Discuss The Archers #107: Beware of the Dragon! Peggy's in her den awaiting bids - who gets the hoard and who gets flamed?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to be Susan's best friend or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from //www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3439443-keep-it-to-yourself-the-archers-spoilers-thread-4, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, DadDadDad has created this useful thread: //www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to @MrsGrindah for inspiration for the title of this thread. I was hoping to find a way to combine it with @C8H10N4O2's inspired suggestion of '"The Assumption of the Ambridge Angel' and @chemenger's comment 'I hope she gets kicked in the head by a horse and wakes up an atheist', but it all got a bit too lengthy.

Odds on Joe shuffling off this mortal coil before this thread ends? We've been marking/anticipating his passing for a while now.

[DadDadDad]

Thanks, Gasp0de. So far I don't think the SW have given us a whiff of Joe's demise. I guess there's a lag between the actor dying and episodes being written, recorded and broadcast.

[Fink]

Thanks, Wonder Dog.

It was mentioned a long while back that Johnny had taken Eammon's name. It's a shame he has so little contact with them (I know he's going up there next week, but that seems to be something that only happens a few times a year), they seem like decent parents. Compare & contrast with how Helen and Tom have turned out ... Maybe he has a lot of contact when we're not listening!

[EBearhug]

Just checking in...

[willywillywillywilly]

Thanks for the new thread (I normally just lurk along).
I always imagine Justin to look like Julian Fellowes

[AskingQuestionsAllTheTime]

Gawd, that's perfect, willy!

Thank you for the new thread, Gasp0de

[MerdedeBrexit]

Thank you for the new thread, Gaspode!
We know that the episodes are recorded 6 weeks ahead of being broadcast and presumably they're written a bit before that? Didn't Ted Kelsey record what were to be his last scenes very shorly before he died in April? His death was three months to the date today - I'm sure that Phil's death came quite quickly after Norman Painting died, so I do wonder if they're leaving it till the day the Grundies are due to move out of Grange Farm.
Furtling around trying to work out dates, I found this article/obituary by Nancy Banks-Smith, which I missed at the time: Joe Grundy: Farewell from me and the ferrets
About Justin - I can't help but see him as James Bellamy from "Upstairs Downstairs"! Just realised the coincidence of him being with Lilian, whose son is James Bellamy! Sometimes I'm very, very slow!

[Fink]

The thing with Joe is that the reports around the time of the actor's death seemed to indicate that he had been ill for some time, e.g. the David actor talking about having been to visit him I thought probably meant he was no longer able to get out and about. So you'd think the SWs would have been expecting his death sometime in the near future and wouldn't be wholly unprepared. It seems odd that they would have to wait for an entirely new round of writing and recording. I assumed it was a bit like Last Word, where they have obituaries ready for a lot of the people famous enough to be on the programme and who are old/sick/very very famous. It just seems sloppy that the SWs would only deal with the death of an actor when it actually happens.

Maybe my expectations of the SWs are too high ... or it could be from working in the Church, we do a lot of preparation for death!

[AskingQuestionsAllTheTime]

Norman Painting died on 29th October, 2009, and Phil Archer was found dead in his chair with Elgar playing on 12th February, 2010.

Edward Kelsey died on 23rd April, 2019, so Joe might last until August on the basis of Painting and Phil; and actually they don't have to kill him until they choose, do they?

[BoreOfWhabylon]

Thanks Gasp0de

[MerdedeBrexit]

Thanks for the info, AskingQuestionsAllTheTime - good grief, my memory is getting worse! Or maybe time passes quickly for me?! But then, I hadn't realised it's been almost 10 years since Norman Painting died!

[Taswama]

Thanks for the new thread Gaspode . A belated BOOP for Pat telling Tom to sort the pigs out and also for Toby giving Rex a pep talk on pig farming.

[QuaterMiss]

Thank you Gasp0de

I fell asleep in the middle of attempting to contrive a title combining Dragon’s Den, Love Island, BGT, Strictly, X Factor and I’m an Archers Listener, Get Me Out of Here - but cumbersomeness and heat defeated me. Yours is much better!

It was strange yesterday to hear Phoebe portrayed in a less than angelic light - not something I remember happening before. Obviously we want rounded characters but I hope she isn’t being transformed into a completely different and rather objectionable person.

[Motoko]

Thanks Gasp0de.

Re Justin, I've always thought he sounds like Geoffrey Palmer, so it's his face I see when Justin's talking.

[MrsGrindah]

Thanks Gasp I’m still laughing every time I read “ I hope she gets kicked in the head...”!

[chemenger]

I'm slightly nonplussed by the fact that my most notable post on MN is one where I wish violence on a fellow middle aged woman. I've contributed so much in the field of university admissions (I've given up on this after being accused of lying), what-to-do-in-Boston, the use of dehumidifiers in laundry drying, the manufacture of gin and all I am remembered for is hoping a horse kicks Shula in the head.I still hope it happens though.

As I predicted she is going to spend five minutes of every episode until the end of time telling every other character one by one of her "calling", Elizabeth is done now, presumably Jill is next and so on until someone strangles her with the sleeve of her beige cardi. Have I mentioned I don't like Shula?

[MikeUniformMike]

Hi Gasp0de. Thanks, Jonneh Phillips.
Re the SWs - they could have hardly asked EK to record some dying scenes could they.

[Eastie77]

Oh dear. I have a real sense of impending doom for Em and Ed.

[QuaterMiss]

I suspect that feeling is even more widespread than gloom over today’s political pantomime Eastie ...

[ADarkandStormyKnight]

Here comes baby Grundy...

[HatingTheBigShow]

Where did that come from? They have 2, work all hours and struggle for money as it is without going on maternity leave and paying for childcare.

[QuaterMiss]

Well - they do ‘only’ have Keira between them.

There’ll be no official maternity leave. Nor paid childcare. The chicken factory will make Emma redundant. Grundys will babysit. I just pray they don’t find themselves homeless with an extra child.

[MollyButton]

You did notice that Tom isn't after Organic pork for his sausages? He's just asked Rex to supply "high welfare, free range" pork.
I don't think he discussed that with his family. And I do half expect Tony to have another heart attack at this rate (overexerting himself in the heat).

[R4]

And I do half expect Tony to have another heart attack at this rate (overexerting himself in the heat).
What does Feminist Pat do all day, is she babysitting? Why can't Tony babysit and Pat do the more physical stuff (lugging buckets of water isn't that physical).
Tom has gone off the Organic path before, when he got non-organic feed. That ended up with him running away to Canada. Fingers crossed, eh?

[MikeUniformMike]

I think Pat milks the goats and makes soup for dinner and supper - quite possibly for breakfast too, babysits, and thinks of fancy meals to make Batnasher feel part of the family, while treading on eggshells around Hellin.

[InkySplatter]

Thanks for the new thread! I've been away and only just caught up. As annoying as Phoebe was tonight, it was rather fun to hear her sounding like Kate's daughter for once.

Tom, Shula UGH.

This week I have been making kefir. I can see why Lynda took it in medicinal doses. All rather exciting but I do so hate to feel like Tom.