🧚‍♀️ 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.)

I just googled it - we could all go off to study Ben's degree in Cornwall; "one of the few programmes in the UK to combine geography and politics":
www.exeter.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/politics/geography/

For them to highlight "attend beach BBQs" in the course overview I feel confident that socially distanced remote learning would be quite a let down.

I wonder why they didn't have him doing land management/agriculture?
I feel the SWs are trying to think up increasingly outrageous plots.

Is Ruari applying this year? I wonder what they'll have him study?

@Madcats

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?

A First? Are you sure? When did they tell us that?

I thought Phiebe had a 2:1.

Phoebe. Other spellings are available, especially on this phone.

I'm surprised Geography & Politics doesn't appear to be a common combination - they are surely inextricably linked.

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

Absobloominlutely, Darker. I was unfortunate enough to wake up to a useless bloody politician pontificating on the radio the other morning. Approximately:

"We will have to impose a very strict lockdown on the North. But of course, in Bournemouth where we have a big hospitality industry, that wouldn't be suitable ..."

The fool clearly imagined that the entire population of "the North" lived at the bottom of a coal mine, never saw daylight and occasionally had the odd pint of lager thrown down the hole to entertain them. He was perfectly convinced that no civilised pursuits, certainly no "hospitality", nor any other industry, might exist there.

So anything that encourages an Archer not to dismiss vast swathes of their fellow human beings as beneath contempt is all to the good, IMVHO.

I hope Phoebe has found something to do since lockdown or I will be furious with the editorial team for sending her off to Oxford and then not knowing what to do with her. We’ve heard nothing about the rewilding project.

Wasn't she doing some freelance "research" for Damara, or was it Borchester Land? I'd imagine that only needed an internet connection so wouldn't have been hindered by lockdown.

Every time rewilding crops up on Radio 4 I prick up my ears, assuming it presages some new Ambridge story. But nope. Nothing.

But that was only a "little job" IIRC - not a career!

I would love to know the background to the complete failure of the "Phoebe goes to Oxford" story. Surely someone on the creative team had grand ambitions for her, and is now desperately disappointed that it's been abandoned.

Two editors later....

Or was it three? I lose track.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Turkeys. I've just been pontificating in an Ocado thread about how difficult this Christmas will be for turkey farmers, on the back of an item I heard on the radio the other day (World at One? can't remember now). Big turkey producers had already contracted to buy the birds they rear for Christmas when we went into lockdown. They mostly aim to produce big birds suitable for large family gatherings. This year demand for smaller birds will be greater, if families bother having a turkey at all. I have the impression that Eddie's turkeys are all monsters. Did he have time to change his order to smaller birds, or reduce the numbers he rears?

My boyfriend lives on a farm and the turkeys are there already and have been for some time. They will lose a lot of money this Christmas and they aren't a big farm.

And what's more, Eddie got in extra turkeys this year. I remember Ed complaining in early September that because Eddie hadn't got room for them all in the usual shed, he had put some poults in with the Ed's sheep.

My Echo Show has just had a video come up about a turkey farm near Maidenhead (Cookham?). Apparently the farmer had lost a lot of birds to predators so he has a few alpacas in the field with the birds too. I would love Eddie to suggest something similar to Lynda so he can use her field!

Nah ... Kirsty's head and neck have fallen out. They seem desperate to split up.

Poor love.

What planet are the SW on? They have spent too long locked down in their bedrooms.
DD has friends who were due to get married this year. Everybody is trying to reschedule for next year. Nobody can get a date better than a mid-week in autumn. David should be bleeding Casey dry, not offering discounts.
Utter twaddle!

That was awkward listening. Poor Kirsty.

Though I think she is out of order involving Alistair.

Poor Kirsty nothing. She is sticking her nose in and trying to 'fix' Gavin. If Gavin was truly in the throes of addiction then it's up to him to decide he's ready to recover, it's not for Kirsty to try to impose it.

I agree Kirsty is getting this hopelessly wrong but I still feel for her. She deserves better than Philip Moss.

True but if it's a plot device to expose Philip and Gavin I hope it happens soon.

surely Alistair will notice Gavin's story doesn't quite ring true

Alistair's comments on lying to your loved ones were significant, I feel.

They made my skin prickle! Surely, surely some tiny part of Kirsty's brain is beginning to tell her that something is very wrong.

And I wouldn't bet on her continued health and safety once Philip discerns the scales are falling from her eyes. His secret seems to be the most valuable thing in the world to him ...

I agree Kirsty is getting this hopelessly wrong but I still feel for her. She deserves better than Philip Moss

It was almost a textbook example of how not to help someone with addiction problems. Kirsty is one of the few in Ambridge I would expect to do the homework and not assume its something she can "fix'.

I'm never sure whether this happens due to lousy research or because the scriptwriters simply don't bother with facts when plotting out the stories.

Rather like the wedding venue nonsense. It is consistent with David's character to assume he knows best and get it wrong because he hasnt' troubled himself with actual facts but surely they would have already had people trying to book the existing Autumn slots?

Kirsty supported Helen really well during the Rob episode and she’s had experience of people denying they need help when they do obviously do. She is just massively on the wrong track about what the problem is. Philip is now lying to her more that ever, and I think she’s picking up on that and is desperately trying to fit the pieces together to show to herself that Philip is telling the truth about the gambling.

If Gareth were a real gambler, I would think he would absolutely blow his top at Kirsty’s interference. I know she is dressing it up as being caring but what a busybody! She is so smug about finally being in a couple (though why anyone would be pleased with Philip is a mystery) that she thinks it’s ok to stickybeak into other people’s business.

I used to quite like her in the old days - in spite of the eco-warrior streak being v tedious - but I’m afraid she has rather slipped down the list. I wouldn’t wish Philip the slave master on anyone IRL, but Kirsty is so obtuse, she, kind of, deserves him.