🧚‍♀️ 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.)

The Stir-Up Sunday mantle passed from Brookfield several years ago. It's stuffed down the back of a sofa at Grange Farm these days.

Yes ... But will the SWs remember??

@PersephonePromotesEquanimity

But ... don't you understand? It will be Open Farm Sunday tomorrow - how will any of us get through the day without the annual Brookfield feud over whose farming interests take priority and who gets the double page spread in the Borchester Echo?

I'm already worrying about Stir Up Sunday ...

I'm with you and although not normally a big fan of PIP, I would trade hearing her voice for a bit less Susan on her radio show at the moment.

Of course I would also really love to hear Kathy, Debbie, Mike and his wife and his daughter (been so long can't remember their names). Oh and Hayley - I loved Hayley.

I miss Hayley too. She was my Archer's twin. Now its Kate!

I stopped listening when it switched to monologues, does anyone know the date of the first episode which returned to the normal format?

Apologies if it's been mentioned already, I haven't RTFT.

:33Choccyp1g

I think the message is that Gavin spending lockdown with the "horses" made him realise they are real people.

Oh is that what that meant? He's spent lockdown with the (presumably several) slaves? I naively wondered when he had taken up horse riding 🤣

I was at Alice's revelation. They test for pregnancy at the slightest thing in hospitals, they insisted I did a test despite being celibate 6 years so she could have easily just found out.

Why was Alice supposed to be drinking with Falcon in the first place?

@cliffdiver, I'm not sure I'd say they have returned to normal, but they're on their way. We've had a few scenes with two people talking to each other. Not sure if we've had more than two.

@ColleagueFromMars

Why was Alice supposed to be drinking with Falcon in the first place?

I thought they were supposed to be running together but I could be wrong.

I'm a few days behind but I'm really pissed off that they have made Alice pregnant. The tension between her and Chris and the mothers over whether they would have children had so much potential for interest in a way that hasn't been done before (or at least not in recent times) so much more relevant than another contraceptive failure.

I guess they are going to run with FAS as a story, but it would be much more interesting to have a woman choosing not to have children and dealing with issues relating to that against the background of choice rather than a sad but unavoidable state of affairs.

Wasn't Debbie the "childless" storyline, or Usha? Debbie was despatched to Hungary and Usha was sent off the the cereal cupboard.

I think it might be another "will she/won't she have an abortion" storyline that ends in a miscarriage so that the SW's don't have to deal with FAS in any depth. I have a bad feeling that Alice will be St Shula's first "fallen soul".

That said, it would be nice to hear from Amy again (surely it is possible to have one young lady with a decent job she enjoys on the cast for more than a few weeks).

Unlike the SW's (I presume) I catch a bit of Farming Today and Countryfile. AND I have managed to grow 2 tomato plants in lockdown (plum and salad).

Alongside Open Farm Sunday they have also failed to comment on the really really big apple harvest, the poor grain harvest, the record breaking sum achieved for a Texel ram at auction last month..... (I dozed off during the vineyard interview, but I think they said it was going to be a good year if the frosts held off)....

It's nearly shooting season too (not sure whether you are allowed 30 or 6 in a pheasant shoot under the current regs).

Did they furlough the Agricultural Story Advisor?

@CheetasOnFajitas

Ed was also really terrible at paperwork when he ran his herd, didn’t he have to get remedial accounts help from someone like Helen?

However job-sharing with someone who has actual farm-management experience would certainly make more sense- I was just chewing over in my mind what the advantage would be if employing Alice vs an “outsider” if it is a true job share? Were they banking in her taking a lower salary than market rate because it’s a family business?

He got help from Ruth, it was when they were living in Rickshaw Pottage

Ed's accounting system was that he put receipts in one drawer and bills in another. Ruth introduced him to the idea of using a computer to make a note of both. This came as a complete revelation to him.

It's nearly shooting season too (not sure whether you are allowed 30 or 6 in a pheasant shoot under the current regs)
It's 30, a special dispensation was made - - for Tory donors--

Did they furlough the Agricultural Story Advisor?
Would we notice?

Tories don't have the same susceptibility to Covid. Their cummings and goings are tolerated.
BJ got it, alledgedly.

I was shock at Alice's revelation. They test for pregnancy at the slightest thing in hospitals, they insisted I did a test despite being celibate 6 years so she could have easily just found out.

I don't follow your point, @ColleagueFromMars? I assumed that this was precisely how she did find out?

Wasn't Debbie the "childless" storyline, or Usha? Debbie was despatched to Hungary and Usha was sent off the the cereal cupboard

The only time I recall a woman in a relationship stating outright that she didn't want children and she did want a career was when Brenda split up with Tom.

Obviously she couldn't stay in Ambridge after the double heresy . ISTR she did well in London and was in a relationship with a dot.com success.

Debbie also said this when some flame of hers whom she brought home from Hungary made it clear he wanted her to can her career to have his baybeees.

To be fair they had what was it about 3 months worth of storyline in hand before they ran out and had to do monologues, so there's still time to mention those things @Madcats

@Pobblebonk it was in reply to somebody wondering if she'd just found out in hospital or if she's known a while and her drinking had spiralled out of control as a way of dealing with it.

@PersephonePromotesEquanimity

Right, I will say this only once. (And never again.) Today I miss Pip.

Am listening to Farming Today - and learning that it's Open Farm Sunday this weekend! Without a single word from Brookfield.

It's a national disgrace.

This is truly the End of Days. I can't believe we have heard nothing about it. Mind you, my only involvement with Open Farm Sunday was going to a tea room one Saturday last year, the day before they were going to display an old plough for Open Farm Sunday. As somebody who had heard various The Archers characters rambling on about Open Farm Sunday, I was extremely excited by my very tangential and vicarious participation.

In the interests of truthfulness, I think they were going to do tractor rides too. However, it was a far cry from what Pip, Ruth and David planned for Brookfield. I seem to remember an episode in which the Revolting Rob did something at that den of chlorinated hormone filled pork, Berrow Farm. Yes, Justin, you pompous fool, I would never buy anything from your horrid agribusiness.

Sorry, I think I need to go to bed and calm down!

To be fair to the government it's not just shooting that's exempt from The Rule Of Six. Most outdoor sports are also exempt. It's on this basis that parkrun may finally be able to re-start in the UK at the end of October. My fingers are crossed so tightly about this I'm fearful of gangrene. I have missed it more than I can say.

Had anyone told me five years ago I'd be saying this, I'd have laughed in their face. But parkrun (lower case p is their choice and I can forgive them for it because I love parkrun so much) has changed my life and my attitude to exercise. No small feat! I was born to be a couch potato.

Anyway, parkrun hype interlude over. No Open Farm Sunday! Thank goodness for the Flower and Produce Show.

So curious about what Brookfield, Home Farm, Bridge Farm, Grundy's Field are actually doing today. Whether any of them have staggered groups of 4/5 people being shown around, or whether everything's online.

And surely the ReWilders would be using the day for publicity too - I can only hope they have an active podcast and an Instagram account. (Ridiculous that we had to hear about Justin being bored, but nothing about the progress of the Conservation Trust partnership.)

Once again, (as with Phoebe's graduation) I Feel Cheated.