🌟 ⭐ 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!

Maybe Shula can offer Alistair advice about falling for someone who is married after her recent ‘situation’ with Neil. Will that ever be mentioned again? I recall Susan nipped it in the bud sharpish once she realised what was going on.

I agree she will be put out when he moves on with Denise. Perhaps it will trigger her move to take up the worthy job she’s been going on about. I zone out when she talks so not sure what it is but understood it is well away from Ambridge working with the disadvantaged. Although how anyone’s life would be improved by Shula’s presence is a mystery.

Eddie is a truly awful father/grandfather and the worst kind of role model for George.

Can we please agree never to mention Shula’s crush on Neil ever again? Can it be the SLTMNBN?

Fortunately I only caught up with the fete story on repeat yesterday and thought it was tosh. Especially Aardvark telling Denzil she had an admirer and her getting the wrong end of the stick. Yawn, luckily you lot listen so I don't have to.

Ha ha! It's rapidly fading but I recall lasagne playing a key role. Strange how food is pivotal in the Archers. The power of Gill's lemon drizzle, Susan's special chilli and Salmongate.

Ah I forgot about the lasagne. And Shula getting thrown of her horse because she (improbably) answered her phone whilst riding, coming to and finding Neil gazing down lovingly at her. Must have been a slow day in the scriptwriters office.

Did we not all agree Stella will pair up with Will?

Stella may have been lumbered with a totally out of character can’t-put-my-head-underwater SL by the aquaphobia fairy but I maintain that she simply cannot and will not fall so far as to pair up with the appalling Willyum. Let’s credit her with some sense, please.

It may be that the heatwave has adversely affected it. Given the temperatures at its birth, I doubt whether it noticed the heatwave as anything other than a slight relief of the permanent chill.

The power of Gill's lemon drizzle
You mean Jill. @TonightMatthewIamgoingtobecher

We need an Archers Corner in Pedant’s Corner

I don't like this whole George thing. Really really horrid. Will he be like this forever??

I was just thinking there are no hot, eligible, smart men for Stella to get together with and then I realised - that's Adil isn't it.

Poor Kirsty.

As someone who learned to swim as an adult, I completely sympathise with Stella’s aqua phobia.

No chance she will pair up with Will. I can’t imagine who would. I always thought Nic ended up with him because she was bit..simple.

I hate it too.

Ooh do I? I know it's Lynda don't think I knew it was Jill.

Don’t get me wrong, @Eastie77Returns, I hate putting my head underwater too, and I perfectly accept that the uber-capable Stella may have had a deeply scarring childhood experience of near-drowning, but she did seem to recover from a lifetime of trauma improbably quickly after 15 minutes in the pool with Saint Pip.

Seriously annoyed with the miracle cure to Stella's water phobia. If only it were that easy to cure any phobia.

Pip would have been doing her much greater favours if she had gone to Lynda and told her to stop being so bloody intolerant of genuine phobias and volunteered to take on the job herself.

Long time lurker here, hope you don't mind me briefly de-lurking to suggest that the affair partner destined for Stella could be Pip...

Also it seemed pretty clear that Stella and Harrison should just swap roles! She had indicated she was good at football, so it was the obvious solution. I was surprised that's not where the story went!

Welcome, Goquietly! Hope you’ll erm … stay. Noisily.

Pip is too ghastly to be foisted onto any blameless woman. But I suspect she did the phobia-reversing only because Ruth wasn’t in that week’s cast list. (Not that I can remember if she was or not.)

Thank you! I might stay.

I've wondered if Stella and Pip might be a possible pairing from their first awkward meeting (when Pip was ridiculously unreasonable about some farm business), but I wouldn't really want to foist Pip on poor Stella!

I'm definitely rooting for Kirsty and Adil, and Denise and Al, though I'd prefer she get rid of husband first, they're both too nice for an affair.

@Tamworthian , she just isn't a Gill though and she's not Gillian, and references to Gill could be confusing because of the Gills who own Home Farm.

As for pedantic, I'd start with criticising Mianed for her Me and Ed, and the grim Mummerset enunciations of various characters.

It might be just me but Jill just isn't a Gill, Lynda isn't a Linda, Brian isn't a Bryan, Neil isn't a Neal, Alan isn't an Allen etc.

I’m still rooting for Stella and Rooth staging a lesbian takeover of one of the farms.

NOT pip please, she is SO annoying I wonder the script writers can even bear to write for her. They need to sack that badger woman.

All of the other names you listed I agree with! Gill/Jill I assumed was a Gillian and I've known a few Gills. But happy to be corrected, still not a fan of her and her coo-ing.

It might be just me but Jill just isn't a Gill Gill is a contraction of Gillian, Jill is a name in its own right. There’s a difference in essence between a character who is known by their full name and one who is known by a shortened version.

As for pedantic, I'd start with criticising Mianed for her Me and Ed, and the grim Mummerset enunciations of various characters As a Mere I hate Mere for Mia.

Lynda isn't a Linda, Brian isn't a Bryan, Neil isn't a Neal, Alan isn't an Allen etc. With you there.

Mere is awful isn't it @MereDintofPandiculation . Eddie Grundy is the worst for doing it. Shuler, Emmur, Christmurze...

Debbie was always Debbie and Kate always Kate, but both have the full names on their (fictional) birth certificates.

Tony, Peggy, Pip, Josh, Ben, Clarrie, Pat and Tom are never called by their full names.