Archers thread #188: New Order, please! 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 love to spend time with Martyn Gibson, 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.)

In some haste as we are going out for the day. I was asked weeks ago to put I've Killed the Vicar in as the new title but I agree with more recent comments that Peggy's funeral feels like old news now. Great line, though. Sorry not to have used Markie Malarkey, though. I've settled on something that will only make sense to people who were also youngish in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Here's a clue. If a certain person appears in tomorrow's episode the title will be relevant.

Over to you!

Yes it does. Confirmed tonight. Alice and Adam very worried. Kate doesn't care because the environment is so important and she supports Justin.

It's possible that it was a high-perch haugh, probably painted purple with the wheels picked out in straw. In which case he'd have driven it unicorn.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime ... Arf! And thanks ... I had forgotten the rather disappointingly un-gory details of Adam's tragic departure from HF. I just remembered the comedy value.

We need more drama involving ghastly characters getting their comeuppance, though of course the problem with this is that my ghastly characters aren't necessarily ghastly to others.

And Home Farm Farmhouse is up for sale !

Couldn’t all the Home Farm clan join together to buy it?

(Or maybe Peggy has actually left enough money for it to happen.)

Yep. I guess they could find actors desperate enough to play the permanently silent Gills.

Thinking of the village fete, I would have thought La Snell would have a spreadsheet of past events for Akram. Though how they would fill up episodes with pointless speculation is a mystery.

A so, I I dead to think of how this would spin out on TA, shouldn't the fete have been arranged by Easter?

I’ve never known a long standing annual event that doesn’t organise itself tbh - yes people come and go from organising and add something new or try and shake it up but normally volunteers and suppliers have it in the diary year on year

I agree, and they'd be thinking about it most of the year, getting things like the Hollerton band booked in before they fill up their summer schedule. But this never happens in TA.

Yes it’s almost like it’s a surprise every year and they organise it in a couple of weeks. Wasn’t it last year where they struggled to. Ok things because m another village had a fete the same day and were clearly more normal in their organisation

I have more sympathy for the panto being last minute as no one really wants to do it!

You see, I'd quite like to hear the humdrum realistic side of arranging an annual event. It would provide useful filler lines around the more consequential stuff. E.g:

Random villager: Hello, Lynda, how are you?
Lynda: Oh. <sniff> I've been better, to be perfectly frank. It's so difficult to get hold of the Hollerton Silver Band. I need to check they're still expecting to perform at the fete. Obviously we booked the date with them last year, but one does have to check nearer the time.
RV: Of course, and you do it so well. I'm looking forward to the fete. We have to hope the bubonic plague will have cleared up by then and we're all out of quarantine - those of us who're left. I'm still very sad about Pip and Rosie. Alan must be on his knees with all the funerals he's had to take ...

Many events that happen where I live are doomed to failure because either they're organised but not publicised (so hardly anyone turns up) or publicised but not organised (so people turn up to find nothing there). I was going to add "We need a Lynda" but we really don't.

The village shoudl win tug of war hands down. Where I live the young farmers are mad for it and quite brilliant. They have special shoes (maybe rugby boots?) and train like fury. There’s tactics too. No way would a bunch of gym buffed waiters beat a bunch of young farmers!

Oh Adam is so incredibly irritating. How much of an influence does/can Brian have over the BL board? I assume other than saying ‘Home Farm still want the contract to farm BL land’ he has to declare an interest and be excluded from discussions. What is Adam expecting??

My thoughts exactly @faffadoodledo

All other storylines are eclipsed for me by the prospect of Home Farm being up for sale and the possibility of it coming back into play. I would like someone Aldridge-related or at least someone already known to us to buy it rather than some poorly-sketched blow-in (we've had quite enough of those recently and the Gills were total non-starters).

Maybe Joy and Mick will buy it with money earned from her patenting a new design for an everlasting electric battery she developed between shifts at the pub and the shop.

Quite.
I wonder how much it's on the market for? I'm imagining something like £1.5 to £2m? Who might already have a village connection who could buy it? Maybe someone like Lilian's son who presumably is successful and perhaps could now work from home, I'd be happy with that because there would be plenty of family connection with Lilian and the snells.

Who’s absent?

Johnny - not unless he’s won a fortune in a casino on a break from the high seas …

Dan Hebden-Lloyd - doubt his occupation provides that sort of income.

James Bellamy - 🤔🤔🤔 Lilian has been saying how she needs her descendants more now Jenny’s gone.

Meriel - 🤷‍♀️

Ruairi - it’s too soon, isn’t it?

Oh, of course - Phoebe! Her partner may be the heir to, or possessor of untold gazillions.

It'd be nice to hear why Ruari's up to at the moment.

Isn't Brenda Tucker rolling in it now? She could return and make an offer for Home Farm.

I knew there was someone I’d forgotten! And Brenda is always good value.

But I’d still prefer someone on the actual Archers family tree. Phoebe’s paternal aunt isn’t quite close enough.

So you’re following the tribunal too?!

me three

Me four