Spoilers - RnRN accepts (and recaps) Amex so you don't have to!

[RocknRollNerd]

As requested by someone on the Lillian thread herewith a recap of yesterday's Amex:

We start off a presumably swish (but not in the Jennifer sense) Montenegrin hotel one bright sunny morning. Possibly Monday or Tuesday as there are references throughout to TigerLily coming home tomorrow (ie Wednesday in Borsetshire). Tiger is up for some early morning snuggles but Lil continues to work her Princess Di being interviewed by Martin Bashir sad-face voice and rebuffs him. Excuses offered include the fact she's no longer 21 and it's early in the morning. Matt harrumphs (hopefully not a metaphor) and Lil excuses herself to the bathroom.

Some discussion a bit later on as to plans for the day, Tiger bitching and whining about Lil's mood, Lil PrincessDi-s that she's sorry, isn't really up for anything etc. They agree on shopping in town to buy souvenirs for myriad posh (ie not married in via a Blacksmith) Archers. All listeners twitch slightly in anticipation of convincing 'we're actually on location as it's Summertime in Amex' accents.

But no! We find out that Lil has bought Peggy some Pomegranate stuff (she hopes Peggy likes it, which lets face it is unlikely unless it can be used to poison Kiera, feed to the cats or bake into some scones) and Jennifer will just have to settle for 'a purse' as Lil has lost her shopping Mojo.

Tiger wheedles that he wants to buy Lil some jewellery and we finally get our Borsetshire Casting Central (TM) accent from a shopkeeper - he could be supposed to be Montenegrin, he might have been already cast when this plot was supposed to take place in Turkey or he may in fact just have learned his accent whilst watching that Doctor Who episode set on a Russian Submarine...it's really very hard to tell. Matt proves he's losing his business mojo by getting a mere 50 Euro off a 600 Euro necklace. Shopkeepervich throws in some extra irony for free about how the necklace must be bought so Matt can keep his beautiful wife

Cut to plot exposition scene set in a church just in case anyone happens to listen to Amex and not the Archers (FFS!). Lil is interrupted by a British lady (who I swear sounds like Anita Dobson when she's reminding us she's not just Aaaaaaannnnnnggggge and is a proper fox-bothering actress and everything - sadly however it isn't Celia turning all Single White Female). British Lady has a Montenegrin son-in-law and SHOCK! Horror! Montenegrin grand-children. Lil cranks up the PrincessDi-ing and explains that she lost someone very close to her who she loved, can't see how she can go on, can't talk about it etc.

Matt is cross and phoning Lil as he can't find her but gets voicemail...Lil eventually appears from the church and Matt clocks she's been crying. He suggests lunch, Lil declines and Matt strops off.

Cut back to the hotel with very little time left of the pod-cast so Matt is forced to engineer The. Big. Denoument. They bicker about why Lil is unhappy, she plays the 'I stuck by you when you were in jail card' and PD's about how it's all about Matt never about her....Matt keeps manouevering and asks her to just be honest with him....Lil tries to be dodge it but there's no escaping it, with mere seconds to go Matt drops the bombshell: he knows she was screwing his brother, he knows she was seeing Paul!

jingley jangley music and that's it until Thursday folks!

[Bumply]

Thanks for saving me having to listen to Amex.
You write very well, though I could have done without the Princess Di sad face image now stuck in my brain.

[Panzee]

Love the reference to the Radio 4 Accent. Many a play has been enhanced by Unspecified East European.



(Yes I know I said on the other thread I was staying out of here but I couldn't resist! :) )

[BoreOfWhabylon]

That is a superb synopsis, RnRN!

Thank you so much

[TaurielTest]

Marvellous synopsis. You are spot on about the forrin jewellery merchant. I don't entirely blame the actor though - what can you do when the SW are lazy/shameless enough to give you lines like "I geev you good price!"

[HerbertGistcool]

Just listened to it myself. I did wonder who the random woman in the church was and what Pawel was doing in Montenegro.
Also why is the theme tune so awful?!

[PrincessFiorimonde]

Thanks, RnRN. I do think it's bad that this was on Amex rather than the main programme.

[JollyGolightly]

It's unforgivably lame that this was on AmEx and not the main one! I never usually pay any attention to AmEx but felt I had to on this occasion, having put in so many hours listening to this very patchy storyline. Your synopsis was far more entertaining than the episode itself.

[GrimmaTheNome]

Brilliant recap!

[Somethingyesterday]

Wonderful! Well done!

I actually thought "woman in church" sounded like the actress who was last heard being Paul's daughter.

And I agree it's SHAMEFUL that after all these months they wrote the climax of the story into a show that not everyone wants to listen to.

[heronsfly]

Thank you, that was great,

[Lilymaid]

Thanks so much for sparing us from AmEx. How ridiculous (yet again) to finish off a main story elsewhere. Perhaps Vanessa Whitburn's successor will make sure that future AmEx stories are separate from maIn story lines.

[Thesunalwayshinesontv]

You have done us all a great service RnRN, thank you very much. Great précis, too, very evocative.

So Matt and Lillian get back on Weds do they, and next episode is AmEx on Thursday? So they'll appear on normal TA with bombshell having gone off - will the aftermath play out on normal TA or on AmEx? If the former, what's the point of this first episode of AmEx? If the latter, what was the point of having the affair happen on normal TA? Grrr.

[GrimmaTheNome]

It would be quite fun if they did alternate realities... if in TA Matt didn't confront Lillian - and then see how from that one difference the ripples spread out to affect the whole village in various ways (starting with, in one Brenda leaves, the other she stays)

Don't suppose they are planning anything that radical though!

[ppeatfruit]

Oh Bull I was listening to it on Play it Again and it went "off' before the final denouement I also commented to another poster that it was just padding before reading the spoiler (well related BTW RnRn thanks)!! .

grimma that would cost them money and involve imagination!!! Don't be daft!!!

[heronsfly]

I cant work out how they are going to join this up either,although i like the idea of an alternate reality .
I think Lil will just go off to see Jolene crying and saying'he knows, Matt knows' ect.

[ppeatfruit]

Like she's so thick she didn't pick up the clanging hints he's been dropping for weeks!!!! Come on script writers isn't she meant to be intelligent?

[elpth]

Thanks RocknRollNerd (and love the name, I'm a massive Tim Minchin fan!). Great recap.

[BuiltForComfort]

Great synopsis! I have succumbed to Amex for this series. Presumably Joleme will get a call in tonight's TA from Lilian telling her what's happened.

Re Amex - I survived the Alastair/young hussy storyline but gave up when it moved on to Fallon and Jazzer having a shag. (Basically Amex is about sex and a tiny bit of swearyness or coarser language isn't it? You'd never get someone saying "screwing" on TA.)

I love the idea of Amex as a parallel / alternate reality though, that would be great. They could bring back Nigel, see how Alastair's doing with his gambling addiction, give Caroline and Oliver another go at fostering, bring Karl back to torment Amy and generally pick up any other bits of plot they forgot about developing beyond a three week story arc...

[cryhavoc]

I LIKE AmEx. I thought the Joe/Liverpool story was brilliant. However, I agree that the confrontation should have been on the main programme. Is this going to be the AmEx thread?

[Kiriwawa]

RocknRoll - you are as entertaining as NBS - bravo!

[RocknRollNerd]

Gosh! Thanks for the kind comments, wasn't sure if you'd like the 'style'...I'll try to do each ep if people want? I listen on podcasts so there may be a day or so lag each time. Apologies for the typos and bits of bad grammar/rogue words - I listened in the car whilst driving and then only had 10 mins to dash something off.

Someone said about timescales for tomorrow's episode - Amex always seems to have its own timeline so sometimes it picks up exactly where it left off and then it can finish almost 'after' the day its broadcast if that makes sense; other times it mirrors 'real time' more closely. I guess it comes from only being on twice a week, it plays a bit fast and loose sometimes.

[SomewhereBeyondTheSea]

Bwahaha at Princess Di analogy!

(Shameless bookmarking of place)

I disapprove of AmEx entirely and this denouement being moved off the main programme is a really bonkers decision.

[JessieMcJessie]

Just listened to episode 2 of Amex. Shockingly bad, didn't even pick up during the big comfrontation so we disn't ge Lilian's reaponse, and "Compare The Meerkat" man was beyond the pale. Sure I will enjoy RnR's recap more.

[ppeatfruit]

IKWYM jessie the fact he's been lying to HER for weeks didn't seem to be picked up by her she's playing the victim AGAIN,I don't get why the SWs have changed her character at least she decided to go on her own.

[Somethingyesterday]

Meerkat Man

I don't understand. Matt was brought into Ambridge as a ruthless businessman who had made himself rich through his wits. So what on EARTH....?