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 found this

I thought that posting actor's photos on here was frowned on.

SurpriseSparDay
Was holding my breath for a long beeeeeeep.

She is in an induced coma and yet her pulse was going at about eighty to the minute. Something is definitely wrong....

What I don't understand, is Blake is now awake, so presumably he's less injured than Lynda. How so? He would have been closest to the blast, if he caused it, and would have taken the full force.

Maybe something fell on Lynda but Blake was blown further away? Clutching at straws here. Interesting point there about the pulse - as a non--HCP, I missed that, just heard what the production team presumably wanted me to hear, vague noises signalling that we were in ICU.

vague noises signalling that we were in ICU ... and that Lynda hadn't decided to slip away whilst Robert wasn't in the room.

Monty 💔

Glad Lillian is looking after him.

I really must stop listening to The Archers when I go to bed. I always drift off, wake up at the closing music, think I've heard it all then come on here and realise I haven't.

Most injuries from explosions are lung and ear damage from the pressure, things falling on people and “whole body translocation” (my favourite phrase in all of my lectures on safety); meaning being blown over or being thrown. What you hit when you are thrown across a space is what determines the injury. We know a heavy table fell on Lynda because Freddy struggled to move it off her. The builder has a fractured spine, so not exactly got off lightly, it seems he wasn’t affected by the fire in the same way as Lynda.

It'd be interesting to know how all of the threads of this SL came together. Did Carole Boyd want to leave, or have an extended break, hence the 💥💥 and subsequent injuries, and the whole 'B @ Ambridge' nonsense was stuck on as a subsidiary SL?

Or can it really be possible that this entire cataclysm, with consequent horrific injuries to Lynda (whom I don't like much ordinarily, but wouldn't wish to see in lingering agony), is - as a PP noted - simply a way to resolve the preposterous pub-renaming yawnfest and restore the Bull to its proper identity?

If so, talk about a sledgehammer to crack a nut

Blake must have had a head injury as well because he was unconscious when Freddie was trying to get Lynda out.

I have always loved Robert and Lynda. Lynda is extremely annoying at times but is a good person at heart. She’s very real. Robert is lovely. Just lovely. Their relationship is one of the delights of TA.
theThreeofWeevils I can’t see what you get out of listening. Most of us on here have a fondness for / addiction to TA and this comes out in our comments. I just don’t hear anything but disdain in most of yours.

@HeidiHoNeighbour, I'm tempted to report you for posting a photo of a cast member. Some of us take it seriously, you know.

I wondered about the Llamas too, although I can't think they take that much looking after. Perhaps St Shula can do it (when she's not praying)

There are enough farmers around, who can look after the lamas. They could set up a rota.

I can imagjne that the llamas are pretty self sufficient, esp as grass has started to grow.

Well said, TeenyfTroon! I've been wondering exactly that myself.

Just listened to last nights ep, and thought it was one of the best I've heard for a while.

Not keen on Ed and Emmur edging closer together again, but Lilian was lovely 😭

The strident strumpet with a heart of gold, that I have always loved, is well and truly back! Nice one, Lil 👍🏼

If anyone can needle Lynda into waking up, it's Lilian

Yes that's exactly it, perfect description of Lillian. I would like to drink gin with Lillian.

‘Strident Strumpet’?

Just listened to yesterday’s episode and found it hardest of this week.

I am finding this storyline too upsetting tbh and I know that’s silly. But the thought of someone having horrific burns just isn’t entertainment to me.

I don’t think her pulse was 80bpm! It was slower than my watch’s second hand - I checked - so maybe 40-50, well within the normal range. I get tachycardia every so often and it’s uncomfortable and noticeable, and would have been even more distracting in that scene.

Normal range for a pulse is 60-100, 40 would be very slow.

Dear lord; using petrol as a solvent in an enclosed space...

The lower explosive limit of petrol vapour is 1.2% in air; that stinks pretty severely, but maybe if he was working with his nose immediately above it he wouldn't have noticed that the whole room was reeking?

I suppose a 4-litre can might explode fairly thoroughly once it did ignite; I can't believe he'd lugged more than that in to loosen some adhesive with. And if he left it open... I am not entirely convinced: I have watched someone demonstrate how you can drop a lighted match into a bowl of petrol and it puts it out because there wasn't enough vapour concentration to go up. (Kids, do not try this at home! There were controlled conditions.)

You’re right waterbottle, sorry. But the pulse was definitely slower than 60, which seems like it would be normal for a coma as the heart slows down at rest. Does that sound right?