🧚‍♀️ 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.)

Mustard mit, I came home this evening thinking No TA

Jennifer is born to hover.

Friday

Archers Twitter saying “production is still very different from pre-Covid times so 4 episodes per week will be the case until next year. #TheArchers”

Until next year???

I'm going to have to find something to do at 7pm on Fridays - other than lying disconsolately on the sofa ...

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000n6rp

You must! Delightful, and only nine minutes. Key word: Kenwood ...

Until next year !!!!!!!!

Can we do a deal - a Monday monologue plus 4 normal episodes?

I think it would be a lovely idea to rerun the first series of Ambridge Extra when Alice was misbehaving in Southampton!

I'd happily listen to the Omnibus on a Friday evening.

I don't like Alice & I don't condone the drinking but my goodness the poor woman has the MIL from hell!
I can't recall her discussing with Chris about telling people but I would guess they meant family & close friends to be told first, not the whole county. If she does have a termination, miscarriage or problems with the baby there will be no privacy ever. The marriage is clearly in trouble and imagine having your business broadcast on the radio by someone as tactless & intrusive as Susan. I felt bad for her during her session with the midwife as Chris kept butting in. She couldn't answer anything for herself and anything she asked was dismissed. She knows the drinking is an issue for the baby & she is ambivalent at best about having the baby - the coversation with Fallon about being honest with Harrison was just so painful. I think the poor woman is headed for some sort of crisis.

Susan is also bring extraordinarily dense about the rift with Emma. She really does only see what she wants to see.

Presumably Peggoi, Brine and the rest of the family also heard about the pregnancy for the first time directly or indirectly courtesy of Radio Borsetshire. Even if Susan thought Jennifer knew, she should have stopped to think about other members of the family.

On a very basic level, they have not yet had the 12 week scan and Susan should know full well that most people do not tell the world at large until after that. She should not have needed to be told to keep quiet, but it’s also surprising that Chris did not make this very clear. All a bit unrealistic and plot-driven really.

I hope Tracey and Emma tell her what for.

Susan is a menace with that microphone!

How many times is it going to be deemed funny that Susan says something (which her producer would have cut off) and then tells whoever she has messed about with her motormouth that she is so sorry, she didn't mean to, she can't think what came over her, and so on?

The marriage is clearly in trouble and imagine having your business broadcast on the radio by someone as tactless & intrusive as Susan. I felt bad for her during her session with the midwife as Chris kept butting in

Chris is his mother's son. It would not occur to him that Alice might want some privacy during a midwife session, or not want "his" baby, or that there is any problem in the marriage because Alice is so happy with him.

He has never noticed how unhappy she has been at times or acknowledged the career she limited for his benefit. He was also very smug about starting his own business which was only possible because he had a mortgage free home courtesy of Alice.

Alice has plenty of faults but so does Chris.

No Friday or Sunday episodes for at least three more months?

Is anyone listening to A Point of View on R4 right now? (I linked above but this is the repeat.)

It starts off sounding rather Archer-ish - reminding me of Jill's birthday - but morphs into something else. All in the space of nine minutes. Excellent.

Thanks for that, PPE, that was indeed excellent. What a woman her mother was.

I had to go back onto Sounds to double check, but why on earth is Ben studying Geography AND Politics at Felpersham!!!

Didn't he notice how brilliantly Phoebe has done finding a job with her first in PPE from a Uni that half the planet has heard of?

Is geography and politics a usual course? I hadn't come across it before. Usually there is sociology or something in there as well, I thought.

In retrospect, geography and politics might have been a good combination for the current government to have studied.

I have no idea what you would cover in a geography and politics degree course but it sound fine to me.

As with Phroebe's degree, it could be used in some gainful employment regarding the geography and politics of Ambridge.