💀 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!

Pike. Not toothy freshwater fish.

Pile.
FFS, autocorrect. What use are you?

In the spirit of mumsnet, CryHavoc, do please note that 'fuck off' is a complete sentence.
Long live the Intern!

I am sitting in dd's bedroom listening to her ragged Covid breathing. Promised I wouldn't leave her til she's asleep. And oh my! The thought of an Archers GCSE. What a complete Joy!

As we have just demonstrated, topping each other in inane things like alphabetical partnerships is just the sort of thing friends in pubs do when they have had a few.

Not that we're in a pub. I imagine some of us may have had a few, though .

But all that stuff, plus the rota, and Badger! was just bizarre. And not very respectful to Trevor (though he didn't sound very upset, almost as if he was used to his father dying every so often).

Time for a in honour of Bert's location of demise, methinks.

But at least it’s occurred to Jolene that seasonal joshing about ghosts might be a bit disrespectful…..

To be honest I prefer reading these threads than actually listening to some the Archers’ episodes at the moment. If Pip or Martin Gibson start speaking for example, I use the 20s skip ahead facility on BBC Sounds.

@stilldumdedumming

I am sitting in dd's bedroom listening to her ragged Covid breathing. Promised I wouldn't leave her til she's asleep. And oh my! The thought of an Archers GCSE. What a complete Joy!

Hope she's feeling better this morning, @stilldumdedumming.

Archers GCSE? I think I'd have a reasonable chance.

If I'd settled on the Archers for my Ph.D. rather than a Greek lyric poet, I might have got more than a few months into it. OTOH, it would probably have destroyed my enjoyment of TA, so probably for the best.

I hope your daughter feels better soon @stilldumdedumming

@FoxgloveSummers

I hope your daughter feels better soon *@stilldumdedumming*

Me too. I remember when my DD had pneumonia, it was awful and I suspect she was much older at the time. There must be a PhD in there somewhere - “Continuity Errors from an Evolving Writing Team in Continuing Drama”. Sounds a lot more interesting than the title of mine. Thanks for the Intern love, by the way. It is quite easy to spot them and not read them @CryHavoc, and they are hardly filling up the threads, so I’m not quite sure why you felt the need to slip that little dig in. Possibly just because you forgot a real person was at the end of it? Actually real people, because you had a swing at both me and Gaspode just for the lols or something.

And oh my! The thought of an Archers GCSE. What a complete Joy!

Ah, stilldumdedumming, I hope your daughter is better soon. But, now that you’ve put the GCSE thought out there, I should imagine Academic Archers will be on it like … CMR getting his feet under someone else’s table.

I wonder if a conference paper might tempt @R4 back …

Thank you! She's 17 but needs her mum still. She has tonsillitis too and her tonsils were on her gag reflex apparently making it difficult. They had her checked at hospital on Thursday as it was really hard. She then seemed better then worse. Which I've heard is the thing. Day 5 of her antibiotics and those tonsils are going nowhere!

Aha! The conference!

I love the intern too, more power to her elbow.

With the Trevor rota, was anyone else wondering if the SWs had been listening to the episode of Cabin Pressure with the Pilots' Bar rota for Martin?

@CryHavoc Please be aware thread loyalty levels are quite high on here, particularly when it comes to @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g…

…who is, quite frankly, wonderful…

If we are going to have an Ambridge GCSE, can I commission Asking to do a revision guide?

Or maybe it should be like the literacy and numeracy tests they used to make prospective PGCE student do (compulsory for a potential SW)?

I like the interns

Sending get better soon vibes to your DD stilldumdedumming

topping each other in inane things like alphabetical partnerships is just the sort of thing friends in pubs do when they have had a few. Oh dear. I was stone cold sober when I made my contribution. I wonder what that says about me?

topping each other in inane things like alphabetical partnerships is just the sort of thing friends in pubs do when they have had a few

I’m really bad at pub chit-chat. Word games and quizzes are really not my thing. The quickest way to sober me up is when a group starts playing things like that. My mind just goes blank and I react like Tony to his vibrating phone. I would far rather hear about Trevor’s cheese sandwich.

By the way, does Trevor actually look like Julian? I fear Bert’s son will not actually be such a looker…although may be that’s how Barbara manages to stay married to him.

@Roysnewshirt

By the way, does Trevor actually look like Julian? I fear Bert’s son will not actually be such a looker…although may be that’s how Barbara manages to stay married to him.

It's how I want to imagine him.

I am trying to work out what, if anything, was the point of Robin Fairbrother not actually turning up this week. It seemed entirely futile: "I can't come to the Harvest Supper because my dad has turned up and wants to take me for a meal" with no particular comment about that from anyone, and then an hour later "Dad's gone away again so I can come to the Harvest Supper after all". Why bother including it? Was it going to have some point or relevance to something which then got left out? What?

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

I am trying to work out what, if anything, was the point of Robin Fairbrother not actually turning up this week. It seemed entirely futile: "I can't come to the Harvest Supper because my dad has turned up and wants to take me for a meal" with no particular comment about that from anyone, and then an hour later "Dad's gone away again so I can come to the Harvest Supper after all". Why bother including it? Was it going to have some point or relevance to something which then got left out? What?

Maybe a point about his Dad being unreliable and uncaring whereas Bert was more of a Dad to him? Bert cared enough abut the Rex and the rewilding to mention it to Trevor who now wants to look round. If that was the reason it was a bit too subtle, though.

Asking, I think it was supposed to make the Death Of Bert more poignant. Rex's actual father has no time for him, whereas Bert was, according to Trevor, 'proud of [Rex]' (WHY?). Just another drop in the tsunami of mawkish drivel which engulfed listeners this week.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

I am trying to work out what, if anything, was the point of Robin Fairbrother not actually turning up this week. It seemed entirely futile: "I can't come to the Harvest Supper because my dad has turned up and wants to take me for a meal" with no particular comment about that from anyone, and then an hour later "Dad's gone away again so I can come to the Harvest Supper after all". Why bother including it? Was it going to have some point or relevance to something which then got left out? What?

I think we were supposed to conclude that Bert had become a 'father figure" to the Fairbrother boys, whereas Robin didn't really care too much about their endeavours in Ambridge.

The harvest supper was a bit dull, after we heard Ruth trying to persuade Stella to attend too.