💥 Archers thread #118: Back in time for The Archers - catch up with the catch up until the scriptwriters catch up! 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 Philip Moss is in line for Employer of the Year, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: OK, there aren't likely to be many for the foreseeable future, but when we do have some, 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.)

Thanks to @LillianGish for the title! This thread starts at a very odd time for The Archers, longest-running soap opera in the world. No new episodes expected till late May , and when we do get them they're not going to sound like normal, as the actors are recording separately at home and the BBC is attempting to cobble it all together. Tough times for the sound effects team!

The BBC is filling the gap by repeating key episodes from the last 20 years. Some of us here will have heard them before, but not all, by any means, so if you want background on what you hear this is the place to ask.

Over to you! I must try to catch up with the repeats at some point today.

Sorry, I'm an episode behind, but I agree with previous posters that the hunt ball and the ludicrous whodunnit hit and run just didn't work as a standalone. Personally I'd like to hear the two episodes before and after Brian's revelation , or Rob's stabbing. The Archers is the ultimate slow burner!

Just heard the trailer for the first time. One would assume that would contain some of the most tempting morsels from what they've prepared for us...... 🤨

I think the trailer sounded interesting. After years of David and Ruth obviously favouring Pip and Ben over Josh it'll be good to hear it addressed.

I've been enjoying the archive episodes, but am looking forward to getting back in to current storylines.

Not what I was looking forward to. We could be in for months of this

Me neither, i forsee a mass switch off when its Pip's turn to subject us to 13 mins of self indulgent whining.

I wasn't impressed by the trailer but I don't have much time for David.

Aw, I listened to last nights with a proper tear in my eye. It was a nice way to finish the specials, Ed and Em setting up at one, the green and getting engaged. I hope they're surviving lockdown in the caravan.

Interesting to note history repeating itself - with Emma being the one who secured accommodation for the family at No 1 The Green, and Ed as always stumbling in her wake, bemused and humble. They're so magnificent together!

Was trying to recall couldn't find in nearest book whether it was Susan who pushed for the self-building of Ambridge View, or Neil. (I do remember him telling her that without her aspiration and ambition pushing him on, he would never have got anywhere.)

Susan. She wanted to have a better address than an ex-council-house across the road from her mum and dad and not-quite-'xackerly brother Gary. And she wanted more bedrooms so she would be able to have grandchildren to stay -- poor Susan, I don't suppose she really meant "living with her for indefinite periods", but that has been what she got because of foolishly insisting on the bigger house. (Though why she thought she would need to have them to stay when it was quite clear they were going to live in Ambridge anyway I am not sure.)

Thought so. I remember her wanting to move (I think) and I remember Neil mulling over how on earth he would manage it, but who initiated it is a blank.

It does beautifully underline Gasp0's 'like mother like daughter' theory regarding Susan and Emma. They may both dream of alpha-males, but what they actually seem to like is men who will follow their lead, or at least give them room to make all the big decisions.

I haven't posted for ages so apologies if this has already been mentioned: surely Lynda's llamas will be part of vital research for the Covid-19 vaccine?

Just listened to front row. Sort of wish I hadn't... Harrison illusion blown. James Cartwright was v disappointing .He called the presenter "love" Urghh

Cartwright has a conviction for GBH after attacking someone in a nightclub and fracturing his eye-socket just before he joined The Archers: he was lucky not to be in prison when he was meant to start recording. That gives a little more context to his creepy interview on Front Row. (The duvet stuff, yick.)

They may both dream of alpha-males, but what they actually seem to like is men who will follow their lead, or at least give them room to make all the big decisions

I think that is harsh. Both are incredibly hard working and want to improve their family's lot. In Susan's case Neil was a good match - he wanted much the same things for his family but possibly wouldn't have achieved them without Susan's drive.

In Emma's case she has shackled herself to someone who doesn't want to be "constrained" by a regular job, even to provide a secure home for his daughter.

surely Lynda's llamas will be part of vital research for the Covid-19 vaccine? More likely a "comedy" episode with Eddie trying to harvest an sell llama's piss as a Covid cure.

I didn't mean it harshly, C8H10N4O2! I meant they'd both chosen men who complement their own qualities. I suspect both Susan and Emma would have been bored out of their wits if their marriages had enabled them to sit prettily at home arranging flowers.

Heard two trailers now and am getting quite excited at the thought of hearing from the current Ambridge crowd again!
Loved Emma proposing to Ed too. BOOP for her. I had forgotten about that.

@askingquestionsallthetime
My spidey senses were right!

Editor on Broadcasting House now!

I meant they'd both chosen men who complement their own qualities

I agree that Susan did this but Emma failed to pull off the same trick. With Will she had the complementary work ethic but not the attraction, with Ed there is attraction but Eddie's feckless lack of responsibility. Both boys are misogynist in a way that I've never noticed in Neil.

Not sure who in Ambridge would have worked for Emma (as she was a Horrobin and obviously destined to Know Her Place). Someone like Tom, Harrison or Roy would have complemented her work ethic but there was never a hint of a spark suggested with any of them.

We have to assume that Neil's mother didn't bring him up to think that a woman would wait on him -- I mention only his mother because I think his father was dead by the time he was ten, so didn't bring him up much at all. Certainly he had moved to Birmingham as a child with only his mother, before getting a place on an agricultural scheme in Ambridge when he was sixteen.

The Grundy boys were systematically taught from the day they were born that Daddy went off all day working on the farm (and stealing at night) while Mummy did all the work round the house as well as holding down at least one and often two or three jobs, so it's understandable that they might have been trained to think that was normal. Ed certainly seems to have found it easy enough to go along with: too proud to get a regular job while Emma was working in the teashop during the day and in the chicken factory at night, plus charring for Peggy for a bit of extra cash.

William genuinely was working fourteen-hour days as a gamekeeper, so he had slightly more excuse for wanting Emma to be responsible for the housework during her marriage to Will she was mostly at home, first pregnant and then with a small baby, and not going out to work, until she suddenly decided that she was going back to work earlier than she had said she was going to and then couldn't get either her mother or her mother-in-law, both of whom worked full time, to look after her child for her, and decided the only solution was to run away. William seems to have been able to look after himself though, living alone before he married her and after she had left him, whilst Ed has always lived somewhere where a woman was available to do the chores -- except when he was living rough on the streets, and there isn't a lot of housework involved when you are doing that.

Ed certainly seems to have found it easy enough to go along with: too proud to get a regular job while Emma was working in the teashop during the day and in the chicken factory at night, plus charring for Peggy for a bit of extra cash. He was upset when she got the chicken factory job. (Just not upset enough to do anything useful himself).

Yes, because it made him look bad that she had to (and meant he was going to have to put the children to bed). But when William protested that she shouldn't have to, and her children might want to have her there at bed-time, Ed kept silent while Nic and Emma ganged up on Will and told him that not wanting her to work three jobs was chauvinist behaviour and she would do what she wanted. Ed's a bit of a coward, really.

I have enjoyed the little video blogs by the Susan, Tracy and Ben actors showing us their home studios. Susie Riddell was very funny and interesting to hear her and Charlotte Martin’s natural accents. Ben actor is very easy on the eyes

Is tonight the first new one?

No, there is no episode tonight. They start again tomorrow, Mon-Thurs only.

Nothing and nobody (my DC, hear this loud and clear!) will tear me away from the radio at 1902 tomorrow!