Is Ruth the centre of Brookfield?

I think you are right – I don’t see her as the centre either. I think I see Brookfield in soap terms, in that Brookfield itself is the centre of Brookfield. The farm itself is the heart and anyone who runs it is maintaining that heart so it can go on beating.

I’m not sure I share your feelings about Ruth in that I don’t think she needs to necessarily ‘do’ anything else. I quite like the fact she’s slightly ‘other’ despite being in Ambridge for years. This rings true to me of village life, where you can be seen as an outsider/newcomer even if you’ve been around for decades and very active in the community.

I don’t dislike Ruth at all, even though she’s been a bit whiny at times over the years. I can’t say I’m particularly enjoying her current story. I used to quite like her scenes with Usha and also when Jill was being a bit Alpha Kitchen Goddess with her. I like the fact she works hard, and doesn’t go arseing around like David does sometimes getting his knickers in a twist.

I suspect Usha absolutely sees her friend as the heart of Brookfield though. So that rings true, in a way, from Usha’s perspective at least.

Ruth is quite business-like about Brookfield, unlike David. She and Pip were planning how to spend the compo they’d get if Route B went ahead, not to mention Ruth’s complete lack of soul-searching before she came to the astounding conclusion that moving the family and farm hundreds of miles north to be near Heatherpet was their only choice! Pity Phil didn’t appear to her in a dream and stop all that nonsense before it started and spare us the Great Non-Move story.

It’s interesting that Pip speaks so cheerfully of Ruth being relegated to Hearth and Home, leaving Pip free to strut around the farm giving orders to David. David did say rather gloomily that that ‘mustn’t happen’ but he’s putty in his daughter’s hands.

Ruth is going to have to watch it.