🧚‍♀️ 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.)

DadDadDad Wed
"an 810-degree skid"

2 and a quarter turns! @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime, I do admire someone who has a protractor in their glove compartment

I had actually spun more than that until the spin reversed itself and I ended up with the back wheels of the car in the gravel on the far side of the hard shoulder. But it is easy to work out how many times round you must have gone for that to be where you end up. Two policemen who drove past shortly afterwards picked the back of the car up and turned it parallel with the road for me while I looked pathetic and pregnant at them. Then they gave it a little push and it very nearly set off on its own down to road ... they drove in front of me to the nearest service area and bought me hot sweet tea, for which I was very grateful! Our policemen are wonderful!

I have in the past admired Johnny Vegas's radio dramas. But good lord, this one seems to have lasted about three hours ...

When was the last time I was willing the minutes to reach 7pm with considerably more speed?

Oh Alice.

Listen to it Susan. Listen to it.

Does she sound pregnant to you?

Susan? She been cooking chilli?

And of course the phone ran out of battery, to ramp up the melodrama a bit. Yes, very good: I'll give it 3/10.

Oh damn, I was so looking forward to Susan hearing the full message, feel cheated now, but I suppose this is par for the course by the scriptwriters to stretch the storyline out for as long as possible.

I feel like hiring a small plane to fly over Ambridge trailing a banner saying 'Alice is a drunk! The Mosses are slavemasters!'

I have a feeling we're going to see both these storylines dragged out for a lot longer yet.

I was longing for a radio caller to out them as slave masters.

I'm beginning to think that Gavin is the one who is going to give the game away, as it dawns on him waht a bastard his dad is.

Do it Gasp. It would be the one day that nobody ventured outside during daylight hours.

Can someone please explain why no-one seems to have spotted that Alice was drunk, not just dehydrated.

She must have smelled like the floor of a pub on a Saturday night.

Why didn't Gavin notice? Or is he pretending that he didn't?

Oh - welcome and welcome back to posters above! Great to see more names here - the BBC should feel gratified.

I reckon Gavin noticed and has decided not to say anything.

I think the hospital knew perfectly well it was alcohol poisoning, but because she is an adult they can't tell her father and husband if she tells them not to, and Alice has invented the dehydration story because it is safe, needs no follow-up, can't easily be disproved, and means nobody will ask any more questions.

Definitely reckon Gavin noticed.

Was anyone else waiting for Susan to ask Gavin about the horses?

If Gavin noticed and decided not to tell his Dad I detect a turning of the worm.

He is desperate for his Dads approval, and may be realising that it isn’t quite the prize he thought it was.

Gavin paying the wedding money is signalling that he’s growing up a bit.

Or that he has been being blackmailed, possibly.

To the list of deaths or near deaths by car in Ambridge, has anyone mentioned Hilda’s predecessor Bill or Ben? Whichever one was killed by Brian’s car outside Peggy’s house.

That’s been2 good-ish nights. Maybe they’re going for slow and steady for both the alcoholism and the modern slavery stories. Although I wanted them to get there sooner, it could be okay as long as they keep going and don’t mess up.

I was going to, Unholy. And I can't remember which it was either.

Was it Bill or was it Ben
Got squashed flat by Brian back then?
Which of those two flowerpot men

I loved Bill and Ben as a child. Also Andy Pandy and The Woodentops. Tales of the Riverbank was a bit later, I think, but utterly gorgeous. Could have been filled on the banks of the Am, I suppose. The Woodentops could have been made on location at Brookfield.

[quote TheSparklyPussycat]I was going to, Unholy. And I can't remember which it was either.

Was it Bill or was it Ben
Got squashed flat by Brian back then?
Which of those two flowerpot men

The Woodentops could have been made on location at Brookfield.

The Flowerpot Men on a black and white television. Now, that was living ...