🧦 Archers thread #133: Woolley socks it to them! Discuss The Archers and its Woolley thinking and plotting 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 would love to take part 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/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 @ButtonSister and @BorsetshireBanality for title suggestions. I went with their idea in the interests of keeping the title fairly short.

@LillianGish and @FoxgloveSummers made cracking but longer suggestions, which (mashed up) will do a great job of kicking off our new thread.

Evictions (Tom and Tash), depictions (Bridge Farm Christmas card), conniptions (entire cast and crew of the Mysteries), convictions (Philip) and addictions (Alice) - what are our predictions for 2022 in Ambridge? All sure to make this the Best Ambridge Christmas Evah!

This thread should take us through to early January unless something very exciting happens (ha ha, fat chance). My predictions: this is a bit left field, but I wonder if Peggy will offer to buy the shop and flat so Tom and Gnasher (great coinage, whose was it?) can stay put. I don't believe Hazel is sincere about wanting to live in/regularly visit Ambridge. She's always been utterly two-faced and rotten to the core, why would she change now?

The Mysteries will, of course be a triumph and briefly borrowing the🔮 (sorry, Bore!) I expect we are going to hear them at some point over the New Year period.

Over to you!

Blimey that was tedious tonight.

It is so dull that I think they have something juicy coming up.

What happened to Sol? Might he be coming back?

Will we be visiting Fridge Barm over the holidays?

There was so much emphasis on sewing that I fear we may be heading for a literal denouement on stage. We know how much the SWs love nudity and slapstick. I am worried Kirsty’s costume might fall apart and leave one of the extras naked.

We have already had the image of Harrison Burns in a loincloth trailled. This would be ok if it was Harrison Ford

I'm not sure that I'd like to see a 79-yr old man in a loincloth. Not outside in December in the UK.

Tune in tonight for the next exciting episode- Clarrie breaks the needle of her sewing machine on a sequin and has to replace it, Susan refuses to wear her costume then decides to after all, Kirsty almost rebels but decides not to, villagers vie to ask Alan to come for Christmas dinner, which he’s too busy to do (this might have happened today but the whole thing was so full I lapsed into a coma). Or can we hope for “Eddie has a positive PCR and the whole village has to isolate”.

Full not full!

Dull not full (why does my phone autocorrect dull to full every time?).

I like the whole village needing to isolate but the Mysterys are outside so they will probably still be able to do it.

Some is inside - the barn and the Brookfield kitchen are involved, I think.

Er, they were.

I'd have told Lynda she could use the quagmire field

The Brookfield/Lynda feud has been resolved, hasn’t it? You might have blinked and missed it (or zoned out from the tedium). Or I might have imagined it. I thought once it was established that Lynda didn’t report the muddy field all was happiness and light.

I zoned out from the tedium. I liked the KrisAlish bit though. They were getting along far too well for something not to go wrong soon.

In a twelve-second aside Lynda told Kirsty that after being informed that it was Evil Evangeline who had reported her cows, she grovelled and gave the barn back to Lynda, also promising to stop David from shaving until he had played Herod.

Tell not show is the way to do it, every time. Like Kirsty's phone-call that we didn't hear.

Oh yeah it rings a bell. It is so dull. I'm more interested in why the shipping forecast seems to have moved these days. Don't they realise I have a routine?

I wonder what the "listening figures" are going to be like for the Mystery Plays?

Poor Clarrie must have made at least a dozen costumes for each of the cast over the years.

Was last night's the worst episode of the year? There are rather a lot of contenders!

Surely they need to insert a mention of someone who's got Covid, given the current figures? Everyone I talk to currently seems to have a number of family members/work colleagues/friends who have it (as do my DS and DD), it's just not credible that living in Ambridge makes you immune.

Come to think of it, surely all that mixing for rehearsals of the Mystery plays is incredibly irresponsible?

Won't somebody tell Lynda, the Mystery Plays are going to be on the RADIO, so they don't need costumes.

@GoodPrincessWenceslas

Surely they need to insert a mention of someone who's got Covid, given the current figures? Everyone I talk to currently seems to have a number of family members/work colleagues/friends who have it (as do my DS and DD), it's just not credible that living in Ambridge makes you immune.

Exactly. The obvious angle would be some young member of the cast who is forced to isolate over Xmas because they have just tested positive, but feel fine.

Or people queuing at the walk-in clinic to have their booster.

I hope it rains on the Mystery Plays, just for fun and the last strands of realism.

But I will be listening to them

Will there be many people to come and see them, and wander round Ambridge, or is everyone in them now there are lots of extras?

And where is Joy? This right up her street...

@Madcats

I wonder what the "listening figures" are going to be like for the Mystery Plays?

Poor Clarrie must have made at least a dozen costumes for each of the cast over the years.

Was last night's the worst episode of the year? There are rather a lot of contenders!

Tonight's was worse.

I’m a newish listener comparatively. Grew up hearing it playing at home but only really tuned in myself just after the Helen / Rob thing. So quite a few years, anyway. Until this week I genuinely thought Alan was single and divorced from Usha. I only picked up from here that they were ever a couple. Until Amy arrived back I didn’t know he had a daughter.

I assumed this week that they were still friendly or something until people started talking about divorce. Anyway - most historical stuff I can pick up but this made me realise how much is left out of the show for a really long time. Alan is in it quite a lot, Usha is mentioned whenever legal advice is missing. But then mentioned as a couple - I honestly think not in many years?

Hmm … Sometimes actors become temporarily less attractive to producers …

On Covid, though - people like Kirsty would definitely have been volunteering in some pandemic capacity.

Can it get any worse?