🏘️ Archers thread #129: Casey, Macy, Lily, Alice – Decent types or full of malice? Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads, which has now passed 125,000 posts! (See below for further details.)

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 lust after Russ, or other unusual things.

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/4197199--The-Archers-spoilers-thread-6-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.)

For the thread title I was very tempted to go with @R4's title suggestion of Come follow the exploits of Brine, Lily, Elizabeth, Usha, Ruari, George and Helen. Know collectively as bleurgh. because on the last thread @DadDadDad, our invaluable statistician, identified a post from @ILoveShula as the 125,000th. Many of us felt it was fitting that the post simply said Bleurgh!.

However, feeling that was a bit niche for the casual listener, I adapted @MayIDestroyYou's title suggestion in the end. Thanks, MIDY!

Back to Ambridge this week, after our enjoyable sojourn at Lower Loxley last week! Will we go with Alice to rehab? (Hope not.) Will the petulant Adam make good his threat to leave Home Farm? (Hope so.) What will Jennifer say? (Lots, I hope, and preferably to Brian.) Will the fete be a triumph? (Of course it will.) Will we ever return to Brookfield, or have they all fallen unnoticed into the slurry pit? (Let's hope Pip did, anyway.) WHERE IS PAT? (Can't answer this one.)

Over to you!

It would. Kate, of course, would be furious, because to her mind Peggy would only have fallen over to make Kate look bad...

@Edmontine

Ouch! This is one reason I'm glad I've abandoned most SM. Too many times I greeted someone enthusiastically - stupid brain thought I knew them because I followed them on Twitter. Sooo many stony-faced responses.

I’ve done this to celebrities more than once too. Cheery smile and wave - oh we’re not friends, you’re just Tom Hollander.

@TherapistInATabard

Stupendous thread title, thanks yet again gasp

Edmontine you’ve slipped into this thread like Joy at a meeting of the fete committee 😄.

I liked your previous name, I have to say.

Lol @ like Joy at the fete committee

@WheresThatCatGoneNow

Oh! How I hate it when people eat and talk at the same time. They seem to want to emphasise the fact that they've got food in their mouths!

I really like Jakob, but I could hardly bear to listen to him just now.

Is it just me?

Nope. Me too. Bleuurghhhh.

Good to see Kate back on dummy-spitting form, though I'm still used to this avatar of Jakob.

Very irritated with Fallon for talking Lynda out of stepping down from the fete and future projects. I agree she has done good service over the years but it really is time for her to move on - not just for the sake of Ambridge but also the script itself.

It may be true to life that bossy matriarchs fill their retirement time in a village by organising community events but Lynda’s stranglehold on Ambridge activities mean the narrative ends up being very samey. Her ideas are tired (Mystery Play etc) and it is definitely time to ring the changes for our sakes, if not her own. If only her husband wasn’t such a sycophant and could give her a nudge…

Is it wrong to be unconvinced by this new SW bid to establish Fallon as Moral Leader of Ambridge? She is wholly without appropriate credentials. Possession of an Archer stepfather is not enough - Ambridge leaders must be Of The Blood.

Do we reckon that the SW's had forgotten that Kate was living with Peggy? Not only did Peggy never let slip that she was worried about Alice drinking whilst pregnant, she presumably sat at home and watched Kate pop a onesie on and head out with booze for Alice's baby shower. No "do you think that's wise, dear?" was uttered.

Kate does seem to have been a very unobservant sister.

That's me back on the thread!

I've been wondering about Ambridge finances. Not a peep about LL taking a massive hit on weddings, conferences, the hunt ball etc which will be by far their biggest revenue stream.

The Tearoom will have been shut for much of last year with no event catering either, I know there's takeaway but even so, it won't make up for lost trade. Mind you, Bridge Farm seems to have disappeared off the map, so maybe the Tearoom went with it.

As for the Brookfield magic barn needing to turn a profit to recoup the outlay, not a peep.

Grey Gables must be on its knees.

Are we in for an Autumn of Kenton's strangled anxiety sighs and Grundy eviction as Oliver sells up? Surely someone's got to mention money sometime?

Ian did mention something about GG struggling when he was getting his food van idea shot down by Adam. LL will have had their entire fortunes reversed because of Rex's pigs, mint toffee popcorn and Russ's art. Broomfield have been incredibly quiet. It'd be nice to hear from Ben again.

Ages ago, in the "Tracy Saves The Day" storyline when she stood Jazzer up in order to comfort Oliver all evening, Oliver said that if things hadn't picked up by Easter he would have to sell Grey Gables. I don't see how they can have picked up, given lockdown again, so it ought to have closed or been sold by now.

See Monday 1st February, 2021 at ambridgereporter.org.uk/synopses/2021.html#February

@Flumpaphone

I've been wondering about Ambridge finances. Not a peep about LL taking a massive hit on weddings, conferences, the hunt ball etc which will be by far their biggest revenue stream.

The Tearoom will have been shut for much of last year with no event catering either, I know there's takeaway but even so, it won't make up for lost trade. Mind you, Bridge Farm seems to have disappeared off the map, so maybe the Tearoom went with it.

As for the Brookfield magic barn needing to turn a profit to recoup the outlay, not a peep.

Grey Gables must be on its knees.

Are we in for an Autumn of Kenton's strangled anxiety sighs and Grundy eviction as Oliver sells up? Surely someone's got to mention money sometime?

Yes, I'd like to hear a lot more about finance too.

The tearoom did deliveries and takeaways during the first lockdown. Then they opened an open air seating area in a previously unnoticed garden area about the back, I think.

Bridge Farm has probably done very well out of lockdown because of BridgeFresh and the shop.

GG may be benefiting from the boom in UK holidays, but must have lost £££ over the last 16 months overall.

Elizabeth has, iirc () mentioned their current struggles once or twice over the last months. (Did she ever suggest to Oliver that all the local hospitality venues should be gathering virtually for mutual support?)

The Tearooms have perhaps benefitted from Emma's brilliant idea of using the adjacent (never before heard of) patch of land for outdoor eating and drinking. So they've had something other than occasional off-site catering to keep them going.

God only knows what's happening with Oliver since he last spoke to Tracy on air ...

(Sorry, was typing at a very leisurely speed. Crossed Gasp)

Fascinating Guardian article today on diversification in farming.

There's a green burial site in Ambridge, isn't there? (Don't say I've imagined it.)

There was, Edmontine, and I'd forgotten all about it. Mike was custodian, I think, and as he is now a non-person, banished to Brum, and hardly ever mentioned by his only son Roy, no doubt the green burial ground has also gone.

Boars from the rewilding can rootle up the corpuses

Feeling a bit beaten down by the return to the Alice/Aldridge grind….

I enjoyed the Lynda and Fallon confidence. I do like inter generational friendships and wish I had some in my own life.

@Taswama

I enjoyed the Lynda and Fallon confidence. I do like inter generational friendships and wish I had some in my own life.

Beautifully put TASWAMS

Brian -get her in the car and lock the doors!

Was that Susie Blake in a cameo tonight?

Poor Brian! Such an impossible situation. Boop for tonight’s episode!

Susie Blake?

No, it wasn't.

BOOP for Alice being well-acted. I've always had a soft spot for her.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susie_Blake

I just thought the detox woman sounded a lot like her🤷‍♀️