💥 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.

That's how it works in Ambridge.

How is it people recover so quickly there?

I have recent rewatched almost all of Lost. People healed from injuries and illnesses very quickly there too. Does this mean everyone in Ambridge is actually in purgatory (or what ever the end of Lost was)?

Oh, that was hard to listen to. Was it Shula's idea? What a stupendous error of judgement

I hope the Bishops Advisory Panel gets to hear about it before she is let loose in some poor unsuspecting parish.

Name change.

Far, far too many times of Robert saying "my Lindy" if you want my opinion. I actually flinch now when he says it. What a total lack of imagination in the SW atm, in general. Pantomime humour, crass writing, and storylines left hanging.

Mind you, Freddie has as ever been superb in every scene.

What day is it and who am I again?

It doesn't matter @HMSSophie as there's no Archers now until Sunday. Otherwise it would be Tuesday tonight I think, as the fair was on Easter Monday, which doesn't really make sense as you'd think it would be on Easter Day. I could be wrong but can't be bothered to try & work it out.

the thuggish police officers I’m better acquainted with are Gene Hunt, Rebus and of course Laure Bertaud (who I note posts on this thread from time to time)

I'm not thuggish @UnholyStramash, just very ... erm ... thorough

Far, far too many times of Robert saying "my Lindy" if you want my opinion. I actually flinch now when he says it it makes me cringe.

BOOP for Tracey and her joie de vivre!

Bernard the Bunny is a frog. Bernard the Bunny got eaten. He was replaced by Ferdinand the Frog, who will also get eaten.

WheresThatCatGoneNow (re Shula)

What day is it and who am I again? I've got it sorted.I have 4 pairs of nice socks. It seemed enough when we were washing 3-4 times a week, but since I chucked DS out, we're only washing once a week. And for some reason, the days when I'm wearing nice socks are Mon-Thurs. So all I have to do is look at my feet and I know where we are. If I've got nice socks on, TA is on in the evening.

I must say Lynda actor is playing a blinder. The trouble is that it all sits rather uncomfortably alongside supposed funnies about the frog/rabbit and Lillian's hat.

Bloody hell! Every Friday 7.02pm I go to turn the radio on, and then, wait a minute...
Not looking forward to May.

No way would people make a huge fuss and spectacle of someone who’d just been released from hospital with severe burns. Bloody hell who is writing this rubbish ?

And I’m sure we are all on the edge of our seats wondering what on Earth is going to happen to MeanEd

I need to stop listening I really do.

Classic episodes to be re-broadcast - www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3ylHgx0mKJPW13QqCW9fVvs/important-moments-from-archers-history-to-be-re-broadcast

Joyce is clearly undercover police hunting for evidence on Philip and Gav.

but with that work taking a little longer than anticipated ... Jeremy Howe.

Scary.

(It seems BBC Mailbox had never contemplated making plans for a crisis. I only ask because quite a few BBC dramas are based on governmental institutions rehearsing for some global crisis or other.)

Well. We anticipated that this might happen. But we thought it would be deliberate, not forced upon them. And it would have been nice to have some of the older stuff.

Scary. As I said.

(Thanks for the link Judy.)

Paddington, that is genius!

NO NEW EPISODES OF THE ARCHERS FROM THURSDAY APRIL 30TH TO MONDAY 25TH MAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've coped with lockdown up to now but this is a blow. If we had an overinfested emoticon, it would need to be tweaked to represent my feelings on reading this to something approximating the image attached.

Gasp0 ...

I had been trying to be discreet, in case any readers had managed to avoid the previous news about how TA would proceed through lockdown.

Am wondering whether The Intervention will demand its own separate thread - or not.

Dear god I I didnt read the link

NO NEW EPISODES OF THE ARCHERS FROM THURSDAY APRIL 30TH TO MONDAY 25TH MAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My goodness. They are taking a long time to adjust.
I think that they have missed their moment, the sewing season.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/apr/18/the-archers-takes-trip-down-memory-lane-amid-covid-19-delays-coronavirus

I hope we get some sort of resolution on the Modern Slavery plot line before the intermission ....

Perhaps we could resort to making our own plots and episodes. We could do all the character development and storylines for the Gills as the SW don't seem inclined to give us any. I think the family patriarch is Mark Gill aged 49, previously an expat businessman in Hong Kong but now coming permanently back to the UK hence the empty house for months. He's good looking and a bit standoffish but has a past in Borsetshire he's not proud of.

What about the rest of the family?

His wife is Emma Gill, 46, who grew up in an outer London suburb and doesn't really like the country. Mark has a high-flying city job when they met. She was a PA. She loved her work but gave it up when their children were born. One of the reasons she's not sure about moving to Ambridge is because it stymies her plans to start her own business or look for a job.

Mark wants to have horses but Emma's terrified of them. He's bought the family a dog - something big and hard to manage, need a dog expert to supply the breed. Emma's struggling with that too.

Emma and Mark have three children. They're all now at boarding school, another thing Emma hates.

Mark isn't controlling like Rob was, but he has very strong views about how things should be done, and he holds the pursestrings. Emma goes along with it all for the sake of a quiet life. She tells herself she's a very lucky woman. She wants for nothing and gets lots of lovely holidays. She has a cleaner and a gardener and a woman who comes to the house every week to do the flowers and see to the houseplants. She has caterers in for parties and they had a nanny when the children were little, au pair later on.

Someone else's turn!

I don't share their definition of "classic" as the episodes are from this century.

I would love to hear some episodes from further back - they're missing an opportunity to mine the history of the longest running soap opera and go back to the youth of some characters. I can only presume there are technical reasons why it's harder to pull those episodes for us.

The Gills are Jaspinder and Balvinder, and their three children Tanvir, Youraj and Jasminder.

Tanvir is the same age as Chelsea, and Youraj the same age as Tilly Button.

They have had the interior designers at Home Farm. Jaspinder does not need to borrow JennyDarling's fish kettle or salmon platter.

The Gills (Brummies Paul and Sharon) made a mint through being in the right place at the right time. They had an internet business selling Joules-a-like and ran it on a shoestring (pretty much just him and her) from their back bedroom.
The success went to their heads (they thought it was their business brains, not luck) and they thought that they could run the business from anywhere and fancied the Joules Lifestyle for themselves. Just as they moved everything went wrong: they couldn't sell their old house, they over-extended the business, the DC rebelled against moving. You name it, it went wrong. So now they are working even harder just to keep afloat and that is why nobody ever sees them round the village.
The DC are girls by the way. We need somebody for Josh, Ben, Ruari, Freddie, Johnny, etc to go out with.