🌟 ⭐ 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!

Hopefully George will disappear into one of his bedrooms and we won’t hear from him again for another few years.

I really enjoyed the Horrobins in yesterday’s episode. Tracey reminding Brad he didn’t need to be perfect was sweet and I am so glad they went out to celebrate.

I hope after this baptism of fire illegal smoke invention Brad will, armed with his excellent GCSEs, be allowed to progress to academic and professional glory. He’s proved he can shake off bad influences - fingers crossed the SWs will resist the urge to heap more stereotypes upon him.

I assume that at some point Harrison will be feeling George's collar. Let's hope it's sooner rather than later.

Am I right in thinking the only person Harrison has ever arrested is Wayne?

And Freddy.

Didn't he arrest Fallon for skip-diving?

Well, I think we can see why Roger Bolton has been defenestrated by the BBC! I’m sorry TA didn’t make it into his top three Desert Island programmes.

(Very curious to know if Maggie, apparently an Archers aficionado, is amongst us …)

I started a thread about Roger Bolton and Feedback (in this section).

Does George have any redeeming qualities at all? Having said that, he didn't have a great start in life. Emma left his Dad and moved in with his Uncle, taking George with her. For a while, both Ed and Emma assumed Ed was George's Dad, as a result of their tryst the night before Emma married Will. Will was unpleasantly triumphalist when the DNA test showed that he was indeed George's father.

As I said above, I do think it's interesting that the SWs have at last decided to show a darker side to the endless scams and outright criminal behaviour we've seen from Eddie and Joe over the decades. George has grown up hearing the two of them reminisce about all this stuff and have a good laugh about it. He's seen that they have (in his eyes) scammed Oliver out of Grange Farm. He believes Oliver is weak and easily manipulated. He's observed that Clarrie rarely manages to stop Eddie from doing whatever he wants to, and he's learned that decent people are easy to win over by wheedling, and because they won't play dirty. He's seen that Emma and Ed have failed to secure their own home by working very hard and doing legitimate stuff, and have ended up in an old mobile home to the side of the farmhouse. He's seen his Dad have to give up a good job and tied cottage and end up living back home with his parents because of illness, yet more proof that the path of righteousness isn't paved with gold. He's heard Susan's story about going to prison, and all he takes from it is 'Don't get caught'. He probably thinks Susan, Neil and Christopher are mugs too, for working hard at legitimate jobs, but not getting rich. He has the example before him of his Uncle Chris's in-laws breaking the law and getting away with it because they are rich.

He's clearly more ambivalent about his Great-Uncle Alf than the rest of the clan.

A future criminal mastermind?

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g , I'm listening to Feedback now. Saw your other thread. I hope Poppy got good results.

Poppy was born in 2013 (just looked it up, I thought she was much older!), so she's still a way off GCSEs. Mia apparently did well.

Oops, I meant Mere.

I thought Poppy was younger than that. Doesn't time fly!

So Rory is working as an escort???

Prostitute

what on EARTH happened in the scriptwriters heads with this SL.

Would Ben really use Juliette Binoche as a reference?

Cooooo ….

That’s a whole year’s worth of BOOPS for Ben.

I felt like I'd missed an episode, we need to know how they ended up in bed together.

Or have they been doing it all along?

haha yeah. of all the mad things that happened in that chat, i'm glad i wasn't the only one that thought that was poss the most ridiculous. do the SW even know any young people?

Well, of course they've been doing it all along. What else would she have been paying for?

But... when did Uncle Gently Benoliventbget the go-ahead to pay for Brad's maths course, which was just casually referred to? Did we hear that?

Juliette Binoche is 58 apparently. She seems a reasonable reference for a young adult calling to mind a much older but famously attractive woman.

Who else might he have suggested in this exact context? (I mean who do you think would have been a more convincing name coming out of his mouth?)

Uncle Gently Benolivent get

Who else might he have suggested in this exact context? (I mean who do you think would have been a more convincing name coming out of his mouth?)

Beyonce? Angelina Jolie?

well I'm glad to hear Ben calling a spade a spade
no 'sex worker' nonsense