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.

@CeciledeVolanges they get you thinking one character is going to die, then kill a different one unexpectedly. So Nigel died when Helen was being rushed to hospital with life-threatening pew-eclampsia.

Pre-eclampsia. I imagine pew-eclampsia is just something people catch in churches!

The 'follow the lady' trick.

I may be getting confused but the trick that came to my mind is the one buskers do with three cups (people in this case) and one object (mortal peril in this case). You have to keep your eye on the object and identify which cup it's under. You always fail. It's a sleight of hand to divert your attention.

The name comes from a card trick - the 'lady' is a Queen - which is similar, I think (but I could be wrong).

Interesting, thank you!

Really liked the return to the old ‘gumption and gin’ style Lillian. BOOP.

Lillian has been great in the last couple of episodes.
Not sure I have quite got the hang of this working from home lark, there is no part of my job description that includes analysis of TA.

Chemenger and others here is your chance to do some "alternative Ambridge" scripts:
twitter.com/bbcwritersroom/status/1241019855689613312

It could involve some of the characters in the cereal cupboard, or maybe the Gills calling back to London, or Joy and Rochelle.

I am sure that isn't what the BBC intended, but hey!

Don’t tempt me. I have had a horrendous day trying to prepare online learning for my students. Windows 10 updated for the 50 billionth time and disabled my laptop speaker. Which made me think that audio recording wasn’t working. I had to skype with a student about his project and my headphones (which were working on everything else) were disabled, so he could hear me but I couldn’t hear him. He now has a much greater understanding of the breadth (or should I say depth) of my vocabulary. And our VPN is so overloaded that most of the time I was without the internet.

My video conferencing script:

Person 1 - hello...........can you hear me.........

Person 2 - yes, but you’re quite faint, can you sit closer?

Person 3 - hello...... can you hear me?

P1- yes I can hear you but you should identify yourself.

P2 (at the same time) - are we doing video.

P1and P2 simultaneously- sorry, after you

P1andP2 simultaneously- sorry you go first.

P3 - we should raise our hand before we speak

Pause, awkwardly long

P1 - I don’t know how to raise my hand, but does anyone know what the agenda is for this meeting?

P3 - I think John set it up, but he’s just texted me to say his broadband has gone down. Let’s take this to email.

P2 I just wanted to let you all know that I’ve got a bit of a cough and I’ll be self isolating from now on, so I’ll be leaving this meeting, hopefully talk to you all in a couple of weeks.

P1 - sorry to hear that, do what you need to do.

P2 - well I think they bought that, no more video conferencing for a couple of weeks.

P1 - I think you’ve left your microphone on....

Oh @Chemenger, sorry you had an awful day, but that script is amazing! 😂😂 I truly feel your pain...

I said it was Blake’s hunger!

And ... Philip

Oh, Kirsty ...

So I'm assuming that Philip isn't actually paying his workmen?

I wondered why he was being given a medical update on Blake ...

Shocked to the core!

Ooh there are two Archers threads? So shocked about Philip! 😱

What? What happened!Cant listen till tomorrow

What?

What was that about slaves?!

Ooh there are two Archers threads?

It’s not quite as simple as that. This is the main thread. The Spoiler thread is an off-shoot of this one. They serve different purposes.

Ooh! That was an unexpected plot twist, wasn't it?

Never saw that one coming

What?! Please tell me! It’s not a spoiler now is it?

What happened ? Cannot listen til tomorrow, also wondered why they were telling Philip about Blake ..

@MrsGrindah @Langsdestiny - there was a discussion right at the end of the episode in which Philip said that some people would be very unhappy about the way they ran their gang (even though it was in the workers' "best interests") and Gavin said "Slaves". I assume that they've been giving the workers food and accommodation but no actual wages.

Mrs G - Phillip's workers are kept on slave conditions. Gavin didn't provide breakfast on the day of the accident

And poor Kirsty again

That the Mosses, father and son, are stinkers; yes, that revelation had been coming for a long time.

That Gavin is a self-indulgent idiot; yes again, clear for quite a while.

That this couple of clowns in the sinister-clown sense were running a modern slavery set-up (as absentees, because Gavin was living with Kelly an hour's drive from Ambridge, and Philip was spending all his time with Kirsty except when he was at work); no, that wasn't something anyone had predicted, I don't suppose.