🎲 Archers thread #134: Ambridge as human board game. We’ve had Pandemic. What now - Game of Life or Trivial Pursuit? Go! 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 warm to Hazel Woolley, 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 @LiterallyKnowsBest for the thread title idea. I also liked @LillianGish's suggestion which was Conversions abound and it’s not just Harrison - Lily’s kitchens, Hazel’s flat, Jazzer’s finances, Bert’s bungalow...come and discuss The Archers - are you a convert or could you be converted? and that seems like a good place to kick off this thread.

Who'll get the bungalow? Pip, Josh or A. N. Other?

Will Lily leave the cold calling behind and launch a bid to run LL when Elizabeth hangs up her clipboard?

Will Jazzer become a financial whiz after mastering Tracy's state of the art budgeting techniques, viz, writing it all down in a little notebook with a kitten on the front?

Over to you!

I honestly think it's just a pretext for getting him into a holiday cottage or wherever he ends up next. Maybe the editor is snobbily thinking "urgh a baby in a FLAT" but the intern has pointed out that many people have babies in flats without Dying of Deprivation so they've had to come up with something else that's slightly more threatening.

But surely he's signed a tenancy agreement and can't just sod off?

Maybe there will be a fire at the shop and Chris survives, by virtue of the external staircase.

We've not had a good blaze for a while (and the nearest fire station must be miles away)!

@KirstenBlest

Susan was lucky to not have been affected by the Horizon scandal

I've not worked on it, but I have been involved in a software system that should have been a simple project for a small team, that just growed like topsy. On that project (definitely not PO/Fujitsu) IIRC there was a refusal to scrap the software and start again, and instead they got bums on seats, then more bums on seats.

Blah blah blah lessons will be learnt

Very good point. Unbelievably awful. Private Eye was publicising this for years and years. It beggars belief that so many were sent to prison when it was obvious there was a systemic issue with the software.

My prediction for Chris is he will grow ‘closer’ to Amy. Meanwhile Alice will start to have second thoughts about the divorce and attempt a reconciliation before realising there is someone else in the picture. She is will of course confide in Amy who will be wracked with guilt as Alice tries to work out who the other woman is. Selfless and noble Amy will then (hopefully) leave the village.

TBF Amy is easier on the ear at the moment (though the bar has been set very low).

Maybe Jamie Perks will drop into the Bull after a busy week of tree felling after the next big storm (Eugene?) and liven things up.

I'd prefer distraught and heart broken Alice heads off over the horizon never to be seen again. What a vote bore she is.

No idea what "vote" is doing in there.

The Rex and Amy exchange was, surely, simply designed to throw us off the scent regarding Chris…Amy was down on the event at the Bull because the one person she wanted to see was sitting on his sofa over the shop.

I'm thinking Alice will go to the flat, discover Amy there with Chris and then one of the three (or possibly four if Martha is also there) will fall down the stairs.
Also - I don't understand why Brian and JD are renting Willow Cottage when they have cottages they can give away - this with knobs on. Probably the most unsatisfactory storyline ever - I just can't see the point of it at all. The whole selling of Home Farm for the sake of drama in the moment with absolutely no follow-up or consequences dramatically. In fact if you'd stopped listening for a bit so you'd somehow missed the move and the Tagine dish traumas you'd never even know Jenny and Brian were living anywhere else and that someone else was living at Home Farm.

The Rex and Amy exchange was, surely, simply designed to throw us off the scent regarding Chris…Amy was down on the event at the Bull because the one person she wanted to see was sitting on his sofa over the shop I thought there were some subtle hints in there last night when Alice was asking how Chris was when Amy had been over (implying a single visit) and Amy sound slightly sheepish when she dropped it in she'd been over a couple more times as well. I also thought Amy was remembering those evenings when she agreed with Rex describing his perfect evening as an evening in with someone on your wavelength.

Yeah that's true, although Rex is obviously supposed to take this the wrong way and pursue Amy.

I wish I could picture her as anything other than an incredibly lumpen (physically and mentally) blonde with a blank expression and an air of being hard done by.

I think the character's mum was supposed to be black so I'm sure the "real" Amy isn't the sort of plump washed out milkmaid-stereotype woman I'm picturing, but it's an image I can't shake off.

If you can cope with actor photos, here she is. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/2z3dZySt69Qb0zHfdXP0h04/amy-franks

@BowerOfBramble

Yeah that's true, although Rex is obviously supposed to take this the wrong way and pursue Amy.

I wish I could picture her as anything other than an incredibly lumpen (physically and mentally) blonde with a blank expression and an air of being hard done by.

Have you never heard Alan’s MIL/Amy’s Jamaican granny? She appears every now and again. I can’t remember her name.

Amy's gran is Mabel. My mother is Jamaican and I was never convinced by Mabel's accent so not sure she's actually from there IRL. Perhaps another West Indian island.

My abiding memory of her is the wailing at Alan's plans to marry Usha because Usha worships "many gods"

@Eastie77Returns

Amy's gran is Mabel. My mother is Jamaican and I was never convinced by Mabel's accent so not sure she's actually from there IRL. Perhaps another West Indian island.

My abiding memory of her is the wailing at Alan's plans to marry Usha because Usha worships "many gods"

Poor Usha! Deeply disapproved of by Mabel AND Shula. If only they'd team up and perhaps start a detective agency together. I'd watch that spin-off.

Ooh I normally avoid cast pics but I think that is bang on.

Having had no boiler for 4 full days this week, in an old and spectacularly drafts house I'm not sure Tracey and and Chelsea needed to seek refuge elsewhere, but I do love Tracey & Jazzer so glad they will be cosy.

I can't imagine Chris will want to live in Aldridge property next to Alice, he's trying to separate from her, emotionally and legally.

I thought that the cottages were in Trust- each child had one (Debbie, Adam, Kate and Alice). That was the problem when they wanted to move in to what had been holiday business?

I am not an expert in trusts but if a cottage is held in trust for Alice as the named beneficiary then Brian shouldn’t really be loaning it out rent-free to her estranged husband. I would be very interested to read the trust deed.

This is outrageous!

Well, Kate has just guaranteed Kirsty the job. Or anyone else really.
And how ooden was Roisin?

wooden

Roisin was the Izzy actress off Corrie

Well, the cheek of the faux interview, and Peggy was well out of order. She's supposed to be out of this. Meddlesome woman.

Kate predictably awful and arrogant. Who goes approaches a potential new job by critiquing it before being asked?

Red flag straight away by her keeping Rex waiting; a short time, but very Kate, and a sign of things to come. Also, if holding down two jobs, doesn't the other employer have rights? At my last school, all "other" jobs had to be declared. Love to see the books of Spiritual Home.

Willow weaving classes ! Pfft.

Also, if holding down two jobs, doesn't the other employer have rights? At my last school, all "other" jobs had to be declared. well, she has declared, hasn’t she? She’s told Rex about Spiritual Homes, as if he didn’t already know, and Spiritual Homes knows she’s going for this, since she is Spiritual Homes

Willow weaving classes ! Pfft. Why “Pfft”? I know a place which works on this exact business model, grow stuff, hire tutors to teach how to use it, charge punters for the whole experience, with or without accommodation. Willow weaving included.