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 doubt we’ll hear anything substantial on C19 in the next few weeks - they may manage to insert a sentence or two. It must be frustrating not to be able to respond quickly to the unexpected.

Can’t remember whether I said this on the previous thread (or the Spoilers thread), but I doubt GG will come back in the same form. Oliver will retire. He won’t be able to get over the injury to Lynda on his watch, or the damage to the hotel’s reputation.

Roy has been dissatisfied recently. But it seems unlikely the place could be bought by the ‘management’ as there isn’t really one. Ian + Adam? Dunno.

Cant help thinking the country hotel model isn’t really working so well as a narrative vehicle now. There are so many other places - even in Ambridge - that people can stay/meet/eat. And Air BnB presumably exists across Borsetshire as well? Essentially, interesting 21st c characters wouldn’t be staying there - so apart from the odd comedy anecdote it doesn’t serve a purpose that couldn’t be replicated elsewhere. (I mean as a nexus for character interaction.)

Obviously it could be sold for flats - but that would probably put it out of commission story-wise. What do we use large buildings for nowadays?

Weddings and other large parties. The Hunt Ball. Conferences. Spa-based or golfing weekend or midweek breaks. Top-rated restaurant open for dinner and lunch. I'm by no means an expert on the hospitality business, but aren't all those still good business?

Theyre definitely still relevant today imo.

Thanks @SparklingLime - I might actually stop listening because of this SL. Final straw and all that.

Cant help thinking the country hotel model isn’t really working so well as a narrative vehicle now. There are so many other places - even in Ambridge - that people can stay/meet/eat.
But what about employment? GG employs so many villagers, what would they do for work instead? Though I am worrying that they are planning for Brookfield Weddings to fill a space vacated by GG.

Nic recover and as a result of her illness become emotionally stronger and stand up to boorish Will

Did you not notice that Nic generally got her own way about things?

And yes, they really ought to give someone cancer - the village is unnaturally free of it. Lilian, of the lung, say. But that would have to be a long-term story, and they don't seem very keen on those.

Meanwhile, COVID 19 provides an excellent opportunity for a bit of a cull of some of the older characters. That's the really unrealistic thing - the ancients who remain fit and healthy and active to the point of complete unbelievability (Jill, Peggy).

But what about employment? GG employs so many villagers, what would they do for work instead?

What will they do even if GG is retained? The rebuild will take many months

Ruth had breast cancer.

cancer - the village is unnaturally free of it

There was Ruth. A recurrence would not be unusual. (Not wishing it on anyone, even Ruth.)

We surely need one Covid19-free zone on the airwaves.
I think Jill and Peggy are indestructible anyway.

Ruth had breast cancer

Yeah, and?
That was one instance, of a relatively unusual case given her age, had a disappointingly positive outcome and was about 20 years ago. It is statistically highly improbable that no one has been diagnosed since.

The actors behind the really old villagers are also still (presumably) fit, healthy and active, so it's not that unbelievable?
I'm hoping Lynda survives with a miraculous recovery. I don't think I could forgive the SW for writing her out like that.

I wonder if it’s all the livestock exposure that immunises the Ambridge elderly population?

Gasp0, I agree all those entertainments/facilities are still popular - but, apart from a luxury swimming pool, pretty much everything at GG is available elsewhere in the vicinity in a more contemporary mode. Millennials are surely more likely to choose Spiritual Home than a stuffy country hotel for their £££ weekend break? And golfing people (elderly English men) are hardly the characters to bring in the youthful audience the BBC apparently wants/needs for TA.

So I’m wondering what alternative use the SWs might make of the place - while boosting the hospitality stories elsewhere.

The lack of cancer is odd. Lilian should surely get lung cancer and die before Peggy does (like Princess Margaret to Jenny's Liz). Prob Justin too.

I wonder if they think protracted cancer treatment and decline really is just too grim to listen to?

I mean too close to too many listeners' reality.

In fact, given Ambridge’s chocolate box profile I’m amazed half the village isn’t Air BnB-ing already ...

Oh, God, speaking of AirBnB, Lynda and Robert’s B&B is going to have to cease operating, isn’t it?

If they didn’t want to put Lilian through lung cancer, why not Kenton? He used to smoke. Jazzer is obviously not an option. Agricultural pesticides are pretty carcinogenic, as well.

I caught up this morning and that episode was quite devastating. The only line that stood out as wrong was Robert saying “that’s not my Lyndy”. I would have thought he would have said “my poor Lyndy” Or something like that.

I don't remember Kenton smoking. Jolene did, and Kenton was very puritanical about it.

It is quite ironic, if they intended BOOM! to SATTC and move people about - if they’d waited, Corvid19 could have done it for them!

Love the idea of Lils being Princess Margaret to Jenny's Liz, @lottiegarbanzo. Brilliant!

IF Grey Gables had some decent insurance, the business interruption element would normally have a provision to pay the wages of the permanent staff for a month+.

It really reminds me of this hotel (aside from location): britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101395722-the-priory-hotel-weston-ward#.Xmj0aJP7Trk

Posh country £££ hotels seem to do quite well down here, especially if they have a half-decent restaurant. I'm not sure that the cheaper ones fare as well.

Not sure that a GG rebuild will necessarily take that long. No idea what the architecture is, but it might turn out that the kitchen is in a side wing or extension so that is the only bit that needs to be rebuilt. In the meantime, maybe Ian will rally round and set up a barbecue kitchen in a tent.

You’re right AskingQuestions! Sorry.

Having watched my mother die of lung cancer I would switch off if they did it as an Archers storyline. I think that, as someone else said, it is just too close to real life to be entertaining, even if the entertainment has a public service purpose.

If Lynda is to survive I find it odd that they have given her injuries which are so serious- full thickness burns to the face, and she is older than many people realise. Can’t work out if the SW are preparing us for her demise or whether she will recover to some extent and we will all just go on about how improbable it was. Though playing an elderly busybody with a facial disfigurement will be quite a challenge for Carole Boyd- I think she’d be up to it (and in a way, not so hard to play disfigured on the radio) but the SW not so much, as they would have to have characters describing how she looked, gasping audibly when they first see her etc. Hard to do well.

However I am glad that Gav is not dead as hopefully he will be hauled over the coals for letting this Blake loose and not managing the job properly. Better than him getting away with it by dying.

IF Grey Gables had some decent insurance, the business interruption element would normally have a provision to pay the wages of the permanent staff for a month+.
I'm worried that Oliver has voided his insurance by getting in contractors without them / the work being approved first.
Philip should be worried, too. What (if any) Risk Assessment was done?