Don’t read this if you haven’t heard the most recent episode!
I can’t believe what they did with the Archers last night. Normally they avoid the utterly, gratuitously cruel; the heartbreaking; the vicious – but Tom’s last-minute jilting of Kirsty took the biscuit. It was horrid. There was very little build-up to it, as there normally is with Archers story-lines, and frankly it was so unpleasant to listen to that it moved the entire series a giant step closer to the misery-gulch that EastEnders inhabits. Not good! Now, if they’d had some build-up over the previous weeks or months; some insight into what was going on with Tom and how John’s death had affected him, then it might have been understandable: but it more or less came out of nowhere. There was no indication at all to listeners that Tom was anything less than devoted to his pigs and to the farm – if anything the break-up of his relationship to Brenda was caused by him being too devoted; too obsessed. He and Kirsty seemed ideally suited: they were planning their house, she was understanding of his devotion to pigs – it all seemed good. The only build-up to this catastrophe was on Wednesday night after Tom visited John’s grave – and frankly this whole plot-line – or plot-bomb – looks like a desperate headline-grabbing attempt to outdo EastEnders in shock and misery. Bad move, BBC! Bad, bad move!
If you can’t listen to the Archers any more, what can you listen to?
As someone on the message-board said, he’s only just got over Nigel’s scream and now he has to deal with Kirsty’s howl.
Horrid.
I have nothing more to say today. Oh, except that I watched episode 2 of Jamaica Inn and had to resort to the computer so I could have subtitles. Really indecipherable.
I wish last night’s Archers had also been indecipherable.
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 
I was appaled with the plot bomb, it just seemed like something so totally senseless. I have listened to the Archers for over 50 years, there is something very heartwarming about it, that reassures the listener, that thre is a normality out side your own front door. But last night the everyday story of country folk was thrown outside and down the pipe into the septic tank and slurry pit.
Edward j Mason would be turning in his grave at the attack on his creation.
Who ever sanctioned this breach of trust with the listening faithful should be sacked. I could not believe what was being broadcast, it was so out of character for Tom. This is a young , ambitious man, who is passionate about his business. He is a role model for positive thinking. He has an old doom laden father, who sucks joy from the air around him, a nag of a mother who tries to inflict her will on everybody around her, and despite that he has created a business. To create a business you have to have a bucket load of self belief , you could not achieve what Tom Archer has done, without it.
We have had no mention of John’s death when I believe his tractor fell onto him, for years. Yet we are supposed to swallow this self destruction of Tom and Kirsty’s wedding, after a visit to the grave yard and a few comments from dreary Tony. This storyline is ludicrous, and actually has destroyed my affection for the whole Archers story. It’s sad that after all these years, some idiot has destroyed one of the last refuges of English life.
As to what to listen to now? I reside in the world of comedy to be found on 4 extra. Pure nostalgia, plus ed reardon’ week, and the marvellous creations of Marcus Brigstock, Giles Wemmbley-Hogg , and the ClRe in the community cast and particularly Narly.
I doubt if I will ever immerse myself in Ambridge again, and that makes me very sad.
Couldn’t have put it better myself. Left a horrible taste in the mouth