Yes! Jude is out of the way. The only real problem this story had, aside from the ongoing annoyances at David putting his size fifteen wellies in it every step of the way, is that it was so obvious from the start. Jude was older, not that bothered, pretty darn lazy, whilst Pip - although head over heels in love - was none of these things. Her friend Izzy put it best, suggesting that when Pip was with Jude, she was not a particularly nice person. Thank goodness that she has gone back to counting grass and sizing up cows. I find it slightly odd that she would return so quickly to the bosom of the farmyard, but perhaps she wanted comfort in something familiar.

Two other notes on that family. Josh is turning into quite the handy young man - helping out with the bees, supporting Jamie, making videos, and helping Pip with her counting… thing. This is the same kid that was spraying graffiti on the bus stop, yes? Secondly, I do so enjoy it when David and Elizabeth butt heads - with lovely Nigel in the background trying to keep the peace.

Now, I reckon I could fill seven blog posts about Kathy. I could, but do I want to? Is she worth talking about? Why is she so snippy all the time? She vacuums around Kenton’s feet when he has a hangover, gets annoyed when he texts her to let her know he’s not coming home, and then complains to Pat all the time about how she doesn’t care about him anymore. She said she was going to not rush into any decisions for Jamie’s sake, but she doesn’t seem to be making much of an effort. She is even super grateful that Shula has taken over all birthday celebrations so she doesn’t have to think about. If it’s got that bad, surely it’s worth taking a break from each other? It’s doing Jamie no good having that hostility in the air.

I have been firmly on Kenton’s side, although I did think him stopping to chat to the New Zealand travellers instead of calling Kathy back was a bit cheeky. (Who are they, by the way? Why is New Zealand the only country associated with Ambridge?)

Plus points for The Archers having a Facebook story, no matter how minor it was. A pretty good representation of how scary Facebook can be, too.

I quite enjoyed the mystery game at the fete, although I only realised halfway through that we were going to hear the whole story, and I should probably have been paying attention to try and work out whodunit. I couldn’t have beaten Mike and Vicky though. As irritating as Vicky can be, it is quite tremendous how she throws herself into the community spirit without even blinking. Characters doing other characters was quite confusing, though. Well played by all involved. David’s accent was ridiculous!

Poor Joe getting fired from the shop, although… they must have known he would try a few schemes. That’s what the Grundy’s do. Susan is going to explode soon, all the little things that keep going wrong at the shop. I can understand her being worried about the post office side, especially if she is personally responsible for it, but the fruit and veg and biscuits, she’s just going to have to let go.

My final thought - I have never even heard of a veal and ham pie. Was there ever going to be a market for this? Tom put a lot of effort into finding out, and in the end twisted his reasons for giving up to appease Vicky. The Tucker family remain united.