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 did quite like Peggy's line about how sending a card is not quite the same as a visit. And Lynda's rather non committal response!

Maybe Ben’s ONS was called Dorothy?

who else is Adam expecting to be noseying censoriously about at Home Farm My experience of rural life is you can walk for one afternoon in a deserted landscape and next day everyone in the village will know about it.

All that “Yes, Mr Moss” business ... is not going to help Blake keep up the fiction that Philip is his uncle.

Someone knew Ben's Bird's name, because I knew it was Chloe; was it not Ben who said that?

I was thinking more about the "censoriously", Mere. Lynda is the one in the village who goes around picking holes in other people and what they are doing, and she's out of the way for the time being.

Are we to assume that Ben's hook-up with Chloe was his 'first time'?

I can't think why so much fuss was made about it.

And Jill's gleeful mirth was very odd

Well, this is confusing. I keep timing the rest of the evening to fit around 7 - 7.15 ...

Me too. Friday was always the one to listen to.
At least we have something to look forward to.
Last night's episode was a bit shite rubbish, but at least Lynda is still alive.
Blake ("Yes, Mr Moss") is also still alive.

Obviously, Ambridge is the place to be.

No Archers. This feels like the start of the end of the world.

#hyperbole

I couldn’t work out if the Ben / Jill conversation was excruciating or hilarious. Perhaps because I’m mid-way ish between their ages. The idea of your gran enquiring knowingly about your teenage sex life is horrific but the idea of oldies demonstrating that they’re not stupid and enjoying embarrassing the younger ones a bit is quite funny too.

As for Lynda. Is she seriously burned or not? I don’t understand how she has visitors and is able to sit and talk even if clearly in discomfort. I’d have thought she’d still have lots of pain relief, some sedation and no visitors at all beyond immediate family.

The minibus will be poor as it won't end on the Friday episode. Maybe next week will be better.

Was that deliberate, MUM? Only 4 episodes so not an omnibus?

It'll be 5 episodes going into the Omnibus. I wonder whether they'll just condense them a bit less than usual so as to fill the same amount of time?

I’m guessing it was deliberate , @MereDintof.
That was an extra-weird Friday evening. I hope you are all well and bearing up in these very strange times.

I’m listening to An Ambridge Spring on Sounds. It came out yesterday. I hope I’m not breaking any rules by letting you know there’s birdsong & lambs.

Are you sure it came out yesterday? It sounds very much like the podcast they made available a few weeks ago - which I found intensely annoying!

Just checked - it is the same podcast. How strange.

And the page that I get from searching The Archers on Sounds is a mess: random episodes in no particular order, plus the podcast. Would be incredibly confusing for new listeners.

WHY? Was this announced in advance?

Was this announced in advance?

It seems quite a recent decisiontegucigalpa13. AskingQuestionsAllTheTime and SupriseSparDay mentioned it on the spoiler thread on 23 March.

Losing Friday seems an odd choice because, as we all know, the Friday episode is usually the most dramatic whereas Sunday is the cricket and the odd reference to Alan’s sermon (rarer now). I know from experience that it’s easier to miss a Sunday and still follow the daily episodes without any problem.

The omnibus will now start more dramatically and then tail off. It’s just going to run from 10-11 and Desert Island Discs will start earlier. Of course, once the current episodes are finished, they can write so the Thursday episode is the cliff hanger. Note optimism they can still find a way to do recordings!!

After the shock of finding no Friday episode I am happy to have my supply rationed. I thought it had been taken off completely! Phew

This was announced about a week ago (during a brief hiatus in my listening) - I half thought of coming on here to see what you were all saying about it, but didn’t want to see any spoilers before my catch up. My first thought was that it was unusual to drop Friday since in the old days TA used to be five days a week with Saturday and Sunday off. My second thought was that it would change the rhythm since events generally build to a climax on a Friday (for the end of the film) and now they will occur randomly throughout the week. Thursday night felt like a particularly damp squid in this respect. presumably we can expect a cracker on Sunday.

Now I know what the song 'Friday On My Mind' is all about.

Since they went over to six episodes a week in on Easter Sunday 1998, they have not condensed the episodes to fit into the omnibus: they increased the length of the omnibus to fit them all into it. 6 x 12.5 minutes = 75 minutes. 75 minutes = 1 hour 15 minutes. Duration of the omnibus = 1 hour 15 minutes.

I agree that missing out the Sunday evening episode rather than the Friday one would make better sense to me.

Deliberate? Yes. It was referred to as the minibus in Mustardland.
Maybe Thursday's weird episode was new? It was a bit odd.

It's a long time to Sunday night, isn't it?

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2GNKGkF5VfvSSVwJlkdgXXf/making-the-archers-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic Down to four episodes a week from the start of May.