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.

While the change in character-as-previously-portrayed was, ahem, unexpected, the actual portrayal was superb. Philip has sooo done this before: expert manipulation/grooming of the poor lad. The whole "family" pressure was chilling.

Re Philip - I recall a few years back listening to a background into the Archers programme where they explained how far in advance certain stories were plotted and in done cases it was years in advance - I think one example was the chap,Ruth nearly left David for .

Now I've caught up with the storyline re Philip and Gav the two things I'm overthinking on is why noise has noticed all these youngsters they are employing - surely you'd expect some older staff amongst the builders ? And secondly why did Philip make so much fuss about paying towards the wedding - presumably he is making enough to bung Gav @Kelly their 20k for Bali extravaganza ?

Poor Kirsty - good news is that Boris cancelled the wedding tonight- can't see how they cannot rewrite this now . Maybe Philips ex has the dirt ?

Maybe the slaves are kept in the bedroom wardrobe and that’s what Gav was really doing in there when Alistair was in the shower

So, homeless young men picked up off the street and groomed into abject gratitude and obedience? If SOC were still around I’d assume he had just put down Oliver Twist. All that “Yes, Mr Moss” business was - I don’t even know the right word. But how desperate and befuddled must Blake be, to believe that heaping all the blame on himself is in his own best interests and will protect his fellow victims? Philip was just tying him in knots.

Definitely second the BOOP for Luke MacGregor.

Fabulous image, ThePawtriarchy!

Another BOOP for Luke MacGregor.
I remember disliking Philip when he first appeared on the scene but was lulled into a sense of complacency by his later dullness. Who knew he even had a moustache, let alone one with such curly ends to twirl

ThePawtriarchy!!

Thanks so much for that fabulous mental image 🤣😂

Made me chuckle did that.

And yes! Luke MacGregor did a cracking job 👍🏻

So, for all that Philip was blaming Gav for sending Blake out to work without breakfast, who was responsible for the lack of an evening meal the night before?

With the five episodes per week thing, everyone in Ambridge is going to be celebrating Easter two days later than the rest of us, unless they jiggle some of the episodes around a bit.

who was responsible for the lack of an evening meal the night before?
Gavin again. I think the explosion was Sunday night (that was when it was broadcast) and P&K were away for their long weekend.
Phil realises the need to 'look after' the horses (to make them grateful, part of EA psychology, etc) but Gav doesn't get it.

Have to say the thought of Gavin sprawled on Kirsty and Philip’s sofa with a takeaway and some cans while Blake and the other two cowered in some food-less flat, too scared and intimidated to find a way to help themselves, is really quite upsetting.

Helen and Kirsty should be on here. Ducks in a row! LTB!

What is scary is that psychopaths like Rob and Philip appeared to be so normal.

I haven't quite suspended belief, but the timing of this SL has been disastrous.

To go back to RL, I got leaflets from a funeral director through my letterbox today.

That belongs in Private Eye's "desperate marketing".

I'm definitely more interested in Evil Philip, god he was boring. But I think they've been signalling for some time that something's up, that Philip and Gav's relationship makes Kirsty uneasy and that she's been suppressing her doubts (she's been pretty meh about the wedding, and there's also been some hinting at whether she should really be with Roy - or at least that she's realised that Roy is more reliable and stable than Philip).

I've never hated an Archers character as much as I hate Gav and that's saying something! But I'd also gone right off Philip already because of his suspiciously aggressive attitude to Gav, which didn't tie in with his Mr Nice act.

Run like the wind Kirsty!

Ambridge is absolutely rife with crime isn't it. Half the characters have either been in prison or should be, with their paws in endless dodgy dealings.

I'm started to ration the Archers as it was getting too depressing to have on in the kitchen and I have a Nancy Mitford audiobook on the go.

Does anybody remember "Suburban Shootout" on Ch (or 5?).

Susan, Helen and Freddie (and various male Horrobins) have all been in prison. Brian, David, the GM protestors all had narrow misses (wasn't really listening when Pat was at Greenham).

The most serious thing I can think of that has happened to anybody I know locally/socially is having to attend a speed awareness course!

I imagine the Gills started flicking through bundle of old newspapers they found in the garage at Grange Farm and have gone into hiding. That's why they are so quiet!

Even Jill has been arrested!

I have no problem accepting that somebody who has up to now seemed very ordinary and unremarkable has another side to his character. Every single time the media reports on another hideous family annihilation stunned friends, colleagues, neighbours are quoted as saying 'He always seemed like a decent bloke', 'He'd do anything for anybody' etc etc. Very few people are bad in every single way.

Phil’s emotional manipulation of Blake was very believable.

Taswama
Phil’s emotional manipulation of Blake was very believable*

Very believable. Very good acting by Philip and Blake.

And Philip has taken being properly evil to new heights tonight with all those lies to Kirsty.

MUM we got a funeral leaflet yesterday. As I'm currently unwell with what is probably coronavirus, I do hope the universe isn't trying to tell me something!

I hope it isn't coronavirus AlexCabot.

Why would the Gills be in a Grange Farm Garage?

What’s horrible is that the way he treats his workers is exactly the way he would be treating Kirsty in five years, maybe less. And as the SWs won’t want to produce another Helen it’s inevitable that he’ll be unmasked and ... disposed of.

(I don’t mean the starvation but grinding her down with constant reminders of how rubbish her life was before he rescued her, and how well she’d done out of him and ... hmm ... So that’s where Gavin gets his sparkling repartee.)