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 wonder if Freddie knows Blake from somewhere else?

College? Prison?

It's quite an uncommon name, and the way Freddie repeated it seemed significant somehow.

Yes, too much drama for my liking, and I will be very sad if Lynda does succumb to her injuries.

Saint Shula is probably secretly thrilled!All those traumatised souls for her to practise on......

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 thought that was quite realistic and for me that made it hit home how terribly she is injured. It's such a shock he can't bear to recognise the woman he loves and has gone into a kind of denial - this can't be her.

I hadn’t thought of it that way. How dreadful.

Im an episode behind but I was about to post this will see much hand wringing from St Shula ...see I’m too late! I agree Alan should be featuring. Personally I think injuring Lynda so badly is in very poor taste .

Apologies if this has already been said too but has anyone else spotted Kirsty narrating the BuzzBingo tv adds?

Maybe the burning to her face is not as serious as that to her back? I am finding it hard to understand how both can have been towards the blast at the same time, and Freddie said there were flames licking round her feet but not that her face was burned -- surely he would have noticed, and if her face had looked horrible that would have traumatised him worst of all?

It can't have done her much good to be manhandled out of the building with a broken pelvis and serious burns, either. Poor Lynda. It would have been better if Freddie had gone for help and the paramedics had gone in for her, or got Roy to come in and help him, really. Not that one would think of that in the circumstances.

There has been more than one Blake in The Archers recently. There was a Blake on the jury at Helen's trial, and prison-Kaz' abusive partner was called Blake, as well as this one.

This. Is. Not. What. I. Listen. To. The. Archers. For.

Thanks for the new thread!

I know 3 Blakes. I thought it was a fairly common name but maybe I run with quite a luvvie crowd.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime
How do you know that?!

110 posts in under 24 hours! Cripes, at this rate we'll need another thread well before Easter.

I don't think I've ever met anyone called Blake. I am so old I think of Blake Carrington from Dynasty.

Gasp0de Are you attempting a take over of the Archers Thread Statistician position from @DadDadDad ?

The only Blake I can think of is Blake's Seven (showing my age I think).

Don't worry Teen (can't call you T^3 anymore) - I've got my eye on Gaspode. Anyway, all the data is there if someone wants to do stats on it - I know some are interested, but many aren't. I'm more concerned with Lynda, and I really could feel Robert's pain as I wondered how I'd cope if something like that happened to my DW.

There's a Blake living round the corner from me - he's a child. Actually, talking of statistics, I think there's a website that will show you how common a name is - off to google....

Ha! Foiled. Blake's 7 doesn't count, though. It was a surname. Otherwise my top Blake would be William. A level set book influence still strong after more than 40 years!

Blake only started appearing in the top 100 boys' names after 2005 - don't know how common it was before then. Similar in popularity this century to Stanley and Louie, although Stanley had a previous popularity before 1950. www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/articles/babynamessince1904howhasyoursperformed/2016-09-02

8 mins to go hope lindy is stable and fighting if only for Robert

Amy Winehouse's boyfriend was a Blake, wasn't he?

Otherwise my top Blake would be William.

I was thinking of him too, especially as I sang some of his words today. (You can probably guess which ones, and you can probably guess the occasion ).

Jerusalem, funeral? I'm sorry, DDD.

Now extremely worried about Oliver as well as Lynda and Robert. Robert appears to have turned into a monster. Understandable in the circumstances, I suppose, but not sensible.

When are we going to hear why Gav wasn't in the kitchen?

Got it in one, Gaspode - and no need for any condolences - it was someone I hardly knew: I was basically there to drive a family member who was close.

Anyway, amid all the suffering in Ambridge, we have Russ making an appearance and suddenly seeming so wise and compassionate - I feel conflicted.

I knew a horse called Blake...

I dip in and out but consider myself a long-term fan (+20 years and counting) and when I heard last night's episode, it almost made me cry. Robert and Jim were si well played, and even Freddie was deftly done when he was speaking with Shula.

There is no way that they are allowed to kill off Lynda Snell. No. Way. We'd all have to march on Birmingham in protest, no?

While I can understand that the situation can bring about character changes, Robert's seemed pretty OTT.

I'm another one who was a bit wondering what Kirsty was doing moonlighting as a 999 emergency services operator, when she was supposed to be in Devon with Philip.

@KitchenFloor - how long have you had your username - it seems a bit prophetic...