💥 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.

Hannah could be a candidate for Johnny. Can't see it working thugh.

Chelsea would be ideal for Ruari, but I'm hoping that Mere Grundy will come back. That would leave Chelsea free for Fred.

Ben could pair off with one of the Button girls.

Josh will be the last to pair off and that will be with a distant Faircousin called Grace.

Hannah could be a candidate for Johnny.

Possibly one of the cruellest things ever written. No, a million times.

Ruairi and Mia are a done deal, though it will take a few years.

Freddie has wider horizons. He won't meet anyone significant until he finally gets to take his Grand Tour around Africa and Asia. The future chatelain(e) of Lower Loxley will not be quite what Radio Four's wrong type of listener is expecting.

No idea about the Brookfield youth.

Loving all the Gills!

Johnneh deserves somebody nice. Hannah is horrible.

Imagine if Johnneh and Mrs Richards had pleasant, uncomplicated children. Such a contrast from Tom and Helen.

Freddie does need to travel.

Will there be TA after this crisis?

Belated BOOP from me for Lynda telling Robert off for saying he was going to ‘pop her into the wheelchair’ . That was bang on.

I agree I’d rather hear Jenny telling her mum she is pregnant or Debbie discovering her dad’s affair than a recent wedding. But will give them the benefit of the doubt that those episodes are harder to access.

I have no real idea about this but might using episodes only from the past two decades be more actively supportive of as many of their current actors as possible? Maybe they only receive a couple of pence for each re-broadcast (?) but it keeps their voices and names 'visible'.

I wonder if the extended Horrobin clan could be more to the fore in future (if there is a future for TA ).

Bert and Ivy Horrobin had six children. Ivy died a few years ago. Bert is still alive but sometimes I wonder if the SWs remember this. He's rarely mentioned.

Clive is an out and out wrong 'un, who's served time for armed robbery of the Ambridge post office, GBH, arson, mutilating horses and goodness knows what else. He has one child we know about - Johnnie's half-sister Kylie, last heard of studying ?Psychology at Lancaster University.

Keith has also been inside, can't remember the details. He has children, whose names escape me. The only time I can remember hearing him speak was a few years ago when he was involved in some criminal activity that possibly involved Brookfield - did it result in the Brookfield barn burning down? Of course, since then, we've found out that Brookfield has lots of barns and one of them is a mediaeval structure now re-purposed for weddings (but of course the lockdown will put paid to that for the foreseeable future).

Gary lives with Tracy, Bert and Tracy's children, I believe. IIRC, he has learning difficulties and is possibly long-term unemployed. Like Bert, he is rarely mentioned but we have to assume he's still in Ambridge, having never been told otherwise. How Tracy wangled getting her name on the rent book so that she will take over the tenancy from Bert is a mystery, given that Gary has been there all his life and Tracy only moved back in a few years ago.

Stewart - what, if anything, do we know about Stewart?

Susan - we know all about her. Married to Neil, mother to Emma and Chris, grandmother to George and Kiera/Keira. Have I forgotten a child of Emma's? Chris and Alice have no children yet. I strongly suspect Alice would be delighted not to have any, but clearly Chris feels differently.

Tracy - no idea if we ever knew anything about her ex. Two children, Chelsea and Brad (short for Bradley?). Now that we hear so much from Tracy, it would be surprising if C &/or B are not pencilled in for speaking parts at some point in the next few years.

Oh, they've definitely been rehabilitating the Tracy branch of Horrobin for a few years. It's odd really - she appears to have a bad reputation, but (other than the swift self preservation with the house) I cant think of anything terrible that she's done. And really, it's only fair she should have a stake in a house she runs for others' benefit as well as hers.

I'm sure I've argued somewhere before that Horrobins are being positioned to take over from Grundys.

Tracy assaulted a child at the school where she was a dinner-lady and was sacked.

Really? I have no memory of that at all! What did she do?

I'd like them to revisit Susan going to prison.

As I recall questions were asked in Parliament and there was a vocal "Free the Ambridge One" campaign.

I don't know what she actually did, but she was sacked for it on the spot so it must have been ill-judged. It was after she moved to Ambridge; the job as a dinner-lady was ideal because it meant she was only having to be there while her children were at school and so she didn't need to pay for after-school care for them.

Tracy assaulted a child at the school where she was a dinner-lady

She's gone up a bit in my estimation for that.

I liked that episode and Roy doing Hercule Poirot

Yes, me too. I hope he cracks the case and gets the girl.

He is trying to save Philip, isn't it more likely that when his investigations do the opposite Kirsty is at the very least conflicted about her feelings towards Roy.

it's a bit painful though isn't it, you can hear the cogs whirring
surely it's obvious he put the grill on to prepare some food
then an obvious question why did he need to eat

then an obvious question why did he need to eat
Not really. Have the SW never met any builders? - they spend half their life at Greggs or the butty van or scoffing biscuits. A more pertinent question might be why he didn't ask one of the GG staff to get him something.

Phoebe is so thick and deluded naive, she is a danger to herself.

She really shouldn't be allowed out on her own.

I do hope they resolve the slavery skullduggery before Ambridge goes into lockdown, otherwise this is likely to drag on until Autumn.

When was the Phirsty wedding supposed to happen?

I’m actually really enjoying the Philip/Blake storyline - I hope this break isn’t going to interfere too much with its denouement. I imagine the editor has tried to pick an appropriate time to break off pre-recorded stuff (ie not necessarily using up every pre-recorded episode) and the break is a necessary evil to allow enough time to write and record Covid-appropriate material to be inserted. Morphing seamlessly from one to the other would have been near on impossible since there are always so many strands going forward into the next week. I like the idea of filling the gap with classic episodes and I’m looking forward to seeing what they choose - I’d happily listen to that six days a week so it’s a pity they are not picking up the dropped episode. BOOPS all round for making a virtue of necessity. (And the Gills definitely don’t have any children - impossible to keep themselves to themselves with more family members. I think they are both high-powered professionals, away on business a lot, possibly with another home elsewhere or even abroad. My Mum actually has such a near neighbour - enormous million pound plus house - belongs to people who use it once a year in Ascot week. It’s the only explanation for them not even having a silent presence in the village).

I'm a bit behind and reading each day on here as I go so apologies if this has been solved or discussed but is Phil and Kirsty's house in joint names?

Also, I've started dh listening. While we are both wfh lunchtime is spent in Ambridge. He's wondering about the fence that was taken down as part of rewilding. A few days later Brian drilled barley in 'an extra field' and then Ed was repairing a fence. My geography is rubbish, could any of these be linked?

For context, Harrison had just interviewed Phil and Lillian has brought her Japanese screen for Lynda. This bed move is not going to go well...

Where did Blake get the bread? If he was hungry wouldn't he have eaten it untoasted?

MUM maybe the bread was stale, he would have needed butter, though for toast. It is a mystery. Perhaps he'd got hold of some bacon or sausage and was grilling that.

Let me think ... The extra food was being stored in the staff room, wasn't it? And the kitchen opens into the staff room - which must have been empty at some point in the morning. Even if the door between them was closed he might have opened it out of curiousity/desperation - and grabbed a slice from the nearest loaf? Then closed the door as he returned to the kitchen.

(That makes slightly more sense to me than his having brought it from the flat - but that's possible too, I guess.)

Great episode, with the penny slowly dropping for Roy.
I feel a BOOP is deserved for the bloke in the neighbouring bed. I can’t comment on Hollerton junction, but Birmingham Moor Street is indeed a lovely station.