💥 Archers thread #117: Welcome to the only C19-free area in the world! 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 think Phoebe is a genius, 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/3853783--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-5-Cant-wait-for-7-02pm-Join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

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.)

I put the BOOM! emoticon in the title as I thought it could transition into a vague likeness of a virus if we're still going by early May, when we expect some wild contortions from the production team to get Ambridge back in synch with the rest of the world. I think I would have preferred them to ignore it altogether but I suppose they couldn't.

I did consider suggesting Zoom for our prospective alternative TA discussion venue ... ( )

DC1's middlename is Fairbrother?

I was on Sue's Mustardland and the BBC Mustardland. Different username.

MUM - Alas not Fairbrother, how obsessed would you have to be? We went with Grace. We haven’t been able to register #2 yet - the council are only doing death registrations at the minute 😢 - so maybe I could sneak a TA name in.

If DC2 is a boy - you could call him Archer. (please don't).

Fallon has a half-brother called Rollo, I think.

I think Rollo was the child of Wayne Tucson's new squeeze but not of Wayne himself.

I was right: Lowfield, 13th October, 2009

Fallon's upset that her dad's not been seen since Friday, and thinks he's wandered out of her life again. His sudden arrival is met with a telling off from her. Turns out he was tracking down the son of an ex-girlfriend who can play guitar. And play quite well given Wayne taught him a bit. Fallon listens to the demo CD and is enthusiastic; if Rollo wants to join the band then they'll have a future again.

(The band then got forgotten about in fairly short order.)

Step-brother, I thought? And didn't her dad break up with Rollo's mother, causing him to seek succour at the Bull?

(I once had high hopes of Fallon and Rollo, during the time she was involved in a band - could never understand why the SWs didn't run with it ...)

I enjoyed the Tracy / Freddie interaction when GG re-opened.

Tracy's no-nonsense approach made me think that Freddie is just the sort of directionless young man who would be 'made' by a short stint in the army; ruled over by similarly no-nonsense types and mixing with people offering a straightforward mateyness that doesn't depend on being as academic as your sister, or knowing what you want out of life yet.

Volunteering and 'gap year' type activities could offer him the same sense of adventure and purpose (and get him away from Ambridge, where everybody knows his history) - if he chose the right ones, where there is real work to do for a number of months and didn't just doss about with new mates in a different country.

The army really doesn't need to be made a sort of universal nanny for the incompetent, though.

Maybe not but do you know what I mean? And I'm not convinced he's incompetent. I suppose I'm thinking of national service really.

Freddie responds well to straightforwardness and teamwork, less so to people fussing around him. He's getting this from the GG kitchen at the moment but that feels like a short-term penance, before his social capital elevates him through reception into useful organisational tasks. all while keeping him in Ambridge. I think a similar workplace milieu to the kitchen but with more a longer-term goal, would work well for him.

Peet's Mustard land is still going, and will accept new members - you can posy as a guest, too. Oddly, I have never posted about TA there, just general chat. Threads disappear if not posted to for two weeks.

Have been scrolling through this morning's thread on alternatives to MN ...

And hoping I would have the sense to wave a fond goodbye and get back to reading books and doing useful things.

But. I would be sad to lose this thread.

I didn't get the hang of Peet's but that was years ago.

Posting in Peet's is a bit difficult because if you get it the least bit wrong that explodes your reply so that it shows the whole thread (it's all there in the reply box), but if you delete the posts you are replying to they don't like it because then they can't tell what you were replying to. I think the word is "idiosyncratic".

Thanks Asking. I might try again but doubt it. Sue's ML stopped quite abruptly. Shame.

I can't cope with Peet's. Sue's ML got very caught up with in-fighting, I think.

I came from ML to MN and would be very sad to see this place go.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

I enjoyed Thursday’s episode and enjoyed Tracy cheering up of Oliver. I think they can remain good friends without needing to be more.
Has Freddy been promoted to working on reception?

He was being given an hour's training on reception, I think. Not sure it is going to be his actual job -- maybe while the kitchen is out of use and Lynda isn't available.

I don't honestly see that she is going to be doing that job again, now that she has had to stop: she is going to be seventy-three next month, and if she is horribly disfigured by having had full-thickness burns to her face she may well not want to be in a public-facing job.

But Freddie is going to have his own hospitality business to run in the not-too-distant future, and I don't think making him a fixture at Grey Gables will hold up in the long term.

Actually for Freddie gaining experience ideally in more than one hospitality business could be of great value to his future.

How old is Elizabeth, surely its going to be quite a while before Freddie takes over.

Freddie could take over as soon as he inherits the house, if he wanted to. It does not belong to Elizabeth; she has been employed by his trustees employed to run it during his minority.

Elizabeth is going to be 53 later this month.

But he doesnt want to, or has never given the impression he does. She could run it for the next 15 years.

Hello, I lurk a lot and post occasionally; don't know if this has been covered, but how are they actually going to introduce corona virus? Will it suddenly snap to Kirsty's thoughts in isolation, as if the current corona free months were a dream? Or explain it as Ambridge immunity meaning their county was the last to succumb?

Reddit? Surely they have an active TA thread?!

I don't think they've told us, Flos.

I'd prefer them to just jump in with no more preamble than a continuity announcer informing us that TA would now be reflecting current situation. Perhaps it partly depends on how many social events are being planned in Ambridge over the next couple of weeks - we could be treated to a litany of cancellations and postponements.

I guess farming will carry on - assuming sufficient workers. But GG and LL will be stuffed for the moment. Though they'd surely be very popular once the crisis is ... less critical, if they survive.