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.

thank you for the Tim clip! He seems jolly. I’d far rather spend time with Tim than David.

Oh, what’s going on with Peggy?

Different recording method?

Same voice rhythms but very pronounced enunciation.

Oh God - I know what she wants!

Get a nurse then piss off, you old bag! I need a fucking dump!

That was really creepy.

Have the SW never met an eighteen year old? Or been one themselves?
Can we please not repeat all that with Ruairi in November.

Oh, I forgot. It was all those years Ben spent locked in the cereal cupboard. He's making up for lost time.

We haven't had any fish for a while

Peggy and Jill were unbelievably annoying.

Yes, I could have throttled them both.

@SurpriseSparDay New teeth I suspect!

The one I found truly detestable in that episode was Ruth.

Her 18-year-old (ie adult) son went out for an evening with his 22-year-old brother (possible) and his 27-year-old sister (totally unlikely) and decided not to come home for the night.

So Ruth attacked his brother in a very unpleasant manner -- and said not a dicky bird of blame to Pip, who as the driver and the elder by nine years was surely more culpable than Josh. If there were anything to blame either of them for at all, which there was not.

Ruth is plain nasty (again) to her sons while fawning over her daughter

And so weird in hospital with Peggy and Lynda.

I found today's episode bizarre and tedious

Tbh I found Ruth and Jill’s consternation and fuss over Ben’s absence amazingly true to life. My own dear family would be completely at one with her in wanting all the offspring ‘accounted for’ at regular intervals.

The Lynda/Peggy interludes would have been better buried in a forgotten file on the SWs laptop.

The hospital scene was weird. I do hope it was just a need to use the loo.
Unfortunately, going to the loo is something that can be embarrassing for the unwell. Having an accident means loss of dignity. Not enough staff to attend to bathroom needs is an issue. Ignoring symptoms may mean undiagnosed illness.

If it raises awareness, then good.

Sorry if I'm a bit garbled.

The hospital scene was horrible . I wanted to slap Peggy for being so insensitive and self-centred.

It goes without saying that Ruth will be awful in every episode she's in.

I thought Lynda would be talked to death.

Agree that Ruth was obnoxious.

If my parents had felt obliged to know where I was every minute, or even every day, when I was eighteen, they would both have fretted themselves into early graves. I did try to let them know if I wasn't going to be back overnight so they could lock the front door, but that wasn't always easy in the days before mobile phones.

When my son was two weeks older than eighteen he was 280 miles away and I didn't know what he was up to from one week to the next let alone day; when my elder daughter was two weeks over eighteen she was (thinks hard) somewhere in Cornwall, I think; when my younger daughter was eighteen she was in the buildup to A-levels, but shortly after the end of that term she was somewhere in the Andes.

The first I knew about her having been in an earthquake was her ringing us from a phone she had located (cellphone network was down) to tell us she was fine and sorry gotta go there's a long queue for the phone.

Ruth doesn't know she's born, silly number.

The hospital scene was horrible . I wanted to slap Peggy for being so insensitive and self-centred.

Me too, it was awful.

I can’t think of many worse things than being visited by Peggy if I was seriously ill in hospital. Why would she have visited, she’s not particularly friendly with Lynda? Next St Shula will be trotting along to sanctify. Surely for infection control of someone with extensive burns, only limited visitors would be allowed?

I dont know how it works for adults @Chemenger but in the local childrens hospital the burns unit consists of a series of individual rooms and infection control practices are really high. Everyone entering has to put on PPE, shoe covers etc

I hope they don't send Joy in to visit Lynda...

What was the point of that scene between Lynda and Peggy? You'd imagine that Peggy of all people having spent years visiting Jick would know what was and wasn't required. Instead she made the visit all about her and her own mother until (and this is how I read the situation) Lynda had to come up with an excuse to get rid of her. Are we now to conclude that Ben is definitely not gay (despite much speculation on here to the contrary) since Joy and her friend saw him with the mystery woman even though he seems to be unable to tell his brother what her name was or indeed anything about her? Apologies if I have missed earlier confirmation - I'm just remembering his early love of musicals and then his literal emergence from the cereal closet.

The scene with Lynda and Peggy was horrible. It was obvious what she wanted.