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.

I'd quite like Kirsty to kick Philip in the balls and rescue herself.

And can she rescue Blake?

That was a bit of a weird episode. Trying to imagine the storyline meeting at which someone says ‘Now, what we haven’t tried yet is having the three Brookfield kids go nightclubbing with Joy and her random friend’. Maybe there’s a deeper purpose.

I would love for Kirsty to be saved by Roy and then the two of them make beautiful babies.

That was a bit of a weird episode

Wasn't it just.

Tedious

I want Natasha and Phillip to be from the same village in Wales (although Natasha is in reality Russian) and actually married but both now bigamists. Natasha is running slaves to pick apples and they’ve seen the opportunity to infiltrate Ambridge. I need this isolation to end soon, I think it’s pickling my brains.

I was waiting for something to happen. Joy & her friend enjoying going to a club didn’t seem that unlikely

Can only imagine Joy is needed for something more significant later in the week (that is, tonight or Friday-moved-to-Sunday) so was written in essentially because she would be present at that batch of recordings.

It was indeed bizarre. I have no problem with Joy rescuing Ben from the roadside, nor with her deciding to try out the club - my head is too full of Ocado queues, (though none this morning!) to even think about imaginary non-ageist door policies at imaginary currently open Borchester clubs - but the idea that she would decide to hang out with the teens/only just not teens is ridiculous. No wonder Ben and his new friend fled.

I think it’s pickling my brains.

I think it’s an inspired plot, ThePawtriarchy. I can’t wait to hear it unfold.

Imagining Joy remonstrating with the door staff outside a club as they try to turn her away for not being the ‘right’ sort of customer is another lovely image SurpriseSparDay. Good thinking about a potential appearance later in the week. Sounds like a possible Friday cliffhanger, although, of course, we’ll be waiting until Sunday.

Nice video from David Archer/Tim Bentinck in his shed, confirming that Ambridge will remain a virus free zone till at least the end of April. Parallel universe!

Thank you, Jaichangecentfoisdenom. Sweet of him to do that.

You know - I don’t think I’ll mind the parallel universe Ambridge. Those recordings will be a bit of a treasure in years to come.

He hasn't got much headroom in that shed!

At least the Earl of Portland has bog roll.
Not sure that it should be near a naked flame.

MUM, I know, that was my first thought, too Maybe not so much of an earner for him!

Thanks so much @Jaichangecentfoisdenom it's alway nice to get an insight into the inner workings of TA.

I love the Phil and Natasha infiltration idea! After Tash met Tom at one of those conferences and heard his tale of woe, she'd have got it all lined up - Tom and Bridge Farm for the taking, Kirsty providing a local cloak of boring bourgeois respectability. And lo, the social infiltration began.

He's 6'3". He is tall in TA too, and Ruth is tiny.

He seems a nice chap. Love the idea of him inventing things in his shed.
I liked the house and garden too.

They're missing an opportunity for the baddies to speak to each other in Welsh - unless the horses are welsh.

Tash, Phil and Gav have different accents. Gav's is laid on with a trowel. Then again, I whinged about R Kairsty's mam's accent being too Scouse.

Thanks for that video message, what fun!

The Natasha/Phil plotline ideas are inspired. Keep them coming!

Thanks @Jaichangecentfoisdenom!

Maybe Tash supplies the food and drink for the stable. Apples and apple juice.

Where does Joy fit in? Might she be Philip's OH?

At least Tom looks exactly like David (in my head) so no horrible shocks.

*Tim GAH!

@ParisInTheSpringtime are you also in Paris? I've been locked up for nine days now and have only just been able to bring myself to catch up. Listening seemed rather irrelevant while I was coming to terms with the situation here, but now real life seems stranger than fiction I've decided to plunge back in. I can't decide if it's because I'm now finding it much easier to suspend my disbelief in view of the unreality of my real life, but I absolutely love the Phil and Gav twist! Firstly I think it's being convincingly acted by the Phil, Gav and Blake actors, but also because while the storyline feels like a complete bolt from the blue, if you look back you can see that the clues were there. Philip's reaction when Kirsty suggested offering work to Ed is the main one for me, but also his mysterious disappearance and not being where he said he'd be when he left his phone at home, his reluctance to take even the briefest holiday, his willingness to stump up thousands for Gav's honeymoon, his slightly odd relationship with his son, the mystery of why Gav was rootling around in his Dad's wardrobe, the reference by Eddie to Philip always undercutting everyone else. What's more surprising if anything is none of us on here picked up on anything - we all thought he was dull, boring and any predictions were about his imminent death. Personally I hope that TA will continue with its own drama in a Coronavirus-free microclimate - it's quite nice to think about something else for 15 minutes a day.

when Natasha disappeared with marital second thoughts, she was really dealing with a slave crisis and updating Phillip in the bird hide.

@LillianGish sadly no - my username is wishful thinking only.