💥 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.

That's right, EBearhug. I'm aghast to find that happened in 1992. The Archers Encyclopaedia says:

Conn Kortchmar (Don Fellows)
Conn was the American GI whose wartime romance with Peggy Archer came to light in 1992, when Kate Aldridge and Helen Archer discovered an old lettter he'd written, in the attic at Blossom Hill Cottage. Kate couldn't resist writing back to him in the guise of Peggy. Delighted to hear from his old flame, widower Conn soon turned up in Ambridge. When he realised what Kate had done, he gracefully said he'd come to England to see his son and new granddaughter in Bristol anyway. However, he started spending a lot of time in the village.

Recalling one romantic memory after another, Conn, to Jack Woolley's chagrin, was obviously intent on wooing Peggy for a second time. He took her back to some of their wartime trysting places, including the pub in Cambridge where he, like many other GIs, had once scorched his name into the ceiling with a Zippo lighter. Jack grew increasingly jealous and, mistakenly assuming a bunch of flowers sent to Peggy by Kate had come from Conn, forcefully told the ex-GI it was time he was no longer overpaid, oversexed and over here. Conn dutifully headed back to Boston, leaving Peggy to muse over his parting gift - the Zippo lighter.

Jack and Peggy were very recently married at this point (1.1.91). Peggy had lived in Blossom Hill Cottage before the marriage (courtesy of Lilian, whose second husband Ralph owned it), which is presumably why it was standing empty now, shortly before being sold to Usha, who as far as we know still owns it now.

PS @nettie434, thanks for these kind words! I suspect Gasp0de is right (as she invariably is) My family would have a good laugh at this. I often think I'm right ....

I remember Con. Kate was naughty as a child and she got Will Grundy to be naughty too.

Was Peggy living in The Lodge then? I seem to think she was but it might have been Blossom Hill Cottage.

Cojones is a rude word in Spanish; cajones is drawers, i think, but it still looked cheeky.

Sorry, just read the explanation. It was indeed BHC.

Ed knows what that coffee table meant to Emma. Surely he could have lived with it?

Ed knows what that coffee table meant to Emma. Surely he could have lived with it?

Not now we all know how hideous it is

There's not a huge amount of floor space in a mobile home I think it would have impeded the 'flow'. Also it did sound hideous.

But so depressing that she spends the day fretting in case she has upset the feckless lump

Indeed. And she gives up her dream of a secure home and her beloved coffee table which Ed knew meant so much to her.

It doesn't matter if we think it sounds hideous - I can't imagine Ed has much of an aesthetic, it just got in the feckless lump's way so had to go.

Ed intended Will to buy the coffee table in particular, as well as anything else he could afford to get out of the money Ed gave him to take to the sale Emma held. That he now wants rid of it is just silly -- except that a coffee table in a caravan is likely to be a lot more in the way than it is worth. Ed has probably smacked into it painfully more than once, especially if Emma has kept moving it around to try to find somewhere (anywhere!) that it might fit. Coffee tables are generally at exactly the right height to hurt your shins really badly.

Clear a space on the floor for EdnEm to have a dance?!
Def a baby due next year, April 1st maybe
I fast forward through Susan talking - sorry, I'll leave quietly.

I thought Susan was ok but not amazing. The one who has stood put for me is Ben.

Or even stood out.

Ooh! I'm liking this. Great contrast to Emma's assumptions last week ...

Very good from Helen. The most introspective and self-critical person in Ambridge, so an inner monologue is credible.

I'm enjoying these.
They are quite gentle to listen to, and it's nice to hear other people struggling with lockdown but in a calm way.

Harrison Burns will be able to arrest another Archer or two in a short while, this time for selling alcohol without a licence.

Asking, that's what I thought. It came up before, didn't it? That's why the Cider Club is a club?

If they're selling Toby's gin presumably they do have a licence to sell alcohol. They probably sell Lower Loxley wine too. I do vaguely recall that there are issues around the production of the cider, so I agree that specific product might be an issue, but I expect environmental health have their hands full at the moment.

I imagine Toby has a licence of some kind, and so does LL. Eddie doesn't, and we don't know if Tom and Gnasher have one.

Poor Helen. I had thought she was through the worst of it all and on the road to recovery. She is a successful busineswoman and has been fairly together recently (apart from that night when she ran off when Lee tried to snog her on the sofa - and who can blame her?). But she clearly is still very fragile. I think her monologue was a good reminder of the lasting fall-out of domestic abuse. A rare Boop for the SWs on this occasion...

Yes, the Cider Club is the way round not being able to get a licence to sell the stuff -- probably because there is no way their processing would pass any sort of inspection.

Getting a licence would also make it a job they have to do (and to particular standards) rather than a fun tradition they chose to do.

And anyhow, as Eddie pointed out when he was asked about planning permission for the caravan, Grundys don't bother with regulations.

Gnasher will realise and put a stop to it.

I enjoyed hearing from Helen and her thoughts were echoing mine (without the DV).