🌟 ⭐ Archers thread #138: Two new stars on the Ambridge firmament, but will Peggy’s retirement leave a black hole? 🕳️ Join us here for a window on The Archers.

[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 commissioning a stained glass window for two of your great-grandchildren and nothing for all the others is a sensible thing to do, 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 @LillianGish and @MuddlerInLaw for title ideas, which I have played around with a bit. I'm sad to have heard the last of Peggy. An era starts to draw to a close.

What a relief to be out of the Steph Casey phase, which I hope was an unfortunate blip, not to be repeated. [Triumph of hope over experience there ... ]

@BoreofWhabylon has asked the 🔮 about Adil and it predicts that he is actually the Mysterious New Owner of Grey Gables but won't be revealed as such until he has won Kirsty's heart (or some similar Mills & Boon level tosh - apols to the 🔮 but it does seem to have a mushy side). I still cling to the idea that the mysterious silent and invisible Gills who now own Home Farm may have some role at GG, but why not name them?

No mention of the heatwave in Ambridge, but budget constraints probably severely limit their scope for topical inserts these days. IRL I believe this has been a tricky time for farmers. Perhaps the SWs will catch up with this over the winter and start putting in some farming chat about diversification away from oats to olives, or similar. We already have at least one vineyard in the Ambridge area, at LL. (I understand there was another, in the heart of the village, decades ago, but the SWs have now forgotten all about it, sadly.)

Over to you!

PS Re teachers in Ambridge, as briefly mentioned towards the end of the last thread - I forgot Iftikar. He was a Maths teacher who gave Freddie some much needed extra tuition. He and Elizabeth got close but Elizabeth took fright and gave him the brush off.

Thank you ,@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g , for starting a new thread. I'm sad to see Peggy go, as I love the character, and she's been acted superbly by June Spencer for a very long time.

Agreed! I treasure the memory of Peggy telling Brian he deserved horsewhipping for the way he'd treated Jennifer. Also, long ago she was involved in organising a jumble sale and barked out a classic Archers line - 'People must have access to tea at all times!'

Oh yes - I remember him. Wasn’t there some kind of lockdown zoom date/not a date between him and Elizabeth? I have to admit I skipped most of the monologue Covid episodes though so might be misremembering.

@roysnewshirt ive been thinking about what you said re grooming and agree; perhaps my point is that its good writing to see how and why he was a. Good at his job and managed to get to deputy head or whatever he was, and b. How he managed to get into a position where he managed to forge a relationship with Lily (and wasn’t his ex wife also very young? Jess? Was that implied as a similar situation?). So doesn’t at all make his past excusable, but it makes more believable. For the past couple of years he’s been a comedy character - would be easy as a newer listener to think him a bit of a Hugh Grant/loveable toff character where actually he clearly has an edge.

thanks PPs for the history re Roy/Hayley/Mrs Antrobus. Before my time but v interesting back story!

Thanks Gasp0de, also LillianG and Muddler for their creative input

The 🔮was quietly pleased to have received a mention, but maintains that its prognostications are never influenced by mawkish sentiment.

No mention of the heatwave in Ambridge, but budget constraints probably severely limit their scope for topical inserts these days. IRL I believe this has been a tricky time for farmers. Perhaps the SWs will catch up with this over the winter and start putting in some farming chat about diversification away from oats to olives, or similar.

When Pat was talking about how much salad they were selling last night, it did feel a bit odd when not one person related it to the weather.

I really hope Joy doesn't take Kathy's place as Pat's BFF, I can't stand her.

I wonder if the SL will be that she single-handedly ruins Natasha's business. When we were listening last night I said to DD that being served by someone like Joy would turn me off a company for life, I really hate the overfamiliarity and nosiness. Maybe I'm just a misanthrope and other people love her.

I agree that I'd hate Joy in real life, but I'm really enjoying the way we know so little about her. Her questioning of Adil was a superb turning of the tables. Her back story could contain so many possibilities!

I'm 100% with Fink about Joy. She's the sort of person who makes me retreat inside myself rather than engage too much. I'm not cut out for village life

CMR's wife was called Lara, and she wasn't much older than Lily. Are they divorced by now?

I'm always yucking out about Russ. I think probably about once every 10 years he gets bored and finds someone in their late teens and shacks up with her. Say he's 40s now, it's going to get even worse as he gets older. I've said before I think IRL Tracey would have warned Chelsea against "that paedo" not encouraged their friendship.

I don't think Tracy has encouraged the friendship has she? She probably knows Chelsea cuts his hair and thst she might see him about at LL, but I'd be surprised if Chelsea tells her about their chats or the rave etc. And Tracy has enough else to stress about to notice it.

Thanks for the new thread @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

@ILoveShula he waited a long time to start divorcing iirc - it was a bone of contention between him and Lily for a while. Then it all went quiet so I think the implication is that it's done.

Agree that Tracey probably wouldn't be overly keen on Chelsea and Russ having any kind of relationship except that he was really good with her about her GCSEs. Maybe Kenton could make a comment - he was about the only person in the village who said much about the original relationship with Lily. The rest of the village seems to have had their memories altered... (have been listening to a lot of Harry Potter audiobooks in the car on our recent holiday).

Thanks, 🌞Gasp0de! Lots to chew over at the moment.

I have to say - despite my unbounded (is that a word?) love for my own generation I do wonder if Pat and Joy are exactly the right people to appeal to Natasha’s intended market. I thought she was keen on the hipster crowd? Toby and Fallon would have been more obvious stand-ins.

Chelsea writing a letter to Gemma will not help Tracey will it.

If I heard correctly, an act that might have appeared but in the end aren't there was Showaddywaddy. I don't see the hipster crowd turning up for acts like that! Joy will be perfect. She can witter on about Sparks and Alvin Stardust and the Bay City Rollers to her heart's content.

'People must have access to tea at all times!'

A woman after my own heart, in that respect if not in any other.

And may I just add that I miss Marjorie Antrobus 😢

Fgs, all she's doing is selling bottles of juice at a festival - not being maitre d' at a restaurant.

I'd far rather spend time with Joy than Pat, Fag Ash Lil or Ruth.

God, I loved the Bay City Rollers! Maybe Joy and I could be friends, after all.

Spot on about the tea. And I loved Marjorie Antrobus too; she was the character that changed my mind about The Archers, having hated it with a passion when I was a child.

So Parker is helping load the heavy bottles of juice onto the van at the Ambridge end but is he going to be at the festival site to help unload? I do hope so- there was lots of chat about how to use the card machine (bound to go wrong!) but little mention of actual logistics and how the two elderly ladies are going to cope lifting heavy crates of bottles on site.

After last night, I have to give Russ the benefit of the doubt and assume he does not have dishonourable intentions towards Chelsea. For now…

Place marking - not awake enough yet to read and post something sensible sorry

I doubt Pat and Joy would class themselves as elderly. Certainly Pat, still hands on at the farm, is capable of a bit of lugging crates.

Is anyone bothered by Russ acting as appropriate adult without Tracey's permission? Would she condone her daughter getting a police record without her say so?

Is anyone bothered by Russ acting as appropriate adult without Tracey's permission? Would she condone her daughter getting a police record without her say so?

I’m extremely bothered.

Pat is 70, not sure how old Joy is but she’s a grandmother obvs. Mind you, you can be a very youthful grandmother….