen at the moment). They’ll need to drain the lagoon to see where the problem is.

[Bert] “It could be worse David. At least the herd’s only been inside for a couple of weeks. A similar thing happened in your father’s days …”

(David stops Bert there – they don’t have time for reminiscence)

Clem rings round other farms to see if they can take on extra slurry so that David can drain the lagoon, but has no luck. Something to do with new NVZ regulations, which means everyone wants to be sure they have enough capacity for their own slurry.

So – David will now have to phone the Environmental Agency for an EA for deregation (or something like that – not my area of expertise). He needs to have their agreement that he can spread slurry, as long as it’s well away from water. He’s got to be able to drain the slurry somewhere.

[David] “You know what gets me, even if I do play by the book, I still might end up getting fined … Don’t you just love dairy. At the moment it’s just one problem after another.”

David also made another mention of badgers:

[David] “The damn badgers got busy!”

As if badgers needed any new bad press with David.

Though how badgers got into a slurry lagoon to make it leak, only David can explain.

Notice to all badgers: stay away from Brookfield. Grange Farm is a safer bet …


Lynda takes advantage of Fallon (and she likes it)

[Lynda] “I hope you don’t feel I’m taking advantage …”

Fallon says she isn’t, but is also more than happy to be roped into sorting out the scenery and staging of Christmas Around the World.

Poor Fallon.

She seems to have a lot of time on her hands.


Molly and Tilly Button’s coconut dance

Is that an appropriate dance for two children to do in public?

More worryingly:

[Fallon] “Have we got extreme event insurance?”


Now Lynda’s making Fallon scream!

Lynda seemed very keen for Fallon to go into her and Robert’s living room.

Which Fallon does.

And screams when she does so.

[Lynda] “Oh no. Not her as well!”

Later on, once Fallon has calmed down:

[Fallon] “Sorry about the little scream earlier … it was that hideous gleam in his eyes when I walked in”

[Lynda] “Hideous, rather than endearing?”

[Fallon] “Terrifying”

[Lynda] “Oh, what if I have him peeping over a little holly hedge, perhaps with a jaunty red ribbon tied to one tusk … doesn’t conjure up images of the frozen north and Santa’s workshop”

[Fallon] “He’d only go there to eat the elves!”

[Lynda] “Oh dear … never ,mind, you’re not alone in your opinion … unfortunately no-one’s taken him to heart”

[Fallon] “Table decorations are very subjective, Lynda”

[Lynda] “Far from it. Everyone seems to like Vicky’s effort, whereas they all seem to think my centre piece is thoroughly repulsive”

And with Oscar (and his parents, of course) coming up for Christmas, Lynda also doesn’t want to risk scaring the beejesus out of him as well.

[Lynda] “So I’m afraid it’s back to the attic for my little walrus”

Aw. That’s a shame.

Bless Lynda and her creative quirks. She really isn’t appreciated.


Pat and Tony will get to meet Rich

Tony gets a shock with Eamon calls him.

Seems Eamon has talked to Sharon:

[Eamon] “You can imagine how she reacted …”

[Tony] “So it’s a no?”

[Eamon] “That’s up to you Tony … first of all, you need to know that I’ve sweated blood over this, okay …

“me and Sharon talked it right through. To be frank, we wished you’d never got in touch. But, we’re prepared to let you and your wife see Rich once and once only .. and there are conditions Tony.

“You need to understand we’re not really doing it for your sake, we’re doing it for our boy. Like I told Sharon,. He won’t be happy if he does ever want to know about his blood family and he finds out we stopped his grandparents getting in touch. That is the only reason we’re saying yes … and it’s got to happen on our terms, or not at all”

The terms are that Sharon and Eamon will be with Rich the whole time. That it’ll be a very short meeting, in public. And that Tony and Pat can only say they’re old friends of Sharon’s – they’re expressly forbidden from saying that they’re Rich’s grandparents.

[Eamon] “If you ever look like you’re going to talk about his blood father, we’ll walk away … I’m not having him shaken up … it’s not only your wife suffering here, Sharon’s completely ripped up by this, and we didn’t want anything of this remember

"That’s it. A one shot deal. So make you mind up Tony, yes or no?”

[Tony] “Yes”

So, Eamon will call back with a when/where when he and Sharon are ready.

Tony was right to say yes straight away, before they changed their minds, but wonder if Pat will be happy with that?

Even if not – surely this can only help? It’ll at least stop Pat wondering.

Or, will it be a case of a little is most definitely not enough?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Doesn't anyone else think Helen and Tom are spoilt, egocentric brats over this? Why should they have any say on whether or not their parents contact the boy? The only one who has the right to forbid it is the boy's mother

Inga McVicar said...

I'm with you. Bout time they cut those apron strings!