Archers thread #192: Village of the Dammed. Discuss the beavers here. Throw in the odd word about the Archers if you must.

[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 have Kate present as you give birth, 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.)

I'm more excited about the arrival of the beavers than anything else going on in Ambridge at the moment. I hope there will be a webcam.

Bets on how much of next week is set in the castle or on the way there/back? I'm bracing myself for at least 50%.

Didn't they meet when they set up a business doing promotion videos but before drones were a thing?

Seems possible. It was outside the Ambridge Bubble so it was never really made anything of. I had thought the promotional videos came later, but I could easily not have been paying attention to two excessively dull not-really-characters.

I also liked that episode. It was fun and they were all behaving in character.

Phoebe's baby born in Blackpool?! Jenny would be turning in her grave! I'm hoping for a line at the level of 'I'm related to a Horrobin', possibly from Kate.

Yes, they all seemed to be having a whale of a time - much better than at the Scottish end. Are the writers going to confound our expectations of the "stable birth"?

I agree- I also immediately thought that the crofter owns the castle.

Everyone is taking the whole thing - Blackpool, bunk beds, Phoebe going into labour - ridiculously well. They are weirdly all still speaking to each other which is not what would be happening if this was my family on holiday.

Everyone is taking the whole thing - Blackpool, bunk beds, Phoebe going into labour - ridiculously well.

I'm afraid I'd be researching nearby hotels and/or flights home.

On the plus side, I love the fact we are listening to characters we actually know - even if they are outside the usual field of play in the most improbable of circumstances. I liked the dynamic between Natasha and Justin - who have really hit it off through a shared entrepreneurial streak. It reminds me of the way my DH and SIL get on well through their shared experience of both being incomers to the family. I also love the way Phoebe is getting on so well with Alice - one of the few people who can actually understand how irritating it is being related to Kate! Re. James and Leonie, they’ve always been peripheral (along with Coriander) - I did wonder if this signaling of a split was to prepare the ground for Leonie moving to Ambridge with Mungo. Mungo needs to return because he is what makes the Snells Archer adjacent. I think what the ridiculous holiday plot is demonstrating is that these are strong characters who can perform well in or out of Ambridge because we know enough about them to find it interesting seeing them tested. This week has been more interesting to me than listening to unfamiliar characters (Joy, Mick, Amber, Rochelle. Esme et al.)flailing about in Ambridge.

If you own a hire car company, and one of your cars breaks down, surely it would be much cheaper and quicker to hire a replacement from another company than to ship the car plus occupants off to Blackpool and pay for them to stay there?

James and Leonie were writing some book together, something about life in the English countryside or something, despite them both living in London, and came up to Ambridge to take photos for it, and possibly let their parents know they were seeing each other. At least, that's how I remeit,but I might not be remembering accurately, and I may have made up some details that didn't happen.

You see, where you're going wrong here, understandably, is expecting it all to make sense. You just have to accept that you're listening to arrant nonsense.

Well i liked Gnasher in that so that is weird. I almost liked Justin, too. And as usual i absolutely adored Jakob. I want a Jakob in my life.

So: Jakob to deliver the baby at the B&B with Alice in attendance while Gnasher and Justin listen to some football manager talking about business practices, and then Gnasher and Justin... hopefully only set up a business together and not bump uglies or something.

Kate and Helen and Lillian become modern-day Three Wise Men, arriving late but with gifts.

🎁 ⭐️

Jakob to deliver the baby at the B&B

Let’s hope he packed his calving chains.

Naturally, I would like things with the birth to go catastrophically awry, but Kate not being there and thus not having to watch it all go horribly wrong would take the gilt off the gingerbread a bit.
It must be due to happen v soon though: we had the Obstetric Robin last week, after all.

Eurgh … I wouldn’t want a vet anywhere near my delivery!

(I’m sure it fine if it’s your partner and they’re holding your hand, not actually actively doing anything.)

So I’d prefer Alice and Natasha as Phoebe’s midwives.)

Or perhaps in the spirit of everything being batshit, Justin ends up delivering the babe of Blackpool

Please … 🥴

And so much has been made of Phoebe’s home being on the way to the castle. She’s never going to see the castle stable block, is she?

And I note Phoebe’s said they have poor reception at home. So Brodie probably won’t be getting her message until it’s much too late …

I really don't believe Justin would want to hear a talk from a football manager, and in Blackpool at that

When my mum went into labour with me she got a lift to the hospital from my sister's boyfriend, with Dad following behind on his moped. She terrified the poor lad by asking if he had his calving ropes in the back.

I know of woman (sister of a friend in my student days) who lived on a Scottish island and her farmer husband had to deliver two babies in the boat trying to get to the mainland in time. He was interviewed by a local newspaper and said it wasn't much different to sheep.

Why don't you think Justin would like football? Even royalty enjoys it!

We lived in a village with crap mobile signal until a couple of years ago. We used WiFi calling on our mobiles, and had a landline. That's what people do when they have no reception.

But that wouldn't fit with the ridiculous nature of this storyline.

Does Brodie even exist? Has anyone ever met him?

Much as I dislike Fagash, I did feel sorry for her that she was expecting to see James and he just didn’t show up, only Leonie complaining about what a crap husband he is. What does he do for a living, presumably nothing he can do from Ambridge?

No doubt Justin built the entire global Damara empire on a throwaway remark from a long dead football manager watched on a black and white telly in the dawn of time. (He’s certainly kept his passion for football quiet up to now …)

I think Kate may have met Brodie when she last visited Phoebe in Scotland?