Archers thread #116: Pandemic fears, markets crash but it's BOOM 💥 time for Ambridge. 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 employ Philip Moss & Son to fix your soil pipe, 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! (New thread likely to be replacing that one very soon, in the current circumstances.)

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 @SurpriseSparDay for the thread title idea, which I tweaked, and @springydaff for the 💥 emoticon, which I hope is in the title! (Can't preview the title). Welcome, lurkers and lapsed listeners, drawn out of the shadows by the current crisis in Ambridge. In the OP of the last thread I said I didn't think we'd get to Easter on that thread. We certainly didn't!

I am very worried indeed about Lynda and concerned about Oliver too. Don't care about Gavin unless it means Kirsty is cheated out of yet another wedding. Freddie's redemption is now assured, though, surely? Roll on the return of the Lower Loxley crew.

The character...not great character!

Captain I'm hoping for a bit longer than that.

Watched latest episode of “ This Country” last night....was the character of Clive played by Kenton?
Googling tells me that 'Clive Wilson' (is that who we are talking about?) was indeed played by Richard Attlee.
I didn't know that he is a grandson of Clement Attlee.

If they want to do a tropical insert about COVID-19, they're going to have to get it done before there's a ban on gatherings of more than 5 people in place

Apologies if this should be in "Spoilers" but I imagine that they recorded a block of episodes for the Grey Gables storyline (which would probably just get us to mid-April). No health and safety trial could happen that quickly.

After that I fear we will have to be back to re-wilding.

On a more serious point, do hotels normally grill bacon? We shove ours in a frying pan.

I stopped listening to TA a few weeks ago. But the other day saw something in the paper about events in Ambridge, so have just listened to the omnibus . I fear I might be hooked again...

I thought hotels cooked bacon in the oven. Could be wrong, though.

Richard Attlee played his grandfather in a drama a few years ago. He looks rather like him.

@R4 Thanks! I was too lazy to Google myself! Amazing how you can instantly recognise a voice.

Thanks! I was too lazy to Google myself!
No worries. I was a bit concerned that it came across as "google is your friend" but I didn't have much else to do, apart from go down a google rabbit hole, on a rainy 'what shall we do to avoid Corona' Sunday.

I didn’t take it that way! I excitedly told DH I thought it was Kenton. I heard Kirsty in a bingo advert this week too. I need a life.

I suppose its selfish of me to want TA to carry on without any mention of the corona virus, it's my tiny bit of escapism.

I could do with a ‘tropical insert’, Jaichangecentfoisdenom. Perhaps they could send a few of the nicer characters - Ed and Emma, and poor Freddie, who all need a holiday - to a nice Caribbean island for the duration. Ambridge Xscape

But never mind inserts ... Do they have a system for remote recording if all the actors and production people are working from home? Otherwise we might not have any TA broadcast at all in a few months. Just a podcast recorded in someone’s kitchen.

In March 2001, Ruth and David decided to close the farm to visitors and let nobody in or out after a case of foot-and-mouth was reported in Little Croxley. (It turned out to have been a false alarm, but one was confirmed there the following month.)

They farmed out eight-year-old Pip to Shula so that she could go to school; Josh, born in September 1997, was too young to be at school yet, and Ben had not been born. Jill and Phil stayed where they were in the house they lived in; David and Ruth moved into Brookfield farmhouse with them from the Bungalow, taking Josh with them; Bert moved into the Bungalow so that he would still be able to work at Brookfield while the siege was on. Pip ran away home after a couple of weeks and was home-schooled for a bit.

And then Jill was not allowed by David to go to Nelson's funeral in case she brought infection onto the farm with her when she came back.

They lifted the siege again on 27th April, 2001.

Otherwise we might not have any TA broadcast at all in a few months

Isn't that the secret instruction for the nuclear submarines to launch their missiles?

Should think we’ll all be about ready for a swift end to the misery by then, R4 ...

Keri Davies has been talking on Twitter about the problems of recording TA under current conditions.

Believe me, this has been exercising #TheArchers production team mightily- both the appropriate content of episodes and the practicalities of making the programme.

He says they normally record at least a month in advance, but of course they're recording a batch of episodes all at once, so it will vary. They can't risk bringing June Spencer to the Mailbox, and a substantial number of the other regulars are over 70, so it must be a huge quandary. The scripts will already be written. They're presumably frantically re-writing even as we speak.

I'm glad Ben got a car.

Continuity said the fire has 'shaken Ambridge to the core'!

She liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiives!

I shed a tear. I hope this is a sign she is going to recover, not a manipulative way of getting all our hopes up, only for the rug to be pulled out from under our feet in a few days.

So, if they are short of actors for a few months, what sort of character would you volunteer to play (via Skype or whatever new fancy recording thingummy Dumteedum has found to do their podcasts)?

Would you be one of the Gills?

Would you be another of Joy's next-door neighbours?

I imagine that Ambridge will be substantially unaffected by corona.

My kittens were deffinitely trying to oust Hilda today!

Oh yes, I forgot to add that Keri said it wasn't possible to record everyone phoning in by Skype or whatever, as the sound quality wouldn't be good enough.

Anyway .... I'll be Bess, or one of the other canines. It seems appropriate, given my username.

getting all our hopes up, only for the rug to be pulled out from under our feet in a few days.
C'mon. This is Lynda we're talking about. She will survive, in some form or other.

what sort of character would you volunteer to play
I'm afraid I'd be one of those pesky commuters. So I'd have a non-speaking role. Not much help, really.

Woof, woof!