🧚‍♀️ Archers thread #120: Magic time. Dialogue! Good Fairy Lilian made Lynda’s wish come true. Will Phil vanish in a puff of smoke? Join the Magic Circle in Alice’s shed, where time is never called!

[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 we should hear more about the Naughty Milkman, 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.)

Thanks to @Roysnewshirt for the excellent title suggestion, which I tweaked a bit.

I wonder how much dialogue we're going to get in the coming weeks. They're back to normal recording, I believe, albeit socially distanced. Also, when will we get our Friday and Sunday episodes back? I know I'm not the only regular to miss TA a lot more on Friday than on Sunday. The Sunday episode is still an incomer, of course, having only been introduced some 20 years ago, of course.

(My parents retired to a village and some features of Ambridge life are very familiar from their experience, the 'incomer' label being one.)

@Roysnewshirt

Gavlice

Not Gavlice. I mean GavAl

Or Alvin?

It was interesting to get the first glimpse of the way Philip excuses what he is doing to himself - i.e. poor him, it's such a tough industry, how could the business survive otherwise. No doubt he also cons himself that he's doing his workers a favour. But he knows perfectly well that none of that is going to cut any ice with Kirsty. Does he really think he can conceal the facts for ever?

Not quite the first glimpse, Pobble - IIRC a few months ago Philip was justifying their "trade" to Gavin. Apparently they're rescuing these poor, hopeless (homeless / ex prison / etc) boys and giving them a roof, a skill, a future ...

(Can't recall if that was just before or just after the LL explosion. I'm sure someone else could identify the exact episode.)

20th March 2020, so twelve days after the explosion, the episode ended,
"I'm not ashamed of how we run things. You know we're doing those boys a favour. I also know that in a certain light, to certain people, the way we run our gang could look very bad."

"They'd call them slaves."

"Don't ever use that word, Gavin. If you're not careful you'll get both of us sent down."

I don't think we ever got any more in the way of what "those boys" were being rescued from.

Weren't they ex-youth detention centre and homeless?

Hmm ...

Wasn't there a conversation between Philip and maybe Blake, while he was in hospital, maybe someone else, where he compared the relative degrees of destitution of the horses pre Moss charitable action? I'm sure the words "or worse" were used. And / or "back on the streets". It was either a veiled threat or another justification. I would not be impressed to find I'd imagined it all ...

Yes, that's what I seem to remember, MUM ...

(I'm keen to trace the conversation because it's what made the character so interesting - the fact that he doesn't see himself as evil ...)

Do slave gangmasters live with former eco-warriors in new build housing estates in sleepy english villages?

Do they have fake grass?

And use enough electricity on their Christmas decorations to power a small Midlands town?

(I'll have a look for Philip talking to Blake in the hospital; that'll be easier to find, because Blake hasn't been in many episodes.)

I doubt that Krusty would allow fake grass but she did allow the xmas lite show.

There's a thread on fake grass in Propery, but I made some enemies on my local Nextdoor when I said what I thought of it.

Yes, look for Blake. (hearing Amy Winehouse)

Might this be it? 23rd March 2020, Blake was in a state at the hospital and Philip was "calming him down" while he went on about how he was starving, nothing to eat since midday the day before, he works flat-out...

"I expect you to graft. You're lucky to have the job, remember. Where would you be without it? Eh? On the streets. you were alone out there, don't forget, in a right mess."
"No!"
"Well you've got me now. You've got a roof over your head."
"I didn't mean to... " (sobs)

Then Philip primed him again about what to say to the police, and to take all the blame (Blake must be a real sucker to think telling them he caused the explosion will get him out of trouble!) and said that anything else would ruin them all, and see Kenzie and Jordan back on the streets: "They had it worse than you out there. Don't send them back to that."

And then he reminded Blake to refer to him as his uncle, and claimed that he thought of Blake as more like a son.

I feel slimy just having listened to it. Pass the mind-bleach!

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Philip did suggest fake grass at one point. I think Kirsty vetoed the idea.

Yes!!!

For once my memory has not completely embarrassed me.

Thank you, Asking.

It's weirdly hilarious to think that, if Kirsty had taken Tom up on his suggestion of building their marital home on Bridge Farm land, she might well have been living in exactly the same spot, in a newly built house - just with an actual stake in Bridge Farm ...

My pleasure. I am glad to be given a right steer if I'm wrong about something, like that. And since I can check, I will.

@PersephonePromotesEquanimity, yes and we'd still have the Real Tom Archer.

Will we get another wail from Kirsty when she finds out about the real horses?

Where are you getting these transcripts from @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime?

I am listening to the relevant episode and typing up the bits that are relevant, CheetasOnFajitas.

Well, I am also having a look in Lowfield to see which episode I want if I don't happen to remember.

Oh, is there an audio archive somewhere? BBC Sounds only has a few weeks worth I think?

Someone at Lowfield gave me permission to copy and archive their summaries for my own use at the point at which their website died.

BBC content is of course under copyright and not officially accessible at all. Unofficially, I couldn't possibly comment.

I didn’t think she was flirting either. I think she was just enjoying having a bit of light relief and a laugh with someone who wasn’t judging her

That was how I heard it. I really didn't hear it as flirting at all.

Kristiffur must be blind, deaf and have no sense of smell to not notice the extent of Alice's drinking

He sees what he wants to see from his own PoV. I wouldn't suggest narcissist as upthread but its ages since he saw Alice as other than the version he wants to fit with his life.

I was the one who used the narcissist word. It's not totally that but if you compare and contrast with Emma and Ed; Christopher and Alice have barely been tried in their marriage and haven't grown at all in it. And Christopher even less than Alice, as the one time they disagreed and she was off to Canada for a job interview, she was forced back from the airport by him being injured by being kicked by a horse. That was the beginning of the end for her career in someways.
And if Gavin and Alice did run off together, I would expect them to go somewhere overseas where he might escape prosecution.

I can’t see Alice running off with Gavin. In any case he needs to break all ties with Ambridge if he’s going to get away from his dads business. I can’t see them escaping jail if they get caught.

Alice running off with Gavin ... would be quite fabulous.

They'll never give us anything so glorious!

Costa Rica?