🧚‍♀️ 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 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. Oh yes, I loved these (was it watch with Mother?) programmes too.

Used to do a pretty good impression of spotty dog as my party piece 😀.

Rrrrowwwrowwwowwwwrrrr

Alice is going to be outraged when she hears that Radio Carter has been telling the world about her passed out at the side of the road

@BeardieWeirdie

Alice is going to be outraged when she hears that Radio Carter has been telling the world about her passed out at the side of the road

Oh yes, I hadn't thought of that, 😂😂. Happy days.

I'm loving Emma standing up to her mum. No-one else does.

Tales of the Riverbank was brilliant. My hamster at the time wasn't in the least bit interested in having watery capers. I remember liking Pogles Wood too (though, apart from Bilberry wine, I have no recollection of the storylines).

I wonder what Nancy Banks-Smith made of the monologues? I miss her columns.

I really enjoyed Emma forcing her mum to listen to Alice's voicemail. I agree the doctor's can't tell anyone about the state she was in without her consent.
Interesting idea that Gavin, having originally been the annoying/ aggressive character to Philip's kind figure, may now turn out to have a better character.

Poor Susan. Any hint of trouble in the younger Carter household is likely to provoke a huge existential crisis for her. Who would she be if no longer an Aldridge in-law??

The SWs have rather tortured her. Ten years of waiting to become the grandmother of an Archer/ Aldridge descendant. And now this ...

Fallon will have heard Alice's message and will know she was drunk while she was missing, and the whole village now knows that she was found unconscious by the side of the road.... Harrison could probably find out what happened if it ever got officially logged as a missing person case.

I assume that when Harrison was alarming Chris and going out hunting for her himself he had not yet spoken with Fallon that evening. Maybe the pair of them will actually talk to each other at some point so that the drunkenness is known to both, as well as to Emma. Or maybe Fallon and Emma, who spend quite a lot of time together, will speak to each other. More than one person now knows this secret, so it is no longer a secret at all.

Agree that Emma was left with very little option than to make Susan listen to the message. I even liked the twist that although we had heard Alice's full message, Emma didn't. 'You don't know the worst of it, Emma', I muttered at the radio this lunch time. Continuity implied that we are going to hear more about Alice's 'secret', in the next episode.

Susan’s radio show is ridiculous and I wish they would just stop it.

Even for Susan the idea of having Gavin in to congratulate him for helping her daughter-in-law unconscious on the roadside is beyond stupid and stretching the bounds of credibility too far.

Hello. I hope I can join you. I'm a long term listener and can finally listen regularly again as the DC are back in school.
I was convinced that Alice has MS as there have been 2 MS on woman's hour this week. Is she definitely an alcoholic? I've missed the run up but noticed Gav made a point that she didnt smell of alcohol.

She has been being portrayed as drinking too much, getting drunk and doing stupid or destructive things as a result for at least two years now, and if you haven't been listening during lockdown you won't have heard the drinking that she has been doing all this summer. That has been laid on with a trowel: in fact I am unsure she's appeared without drink being mentioned all year.

Thank you. Sounds like it will be an alcoholic storyline then. Susan will be horrified. Brian will probably take the news the best.

@CheetasOnFajitas

Susan’s radio show is ridiculous and I wish they would just stop it.

Even for Susan the idea of having Gavin in to congratulate him for helping her daughter-in-law unconscious on the roadside is beyond stupid and stretching the bounds of credibility too far.

Agree. It could have been quite funny and clever, but they’ve made an overplayed hash of it.

An alcoholic storyline is very topical at the moment due to all the increased drinking during lockdown.

I do hope that Alice's full message gets out. It was truly horrible and nasty.

I wonder whether Chris will be able to support her or whether their marriage will be over?

An MS storyline would be a good one. Characters seem to make miraculous recoveries in the archers and there is no one with a disability.

Welcome theAntsareMyFriends

I have a 🔮 which sometimes makes prognostications, either directly or through the intermediary of my alter ego, MysticBore™️

The 🔮 was of the opinion that Alice's alcoholism will be swiftly resolved by the prospect of a baybee. However, it now thinks that she will have a fling with her rescuer, Gavin The Horse Whisperer.

I shall be really pissed off if it is resolved quickly, too unrealistic and takes lifelong strength. Most alcoholics at least have quite a few relapses before full recovery.

I think she's going to come clean tonight, get help and support and then it will all be over.

Aha!

The 🔮 knew weeks ago!

See? I Was Right.

🥇🥇🥇

And I bet that now that she’s pregnant the alcohol addiction will just quietly disappear as if it never existed

Cold turkey when pregnant really is a bit dangerous.

And we have the added complication of her now having an emotional bond with Gavin.

As was predicted

Is Alish pregnant?