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

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

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!

Yes, I posted that thought on the last thread. I've seen it elsewhere too. I like An Inspector Calls so this could work.

Agapornis
They were saying on the official podcast that it's supposed to attract new listeners.

Last time they said that, I seem to remember it was the Rob-and-Helen horrorshow.

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)

That might have been me, @Madcats - I definitely mentioned you could do this, but I don’t remember when it was. It was one of those small discoveries that brings disproportionate joy; I still can’t quite believe that I can get it free (the Christmas one costs a whopping £6.50 for the paper version 😯)

Is it going to be a ‘who killed George’? Because all those people are ones with a motive to do so.

Yes, ‘which meanie pushed poor lovely George into suicide by being unkind about his dreadful behaviour?’

Ooh. I hadn't thought of that twist. That would be great. I love Golden Age whodunnits. Closed circle of suspects essential, bonus marks for a locked room element. I particularly like the ones where the closed circle of suspects is achieved by making it physically impossible for anyone else to have committed the murder, e.g. And Then There Were None (set on an island with no boat, although one of the film versions achieved this by setting it in a hotel in the middle of the desert) or snowed in (Murder on the Orient Express). Perhaps we could have another great flood.

No, I want a murder. Angus Stobie is probably on the way to better things. Let him go out on a high. Just as long as it's not Brad (unless it's self-defence).

Is it going to be a ‘who killed George’? Because all those people are ones with a motive to do so.

New Year’s Day 7.15pm The Archers: Truth and Lies
Sally Griffiths - mysterious police detective
Emma Grundy - motive?
Brad Horrobin - self-defence?
Hannah Riley - motive?
Lilian Bellamy - motive?
Harrison Burns - the behbeh that wasn't
Brian Aldridge - motive?
Clive Horrobin - motive?

My thoughts were The Mousetrap or An Inspector Calls.

Sorry, forgot to clear the quote.

What’s the one where someone’s killed by being felled with a frozen leg of lamb, which is then cooked and eaten? Hmmm. That might work with a turkey….🤔

Roald Dahl, Tales of the Unexpected - it might be called 'A Lamb to the Slaughter'. Good point re the turkey. Get it in the freezer now and it will be lethal by New Year's Eve.

Hannah's motive - ridding the world of a wannabe Andrew Tate? He was horrible to her when he worked at the pig unit.

Brian's motive - Alice. Lilian's - ditto.

Emma - self-defence? Protecting/avenging Ed and/or Keira?

I don't think they're motives. Harrison is the only likely one (mah behbeh!) or Emma in self-defence (or defence of Keerer). Self-defence would be manslaughter.

Maybe 'Arrison's being written out and his last stand will be to push Geowurge to the edge.

thanks Gasp! Was just coming back to post this after DH set me straight. He says there is a detective fiction short story where someone gets stabbed with an icicle - in a Turkish bath…..

I think I've read more than one story where the murder weapon has been ice in some form. A very handy device!

I know that one. He took the icicle in in a Thermos flask. Was that Tales of the Unexpected too?

I’m quite excited for this (though presumably it will be a bit like Ambridge Extra, so won’t necessarily link in).

Has Hannah had anything to do with George since he cross contaminated the piggery?

I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard Lillian talk about George.

I’m not sure how they plan to fill 5 minutes of introspection from Harrison, but presumably he plans to return to Ambridge at some point?

Lilian went ape when Jolene mooted the possibility of giving George a job. She has refused to let George so much as set foot in The Bull.

Wasn't it Lilian who kicked up a fuss about George getting a job at the Bull when Alice wasn't all that bothered.

Edit: cross posted.

No - it’s ’The Tea-Leaf' by Edgar Jepson and Robert Eustace, written 100 years ago. Though Dahl might have nicked re-used the idea?

I have at the back of my mind that Agatha Christie may have used ice as a murder method at one point. Margery Allingham certainly did.

Has Hannah had anything to do with George

Do you mean since he persuaded Will to evict her from No 1 The Green? He pretended to his dad that he desperately wanted the two of them and Poppy to form a cosy family household. But he made it very clear to Hannah that it was revenge.

Since she’s comfortably established with Stella at The Bungalow it seems unlikely she’d bother to murder George. She may well feel he got his comeuppance by going to prison. Unless anything new happens …

As long as it's police interviews rather than first-person, stream of consciousness introspection in the very cringey manner of those pandemic episodes. Who was it that Alistair considered "so fresh"?

That was in Ambridge Extra, not the Covid Episodes. So they didn't have to do it: it was entirely gratuitous.

(It was Daniel's girlfriend, who made a pass at Alistair.)

I do hope there's going to be a dedding - we're long overdue for one. So many characters we wouldn't miss (having not heard them for months)!

I thought of this thread and recent discussions when watching TV last night. <taps nose>