🎭 Archers thread 125: Ambridge Mysteries! The Case Of The Missing Pandemic. Where Is Pat? What Is Lynda Snell's Kompromat? Follow the clues and discuss The Archers here.

[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’d love to be in the Mysteries, 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 for thread title ideas to @Roysnewshirt and @Witchwife. Apologies if I’ve forgotten anyone else.

Do we think the Mysteries replace the usual fun storylines around giving things up for Lent? Light relief while we wait to see if the SWs go for realism and tragedy when Alice’s baby is born, or bottle out (as it were) and go for everything being fine? Will Jazzer and Tracy get back together again? (No bookie in the land would take money for that, of course they will.)

Over to you!

Elderflower and Mint Infusion?

Sounds delicious - NOT! 😝

Playful tipsy Adam? 😲 Cringey! Adam is the least fun-loving person ever. Such a moaner! No wonder Ian sounds depressed. I can only surmise that Adam has hidden charms

Has anyone ever heard Sabrina speak? I must have missed it if we have 🤔

I think elderflower and mint infusion sounds nice but it's true that non-alcoholic drinks are often too sweet.

Sabrina is definitely a Silent.

@EBearhug

Sabrina is definitely a Silent.

I think she mewed once, when playing the cat in Dick Whittington.

No wonder Ian sounds depressed. I can only surmise that Adam has hidden charms

I prefer Adam to Ian. Ian really irritates me. He was so annoying when he was getting clucky and then fussing about Lexi and the surrogacy. I actually think Adam could do better and would be nicer if he had a different partner. He has definitely short-changed himself settling for Ian. And he probably knows it. What was Charlie like? I don’t think I knew him. Would he have been a better option?

No. Charlie was charming but horribly repressed. That would have been a house with no communication at all.

I don't think I can face listening to last night's episode again, but did Kate and Adam turn up at Alice's house wearing onesies?

This reinforces my view that the SW's are either insane or on drugs.

Where was Ruairi for this gathering of the siblings?

Yes, they did!

Kate was a cat, and Adam a cow with comedy udders.

It's just too awful, isn't it?

I think Adam had shown enough sense to refuse to wear the onesie Kate tried to force him into. Whether Alice put on the one provided for her was never made clear.

Anyone just listened to the news of the farmer recently rescued from a sinkhole he fell into while quad biking?

I definitely recall a quad bike at Brookfield ...

Didn't Jude manage to crash it, showing off? Pip was injured and David went ballistic.

my uni boyfriend was from a farming family, I used to love razzing around on the quad with him when we'd visit his folks.

Ahem ... The important words were 'sinkhole' and 'fell into' ...

Particularly if attached to the word 'David'.

She did wear the onesie.

Also, surely Alice will guess that Peggy's fall is not a coincidence.

Just caught up with the Jade disaster dinner. I’m with PP who said Jade was welllll out of order!

Wise listeners of a longer period than I: is Jade the first black character? It seems pretty dire that they’re making SUCH a hash out of her. In my few years listening I can only remember one character who wasn’t white - the sadly short lived Aneesha.

Amy and Noluthando are mixed race.

Usha is originally Ugandan Asian, though I can't remember whether it was her or her parents who were chucked out by Idi Amin. She was born in 1962, so she would have been ten when he had his purge.

And of course Mabel, Alan's mother-in-law, is black. She has appeared a few times over the years.

is Jade the first black character?
No, as PPs have said. Lucas Madikane, poor sod, featured briefly too.
but is Jade black? Nothing on air has suggested she is. Or, to be fair, that she isn't. Don't think it's reasonable to draw conclusions from her actor: after all, Jade's not middle -aged, is she? Nor is Jazzer blind, though his actor is.
Gender-blind casting in Ambridge, talent-free writing in TA.

Maybe TA is taking a leaf out of Bridgerton with its multiracial casting?

Which is obvs a good thing.

Oh Mabel! Only rivalled by Usha's Aunty Satiya for ethnic wisdom and fun (although in two different ways, iirc - Satiya was more to be laughed at, whereas Mabel was more laugh with...

I think elderflower and mint infusion sounds nice It would be basically cold mint tea, wouldn't it? Elderflower wouldn't stand a chance against mint; it doesn't really make its mark in elderflower and pear cordial.

Cold sparkling mint tea.

I would probably get hiccoughs.

And don't forget Jim's daughter is played by a black actress - and unless there is something they never told us about Jim or Alastair...
If Jazzer can be sighted - then black actresses don't have to be portraying black characters.

And one of the first black characters apparently was a barmaid in the Bull in the 70s, its just as she had a Brummie accent no one realised. Trying to make it clear can be clunky eg. Dan's ex girlfriend.

Was it ever actually made clear on air that Dan's girlfriend was black?