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!

I assumed Lily was getting a one-year working visa with a plan to travel after she'd done her stint on the farm or wherever (since that's what all the youngsters here seem to do). But she did seem to be talking as if it was all going to be holiday,

A friend's grandson, living in Sydney, broke his arm snowboarding a week or so ago! Lily will have to get her skates (or skis) on if she wants to do winter sports in Oz this year.

I don’t really understand Lily as I wasn’t really listening much after the Russ relationship started as I felt it was quite disturbing the way they handled it. Thinking about the times I’ve stopped listening it’s because I didn’t like how they dealt with an issue (the stabbing end to the DV/nics death)

are they sending Lily off on a long adventure so Freddie can find a wife that she will only meet just before the wedding and hate?

are they sending Lily off on a long adventure so Freddie can find a wife that she will only meet just before the wedding and hate?
I really hope they are not packing her off Down Under to free up the budget for the return of Rochelle. Please don’t let her be Kirsty’s new lodger instead of Kate…Hopefully Feedback has let the SWs know how unpopular the Rochelle SL was.

That would be truly awful

but on lodgers - if Lily leaves then that also frees up a room at the stables - for who?

and in the shop - Susan was worried that if the shop closed then people would find an alternative and not go back to it. So, other than keeping Susan in employment, is the community shop really necessary?

Yes, I don't see it as being any different from volunteering in a Cancer Research charity shop. Except the surroundings of an historic home are much more pleasant and you don't have to sort through manky clothes.

How do the volunteers at the shop work? Aren’t they just subsidising Hazels rent, the post office and Susan’s wage?

It provides a community benefit; there isn't enough business to pay more staff than Susan, but the village values the shop and post office. Volunteers ensure that it stays open. There are several in this neck of the woods.

As a community business, presumably purchasing decisions are taken by Susan and the shop committee rather than the buyers of a large company hundreds of miles away. There are only three supermarkets on my mother's island, one big and two small, and they're all operated by the Co-op. One of the small ones is the only shop in its village. I remember a bit of a stushie reported in the local paper a few years ago because it was mostly selling ready meals, snacks and so on, and not much in the way of raw ingredients you could use to cook a meal from scratch. The Co-op sent a statement that they would re-classify the store and change the mix of stock. I think they'd had it in a category for stores near stations or in university and tourist areas where people mostly wanted to buy something quick, and had not grasped that there are a lot of year round locals on low incomes shopping there too. (Not sure of the outcome. I have the impression that most people go to the big store and only top up at the local one, but that would be no good for anyone with mobility issues.)

I'm fairly sure Jim got the shop registered as a Community asset.

I guess I’m too much of a townie to get it - ambridge seems quite well connected for shops and online delivery and now has a shop on the outskirts at the charging station

post offices are used less and less and there must be one in the closest town which isn’t that far away.

and the products the village shop sells seem thoroughly bizarre

speaking of the post office - has the post man ever been a speaking character?

Our nearest post office is in the next village but half the distance of going to the nearest supermarket . I use it for returns and withdrawing cash as well as posting bits and bobs. It's attached to an astronomically expensive farm shop, which I don't use and a ditto café which I do, as the raspberry flapjacks are sooo delicious. The coffee is disgusting though, as if it's been sucked out of the river.

Thus inspiring your username?

I confess I found the whole Markie and Amber/George storylines so ridiculous that I've not caught up with many an omnibus. Can somebody remind me who is living where:

-Chris is out of Hazel's flat temporarily for dry rot
-Jakob rents Chris's place (and was Kate was trying to get him to house share with Kirsty so Chris could move in for a month? I guess nobody cares about tenant's rights in Ambridge)
-Kate lives with Brian in "stabby cottage", but now fancies house sharing with Kirsty?(!)

Can anybody explain to me why, except "drama", Kirsty needs to house share She has recently sold a 4/5 bed exec home and bought little Willow Farm (which I thought was a sort of modern sub-division of the original Willow Farmhouse). What happened to Willow Cottage; is it still empty after Brian moved out?

You have all the who's living where right.

Kirsty had a mortgage at Beechwood and used Helen's rent to pay it. So she needs someone's rent to help her pay the mortgage on Willow Farm. She didn't get a huge amount when she sold Beechwood, I suppose.

We have not heard that anyone has bought Willow Cottage from the Kemps, nor that anyone else is now renting it from them. Next thing we know Kirsty will have some problem or other caused by the empty premises next door: rot or damp or rats or the roof blowing off or you name it.

Maybe locusts? We've not had a plague of locusts. They could descend upon the imminent wheat harvest, obviating the need to resolve the Brian/Martyn stand-off and Stella breaking ranks!

Harry Booker was a postman, and drove a Post bus. That stopped in the 1980s, and I don't remember a named post(wo)man since, which is an opportunity missed. They can provide all sorts of connections and continuities.

And find someone dying in their house or other such drama when they turn up to deliver the post

Oh very droll! But no, quite another inspiration, I'm afraid.

I have a vague memory of Harry Booker being invited into someone's house for a cup of tea and never being heard again. A bit like the chap (possibly Christine's adopted son? Or one of the Forrest foster-children) who left the bar in the Bull to go to the gents and nevermore spoke. Or Dr Locke, who left the bar in the Bull with Debbie in December 2016 and vanished from the airwaves thereafter.

Did Lily's "I know!" sound like the "Dead Ringers" imitation of Liz Truss to anyone else?

Well clearly Brookfield will have to take Stella on when she’s sacked.

I'm still a bit confused as to why she and Ruth are doing the harvest. I mean, I get that it's probably a good idea not to break the contract, but what is Stella's actual reasoning? Trying to save Brian from self-destruction?

She is as pig-headed as either Brian or Justin, I feel, and that is her motivation. She likes the idea of being the one calling the shots (but only because as on a previous occasion Brian is not available to stop her).

Stella and Ruth are farmers. They aren't going to see a harvest going to waste because Brian and Justin won't compromise.