💥 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.

Jaichangecentfoisdenom, you'll find a list, and a link to summaries (and possibly the summaries themselves) for the next two weeks, on the Archers Spoilers thread right now.

(Think everyone's a bit reluctant to post them here in case people don't want to know in advance.)

Meanwhile I'm now also worrying about Christine and the other residents of The Laurels.

Killing her off out of our hearing would be an extremely shabby way to treat such a long-standing character. And I would have thought a luxury, rural old people's home would fare better than some. Though I guess that would depend on how alert staff and patients were to ideal requirements several weeks ago. (When Ambridge visitors were still visiting without restriction.)

Susan is a likely victim. She insists on lengthy conversations with everyone who steps into the village shop. And, believing herself indispensable, she's likely to carry on working and gossiping long after she should be getting treatment.

Does Tony have an increased risk as a result of his heart attack? He has a pacemaker I think?

We have no idea, do we, if anyone in Ambridge is significantly overweight? And I've never heard the word diabetes spoken there. Nor Crohn's disease. And of course they're not likely to see the high numbers of ethnic minority victims ...

Really, this would be a good time for the production team to address the homogeneity of the community they've constructed.

For some reason, from when I was a child I've always envisioned Clarrie as a larger lady. Similar to the actor Annette Badland.

But in reality there's probably nothing of Clarrie, running around after all those men must burn lots of calories.

Lillian's a smoker isn't she? Hope it's not curtains for her.

Just popping in to say I am utterly bereft. I have been listening my whole life. I will really missed a whole month of hearing from Ambridge . I nearly cried the other night when I forgot it was Friday and tried to listen. How am I going to cope?!

I would really like to hear John and the tractor, if that's not too morbid. It's the basis for all the relationships and dynamics of the family. Good point. I would also like to hear characters from the Golden Age where everyone was true to character and could be recognised by their voice - Mrs Antrobus, Nelson Gabriel, Laura Archer, Colonel Danby. But I presume we won't. It;ll be Nigel's scream and lots of Helen and Rob. (I haven't looked at the spoiler's thread so that's my supposition. I'm determined to be miserable about it.)

Commiserations Randomly! It will indeed be strange.

I shall as always be relying on this thread to keep me company, and I suggest you do the same. I'm sure re-hearing past episodes will raise plenty of communal laughter and scorn.

I hope we are not going to have lots of Rob and Helen, I stopped listening then (actually I listened once a week so I knew when it was over.).

Diabetes: Walter Gabriel. Did Mike Tucker have it too, or have I invented that? He certainly had high cholesterol at one point, but sadly it was his wife Betty who succumbed to heart disease.

Clarrie is certainly a big woman, or used to be. There was a tiresome period when this was treated as a humorous on and off storyline. Wasn't there a wife carrying competition?

I second the feeling that Christine should not be killed off during lockdown. I want a proper send off for her when the actress is ready to make an official departure.

Alan's daughter, Amy, is mixed race and working as a midwife, so she's on the front line. She's young but high risk because of her job.

Older episodes/clips would be lovely. Haven't listened to any of these yet but here's what I've found so far.

Tony finding John - there's a clip embedded in this BBC blog post. www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thearchers/entries/ca3a325e-d35a-3f86-9e9a-dfca5ea15e56

YouTube has a lot of stuff. Here's Doris Archer's death from 1980.

Fragment from the mid 70s.

A fragment from 1983.

A fragment from 1984.

If you want a general idea of what's coming up in the next three weeks, it's on the BBC website:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3ylHgx0mKJPW13QqCW9fVvs/important-moments-from-archers-history-to-be-re-broadcast
It doesn't give specifics re which characters or exact stories, so no spoilers.

My guess would be that they won't kill anyone off during coronavirus as that would mess up their longer-term planning of storylines. Unless it's a very minor character.

Another question that's occurred to me is when the new episodes are back, how are they going to deal with the lifting of restrictions, if they write the scripts months in advance? Just kind of fluff it?

I don't think I want to hear John and the tractor again, it was so unexpected and the silence afterwards - no Barwick Green. It still gives me the chills.

Obviously it wouldn't be unexpected this time but still...

I remember ‘jokes’ about Clarrie’s weight too *Gasp0de, although as you say running around after her family must surely burn up a few calories (or as autocorrect tried to impose ‘characters’ Lilian definitely smokes but although I know some listeners on Twitter imagine her as
overweight, I completely disagree - she is always indulging herself in terms of clothes and beauty treatments and I think she mainly exists on gin and cigarettes. I think they won’t kill anyone off, unless the actor wants to leave.

I really don’t want to hear Helen and Rob again (agree with Chemenger). I stopped listening to the omnibus during that period as it was too much over an hour and a quarter. Normally I listen to some daily episodes and the omnibus. It was good to tackle coercive control but the plot did nothing to encourage women to contact helplines or refuges. Even the fantastic fundraising was started by a listener and it was ages before they responded to pressure to give a ‘if you have been affected’ warning.

PerditaProvokesEnmity
Does Tony have an increased risk as a result of his heart attack? He has a pacemaker I think?

Elizabeth has a pacemaker, though I think they called it something else (possibly a defibrillator?); Tony had a stent fitted, and if my experience of that is anything to go by he won't have got/get a letter telling him he ought to be shielding on that account. He is the same age as Eddie, both born in 1951, so not in the "over-seventy-at-risk" category either.
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My problem with the individual "terribly important" episodes is that mostly they aren't, on their own, but need the build-up in previous episodes or the consequences in later ones to have any particular impact. Or else, as with John's death, there are about thirty seconds of stunning acting (from Colin Skipp, in that case) with nothing much for twelve minutes before them.

nettie434
Lilian definitely smokes but although I know some listeners on Twitter imagine her as overweight, I completely disagree - she is always indulging herself in terms of clothes and beauty treatments and I think she mainly exists on gin and cigarettes.

She rides an Arab; I doubt she is particularly heavy. Arabs are quite small: the breed standard is between 57 and 61 inches at the withers. They can take heavy riders, but on the whole their owners (ie Justin in the case of the one Lilian rides) prefer not to risk them -- they are not cheap either if they are the snazzo highly-bred type we were told Amir and Aziz are. (And fat people look silly on a small horse, "like a mattress balanced on a bottle of wine", which I'm sure Lilian wouldn't want.)

@JudyCoolibari, agree that might have been the reason behind Gavin nicking the phone and cancelling the DJ - he was also trying to get Roy drunk when Roy stated clearly he needed to work next day. But it only works as a scare tactic if Roy understands what happened and he doesn’t.i also want to know, when normal (open to definition) service resumes whether Philip put him up to it. Hence him and Alistair leaving earlier and together. It’s a frustrating time to be leaving that SL. Like @R4 I’d have preferred less MeandEd and more Moss.

I remember Clarie's weight routinely feature in story lines. I think she is cuddly, not fat. Agree with netties description of Lillian.

AskingQuestions, do you happen to have a brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat?

She rides an Arab; I doubt she is particularly heavy.
How sweet that you have such faith in the SWs' equine knowledge.
I see Lilian as wanting to be Wallis Simpson ("You can't be too rich or too thin") but actually being more solidly Princess Margaret.

I imagine lilian to be a bit like gloria hunniford. glamerous but down to earth and good company.

On Gavin/Roy - I assumed it was either to drive a wedge between Roy and Kirsty (minimise the chance of him telling her about any concerns he has about the explosion), or to make him think his head injury is affecting him (hence the talk of concussion) so that he doesn't believe himself. Similarly replacing the phone. All gaslighting to make Roy think he's losing it. I can't understand why Kirsty now thinks the sun shines out of Gavin, when she saw his true colours so recently!

I couldn't enjoy the Emma storyline. It was too "learn your place and then you'll be content". Yes absolutely you can have a happy life in a caravan, but that wasn't what she wanted, and she's now given in to thinking that all the upset was her fault for aiming too high. Losing the house was not her fault, it was his, none of this joint fault crap. I got quite angry listening to that!

TheSparklyPussycat, no, because skins look better on the animals that grew them.

Fake leopard skin I might, if they made them, but I bet they don't.

I couldn't enjoy the Emma storyline. It was too "learn your place and then you'll be content".
Not necessarily. She was still the same old Emma chasing a dream, but she has redefined her dream. It was no longer "Beechwood or bust", it was "the man I love + family reunited + a roof over our heads". She made that happen, she still has drive.
Look how Susan has steadily improved her lot - that could be Emma in 20/30 years' time. Tortoise not hare.

I wonder if the SW meant to make a clever political point about affordable housing not actually being that affordable or achievable.

I imagine Lillian to be slim. G&T aren't fattening and she smokes.
I imagine Clarrie to be 2-3 st overweight.
Ian is cuddly.

Lillian- bit like Camilla PB )drinking, maybe smoking, riding)
Agree about cuddly Clarrie - lots of v carby meals to suit the menfolk

Losing the house was not her fault, it was his, none of this joint fault crap

Not really. She was pushing Ed to make money and closing her ears to his very valid fears about what was going on with Timotei.