Archers thread #147: Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder how old Ambridge is. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Many thanks to @PseudoBadger for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to have the general public watching you work and asking questions, 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/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-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.)

Title comes from this poem, with which I drive my family to distraction at this time of year.

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz
I wonder where the birdies is.
The bird is on the wing.
But that’s absurd, the wing is on the bird.
Or so I’ve heard.

Ogden Nash

Apologies to @TeenDivided for ignoring her good ideas for the thread title. Here they are to kickstart our ruminations:
'window on the world of cheesemaking'
'how long until the intercom is fatal'
'will Brian settle in new pastures'
'Springing towards Easter with Widowers, Windows, and wails'

Over to you!

Who is he playing? Nobody knows.

Who is Rylan himself? A TV presenter who started out in The Only Way is Essex I think. I don't watch his stuff much but he seems a pleasant chap. He's not an actor unless he has hidden talents.

Maybe there’s a setting where you can change the ‘impending doom alert sound’ to be The Archers theme tune.

Wouldn't that be changing an impending doom alert to another impending doom alert?

😢 Helen.
Pat's reaction utterly understandable.

Why don't they ask Harrison if police after him??

Why didn't he give them safeguarding advice re Jack??

Only if it was the Archers Doom Music.

I enjoyed listening to Jazzer talking to Jim: "George is a jail sentence waiting to happen" etc. Glad someone has finally voiced it!

Absolutely @Poppins2016

Because Harrison is far too busy with Eurovision

I soooooo hope George gets his comeuppance big time

Agree, and I loved the way Jazzer called Brad "mine". Sniffle emoji.

So Pat and her gun....

She's very twitchy

Does anyone else think maybe she is going to shoot someone thinking it's Rob, but who then turns out to be Not Rob?

Gawd knows @CollieFIower
But it is certainly becoming a very clunky signalling device!

Is Pat generally a fusser? I don’t really know her well enough but others on here will do. This extreme anxiety seems out of character. May be she is just behaving differently because she missed all the signs the first time.

Jazzer is right to flag potential awkwardness with Ed re Brad and George. I would think they would be better to discuss it before the night out rather than on the pub crawl itself. Such conversations are rarely improved by alcohol…

They are certainly showing Pat becoming more and more wound up like a coiled spring, but I can see where she's coming from - it was Helen's reputation for being doggedly independent that enabled Knob to isolate her so effectively last time (she certainly didn't fall into the same category as Jess who by her own admission has no-one in her life). I don't doubt that Pat wishes she had intervened more forcefully last time in the same way that Helen wished so vehemently she "had never met that man". I'm not sure that carrying on as normal and leaving everything to Superhero Lee is the answer - Helen could have eyes and ears everywhere if she put the whole village on high alert. Does next-door-neighbour Joy even know what Knob looks like for instance?

That is exactly what I think will happen.

Who do we reckon? Lee? Harrison? Who would create the maximum top level fresh hell I wonder...

He’s the friendly geezer from the Cinch adverts, as well as having a very fine set of teeth!

Shooting Jack would be very dramatic. They have just demonstrated how flight of foot the child is. The wound doesn’t need to be fatal but Helen might find it hard to forgive for a while…

Johnny - he will suddenly reemerge from wherever it is he's supposed to be and Pat, like us, will have forgotten all about him...

Ah now I wondered about this. His favourite hiding place behind the shed was featured this week too wasn't it, much potential there for lurking and mistaken identity in the dark. And of course if Jack got shot by his granny, that would be excellent ammunition for Rob to try for residency because the children aren't safe with Helen and family...

And of course if Jack got shot by his granny, that would be excellent ammunition for Rob to try for residency because the children aren't safe with Helen and family...

Especially if Rob hadn't been anywhere near Ambridge at the time - or indeed at all.

I must say, Helen’s increasingly shrill ‘I’m in control’ is very well done.

@NetZeroZealot - you may have missed the reference to a separate Spoilers thread, pointed out in the OP of this one?

We try to abide by that, as one person’s ‘common knowledge’ may not be the same to someone else.

I don't think anyone will actually get shot, but it will be an almost!

Everyone will then say This is ridiculous - we don't need to worry- he's not coming here....

Then he'll appear!

I find Pat's reaction entirely understandable.

This is the evil man responsible for daughter going to prison and having to give birth as a prisoner. On top of years of emotional abuse of Helen and her grandchild.