💥 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 think that Phoeble should be putting her degree to good use in sorting out the current PPE shortage.

Last night showed why Trolley will never happen. Tracy is a 'win at all costs' sort of girl - to the extent that she will probably find that she is a team of one at next nets.
Oliver, on the other hand, probably rote-learned at school Kipling's If.

Another one here who struggled to believe that exercise session. A qualified instructor takes a group of strangers he has never worked with before, doesn't bother with a warm-up session and then insists on full blow work-out that totally disregards their respective levels of fitness? I hope his insurers are ready for an onslaught of claims for pulled muscles and heart attacks.

The cricket is beyond tedious - it reminds me of listening to TA in France on Long Wave before the internet when afternoons would frequently be given over to the cricket ball by ball commentary (which actually I used to leave on sometimes just because I was missing my dad) blocking out the 2pm broadcast and very often the 7pm one as well. Apart from the time when Knob cheated, I am struggling to think of (or indeed remember) any interesting cricket plot line. Last night's effort wasn't helped by the fact that I find Lee an uninteresting character in any guise.

Ashamed to admit I actually preferred Shouty-Lee to his usual whiny teen demeanour. I've struggled to understand how Helen could fancy someone who sounds like a piece of wet string.

But yes, the cricket trading was ill-conceived.

(I wrote cricket training. )

Lee is such a boring character. I am glad I am not the only who hates the cricket stories. They should have stories about childrens football, I saw a grown man called a child referee a little shit a few months ago. It wouldn't be pleasant but at least it would be less dull than cricket.

Assuming Roman is planning to move into Ambridge so he can join the team.

it would be less dull than cricket. There's nowt dull about cricket. It's just the SW representation of it that's dull.

Justin and Phoebe are quite amusing. I love how Justin ties her up into knots, and she makes a fool of herself by trying to sound as though she's had decades of experience and knows what she's talking about.

Justin puts me in mind of a big tomcat, lazily toying with a very intellectually challenged (and stupidly over-confident) mouse.

Lee did do warm up exercises - a walking plank and then star jumps. I think Roman means that Tracey should stage a takeover of the cricket team with his coup d'état comment.

Awwww, Phoebe and her little spreadsheet.....

Bless!

She's desperate to show it to somebody, isn't she

And I bet it was Pip who actually produced it 🤣

I think walking planks and star jumps would generally only be regarded as appropriate warm-up exercises for people who are already exercising regularly. For people who don't normally exercise the norm is to start off with some reasonably gentle bending and stretching.

Yes, but if there is ever any exercise in TA star-jumps are mentioned. It is what the editorial team/scriptwriters know about.

They had their volunteer cricket team there for this week's practice. If I had been one of it, I would have walked out after the first two minutes, they wouldn't get me next week, and I'd be making sure that anyone else I knew who had volunteered for that team was at least thinking about not turning up again until Tracy had been thrown out.

She sledges, too, which is contrary to the spirit of village cricket.

And do I remember right that Tracy sat and supervised? How fit is she anyway?

Well she's not considering giving up smoking (too dangerous?) so I doubt if she is very fit.

Oh dear ...

Kirsty is annoying me with her baseless, starry-eyed insistence that Philip is innocent. The fact that he wasn't actually on site at the time is irrelevant; he's the boss so the buck stops with him.
It's a close call as to who is the most stupid and naive at the moment: Kirsty or Phoebe.

Poor Robert. Lynda is being vile to him.

After tonight’s episode, I’m left with an image of Phillip smirking at Robert. And maybe he will be the detective who exposes Phillip rather than Linda?
I’m still trying to work out how Phil extricated Blake from hospital, given he’s meant to have a broken back. 🤔

That's the Ambridge health fairy for you.

I think Lynda's treatment of Robert is quite realistic.

I can't quite decide what happened there. Did Robert throw a punch at Philip?

Well deserved if he did!

I so agree with PPs about the extreme dullness of all the cricket storylines.

Did I just hear Phillip say to Gavin something like “If they do charge Blake with something it will be negligence, nothing criminal”? I suppose that Philip is not supposed to be a legal mastermind, but surely he’d understand the basic idea that you can only be charged with a crime?