Archers thread #186: Eavesdropping on a home for the terminally confused. 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, 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 swipe right on Dane, the new Grey Gables manager, 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 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radioaddicts/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/radioaddicts/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 @WitcheryDivine for the title inspiration. Over to you!

And who turns up at their daughter's workplace on the first day?

Wasn't Dane said to be only a temporary manager? (There seemed to be a suggestion he was there to trouble-shoot.) This leaves us to wonder who was managing the place before and who will be managing it next.

It makes no sense.

It doesn't, does it. But since he is only there to be pounced on by Helen, that probably doesn't matter.

The actor playing Naomi is Aoife Moss, who I assume is a recent drama school graduate. She is on a five-month contract with the Radio Drama Company commencing Saturday 5th April 2025. I assume this means she costs the TA production team nothing so she may well appear a few more times over the next few months.

The lift had clearly decided it needed to help Ed and Em resolve their difficulties and once it was confident they had, it started working again. Yes, I know, but let's not forget Martyn Gibson and the ghosts a few months ago. This is the kind of programme we're listening to now.

If Lilian does leave, will we be rid of Justin?

I fear there is going to be lots of angst and heart to hearts and then she’ll stay

oliver was running the hotel. For almost a year. nonsense

With all this magic realism, TA appears to be morphing into a mash-up of Brigadoon and Curious Under The Stars.

The 🔮 is muttering about Dark Magic and says no good will come of it.

@Godesstobe - I enjoyed your lift story! Of course, in another universe, it didn't malfunction on that occasion and someone is telling the story of how they got stuck in a lift with The Queen.

The idea of jumping as your plummeting lift hits the ground is a non-starter. For one, you will have no idea when you are about to hit the ground, so by the time your brain reacts your legs would already be crumpling into the floor. Also, in freefall your feet would lose contact with the floor so no jump is possible. I believe the best option is to lie down to spread out the impact and protect your head.

Reassuringly, plummeting down the shaft is not going to happen with a modern lift, because I as I understand it, that would require several things to fail (you're not just suspended from a single cable) and the mechanisms are designed to put the brakes on if things stop working.

Thanks @DadDadDad. That's reassuring to know if it ever happens again.

In the late 1990s DH and I moved to a largish village in Yorkshire. There was very little mixing between incomers and those who'd been born and bred in the village.

Relationships between those who'd always lived there were very "tight": they were either part of inter-related extended families, had known each other over several generations or had been to the local school together. They weren't unwelcoming to incomers, we just weren't part of their big circle and they weren't really interested in having us as part of that circle. I'm a "joiner in" so joined a couple of local groups and did volunteer work in the 20 years we lived there, and although I made a lot of friends in that time, they were all other "newbies".

I have often thought that the way incomers become such an integral part of Ambridge, is unrealistic.

It almost feels as though on-air mentions of silent characters have been replaced by voiced appearances by random blow ins. And I don't think it's a change for the better!

That really was one of the worst episodes.

And where is Lilian going to go?

South of France for Lil. Depending how wealthy the sw are currently deciding she and Justin are

for lifts - the worst story I’ve heard is a lady in a London gym where the lift plunged just as she stepped in.

the sw seem uncomfortable making any of the characters show really bad traits so they seem to use blow ins for that.

I will be disappointed though if George comes back as generic baddie to fill the slot

The most astonishing thing about Lillian's interaction with Adam was that at no point did either of them reference Jenny. Lillian was talking to a man who has not long lost his own mum, in much more shocking circumstances and who must also have felt (as did we all in fact) that Ambridge was not the same without her. A simple: "Well of course you'll understand darling, you've just lost Jenny" or "I felt exactly the same when mum died" is all that was required. I was waiting for it, but it never came - almost as if the SWs themselves have no recollection of the event. They also see to have forgotten Justin - where is he in all of this? Lillian won't be leaving Ambridge without some discussion with him. She's got the pub, the stables and Amside (though frankly that could have closed for all we hear about it) - she can't just take off on a yacht like Johnny.

I thought she was talking to Kenton!

I thought Lilian was taking to Kenton last night? Going to check as I was half asleep.

Edit to add: yes, it was Kenton.

Sorry - you are correct of course. I was half asleep!

I usually listen to TA on Sounds as I'm nodding off 😊

But wouldn’t it have been nice if it had been Adam - or another of jennys kids

i know Lillian and Kenton are close as she seems to work in the pub all the time but there are a lot of closer relationships we never hear it seems

on the lift - given I don’t believe in the lift being a sentient being that has ambitions to be the new Fantasy Island - do we think Pa Malik did something but they didn’t say because they were worried about getting in trouble?

Pa Malik turning up at GG was just so random.

I thought it was strongly hinted at that Akram fixed the lift - is it just me?

I used to work at a visitor attraction where 1 of 2 glass lifts would get stuck on the way down about once a week. Not really a problem, the people responding to the alarm button could reset it remotely and usually had them out within minutes. Problem was that the other lift was still running so visitors and staff wouldn't notice right away... So the visitor that inexplicably didn't press the alarm button was stuck for a good 30+ minutes 😅 whoops but also, why wouldn't you press the bright yellow alarm button?!

No,it definitely implied that Akram, a plumber, is as good as Leonard for fixing anything electricalor mechanical.

It might invalidate their service agreement if the contracted engineers realise.

its a bit like Usha the lawyer being specialist in everything

Loving the fact that my prediction - that Zainab at GG would draw in everyone in her circle - was proved correct so instantaneously.

I think she was.