💀 Archers thread #132: The Grim Reaper joined the cast; The Bard of Ambridge breathed his last. 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 think Shula will make an excellent vicar, 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.)

Thanks to many of you for title suggestions. @JanglyBeads said that this thread had to be a Bert tribute so needed a rhyming title. From an excellent field, I chose the suggestion from @BorsetshireBanality (who also has a cracking username).

Check out the last thread for the other suggestions and various poetic offerings inspired by Bert Fry's passing. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/4349822--Archers-thread-131-A-time-to-plant-a-time-to-reap-Discuss-The-Archers-here

So, who'll get the bungalow? Rex, Stella, Pip? If Rex has to move, will he doss down beside his pigs at Lower Loxley? Or will Rex be a resident at Her Majesty's pleasure, having bumped off Trevor for being the world's most boring man? Now Freddie's on the case, are Russ's days at LL numbered? Will we ever hear Jill again, or was Bert just the first of many older cast members to be dedded?

Over to you!

In fact I am sure she does, since she knew that both Kathy and Roy would be away from the hotel over the new year.

Gaaad - is this play supposed to be drama, or lecture? (The Call of the Rewild, R4 on now.)

I hope Roy tells Lynda where she can shove the part he's just resigned from. It's the least she deserves.

Physical comedy always works so well on radio.

Almost as well as ventriloquism.

So - will we actually hear Mike?

And might the Mysteries nonsense be the mechanism for bringing Tuckers senior back to Ambridge forever?🤞🏽

(Though I can’t actually see much story potential, unless Bethany’s education. And I wouldn’t want poor distant Hayley killed off to bring Abigail back.)

Oh, I do hope this heralds the return of Moike and Vickoi, but I fear I shall be disappointed and they'll probably be silents.

Oliver said he'd heard all about the Grundys' venue problem at breakfast. And Roy said "yes, of course." I'm puzzled.

I cringed through most of the episode. Curtseying practice? Lynda and the bloomin Mystery Plays? Kirsty and Oliver and the bloomin Mystery Plays? Eddie taking the ballroom as a done deal?

It seems that Oliver is being allowed, by Grundy charity, to live in the house which he owns. (I think Roy mentioned that as well.) So listening to the Grundys whinge against the cruel world, in which a pub they have booked a room in goes bust, will have been his happy lot over the toast and marmalade.

I wonder if Clarrie makes him porridge, or they are a bacon-and-eggs family.

Well there will be some kind of vegetarian option for Mere. Porridge is even vegan if you make it wrong.

The Lilian/Lynda friendship is... weird? Wasn’t it only last year they were at daggers drawn over the pub? Lynda was camping outside in protest!

Was I the only one who missed this? mobile.twitter.com/kirbyej/status/1397889245998637056 By a BBC reporter who now works on scripts for the Archers.

I thought Oliver was living at Grey Gables?

I cringed too @TheSilveryPussycat at the last couple of episodes, I feel embarrassed for the actors and ashamed of myself for tuning in!

Oliver was depressed and lonely, living at GG without Caroline, so the Grundys wrapped him in their loving arms and took him home. (It’s not their fault the post-flood musical chairs eventually landed them exactly where they would most want to be.)

Mia is only at Grange Farm occasionally, so I guess they usually enjoy porridge making freedom.

I am minded to think fondly of BitOutOfPractice’s long ago musing on the miserableness she observed on this thread. (And am generally delighted to have had creative input regarding a partial solution.) I enjoy TA. I have an entirely unconnected occupational interest in the writing, but that’s by the by. It’s more the almost uninterrupted thread back to the radio in our 1960s dining room, and ‘Listen With Mother’. I wish the SWs had better leadership, archival support, more curiosity, and greater breadth of experience. So if Emma Kirby really has joined them it should only be for the good.

The Lilian/Lynda friendship is... weird? Wasn’t it only last year they were at daggers drawn over the pub?

They are not just friends! They have a family relationship. Lilian’s son James, and Robert’s daughter Leonie - Lynda’s stepdaughter - are in a relationship and have a small son called Mungo. So Lilian and Lynda are ‘joint’ grandparents to this Ambridge scion. That’s why they can bicker and squabble, but still ‘have each other’s backs’.

@FoxgloveSummers, Wrong? Porridge is vegan. It's oats and water.

I make porridge with oat milk. Which is weirdly incestuous.

I know they’re related but they’re like a couple of mean girls at school to each other most of the time. Can Lynda not have any friends?

Porridge neeeds milk! I know Scotland will disagree.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

Almost as well as ventriloquism.

Educating Archie?

Oh it would be good to have Mike and Vicky back on the cast, even as occasional visitors. Presumably Abi gets to sleep on Roy's sofa (unless Phoebe and Kirsty have moved elsewhere)?

@FoxgloveSummers

Was I the only one who missed this? mobile.twitter.com/kirbyej/status/1397889245998637056 By a BBC reporter who now works on scripts for the Archers.

Emma Jane Kirby has not yet had a script broadcast.

The real question is whether she knows anything about the programme. Some of the new writers have clearly got no idea at all about the characters, backstory, geography, or who lives where or with whom. It's depressing.

Can Lynda not have any friends?
It would be very surprising if she did, Foxglove. She's always been ghastly, and a pretentious bore, but she is now showing clear signs of megalomania. Someone needs to put her out of Robert 's misery (although the spineless and simpering enabler doesn't deserve to be rescued).

@FoxgloveSummers, milk has no place in porridge.

Whether or not you add milk to porridge is a matter of personal taste. There are also whisky, yoghurt, soft fruits, stewed fruit, dried fruit, honey, and marmalade as possibilities.

Not all at once.

But adding anything to it ruins it.