Archers thread #187: Send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for Peggy. 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 like Harrison to hasten home, 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/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.)

Thanks to John Donne for the title inspiration. The funeral of the century beckons. How much of it do we think we will hear? Kate confirmed tonight that Shula, Debbie, Noli and Sipho are all coming. If we hear one peep from any of them I'll be amazed. Bets on Hazel turning up?

Over to you!

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
Will Crispin be revealed as a wrong'un before, during or after the funeral?

He needs to be unmasked in such a way that Alan can be publicly seen as the hero 🙄

Perhaps Peggy's left the lot to him and Alan will somehow induce/blackmail him into renouncing the bequest and will therefore save the Archer fortune for the family. Then maybe Kate will have to take back all her nastiness about the stupid window.

It's bizarre that none of Peggy's descendants met Arthur or Crispin or that Peggy never mentioned them.

Yes.

But it did mean we heard of Aunty Chris, albeit briefly.

Father Crispin is weird. He was deliberately being mean to Alan in front of two of Alan’s parishioners. Even if there’s a bit of rivalry there I’d expect basic politeness from an ordained minister especially in a church while he was in his professional role with a recently bereaved daughter

Crispin is the biggest weirdness in the Peggy death storyline and there are a few to choose from! And as I said previously, he has to ask Alan"a permission to take the service and Alan could well insist on some small part in the service. And why on earth make him a boxing Anglo Catholic??

It's all rather disrespectful to the memory of June Spencer 🙁

We’re being told constantly that Lillian was the devoted daughter who went up to see Peggy every single day, shared everything with her, rang up for a chat when she wasn’t actually there, and now there’s a huge hole in her life because that’s all been whisked away at a stroke

Which makes it even more odd that Peggy chose to move into the very expensive Laurels. She had a devoted granddaughter (well, Kate!) living with her, a devoted daughter apparently chauffeuring her here and there and the money to pay for a cleaner etc so why sell her home to move into an old folks home?

I've been pondering this.
In the 'old days' there would have been very subtle hints dropped to listeners that something was going on that would have been picked up on on these threads (like with Rob's controlling), or at least things we could look back on and say 'ah, with hindsight ...' These days things materialise out of thin air by magic.

Maybe Hugh Dennis needs a new bathroom

the odd thing with crispin isn’t that he doesn’t know the family (he’s being portrayed as someone who doesn’t care and didn’t bother to get to know the real Peggy blah blah blah) but it’s the family not having heard of him or met him. If Lillian visited so much you would expect her to have bumped into him

i also find it odd that the actors don’t seem bothered by their characters being written so badly!!

I don't imagine the TA fee would buy much more than a new tap! He was in Beyond Paradise recently. That probably covered the rest.

Hello checking in. I had a holiday so the last thread zoomed along but up to date now. Been enjoying it a bit more recently too!

I'm starting to think that if Money Box or You and Yours cover scams then the SWs will use them.

Have they had a vicar related scam on recently!

i also find it odd that the actors don’t seem bothered by their characters being written so badly!!

We're not likely to hear that, though. They could all be whinging about the script or all we know.

Peggy has form for taking against vicars - in fact this whole funeral shenanigans is actually a good reminder that she could be a very unpleasant, controlling old woman and not the sweet, charitable old lady her family might prefer to have her remembered as. It is what made her a great character. Crispin obviously knows nothing about her or never bothered to listen, if he had to ask who Lillian is. Clearly all he shared with her was a dislike of Alan (unjustified - I like Alan and I think he's behaving extremely graciously in the circumstances). I'm wondering if some of the money has gone to Kate on the quiet - she's certainly up for playing the devoted granddaughter. I can't remember her position on the window at the time - only commemorating two of Peggy great grandchildren. I'm hoping Crispin's funeral address will be jaw-droppingly awful so Peggy gets the send off she deserves.

Didn’t the Nigel actor complain about the writing?

I doubt the actors would be able to criticise the plots and writing if they wanted to stay in the show but I wish the Emma Freud podcast wasn’t so saccharine and banal.

It would, however, be great to hear the actors talk about their characters in more detail but they are all so busy sticking to the script and saying how great everything is that they seem to have overlooked the point of a podcast which is to illuminate and expand upon what we already know.

Would Alan really agree to become a steward in his own church? Doesn’t he have church wardens for that? I wonder if Kate will make him wear a hi-vis jacket as he corrals the crowd!

Thanks for the new thread @gasp - I see you more as WonderWoman than WonderDog!

I must say, if I were Alan I would be severely tempted to tell Kate she should arrange the funeral elsewhere if she didn't think the church was big enough, and that she didn't get to order anyone attending the funeral where to sit.

Quite @JudyCoolibar . Kate can organise it to be held in Borchester Cathedral (which will be rapidly built).

While she's at it, she can start to petition for St Peggoi to be officially recognised by the church.

Didn't Peggy start going to services at the Cathedral after Janet, the woman vicar came to Ambridge? I don't remember her going back to St Stephen's when Janet left.

Is this a good time to tell you all that I insist on the Archer’s theme tune at my funeral!

I hope it's the full version with the doom music.

If he (Graham Seed) did, the others are unlikely to - they chucked the poor sod off a roof, after all.