🎲 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 wonder if he's going to be the new resident caretaker at Arkwright Hall

This would be absolute genius! (Please SWs, tear up your original plan and do this …)

Does the Landmark Trust ever sell buildings on? (I’ve given up wasting hours on their website, no one ever wants to go with me and I’d be scared on my own.) Just thinking the scenario would be unlikely unless the building had been passed to people whose voices we’d hear in Ambridge. But then … Gills. One can’t rely on the Archers creative team to do anything even vaguely sensible.

Now you’ve dangled this juicy morsel in front of me the sound of Rex dragging his bags up the hastily invented outdoor staircase to the flat above the shop will be infuriating …

I think Rex is going to live at Lower Loxley, in a hitherto unmentioned abode.

Where did Lewis live? I've not heard mention of him for years.

I'm pretty certain that Landmark Trust try to holiday let all their properties (or they don't bother to take them on). The National Trust have a lot that are just tenanted (and sometimes open to the public on a couple of days/year or not at all).

But he specifically said “it’s in Ambridge” when Pip asked him where he’d be living.

Lower Loxley isn’t quite in Ambridge - I’d have questions for any SW who blurred this distinction.

There's a big difference between finding a dead bird outside and finding them purposefully strung up inside a house

I know what you mean- it’s not great but I don’t think they would be that freaked by it. I wouldn’t be happy finding them like that but I wouldn’t be that worried about Devil worship. I would just think Rex was best avoided.

@Chemenger

Rant continues. Why would an aeronautical engineer know anything about a boiler? How many planes have gas central heating? Did it have a problem with its aerodynamics? That must be literally the least useful engineering discipline in that scenario. As a chemical engineer at least I can scale down from industrial furnaces to have some understanding of boilers.

Sorry I'm late to this but QUITE. I've got a friend who's a flood prevention engineer, he's no more fit to sort my boiler out than a badger would be.

I was a bit confused by the birds in the attic.

At the risk of further upsetting my google algorithms, I googled how to stuff a bird.

Now I am even more puzzled.

Another thought regarding Rex's abode. Perhaps he is going to be a house guardian for the Gills?

Perhaps he is going to be a house guardian for the Gills?

🤔 … Surely if they’re away for long enough for the house to need guarding they would just rent it out?

Would he remain in situ if they had short term tenants using most of the building? Is Home Farm big enough to provide separate wings?

And if he only looked after it when it was empty - that wouldn’t be terribly secure or comfortable for him.

Completely get guardianship in theory (looked into it myself once, in London) but I can’t see a reason why it would be the best option for the invisible Gills. Interesting possibility, though.

There used to be a flat at the top of the Dower House, when Caroline owned it … I recall Will lived there when the Grundys were exiled to Meadow Rise. But I don’t remember whether Pusscat and Tiger converted it into an office when they launched into the property business, or perhaps when Lilian became more hands-off and Anthea did all the work.

If not - Justin and Lilian must have ample space to house another soul.

Rex said it’s not one of Lynda’s thingummies. And there’s no reason why they’d want a lodger, is there?

Who else has room?

Joy!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

He can’t afford Glebe Cottage - and it’s surely too small for the recently mentioned Carol to want another person sharing the space.

Who’s he friends with, apart from Lily???

Who else has room?

Roy is going to have space after Phoebe and Kirsty move on but Rex is moving out now and they haven’t left yet so it won’t be there

Surely not Blossom Hill Cottage, aka Murder Mansion.

Home Farm is a brilliant idea.

The Landmark Trust does seem to sell properties occasionally, presumably because they’re not doing well as lettings. There’s a few properties in the early handbooks which are no longer on the website

I reckon he’s going to be in the —-newly built—-— astrology tower at Lower Loxley

So how long can the Amy/Chris tension carry on? I’m genuinely not sure what’ll happen next, maybe Amy will leave Ambridge to avoid getting off with her mate’s husband. I would.

And Pip actor still can’t act, after all this time.

Rex will either move in with Johnnie and Hannah or into Willow Farm

Is the problem that a lot of the newer actors are tv or stage actors and not radio actors?

Amy's love life or lack of it is exceptionally tedious. There's more life in Tracy's little finger than most of the other younger actors combined.

@WhoppingBigBackside

Rex will either move in with Johnnie and Hannah or into Willow Farm

Is the problem that a lot of the newer actors are tv or stage actors and not radio actors?

Amy actor is awful. Intonation and emphasis all wrong.

The Kristiffur & Aimless is tedious.

I was confused when Tracy said she was still annoyed at the way Alice treated "our Christopher" and then remembered she is his aunt. Which makes her Martha's great-aunt - kind of mind boggling.

I'm hoping Amy makes a pass at Christopher, is firmly rebuffed and then disappears into the ether.

Pip can't act at all. When she has a nice bit of script I just honestly feel bad for the scriptwriter.

I do think she's a bit better on TV. Maybe it's just the "pip accent" she decided to do, that makes her hold all the ends of her words, I hate it. Sort of like a posh version of brummie?

Wasn't there some rubbish the other day from Tracey about Alice not wanting an invite round because she's too posh? Struck me as v odd when 1) she's been part of tracey's family for years 2) Tracey thought nothing of hanging out with the Lower Loxley crew.

@BowerOfBramble

Wasn't there some rubbish the other day from Tracey about Alice not wanting an invite round because she's too posh? Struck me as v odd when 1) she's been part of tracey's family for years 2) Tracey thought nothing of hanging out with the Lower Loxley crew.

I don't think it's because she's too posh but a) she thinks Alice looks down on her family and b) she'd be a very boring guest.

Apart from her equally dull BFF, who would willingly spend an evening entertaining Alice?

Oh I agree, but that wasn't what she said. And tracey usually says what she thinks.

I wish I thought Chris wasn't interested in Tracey but I fear his tone when Alice mentioned setting her up indicates otherwise.

Honestly hope that storyline doesn't go anywhere though, they'd be painted as the good guys but IMO it'd be very low of either of them to countenance a relationship under these circumstances. More likely they'll have a "love that cannot be" and it'll drag out for months.

I wish I thought Chris wasn't interested in Tracey
I wish you didn't too. Incest would be a step too far!

Whoops!!!! hahaa sorry. Ammmyyyyyyyyy. It's just my subconscious trying to pretend the Lugubrious One doesn't exist.