🧚‍♀️ 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.)

May I beg some help from your wonderful people? I gave up on the monologue Archers (mostly because of what felt like an entire omnibus of David muttering about Lasagne).

Anyone know of somewhere I can read up on what I've missed?

You could just browse through the spoilers thread, @PaulinePetrovaPosey. Feel free to ask any questions you like here and we will see if any of us were non-comatose enough to remember what's happened over the last few months. There have been some good bits.

Lynda, Robert and Lilian have had a good storyline where Robert couldn't do right for doing wrong with Lynda and Lilian managed to knock both their heads together and help them through to a greater openness with each other about what Lynda needs and wants and how that makes Robert feel.

Other than that, the biggest SL has probably been Alice's descent into alcoholism, which is starting to cause talk (from Ed and Emma, leading to a full-blown family rift). Chris is in denial about it, and so is Alice. Alice works for Home Farm, for now, having jumped before she was pushed from her previous job. Adam is on sick leave after an injury, and planning to return part-time to jobshare running the place with Alice so that the baby doesn't have to be in full-time childcare.

Emma was going to be made redundant from the tearoom but eventually came up with a scheme to use the hitherto unmentioned orchard behind the tearoom for extra seating capacity which she and Fallon hope will boost turnover and make the business viable. She and Ed are on good terms at the moment and he's also working at Home Farm (for now).

Susan now has a radio show on BBC Radio Borsetshire. She and Tracey are trying to find out who's been shoplifting in the village shop.

No resolution yet on the modern slavery storyline but we have hopes it won't be long now. Poor Kirstie.

I expect I've missed lots of other gripping storylines.

Gosh that's amazing. Thank you @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g!!!

I might wait till Adam is back from sick leave before I return to Borsetshire. I imagine he's insufferable when bored.

He's so bored at the moment that he's lost his voice! We did have one brief and extremely welcome monologue from Debbie, who's still in Hungary. Sadly, only the one.

Thanks Gasp.

all talk of rewilding appears to have been kicked into the long grass!
arf

I expect I've missed lots of other gripping storylines

Not really! An excellent round-up Gasp! I bet you always get asked to do the meeting minutes...

Thanks Gasp0de for the new thread and plot summary and Roysnewshirt for the title.

I've missed quite a few episodes but have been enjoying the return to dialogue. I feel for Kirsty but am hoping that Susan and Tracy uncover the Malevolent Mosses soon.

We had two monologues from Debbie, but they were so similar that they merged in my mind a day or so later. The only reason I remember them at all is that whereas Adam kept in touch with his stepfather Roger Travers-Macy, Debbie had a blazing row with him (twice in a year, and both times over something really serious) and told him she never wanted to see him again. So when he got coronavirus, his wife got in touch with Debbie. What I wanted to know was why she had Debbie's European cellphone number, which Debbie got well after telling Travers-Macy to get out of her life and stay out.

Excellent summary from Gasp0de there.

And Chemenger

Good grief! I've just zoned out of (and therefore completely missed) an interview about the discovery of life on Venus, on PM ...

People should stop making their posts so informative/amusing/increasingly jaunty because dialogue ...

Anyone listening tonight?❗️ 📻I know we're allowed to discuss events after they are broadcast but here's a warning just in case! Susan has overheard Gavin referring to the horses but she thinks it's a reference to horse racing ❗️

Did I miss Alice's party for Ian's 50th? I know that they booked a last minute weekend away but I thought it might lead somewhere? The last we heard was Alice grumbling about the party without tying up a delay etc.

Perhaps Chris is going to find how much of the booze Alice has tucked in to and realise Emma was right after all.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime had a good crystal ball for the shoplifter!

What I really meant was that it wouldn't be a stranger or Susan would have been suspicious of him anyway even if nothing had gone from the shop.

Have they still got all the horses, or just the one.

I think there are still three.

When Gavin was droning on was doing a monologue the other week, he spoke about Blake but definitely mentioned others in the flat Minimammoth. He said he didn't mind playing computer games and watching football with them.

What Gavin fails to realise is that in another life he would be a horse...

@cameocat, that's a good bit of plot speculation there about Alice and the party booze! She set it all up and then discovered that Ian and Adam had booked a weekend away. Perils of organising a surprise party. There's been no talk of re-arranging as far as I can recall.

Do we think Susan is doing the right thing covering up Bert’s shoplifting? I’m not convinced it’s the best course of action. Given her history, she needs to be seen to be scrupulously honest so can’t really afford to turn a blind eye to her father’s behaviour.

It may go against the grain but a quiet word with Harrison should cover things off. He will undoubtedly not take things any further but at least then she can be satisfied she has done the right thing by her employers ie the community. If the shoplifter was anyone else she would be escalating the matter immediately.

Her employers are the Post Office, and Susan must be aware that as their employee she is not allowed to put a foot out of line even if their computer is not suddenly going to decide she is on the fiddle so she ends up in prison.

After what happened to Freddie, she can't go to Harrison can she.

Susan was absolutely against Freddie and for Harrison, so I don't follow that.

I think Mike means she couldn't be sure that Harrison wouldn't arrest Bert, given that he did arrest Freddie. However, there's a substantial difference between a young man dealing Class A drugs and a very elderly man nicking a packet of custard creams.

Also, surely she has two contracts: one for the shop and one for the Post Office.