Thread #105: Curtains for Emma, Hilda - Joe? Red carpet for June Spencer on her 100th birthday, we hope! Discuss the rich tapestry of Ambridge life here.

[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 LillianGish and BuckingFrolics for ideas for this thread title. I went with the less Rabelaisian of LG's ideas!

On 14th June it will be the 100th birthday of June Spencer, who has played Peggy Woolley since 1951. I hope the BBC has a lot of special tributes lined up to celebrate this remarkable achievement.

For those like me who hadn't joined the dots, just googled it - Adjoa Andoh plays Fiona. (I hadn't recognised the voice).

It's interesting that on radio, there's no problem with a black actress playing a white character (I assume Fiona is white, unless I've missed something) - especially when you contrast that with the sensitivity around visual media, where of course you would cast a black actor for a black character, but also some even question whether a straight man should play a gay character, or an able-bodied actor play a disability. Of course, The Archers has a blind actor playing a sighted character, which again is no problem on radio.

(D3 your post is a reminder to me that not everyone on this thread flits back and forth from the Spoilers thread!)

Fiona sounded lovely, although I thought her comment to Shula about her brother not being very good at marriage was a bit weird.
A) Shula ended not Alasdair
b) they were married for well over a decade, probably near to 20 years
c) Shula is not his 5th wife as far as I know!

Also agree, wheelchair man is the reason Jim was upset.

When we first met Jim he had a broken leg. Do we know how he broke it? Could he have caused an accident resulting in wheelchair man being in a wheelchair?

The last time I saw Adjoa Andoh in anything she was playing Odysseus in Troilus and Cressida (screen to stage, I didn't see it live though I always feel as though I've 'really' seen those,

It's interesting that on radio, there's no problem with a black actress playing a white character (I assume Fiona is white, unless I've missed something)

Of course, we've probably all just been assuming Alistair is white too, and Jim for that matter,

Taswama
Shula is not his 5th wife as far as I know!

She was his second wife; the first one went off with his best friend, I think. So both his wives went off him, not the other way round.

Shula and Alistair got married on Christmas Eve 1999.

I am assuming the chemicals that Ed is delivering are for some kind of drug making rather than a farmer making illegal savings on the side. Possibly a meth lab or some such? I'm not very clued up in this area (thankfully!)

I never read the cast list but well done that they made the effort to have sensible and believable writing for Adjoa Andoh. If they are going to get big names they shouldn't squander the opportunity the way they did with Patricia Hodge.

Aren't pesticides also used for bomb making? That's what crossed my mind, when Tim said you don't mess these people around. I don't know if they can be used to make drugs.

I wondered who the customers are.

for explosives it's fertiliser though, I think don't want to google

pesticides - something that's now banned because it's harmful but very effective?

pesticides - something that's now banned because it's harmful but very effective?
That was what I assumed.

I think that there are two different sorts of chemical, because they were in boxes on the first "drop", and then on the most recent one a canister split and leaked liquid.

But it doesn't make any sense either way, because if someone refuses to pay a criminal gang they are the ones who get beaten up, aren't they? Tim was talking as if the people refusing to pay for a delivery to them were also his bosses who are selling the stuff and had to be convinced Ed wasn't going to talk.

for explosives it's fertiliser though,

Ammonium nitrate.

Adjoa Andoh certainly makes Fiona a very likeable character. I hope she sticks around.

Ammonium nitrate. ... M'yes.... Sodium chlorate and sugar used to make a lovely bang in the unregenerate old days when Encyclopaedia Britannica still had the instructions about how to make gunpowder in it.

Hastily adding Kids, do not try this at home! You can blew your hands off, which is a nuisance in later life.

Surely we are getting carried away, (quite unlike us), it can't be for bombs.

Surely we are getting carried away, (quite unlike us), it can't be for bombs.

Given that it's a liquid pesticide, not a solid fertilizer, no, we're off into complete irrelevancies.

No change there then!
I did have some half cocked theory that Philips predicted death was going to be due to Tim and Eds dodgy dealings.

pesticides - something that's now banned because it's harmful but very effective?

The criminal and financial penalties by way of loss of subsidy which farmers would suffer if caught using illegal pesticides make this plot line incredible. So who are the customers who need regular supplies?

Oh, cannabis farmers? Maybe it's just used for it's intended purpose. Ed's delivery when Tim was with him (with the baseball bat) was by houses wasn't it? Maybe one of them was a weed farm.

Just listening to the omnibus.

Is anyone else irritated by how often the characters seem to be asking "WHAT??", in an incredulous way?

The SW must be very fond of that word, I think.....

Now ... surely they’re inviting us to imagine Fiona as a new fixture in the village? All that ‘no regrets at single life’ stuff.

But who might she pair up with? (We don’t even know if she’d prefer a m or f partner!) She’s middle aged, clever, sparky. Probably too academic for Oliver. Too similar to Carol’s daughter - and really she’d need to be paired with a villager.

Hmm ...

How does Emmur get to and from the chicken factory? Does she walk or drive?

She's going to get suspicious (finally!) if Ed suddenly insists on her being accompanied from now on.