🎭 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!

And as for that nonsense Alan Sugar imitation ...How offensive can you get?

We didn't hear Lynda say it - it was implied that she was sitting around in her garden like Dr Evil making nasty plans and sending out Kirsty to do her bidding.

Lynda hasn't actually said anything on air since she was bullying Kirsty into being her gopher on 17th February.

I can't imagine the conversation between Lynda and Kirsty which ended up with Lynda instructing Kirsty to interrogate Clarrie, then fire her, and Kirsty agreeing to do it.

It would be a bizarre conversation, and if Robert was aware of it, he would have talked Lynda down.

Yes, but then what becomes of the Conflict? They can't go having a plot without Conflict!

The reason the Chris-and-Alice one was better was that it wasn't Conflict so much as it was horrible inevitabilities from actions, and Consequences, but they are now turning it into Conflict Between Chris And Alice, which is boring same-old.

I think the conflict between Alice and Chris was inevitable. Chris had Alice on a pedestal, and it's partly why he was so blind to her drinking, and now she's fallen off it he is struggling. And he doesn't seem to have realised that him not realising about the drinking is at least partly his fault. The listeners have suspected for years. And Ed and Emma tried to tell him months ago.
But his part in it will be another thing to undermine his self image of being "a good bloke". So he will resist it strongly.
And for him to reject Alice when she is vulnerable will also be against his self image. So he will have to rationalise it by making her more "evil" in his own eyes.

I have deep sympathy for Alice who is very vulnerable and needs support right now.

I think some conflict is inevitable although I’m disappointed it’s come on so soon.

Kirsty was acting like a total loon.

It's the idea that Kirsty, with all she has going on, would be spending her time visiting, persuading, strong-arming innocent villagers, that I find offensive to my intelligence. this. It feels so forced and artificial - especially in contrast to the Chris and Alice story which has been developing and building for years. As PPE (again) sums it up so succinctly: Sometimes I feel I've spent half my life waiting for the Susan-as-Aldridge-in-law thing to implode. Its a relationship that deserves endless BOOPS - and probably its own series. I think the Mysteries are supposed to be the light relief with the rude mechanicals, but it just makes me cringe, as it always does when professional actors try to ape amateurs. It's as if every time they do an Am Dram story they need to put a new twist on it (this time lets pretend it has to be kept entirely secret...) Every time the real drama cuts away to this tosh it makes me want to switch off.

@LillianGish

Every time the real drama cuts away to this tosh it makes me want to switch off.

I couldn't have put that better myself. This farcical am-dram nonsense makes me cringe, every time (even worse at the moment because I just can't believe that Kirsty would choose to be involved in a real life situation).

@Dulcinae

I can't imagine the conversation between Lynda and Kirsty which ended up with Lynda instructing Kirsty to interrogate Clarrie, then fire her, and Kirsty agreeing to do it.

It would be a bizarre conversation, and if Robert was aware of it, he would have talked Lynda down.

And Kirsty is, or at least, was, always depicted as a sensible type who would have either talked Lynda down and pointed out how totally impractical keeping the thing secret would be, or else just ignored her. But she seems to have lost all basic common sense since Phil was arrested.

I must say, the Alice storyline has brought home how awful it must be to realise that your child could be seriously harmed and that it was all your "fault". The fact that it was caused by a serious illness would be no consolation.

Does anyone have any idea what the point is of keeping the play secret? I mean, what is gained, and by whom?

It's not even all that clear what it is that is meant to be being secret. That it is happening? When? Who is in it? Who is in what part? What?

Aaaaaaargh, on the whole.

BOOP for the scene between Alice and Susan.

Boo for the nonsense of Kirsty sacking Clarrie.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

Does anyone have any idea what the point is of keeping the play secret? I mean, what is gained, and by whom?

It's not even all that clear what it is that is meant to be being secret. That it is happening? When? Who is in it? Who is in what part? What?

Aaaaaaargh, on the whole.

The secrecy is totally pointless and impractical. Will they rehearse under the cover of darkness? How will people know to come and watch? At some point they have to break the silence otherwise there’s no audience. Do Lynda and Kirsty expect this to be some marvellous surprise for Borsetshire? It’s a stupid storyline. And it’s tedious, unconvincing and irritating.

I imagine the mystery play will be a celebration of the lifting of COVID restrictions which is why they are being vague. Which means it could drag on for months.

Sorry it should have been a “celebration” of the lifting of restrictions. Obviously not actually celebratory.

Just listening to the Sunday catch up. When Alice was in labour with Jazza I thought she said something about 'last time' and I took that to be referring to a pregnancy but I don't recall that at all. Does anyone know?

Totally agree about the bloody play. As if Kirsty would be faffing around with that, given everything.

Scroll back, Wobbly - other people mentioned 'last time' too. General consensus is that she was recalling her withdrawal hallucination (when she thought the baby was lying in the bath). Pretty sure she hasn't given birth before - either on TA or AmEx.

I wasn't really paying attention to the plans for the play, but weren't they going to have God or an angel or someone standing on the hill whilst other things were happening in the farmyard? How do they plan to rehearse an outdoors event like that in secret?

@Nith

I wasn't really paying attention to the plans for the play, but weren't they going to have God or an angel or someone standing on the hill whilst other things were happening in the farmyard? How do they plan to rehearse an outdoors event like that in secret?

Well on farms there’s generally not that many people around other than the farm workers so that’s doable - I guess? What tickles me is the concept of the Archers “audience” ie who comes to these damn shows when everyone is in them? Even with the silent characters and the people who don’t get involved you’re talking a one night audience max.

@PursuingProxemicExactitude Ah thank you, thought I'd scrolled back that far but hadn't! The perils of listening on Sunday, everything has moved on.

Genuinely, is anyone enjoying the play storyline and Kirsty’s completely removed from reality behaviour? Who so the target demographic for this? It’s so awful.

No, I zone out during those conversations.

You do have to wonder how they manage to scrape together an audience for one performance, let alone the several performances that is the norm. It's not as if the residents' relatives and friends who live outside Ambridge ever turn up at the village shows.

Where is Jennifer these days?

It seems wrong that we haven't heard her going into overdrive about this latest grandchild!