Alas poor Nic! I sacked her, Kenton. Death comes to Ambridge. Discuss the remaining Archers here. (Title Edited by MNHQ)

[PseudoBadger]

So it’s taken a sad, untimely death to bring me out of retirement. How I have missed you all
Welcome to thread 86!

BTW William Smethurst left about the same time as Dan Archer died.

You make that sound suspicious somehow Bekabeech

Some great and dedicated research there!

Someone mentioned up thread that someone died about the time SOC and Vanessa Whitburn left. So I just thought I'd extend it.

Ah, I see! Bet the actors all look nervously over their shoulders whenever an editor announces that he or she is moving on.

1976 was the "year of the drought" (so I guess there might have been a few empty ponds that were easier to fill and cover!).

Beeka, have you seen this map (supposed to be from the time when Brian was trying to find places to bury truckloads of TCE) jeremymcneill.tripod.com/ambridgemap.html ?

I reckon Low Mead would be up at the top right near the trout farm.

Near the trout farm? Oh dear. I bet half of Ambridge has Home Farm trout in the freezer, or more likely now on the way to the landfill site at the back of the Meadow Rise estate.

Wow, brilliant research Bekabeech.

Picking up on the comments about the doctor, I have now listened (despite vowing i would not) and the thing that struck me as most cold and distant was the way that the doctor never once referred to Nic by her name when talking to Will, just “your wife” throughout. Seemed like she couldn’t be bothered to learn her name or relate to her as a person in her own right. Perhaps this was authentic, I don’t know. Certainly when my father was dying of septicaemia (the result of an immune system compromised by chemotherapy for leukaemia) the nurses always referred to him as “your Dad” when talking to me, but it’s always weird to refer to a parent by their first name when addressing a child, not so when talking to one spouse about the other. I think they used his first name or at least “MrMcJessie” when talking to my Mum.

Thanks DDD I was intending for ‘discussion’ to include thread titles. Anyhoooo. Don’t want to reignite any embers.

Thank you for your dedication, Bekabeech - when I mentioned William Smethurst's departure, I was indeed wondering if he had done anything to Shake Ambridge to the Core, though not specifically doing away with someone. But though I know VW killed off poor Niggle, I'm wondering if I forgot who SOC did for before he left? OK, Heatherpet and Freda as a result of the floods. But his own SATTC was surely Rob's stabbing?

Madcats that map is fascinating - especially as between 1975 and my own "ordinance survey" Ambridge map, Ambridge hall seems to have moved (it was beyond both Home Farm flats and the Manor House). Nevermind that the map of Home Ferm in the Countryside map leaves off the woodland, and has reversed the signs for To Ambridge and To Bookfield (there is no way they are right in the book).

OK, really sorry that I haven't ploughed through 33 pages, I am an irregular listener to archers, and thought I knew it reasonably well, but when they said 'over to the archers where they are all reeling after Nic's death' all I could think was
Who the hell is Nic?
I have listened to todays episode and I am no wiser. Who is Nic, how have I missed her? Can someone please explain

Will Grundy's wife, Steppemum.

blimey really? I had no idea she was Nic

To be fair you could miss her if you don’t listen regularly. She could go weeks without having a speaking part.

I wish today’s had been yesterday’s episode. Nice to hear people actually talking about Nic properly.

Pip. Sounded like she was responding to news of a power cut at Greenwood.

So what did Joe hear?

Emma didn’t sound very upset . You’d have thought she’d be distraught after the ways things were left between them

Bless you, @steppemum. I think you’ve just neatly quashed the ‘was that a spoiler’ debate upthread!

I’ll be very surprised if they decide Nic’s the hit and run driver. Didn’t the Parish Council election take place not too long after the accident? She wasn’t the type of character who’d have been able to remain so upbeat with that on her conscience.

Agree Emmurrr sounded quite mechanical, though I laughed when she pronounced Poppy as Popeye.

Thinking about the doctor calling her "your wife", I wonder if it's because in the heat of the emergency, they don't want to get names wrong, so avoid them. When the doctor came with a social worker to tell me DH wasn't going to make it, she called me by the SW's name and the SW echt. I said, rather stonily: "I'm echt, she' SW".

I don't resent the error. Must be a shit job.

Emma didn’t sound very upset

I thought she did, but of the two of them she had tried to make to fix things even though it really wasn't her fault. That desire to get on with something "practical" rather than collapse and wail is a very common reaction.

I’ll be very surprised if they decide Nic’s the hit and run driver.

Me too but...

She wasn’t the type of character who’d have been able to remain so upbeat with that on her conscience

That assumes continuity

Many thanks for helpful posts regarding Nic & hit & run.

Absolutely agree there would have been more signposting if Nic was the perpetrator. It’s far more likely she witnessed it - & yes Gun there has been an awful lot regarding Brian & bad driving.

So it’s becoming to look increasingly likely that Brian will end up doing time. How will Jenny cope??

Be a pity to lose Charles Collingwood though...he’s a great actor. 😱

Is there a new editor - I thought Huw Kinnear Jones was still there??

I can't decide if Nics final words were the last confession of Nic the character, i was only charged for 2 packs of sausages in the shop not 3, and never said anything.

Or Nic the scriptwriter's character of convenience admitting she was actually a serial killer.