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The Archers spoilers thread #11: Can't wait for 7.02pm? Join us here!

951 replies

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 09/12/2025 13:24

Spoilers thread for The Archers on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. All Archers listeners are welcome here, whether you post on our main Archers thread or not. There's just one rule: please keep all spoiler-related discussion in this thread and do not spill the beans on the main Archers thread.

We usually add the BBC teasers and cast lists for forthcoming episodes as they become available, plus the Radio Times and Daily Mail previews when possible. Feel free to add anything else you come across, e.g. cast news, scriptwriter tweets!

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Thread gallery
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RegimentalSturgeon · 14/12/2025 09:50

Poppay and Keeruh definitely aren’t step-sisters as they don’t have parents currently married to one another (nor indeed any common parent).

Brad and Chelsea were sired on Tracy by Den, a repellent individual who made a brief appearance during the interminable termination storyline.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/12/2025 09:52

That's it! Den. Good soap opera name, that.

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AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 14/12/2025 12:55

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/12/2025 09:22

Hello! It is massively confusing, but here is what I think is the position.

George's father is Will - yes. He is not George's uncle by marriage.
Emma is George's mother - yes. She is not George's aunt by marriage.

Emma and Will were married but have been divorced for a long time. Ed, Emma's second husband, is Will's younger brother. There was at one point suspicion that he was George's biological father, but Will got a DNA test done and proved that he was the father. Ed is therefore both George's stepfather and his uncle.

Keira is the daughter of Ed and Emma, so half-sister to George and niece to Will.

Poppy is the daughter of Will and Nic (see post above), so also half-sister to George, and niece to Ed and Em.

Poppy and Keira are cousins, yes. Although they are both George's half-sisters, I don't think they can be described as stepsisters, but to be honest my head is spinning now and I'm not sure.

Horrobins: as Totters has outlined, we only know about the Horrobins who are direct descendants of Ivy and Bert. Their children are Susan, Clive, Keith, Gary, Stuart, Tracy (I think). Not sure Gary and Stuart have ever been heard on air. Gary used to live with Bert and Tracy but moved away when he got a job elsewhere. Keith featured briefly at one point. Clive is an out and out wrong'un and has reappeared periodically to wreak havoc. He has spent a large part of his adult life in prison. Keith and Stuart also have criminal records. Susan served a short prison sentence long ago for hiding Clive when he was on the run after holding up the Post Office at gunpoint (before she was postmistress), which she only did because he threatened to hurt Emma and Christopher.

Next generation of Horrobins:
Susan married Neil and they have two children, Emma and Chris. Emma is the one connecting the Horrobins and the Grundys (see above). Emma has two children, George and Keira. Chris used to be married to Alice and they have a daughter, Martha. This makes George and Martha first cousins. Alice used to be George's aunt by marriage.

Clive had a girlfriend long ago called Sharon Richards, and they had a daughter, Kylie. Clive was not interested in family life and has had nothing to do with either Sharon or Kylie for decades. Sharon moved to Leeds with Kylie and got married. Kylie became a psychologist, I think. Sharon also had a son, Johnnie, who was eventually told that his father was not Sharon's husband but John Archer, eldest son of Pat and Tony, who died in a tractor accident something like 30 years ago. He never knew Sharon was pregnant and neither did anyone else in Ambridge until Johnnie turned up. He was a very good character but seems to have moved on now. Implausibly he is supposed to be working as a crew member on superyachts owned by the very rich. Many of us are concerned that the scriptwriters might have forgotten about him as he should really be in line to inherit a substantial chunk of Bridge Farm.

Tracy had a partner (I don't think they were married) whose name I forget and they had two children, Chelsea and Brad. They split up a long time ago and Tracy moved back in with her Dad, later moving her partner (now husband) Jazzer in too. Chelsea is a hairdresser and beautician who for some reason also spends a lot of time working as a waitress. Brad is an undergraduate at the University of Felpersham studying Maths, working part-time at Grey Gables. Brad and Chelsea are first cousins to Emma and Chris, so first cousins once removed (?) to George.

I don't think we know anything about any other Horrobins in the next generation.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
I don't think we know anything about any other Horrobins in the next generation.

I think we know that Keith Horrobin's daughter was a bridezilla whose father couldn't afford to pay for her extravagant wedding without resorting to crime. (We may even have heard her name, but it and she were totally unimportant, and, if we did, I don't remember it.) She would be first cousin to Emma, Chris, Chelsea and Brad, and first cousin once removed to George and Keira and Martha. Martha is a Horrabin by descent from Chris, and since Emma is her aunt she is related to the whole of the rest of the boiling of them, Grundys and all.

(Edited to add: sorry, I didn't mean to quote your whole post. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Goes away to beat head against nearest clear wall, which is in the kitchen.)

Sinittaadancers · 15/12/2025 11:35

Anyone think that the ‘George goes on the rampage’ could be a massive red herring in the style of ‘disaster strikes for Chris’ a few weeks ago which was a firework falling down in the garden and no one being even slightly hurt?

Maybe the rampage is at the Grundys’ NYE buffet and results in not everyone getting as many sausage rolls as anticipated. Followed up by weeks of laboured soul-searching by all the Ambridge residents as the news filters out.

that seems on par with some of the mundane storylines lately

Madcats · 15/12/2025 13:25

You are probably right, Sinitaadancers; it might just be that somebody broke his favourite mug when emptying the dishwasher!

They did pretty much forget about Peggy’s 100th birthday.

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 15/12/2025 13:28

Didn't Pat make a cake that morning and ice it in time for afternoon tea? and that was the only mention made of Peggy's 100th.

Madcats · 15/12/2025 14:41

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 15/12/2025 13:28

Didn't Pat make a cake that morning and ice it in time for afternoon tea? and that was the only mention made of Peggy's 100th.

I can’t remember the baking, but I do think I remember Tony mentioning her birthday in conversation with somebody (probably just a sentence).

I suspect we all had a good rant about it a few threads back.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 16/12/2025 11:30

Another snippet.

Daily Mail Weekend Magazine Archers Update - December 14th-19th
While things are looking up for Susan, poor Jazzer becomes the subject of ridicule, and Emma is concerned about both her daughter Keira and her son George, who’s pining for Amber.

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NewYearNewNameWhoKnew · 16/12/2025 17:03

Thank you for the genealogical corrections - Chat GPT seems very poor on the Archers and to hallucinate new relationships.

As per previous poster, I hope George's rampage is chucking the turkey out the window rather than damaging any humans.

KnittedFerret · 16/12/2025 17:16

Emma is George's mother, and also aunt by being married to Will's brother.
Will is George's father and step-uncle.
George has 2 half-sisters - Keira (Ed's daughter) and Poppy (Will's daughter), and they are first cousins (their fathers are brothers).
Mia Grundy is not a Grundy, but her half-sister Poppy is.
Mia has a brother called Jake.

Emma and Chris are first cousins to Chelsea, Brad and Kylie.
Kylie is half-sister to Johnny Phillips, who is John Archer's son.

Johnny's first cousins are Henry, Jack, Nova and Seren.

Pip, Josh and Ben are first cousins to Freddie and Lily, and to Meriel (Kenton's daughter) and Daniel (Shula's son).

Martha's first cousins are George, Phoebe, Xander, Noluthando and Sipho.

Agapornis · 16/12/2025 19:37

poor Jazzer becomes the subject of ridicule

Called it (previous thread, 30/11/2025): Jazzer plays an accidentally naked baby Jesus.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 17/12/2025 12:51

Isn't he going to dress up as a turkey in Kathy's Easter Bunny costume but with a washing up glove on his head and some other makeshift alterations to make it look less like a rabbit and more like a bird?

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HewasH2O · 17/12/2025 16:08

Now I have an image of Jazzer as Feathers Mcgraw trapped inside my head

TottersBlatantlyTowardsTheBaileys · 19/12/2025 20:46

Still no clarity on whether the extra, anniversary play thingummy takes place, in Ambridge time, immediately after the episode it follows? Because Brad is in it.

Although perhaps it could be recordings of a phone call he makes? Or his whispered declarations from a hospital bed? Obviously I’m praying it’s neither of those!

MollyButton · 19/12/2025 21:51

From what others have said there is a whole load of Archers related material on New Years Day!
Also for anyone relatively new remember it is the anniversary of 75 years of the Archers and they do like a good deading on a significant Anniversary: Nigel, John Archer …

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 19/12/2025 22:00

John died in an accident on Tommy's 18th birthday on 25th February, 1998, but does that count as an anniversary?

Madcats · 20/12/2025 09:50

TottersBlatantlyTowardsTheBaileys · 19/12/2025 20:46

Still no clarity on whether the extra, anniversary play thingummy takes place, in Ambridge time, immediately after the episode it follows? Because Brad is in it.

Although perhaps it could be recordings of a phone call he makes? Or his whispered declarations from a hospital bed? Obviously I’m praying it’s neither of those!

I wouldn’t put it past the Editor to have set the Archers Special, 75 years ago!

The writing team have form for misleading us with the Spoilers.

TottersBlatantlyTowardsTheBaileys · 20/12/2025 10:56

But - 75 years ago with the current cast of characters?

Madcats · 20/12/2025 11:10

TottersBlatantlyTowardsTheBaileys · 20/12/2025 10:56

But - 75 years ago with the current cast of characters?

Yes, like they did with the (war) Victory at Ambridge and Canterbury Tales etc.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 20/12/2025 11:22

Horribly plausible. Sad

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Madcats · 20/12/2025 17:50

Stand down from panic stations; I've downloaded the Radio Times on Borrowbox (I think it was a fellow Archers poster on Mumsnet who said most people could download it from their local library's app; DH can pop it on a Kobo too, after a bit of IT faffing).

NY Day is all a bit complicated, but the "characters" are playing themselves (I think).

The Archers: Truth and Lies (6x5minutes)
2:15pm 1/6 Snapshots into the lives of characters featured in this evening's drama at 7:15pm
2:55pm 2/6 An insight into Brad Horrobin's viewpoint
4:00pm 3/6 The perspective of Hannah Riley
5:00pm 4/6 Lilian Bellamy shares her thoughts
6:13pm 5/6 A spotlight on Harrison Burns
7:00pm 6/6 A look at Brian Aldridge's point of view

(let's hope it gets onto BBC Sounds as I am not sure the house can stomach a whole afternoon of R4)

Then the Archers is on at 7:05pm, Archers: Truth & Lies is on for 45 minutes and they then have
8:00pm The Archers Podcast
Host Ema Freud is joined by writer and producer David Payne and journalist Nell Frizzell to discuss the fallout from last night's events in Ambridge.

Googling Nell, she was on an earlier Archers podcast back in October.

WombatCowgirl · 20/12/2025 19:54

With that cast plus a police officer I'm standing my prediction of the New Year's day "special" being a version of An Inspector Calls ( or possibly Adolescence). "What led this troubled young man to the murder of Joy with a drone attack and subsequently to take his own life in a wood chipper? Is George's crime really society's crime?" Etc.

KnittedFerret · 20/12/2025 20:30

6:13pm 5/6 A spotlight on Harrison Burns Why?

CaptainMyCaptain · 20/12/2025 20:35

WombatCowgirl · 20/12/2025 19:54

With that cast plus a police officer I'm standing my prediction of the New Year's day "special" being a version of An Inspector Calls ( or possibly Adolescence). "What led this troubled young man to the murder of Joy with a drone attack and subsequently to take his own life in a wood chipper? Is George's crime really society's crime?" Etc.

I think you could be on to something there.

Agapornis · 20/12/2025 20:51

A Joyless new year would bring me great joy.

However, between Lillian at the stables and Brian, Alice seems suspiciously absent? It would be interesting if George still blames her (but I don't want Chris to become Forever Heartbroken). But I'm not sure where Hannah fits in that scenario.

Regardless, I'm quite excited! Will probably be home alone that day and have an undisturbed long listening session, lovely. They were saying on the official podcast that it's supposed to attract new listeners.

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