👩‍🌾 The Archers spoilers thread #5: Can't wait for 7.02pm? Join us here!

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Spoiler thread for The Archers. Please keep all spoiler-related discussion in this thread and do not spill the beans on the main Archers Thread. Last thread here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3439443-keep-it-to-yourself-the-archers-spoilers-thread-4

I just mean I'm generally asking questions in life.

But here's a question: if you / we want to meet up, why not have a Zoom call? It can be relatively anonymous and doesn't require travel...

In my case, because I wouldn't trust Zoom with the time of day, let alone information about me -- no more than I would trust Facebook or Twitter or indeed any organisation whose main source of revenue is selling my details (aka advertising revenue). Their security is not that brilliant, and they really are not yet set up to cope with the enormous increase in traffic they have been coping with just recently.

Thank you for being cynical Asking I too am extremely suspicious of the 'wonderful web'. It's a shame because it's a double edged sword. Did you hear on R4 about the huge scam being practiced on people with Amazxx accounts?

The thought is fun Dad

Did anyone hear the actress Jill listening to some non luvvies 'doing a scene of their own' from TA at the weekend in the morning? She enjoyed it BUT she said that maybe it was the LAST scene in TA EVER!!!!!!!!!!!

we'd need to find out where the people who might like to come live and then find somewhere in the middle

Surely it would have to be near The Mailbox in Birmingham? Not that I imagine they will be running tours any time soon.

New Archers chat! (Though, in all honesty, not much actual news ...)

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/may/19/the-archers-episodes-lockdown-ambridge-radio-4-rural-soap-coronavirus?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I'd forgotten how stupid that ep. with drunk Matt Crawford getting -his comeuppance run over was. Thanks for reminding me Covid R4. That was one that could easily have been wiped!

A day early this week with next week's spoilers.

BBC one-liners 25-28th May 2020
25 May David reflects on life at Brookfield and Josh considers his place in the family.
26 May Harrison struggles to strike the correct tone and Tracy launches her manifesto.
27 May Josh faces some tough decisions and it’s the day of reckoning for Harrison.
28 May David attempts to restore peace at Brookfield and Josh makes his choice.

Credits
Mon 25/5/2020, Tue 26/5/2020, Wed 27/5/2020, Thu 28/5/2020
Writers: Adrian Flynn & Keri Davies
Director: Kim Greengrass
Editor: Jeremy Howe
David Archer: Timothy Bentinck
Josh Archer: Angus Imrie
Harrison Burns: James Cartwright
Tracy Horrobin: Susie Riddell

Radio Times Ambridge Diary May 24-27
First things first - coronavirus will feature in the new landscape. There are contemplative scenes as David sits atop Lakey Hill and reflects how the village has changed. And we’ll also hear how Ambridge is coming to the aid of its most vulnerable residents, as Susan wrangles volunteers to deliver supplies. There may be no local cricket, but Tracy and Harrison are still vying to be team captain.
As ever, though, family dynamics remain at the heart of the drama. And the Brookfield Archers are the first to take centre stage. Relations are strained between father and son after the forage harvester breaks while Josh is driving it. He insists the malfunction isn’t his fault and feels his parents treat him differently from his siblings. Will he and David be able to sort out their differences?

=#=#=#=#=#=#=

I do hope that if David is going to soliloquise about how Ambridge has changed, someone who has known Ambridge for more than about three years will be writing that episode. Otherwise it will just be lots of little bits culled from one of the reference books, and it will sound like what it is.

I don't recall there ever having been any suggestion that Tracy was to captain the cricket team -- and if I played for a team which was saddled with a captain like her, I'd be casting about for a different team to play on. As we know, for all Harrison's "he can't play for Ambridge, he doesn't live here" tosh about Gavin, people have left the Ambridge team to play for Darrington before now.

....and goodness gracious me! Josh has finally noticed the blatant favouritism shown by his parents! Took him long enough....

Thank you Asking Poor Josh has spent so much time in the cereal cupboard (or watching films in his bedroom) That it's not surprising, he's finally discovered his teenage angst

The SWs can't make up their minds whether the Brookfield boys are treated fairly or not. They certainly loose out to Pip.

The current SWs are not as emotionally intelligent as women (a generalisation I know) but on the whole it is true. So they picked the wrong ones to write the soliloquies IMO.

You may be right about David's we'll see......

Thanks, Asking! Four actors credited.

The SW team has been about 50:50 male and female for a long time, ppeat. My understanding of how storylines are agreed is that they're thrashed out at a whole team meeting (Editor, producers, SWs and in days of yore the archivist) once every few months and then signed off by the Controller of Radio 4, who does every so often step in to veto something. Apparently Ed was pencilled in for a murder storyline a few years back and the Controller said no.

Then they map out what happens when, allocate weeks to writers and each writer has to produce a detailed outline for their week, which is reviewed. I assume they all see each other's outlines once they are agreed so they know what's happening in detail. Then they write the scripts. So each individual writer has very little control over what to write about each week. Probably in this instance it was a quick decision by the Editor based on who was ready to record from home first.

Adrian Flynn has been writing for TA since 1998 and Keri Davies since the mid 2000s after several years as Senior Producer, so they should know about Brookfield's history.

Probably in this instance it was a quick decision by the Editor based on who was ready to record from home first.

Aha! Fantastic deduction, Gasp0! Very likely to be right. We know Tim Bentinck has a shed, one would imagine the Imries are not short of a home studio or three. (The rabbit hole unfolded an obituary of the young Imrie's father - which I could have done without ...) Susie Riddell's home page actually highlights her home studio. Can't be bothered to look up James Cartwright ...

Thanks, Asking!

PPE, that gives me the flimsy perfect excuse to trot out yet again the fact that Angus Imrie was in the same school year as my son and at Parents' Evening we often queued up alongside his mother and father and had to work hard not to gawp. (My son and Angus probably knew each other to say hello, but no more than that, so there were no visits to the Imrie household.)

I am quite interested to hear what if anything Josh has to say about how his parents deify the sainted Pip.

If they're suddenly living in lockdown, I'd be fascinated to hear how they treat the fact that they were all meeting up in the pub, attending Easter events etc etc long after lockdown started. Is it all going to turn out to be someone's fantasy?

I think they should go straight into the lockdown stuff - no explanations necessary, we all know what has happened.

'Never apologise, never explain' is what I expect to be the watchword as we move into the lockdown era. It will just all be happening and nobody will ever refer to the bizarre few weeks when Ambridge was out of synch with everybody else.

Odd to have Christmas happening in May. Even odder to have this episode happening after we've heard Ed and Emma's wedding and the flood, both of which happened later.

Gasp It is always 6 weeks out of synch though isn't it? hence the problems with TA weather. I don't usually feel sorry for the SWs but Covid must be giving them real headaches.

I just heard on 4ex that they are discussing with TA SWs the very problem referred to above next Friday on their podcast hour .

No, we have Christmas, Easter, election day etc at the same time. They just get the weather wrong by bad luck from guessing.

They had the Harrison the policeman on Front Row. It was all a bit embarrassing so I turned off. Did he say anything interesting?

That was grim listening, Melroses!

(I'm sure Kirsty Lang is an admirable person, but she possibly wouldn't be in my 'Top Fifty Million Radio Presenters' list. And he was worse.)

And no - he said nothing interesting!

I was thinking more about the floods, foot and mouth etc. They can't forecast those 6 weeks before.

For foot-and-mouth they simply knuckled down and re-recorded, because they had to.

The Am flooding was decided on a year before but postponed when there were actual, serious floods countrywide and it was felt that having a minor flood lasting overnight (broadcast for a week) would be in bad taste -- so the one time they got it absolutely right by accident, they decided not to take advantage of it!

Daily Mail Weekend Magazine Archers Update April May 25-28
Two of Ambridge’s trickier customers dominate this week. Tracy Horrobin goes flat out in her war against Harrison Burns. It’s a risky move for a Horrobin, as the flame-haired copper has shown no qualms in the past about snapping the cuffs on any Ambridger inclined to overstep the mark - and overstepping the mark is hard-wired into the Horrobin DNA. Tracy is determined to overthrow Harrison as captain of the cricket team and, this week, shares her thoughts on her bid for power.
Josh, another Ambridger to have fallen foul of the law, has a problem with the forage harvester - an event which stirs up some bitter sibling rivalry. Meanwhile, David sits on Lakey Hill and reflects on the invisible enemy that we now all face.

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Sorry, I simply cannot help myself remembering an old song:

I liked the trailers for the first week back - but the week beginning June 1st looks proper exciting:

Writers, Nick Warburton & Sarah McDonald-Hughes
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Ben Archer ..... Ben Norris
Emma Grundy ..... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Ed Grundy ..... Barry Farrimond
Susan Carter ..... Charlotte Martin

Anticipatory BOOP!