🧚‍♀️ 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.)

Yes, I don’t think the Post Office are interested in the custard creams stock, that is the Community Shop’s concern. It has some sort of Committee running it that employs her I imagine?

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.
I wouldn't trust Harrison to be bright enough to make that distinction. Besides, he must be desperate to up his statistics because he never solves any crimes.
Also, he could be after revenge because of the mention of the Prospero video on air. Don't tell him, Susan!

In fact, custard creams are a well-known gateway drug to the hard stuff. I think Harrison should be told.

Are there two Berts in Ambridge then?

Bert Fry and Bert Horrobin. Bert H is the biscuit thief.

As a member of the community, Susan is in charge of the rotas of volunteers for the community shop, and does the ordering.

As a Post Office worker Susan is employed by the Post Office.

The Post Office get edgy about one of their employees being shown not to be honest. That is why I think they would be more likely to be upset by Susan conniving at a crime than the community would care two hoots about it. There is a Village Shop committee of which Susan is a member, maybe even Chair by now, but I am not sure that it actually employs Susan? I thought she got paid out of the profits if any.

@EBearhug

Bert Fry and Bert Horrobin. Bert H is the biscuit thief.

That's what I thought. Just surprised that TA has broken the Rule of Same Names.

Do we know the Berts' full names - could be Albert, Herbert, even Robert (although we've had 2 of those at one point). I must remember Bert when I'm next doing my alphabet of the Archers to try and get back to sleep. Normally Brian or Betty.

Bert Horrobin is Albert: it was mentioned in the programme and I wrote it by his entry in my copy of The Book of The Archers.

Bert Fry is Albert Nathaniel; ditto.

Susan needs to show she is whiter than white. If anyone gets wind of this then unfounded rumours that she has her own fingers in the till will start to circulate, however unfair that might be. A quiet word in the right ear sooner rather than later should offer sufficient protection should questions be asked further down the line. May be she needs to enlist back up from Alan if Harrison may be too risky (I don’t actually think even he would think a few packs of custard creams are going to set Bert on the road to ruin). But Susan must act fast. She has worked hard for her good name and it would be sad if her Dad’s foolishness dragged her down.

(Oh no! Have just thought how much Smugla would relish this sort of moral dilemma! Please don’t let her make a come-back)

Can't she just pay for them to balance the books? I haven't heard the episode yet so it may have been mentioned.

She said that Bert had claimed he would pay for them. Whether she will end up paying for them herself is anyone's guess.

In either case I can't see any need for Harrison to be involved.

Oh my, finally - an event! Of sorts. But at least something that feels like drama rather than a therapy session.

I see good times ahead ...

so whats happened to Alice run over or just drunkenly slid down the verge

Can't be a hit & run as we had one quite recently with Lilian's chap ... I've forgotten his name.

Still, a welcome return to form this evening.

Hope Gavin & Philip finally get their comeuppance.

Well, in vino veritas indeed.

What a nasty piece of work Alice is.

I do hope those were leaving messages, not just Alice spiting on into the empty air.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

I do hope those were leaving messages, not just Alice spiting on into the empty air.

Continuity said after the programme that Emma is very angry tomorrow so I am hoping that they were genuine messages. I assumed Alice had passed out rather than being hit by a car. Phillip showed how callous he is that after having that conversation with Chris about Chris and Alice's wedding, he still told Gavin to go away. Of course, Gavin should have got help for anyone but there was something awful about Phillip's reaction when Gavin said who it was.

Philip was moustache-twirling evil!

The Post Office get edgy about one of their employees being shown not to be honest.

And yet, Susan who's done time, still got the job. (I'm sure there was explanation at the time, to make it possible. I just don't remember.)

It was explained at the time that her sentence was spent. Once that had happened her record would cease to be held against her.

Lilian's chap ... I've forgotten his name.

Matt.

Thinking about Bert and Bert, I don't know when either first appeared in Ambridge, and can't be arsed to look it up just now - but Bert H was entirely silent for many many years, and mostly still is, so I wonder if they forgot about him, and then came up with some storyline, had to check if they'd previously named him and then thought, damn.

Still, in real life, it's quite common to know more than one person with the same name - and occasionally it causes confusion, but not that often.

Ooh some excitement! I'm wondering if this storyline (about Alice's body on the verge and Gavin finding it) was written pre-covid. In which case the storylines are getting back on track.

Wonder if Emma will make Chris listen to the nasty drunken voicemail.

Please, please, please let Alice actually have left those messages. This will cause a rift in the village that could probably be seen from the International Space Station. If Emma plays that message to Susan .... well.

As for Philip! Poor, poor Kirsty. She's got a dreadful shock coming. I hope she ends up with the house, though, or at least the proceeds from sellling it, as she probably won't want to stay in it once she knows the truth.