💥 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.

I have never tried CP but will based on the recommendation of such trusted friends.

I am very envious that you are hearing the whole lot for the first time!

Are you listening to the DIY Archers on Broadcasting House?

I loved that, can they replace the editor?

That's true Perdita, I only heard Freda had gone out into the flood, I'd forgotten she actually died! I'm still so intrigued by how they're going to retrofit coronavirus into their divergent timeline

Yes I'm desperate to know if they'll have coronavirus starting in Ambridge and fudge dates of world events, or just suddenly leap into Alan broadcasting his service online with Shula doing the prayers, Jill desperate to deliver cakes to the needy from a social distance but the children banning her from going, Philip and Gav using lockdown to somehow exploit the "horses" even further and just ignore the disjunct!

Anyone on here done the @@ TA quizzes on Zoom? Quite good fun.

I'm still so intrigued by how they're going to retrofit coronavirus into their divergent timeline
That's easy. Did you not see Devs on TV? Multiverses explain away a lot of life's more tricky questions.

Just harking back to Ian and Adam's marriage - I've never quite understood how the order of the same-sex marriage hyphenated surname is worked out.

Why Macy-Craig? Why not Craig-Macy?

I've always had a vague idea that it depended on which man was the 'top' in bed.

But I can't quite believe that exhausted Adam could ever be that active

So how is it decided whose surname comes first?

In this case it might be that the biological father is put first and the spouse who is no biological relation to the child second?

On the other hand, Ian has rather a lot of extra weight...

Cat I'm not sure whether I can ever forgive you for enticing me to speculate on (and visualise) this question.

Has anyone been stockpiling brain bleach for such an occasion?

Ok, so no comments on last nights episode? A question from me: was David aware that Brian was having an affair with Siobhan at that point?

Last night's was pretty dull out of context. It only had any relevance if you knew what was going on.

It was NYE 2001/02 so it is probably the oldest TA Revisited episode we are going to get. It was nice to hear old voices - Phil, Jeck, Nigel - and it also highlighted how long the MeanEd story has been going.

I don't know if David knew at that point. Brian was confiding a lot in him around then but I can't remember specifics. Ruairi hadn't been conceived yet (DoB 14.11.02).

We've already had an older episode:
10 May Brookfield in Lockdown (21st March 2001)
17 May New Year’s Eve: The Lower Loxley Ball. (31st December, 2001)

At New Year 2001/2 the affair, what there was of it, was about a month old, and Brian had told nobody that he'd had sex with Siobhán in Brussels the previous month and a return match ten days later. He wasn't planning to have a long affair; he realised that what he was doing was stupid and destructive, and he tried to stop seeing her before the end of that January. She played the pathetic sorrowful "I really really love you" card and hauled him back in, then within a week made sure her husband knew she was having an affair by being very obvious about it indeed.

There's a moral there somewhere: it is probably "Don't think with your gonads -- no good will come of it."

We've already had an older episode
Oh, that's true. For some reason Brookfield on Lockdown failed to register in my brain.

There's a moral there somewhere: it is probably "Don't think with your gonads
I think Brian finally got the memo after Ruairi fallout.

Ok, so no comments on last nights episode

I enjoyed it Taswama. It was a bit odd hearing Brian and Siobhan at an earlier stage than the Ruari confession episode we heard last week but I suppose it was like one of those novels or films that go backwards. Somebody asked last night on Twitter if tweeters would have preferred to be at the Hunt Ball or in The Bull which I thought was a fun question.

Not heard the Flower and Produce show episode as I decided I'd prefer to some music rather than listen to I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. I know it's popular but it's lost on me.

I really enjoyed the Flower and Produce show this evening. So calm - vintage stuff! ( And I think someone cheated )

That's the kind of TA episode I really enjoy. Very little happened, lots of chat, everybody behaving predictably. Nice to hear references to Alice and Chris before they were officially an item, after hearing the classic Back from Vegas episode a couple of weeks ago.

I liked Jill's charitable interpretation of Sabrina Thwaite's reasons for cheating.

Thanks for the background, Asking. I hadn't remembered that the affair was so new at the time of the ball. I do remember very distinctly listening to an episode where Brian went to Honeysuckle Cottage to talk to Siobhan, ostensibly about whether the translation agency she worked for could get some documents translated for the Hungarian enterprise. It was late afternoon and she invited him to sit with her by the fire and have a glass of wine. I can't remember what they said to make me think this - I rather think it was all in the tone of voice, so more what they didn't say, maybe - but I was immediately convinced that this was the start of another affair for Brian. We knew that Siobhan was looking out for someone after her clumsy approach to Greg the Gloomy Gamekeeper, who was already secretly involved with Helen at that point.

I see that the Countryside Alliance march in London was March 2002. Brian went to that and made an excuse to leave Jennifer and the rest of the Ambridge delegation so he could spend the night with Siobhan, I recall. It was reported that someone in the crowd had a sign telling Jennifer that Brian was having an affair.

Six days to go for the first new episode. No Sunday episode, just Mon-Thurs, I believe.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/may/19/the-archers-episodes-lockdown-ambridge-radio-4-rural-soap-coronavirus

No Spoilers, just a hint as to who will be involved in the first new episodes.

I liked Jill's charitable interpretation of Sabrina Thwaite's reasons for cheating. Yes, that was a really nice side of Jill which we haven't seen recently. I knew I had a better reason for liking her than her voice sounding like a much loved and deceased family friend.

Oh heavens! Just heard a trailer for the new episodes!!! They sound delightful. Truly. Forget the past nearly 70 years - I have heard the future.

...

Me, inevitably, 19.15 May 25th:

"What possessed them to feed us this pile of horse manure???"

That was a very sweet episode. Hadn't heard it before, but it reminded me why I started listening to TA in the first place.

Who was Sabrina, and why did the locals treat her as a bit of a joke?

Did she ever speak on air? What happened to her?

Sorry for all the questions!

Sabrina was the long-term Siren Silent. Married to Richard Thwaite. I think she is still around, though at one point either she or Richard was said to have gone off with someone else, and then come back again. She was mentioned in July 2019. when Jim was late taking over from her in the Village Shop.

Sabrina and Richard are long-term prominent silent. Not quite there with the Button girls, but they'vé been mentioned a lot over the years.

I too heard the trailer last night. My biggest fear was that they'd take the worst bit of Amex (where we heard their inner voices,) because it's the easiest way to do socially distanced recording. And so it is.

I've just heard the trailers too: a reflective soliloquy by Ben. I'd so much rather have the archive episodes!