💀 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!

I'll have you know that my lentil stew is rather delicious. It's also vegan. I am an omnivore (though some decades ago I was vegetarian).

Yes but this was Kate ‘s lentil stew, @TheSilveryPussycat!

Appropos of absolutely nothing-

Has Blossom Hill Cottage been empty since Custardgate?

Are Johnny and Hannah still sharing? At 1 The Green- or have I imagined that?

Has the new farm manager, whose name I can't remember, already joined the silent throng?

It must be a major prize she’s after if she’s related to eat Kate’s vegan lentil casserole!

I did feel that lentil casserole making was used by the SWs as a cheap jibe against Kate.. I got the feeling that just because it was lentil casserole, we were supposed to automatically think it would be rubbish.

I see no reason why Kate's cooking would be rubbish. There must be something that she's good at.

I wonder if there were parsnips in the casserole

I wonder if the room at Grey Gables was ever booked.

Oh, Unmerited - that could be fun! I’m sure Kate will be swift with her detective work.

Hello (briefly) from a very dreich Scotland. I note Storm Arwen left Ambridge alone. On the train the other day I noted snow all the way through the Midlands. Still, they've had their one chance correct weather mention of the year.

Hazel said something like 'Is Lynda still living in Daddy's old house?' and Peggy said 'Ambridge Hall, yes'. I dimly remember Aunt Laura Archer living there. Did it previously belong to Hazel's father - Reggie Trentham? I don't remember ever seeing any reference to Jack Woolley owning it.

asking maybe if you don't know a lynda you are a lynda

Taking your life in your hands as you sail VERY close to the wind there, @purplesequins!

I think the ref to lentil casserole was lazy writing. It smacked of the 1970s. Vegans nowadays eat far more interesting things and, whatever her faults, Kate is bang on trend and bound to have a very modern approach to vegan cuisine. She’d be far more likely to be doing an aubergine and sweet potato curry or a vegan chilli, for instance.

I don’t know anything whatsoever about Hazel so it’s very interesting for me to meet her as a newcomer with no preconceptions…luckily I hang out on this thread and have the benefit of several veterans’ background knowledge (taps nose discretely…). I am on my guard…

Is it possible that after a spell in hospital, Hazel checked into a very expensive care home (think Grey Gables garden suite, but with medical care bills on top) and is now penniless? Hilda certainly seems to have taken to her which is no doubt shorthand for something.

It was lentil stew. I had lentil stew yesterday too.

It was snowing here (SE) on Monday.

No snow in London, but we rarely get snow. Now wondering if that word should be spelled driech. Hmm.

It's scottish so the i before e doesn't apply

I don't know too much about Hazel either only I that she was a nasty piece of work in the past and inherited most of Jack Wooley's wealth. I thought she was Jack's daughter - am I wrong on that?

They are definitely leading up to some manipulation plot. Maybe she'll announce that Covid has made her re-assess her will (Does she have any other relatives?) and she's going to enjoy having everyone dance to her tune thinking they are going to get a share. Hints of that with the mention of re-wilding sam’s Peggy giving her money away etc

It is also very plausible that post Covid care has cost her money (mention of not booking the suite at Grey Gables just "my little room").

Could also be a combination of the two and she'll make everyone dance to her tune as they think she has money and then - surprise

Adopted daughter. Her parents divorced. Her mum then married Jack Woolley who adopted Hazel. He had no other children. Don't know what happened to her bio dad. Did Jack and Valerie divorce? Asking will know. I'm 400 miles from my Archers books.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Hello (briefly) from a very dreich Scotland. I note Storm Arwen left Ambridge alone. On the train the other day I noted snow all the way through the Midlands. Still, they've had their one chance correct weather mention of the year.

Hazel said something like 'Is Lynda still living in Daddy's old house?' and Peggy said 'Ambridge Hall, yes'. I dimly remember Aunt Laura Archer living there. Did it previously belong to Hazel's father - Reggie Trentham? I don't remember ever seeing any reference to Jack Woolley owning it.

Between the ages of twelve and seventeen Hazel lived in The Doctor's House (later Ambridge Hall) with her stepfather Jack Woolley. It never belonged to Reggie Trentham.

Charles Grenville owned The Doctor's House in the 1950s, and left it to his wife Carol (later Tregorran) when he died in 1961.

Jack Woolley bought The Doctor's House from Carol Tregorran in 1968 and lived in it until 1973, when he sold it to Aunt Laura Archer (who changed its name from "The Doctor's House" to the pretentious and inaccurate "Ambridge Hall").

It is a yellow brick mid-Victorian house of considerable ugliness, though mellowed by being in a good garden.

Source: the entry on Ambridge Hall in The Book of The Archers.

Thanks, Asking! Before my time and I had never come across that info. Much less dreich now, I'm pleased to say.

Breathtaking, Gasp0.

< Envy

Woa! That's quite a view!

I'm wondering whether Kate is going to give Hazel some holistic therapy which effects a miracle cure, leading to Hazel leaving all her riches to her so that she ends up buying back Home Farm and vastly expanding her therapy empire. It would be quite funny if the most chaotic of the Aldridge children is the one who ends up the most financially successful.

It's not a bad view, agreed. Our Scottish correspondents may recognise it. Scotland in miniature. My parents chose well when they retired.

@Platax

I'm wondering whether Kate is going to give Hazel some holistic therapy which effects a miracle cure, leading to Hazel leaving all her riches to her so that she ends up buying back Home Farm and vastly expanding her therapy empire. It would be quite funny if the most chaotic of the Aldridge children is the one who ends up the most financially successful.

I would love this!

The now puff-of-smoked @GraceFairbrother - my sister was at the show last week too. She said it was bloody freezing

@FoxgloveSummers, It was chilly. I had sort of anticipated it so had a big jumper and a warm coat.

Not many in the audience so I'm trying to work out who your sister was. Was she the one who asked a question?

I cook lentils a lot.

Usually as Dahl though, or a soup.

I would never make a lentil stew!

I’d rather not say, sorry! She wasn’t on the panel though

Still enjoying Chelsea at the moment, and her and Mia not getting on. Mia having a go at Will’s ex career was believable (even though I don’t think Mia is a good actor! Heard her in something else recently urgh)

Shouldn't a stew contain chunky ingredients?

Finding Hazel as public information (anyone can catch Covid..) a little tiresome. I mean, at least make it someone we might care about.