Archers thread #115: Johnny's in the gym, Josh is in a jam, Rex is riled, Kate's with child - discuss The Archers here

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

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 share a camomile tea with Kate, 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 for the excellent Bert Fry tribute title!

I don't think this thread will get us to Easter, but we should be well into Lent before we need a new title. I wonder if St Stephen's will have a new oh-so-interesting Lent initiative this year. When did we last hear from Alan?

That'll have been why there was all that stupidity between Lilian and Lynda - so Lilian will be full of regret at the way she behaved. (I hope Lynda doesn't get knocked off, actually, would much prefer Gavin to go. Hope it's not Freddie, either, just because the Lower Loxley drama would be too much to handle.)

so no covid quarantine situation at grey gables then.
they would need to decamp to lower locley

Delurking with crazy theory- Gav annoyed that Philip destroyed his Sunday lie-in contracted Ed to do the job. Gav then turns up at the beginning of tonight’s episode ‘what’s occurin?’ at the same time that Freddy is pulling Lynda out the rubble saying they saw Ed lying buried....

Delurking to give me a heart attack, scrappydappydoo?!

You might really have something there ... They were so careful to keep the identity of the workman hidden, and what would have been the point of showing us Gav’s various teenagerish misdemeanours last week if not to underline the point that he’s deeply unreliable and probably was not where he should have been as the work started.

so no covid quarantine situation at grey gables then.

Wouldn’t that have been unlikely anyway, given GG’s central role as flood refuge?

Was it an explosion, or a plane crash, or did a tram come off its rails?

Yes but I’m not suggesting a deading - more serious injury that leads to reconciliation and then we have seen two storylines neatly tidied up - Ed and em and Freddie’s redemption.
Actually my even crazier theory is that it’s a crossover to celebrate eastenders anniversary - coach party is eastenders cast recovering from boat disaster- they decamp to the pub. Lilian gets annoyed at their behaviour realises they are not the sort of punters they want to attract and changes the name back to the Bull.
Or maybe Lynda does die and in memory of her they change the name back....
And no I don’t have much going on in my life...

Mostly because I’ve been waiting years to hear Lilian scream ‘get outta my pub’ Peggy Mitchell style..

Weren’t you listening MUM? Tut!

It was the tram from the peak of Lakey Hill, driven by an un-named but furious member of the ReBulls. He put his foot down and jumped the track that normally runs quietly past the back doors of GG. Straight through the herb garden, mowing down Ian (yes, paternity leave, but hiding in bushes to spy on Hugh) crashing into kitchen and down, down, down into the hundred foot deep hole in the floor ... Tram hit gas pipe. Boom!

If Lynda is dead I will stop listening - first the over-egged nonsense with Lillian over The Bull, then her vendetta against Freddie followed by his refusal to allow her to apologise, now this. It didn’t sound like an explosion to me - more like a collapse. I think whatever it is, Philip will blame himself.

I thought it was all the shelves of temporarily stored food collapsing.

Oh, I do so hope it's taken out Ian! And that Adam, overcome with grief, flings himself headfirst into the gaping chasm that was once GG.

The Lynda actress is not young. I wonder if she has decided to retire and wanted to go out with a bang, so to speak?

Actors don’t retire do they?

If Lynda is dead I may also stop listening. I have never even contemplated that before but it looks awfully likely, she has been quarrelling with Lilian and Freddie. I haven’t even heard the episode yet, though!

Brookfield, Home Farm, Bridge Farm, Grange Farm, Willow Farm, LL, GG, The Stables, The Dower House, The Bull: the families connected with these have all experienced death, quite often tragically.
But death has passed by the Snells of Ambridge Hall. Maybe it's their time to have mortality brought home to them?

I thought the sound effects were atrocious and this is borne out by all of us having different ideas as to what happened. I genuinely couldn't tell if it was an explosion, a crash, or a collapsed building. It could be just that I need a hearing aid, though.

Oh my goodness, Freddie is being so utterly awful to Lynda! Tom and Natasha are so annoying, so much talking with their mouths full. But Freddie is just being nasty and rude. Sounded like an explosion to me, with fire of some sort as the alarm went off...

I genuinely couldn't tell if it was an explosion, a crash, or a collapsed building. It could be just that I need a hearing aid, though.
Or it could be that it was intentionally confusing - "intriguing" - to get us all talking about it and tuning in tonight to find out what happened. [cynic]

Radio does ambiguity better than the visual arts.

SurpriseSparDay They don't have gas pipes in villages. Do please try to keep your speculation realistic.

Whatever it is must have affected people in the Reception area, given the work put in to underline the fact that it was crowded at the relevant time.

They don't have gas pipes in villages

They do in some villages

but but but
there was screaming
at our first aid class the (almost) first rule in a disaster was 'who screams is fine'

'who screams is fine'
Not in Nigel's case

Blinking heck! I was "on a break" Friends-style since December because some of the storylines have been boring me. Pickjed a hell of a time to start listening again.

Don't leave us, Lynda!

'who screams is fine'
Not in Nigel's case
He was fine while he was screaming. It's not the falling that kills you ...