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!

On the post office front, I swim with a retired sub-postmistress. Someone told me she still opens her front room up two mornings a week to help people with post office type admin. How lovely!

She will have had student loans from her first stint in Manchester (but she won't have got much because of wealthy parent, she didn't marry Russ did she?), so she might not have got much this go round. In fact, she might have had to pay some of her fees up front.

It most certainly did, and made me laugh.

Perhaps Lily is a 'Dead Ringers' fan. Ben called her Lil!

He probably confused her with his dad's cousin, with whom she has much in common.

"I know!!!" That's what I thought. Lily sounds like Kate - same pursed-lips way of speaking. And she said "reesearch". Hmm.

Arf! I was thinking of Fagash rather than Kate.

Weren’t we told last week that for Stella farming is a true vocation? She’s not disobeying her employer in order to be top dog, but because she feels compelled to harvest what was sown.

She’s been very careful to avoid involving anyone who might suffer for it. (I was wildly intrigued to hear her speak of Pip as being ‘at the start of her career’ a few days ago - as I’ve never thought of working a family farm as a ‘career’.) And of course Ruth isn’t dependent on Brian for anything. Stella doesn’t seem to be thinking at all about her own future - but she will be sacked. Nothing else would make even the remotest sense.

Amber is unlistenable.

Stella has been going on for weeks about the importance of using agricultural land for food production- it's her main argument against Justin's plans. There's no way she'd be happy seeing a good harvest (that she grew) go to waste just because two men are sniping at each other and throwing their toys out of their prams.

Are Amber and Lily the same person?

Anyway, it triggered some lovely memories of being with Dad and grinding up a handful of corn to put in the moisture meter to see whether it was dry enough to harvest, and if it would need drying. My first longish car journey alone was when I was sent up to Wessex Grain to get the moisture meter calibrated before harvest one year.

Definitely, exactly like it!

I loathe Ruth's swooping voice and her busyness.

Is Stella going to be sacked and Alice become the manager of Home Farm? What a waste.

I really hope the forcefield that keeps most Ambridge residents tied to the place for life is switched off to allow Lily to head off on her travels, but I doubt it. When she said out loud that she wanted to see everywhere in the world, I felt quite certain that she is never going to be allowed to leave. Perhaps Elizabeth is about to have a heart crisis. That's how they pulled Brenda back in.

But Brenda has escaped now. Mostly.

Though her brief return to sneer at rustic unstylish Natasha was wonderful.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g I really hope the forcefield that keeps most Ambridge residents tied to the place for life is switched off to allow Lily to head off on her travels,

And then switched back on again, to prevent her from returning.

Yes, yes and yes.

Can Brookfield afford to support Stella as well?

David's well up in his 60s. He might be thinking about either retiring or trying to reduce his hours. When Ruth said she missed the harvest, does that mean Brookfield has no arable crops now? If so, I'd missed that. They used to have some cereals (wheat, barley?) and potatoes.

Yes I can see some retirement planning would be good but Stella must earn a decent salary and it would surely be a risk to move to Brookfield

and she loves her tech and stuff and Brookfield isn’t so high tech? It just doesn’t seem like a good fit

I want Stella to end up in a menage a trois with David and Ruth.

Brian has spent a few weeks banging on about food security, but in an absolute fit of testosterone fuelled pique he cancelled the harvest.

That is utterly shit.

Stella, at least, understands that letting a harvest rot in the fields does nothing for food security, and i hope that (after overreacting and firing Stella) Brian realises it.

i LOVED Stella and Ruth enthusising over the combine harvester, they are out and about in our village (just about finished now, unfortunately) and i am absolutely fascinated by them. That scene, i guess, is to show how much they have in common, what farmers they are, and possibly that Brookfield emplyoing Stella would be capable of taking over the BL contract if it's only half the acerage?

am ignoring the whole Amber/George thing as vapid.

Obviously Will is going to come unstuck with his brilliant plan. Has he never heard of midweek weddings? LL might be popular but is hardly going to be booked sold every day of the week for the next few years.

I was silently egging Will on to get Elizabeth on side to fill up the books with imaginary weddings for the next 2 years.