Archers thread #202: How are you finding your visits to Ambridge? Fill in your feedback forms 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 think working as a hotel receptionist is a perfectly reasonable career choice for a graduate from a family with a stately home, 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-12-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.)

Over to you!

I’m listening to Today from the start - good to hear John Finnemore talking about Stephanie Cole. (From 7.25 am.)

Fallon should definitely live on the houseboat. It used to be a dream of mine to live on a boat when I was in my 20s (basically I wanted Anna from Sewing Bee's life) but now I'm in my 70s it's not going to happen. I do vaguely know a man in his 80s, though, who lives on one.

DH spends about £50 on a bouquet for his mum every Mother's Day. Orders it direct from the florist in her village and MIL sends a photo of the beautiful bouquet that she's delighted with.

Given how much Alan has been complaining about lack of funds for the Church roof or something, maybe Carol meant to make a donation.

Alan has been thoroughly decent. He must plough a lonely furrow being a CoE vicar with a tricky flock in an atheistic society.

Regarding the money transfer, my theory is that Carol knew exactly what she was doing. She had an intuition that she was about to die (using her witchy senses) and got everyone off her back by agreeing to a stay at the Laurels knowing it would never come to pass. When Alan suggested flowers she saw it as a way to stick it to poor Anna, deliberately leaving her nothing other than a bouquet.

I suspect the amount might be around £6k (the amount needed to repair the bell). Artistic license has been used to overlook the fact that in reality most banks would not have allowed such a large transfer in one go. I think mine limits me at £2k a day?

When we bought our campervan, about 100 miles away, I went into the bank branch (when we had a branch) to show them the ad, warning them we would be transferring a large sum of money the following day. Fine they said, all noted and will go through. Went to get the van, they wouldn't transfer the money, said it was a scam, did the van really exist, (we were sitting in the van on the phone). We were on the phone an hour and a half trying to transfer the money, they said we’d need to go to a branch thirty miles away to sort it the following day, but we finally got the money transferred after a really stressful couple of hours. So I can't believe Carol would have transferred a large sum to Alan just with a click.

£100 sounds quite a lot to me for a bouquet (maybe I'm just tight) but I can see an extra 0 going on that. My account would then transfer £1,000 without quibbling.
It doesn't have to be a massive amount, just enough to make Anna suspicious.
I suspect she's feeling quite guilty and, imo, would be very relieved to be able to transfer that guilt on to someone else.

I agree @Juliancantcope, if Carol transferred money to Alan it was deliberate. She may have been waiting for a chance to do it before she was ready to die.

None of which will make the taxation arrangements any easier.

It’s perfectly feasible that she did it deliberately - but if it was to benefit St Stephen’s that will be rather hard to prove - unless she’s also left written instructions.

Yes, I agree that if there was a transfer it will have been deliberate but the drama will lie in the ambiguity. Did she mean to do it or was it a slip? Poor Alan. I don’t think we will know the exact amount as the SWs tend to shy away from giving specific figures.

I was in the hospital car park when Dad died of course. My brother was with him and called me to tell me to hurry up but there’s no rushing an NHS pay and display machine. Dad was very pragmatic in life and certainly wouldn’t have minded my absence at the key moment given one of us was on duty.

I completely missed the transfer bit...which episode was it in, and what happened?!

Yesterday, Carol was swithering between not being able to use her banking app and being very good at it, and demanded the details of Alan's bank account, I only hope she'd left a statement of intention - if she had talked in advance to the bank about it that would explain the ease of the transfer.

Oddly it's reminding me of the first Carol story I was aware of, inadvertent shoplifting, theorised by some man or other as being due to 'the change'.

My mother was breathing while I dressed, and dead by the time I got downstairs and into her room to talk breakfast. I'd given her her early-morning tea a bit over an hour earlier, and thought her wheezing was an allergic reaction to something rather than a death rattle. It was all a horrible shock, but probably what she'd have wanted. She had definitely vetoed any further trips to hospital. Ten years ago - hard to believe.

I hate these manufactured terrible stories. Convoluted plots to make bad things happen to good people.

In just a few weeks we’ve had the Monty storyline, the collapse of the B&B due to horrid reviews, Harrison and Fallon falling apart, and smouldering away in the background is the whole Home Farm drama.

The world is so awful at the moment that the last thing I need is another dose of misery when I tune in.

And no, Kiera winning a prize at the flower and produce will NOT make up for it.

I’ll still listen because I’ve listened for decades but I do wish the scriptwriters would ease up sometimes and give us more believable storylines.

@BrightYellowDaffodil , same here. I think I'd have told Jolene that if she called me moi darlin' a second time she'd never be saying anything again.

@Sidebeforeself , because the actor playing Jill has passed away and when along term TA actor dies, the character does not slip away until some time later.
The actor, Patricia Greene, voiced the character from 1957 until her death in 2026, making her the world’s longest‑serving soap actor.

She was always Jill not Gill. The Gills were the owners of the Home Farm farmhouse between Brian and Jennifer and Miranda.

Surely flower delivery can’t be so much cheaper where you are, ? £50 would only buy a disappointingly miserly bunch from all the sites I come across.
Exactly, but Flowers Under £35 at M&S

Well if thats a rule re the passing away of the actor then fine, but it still doesnt serve the plot very well. And I cant get excited about my misspelling of a fictional characters name ( no opening the R can of worms again!)

I usually do flowers from M&S, Waitrose or Bloom & Wild - which is cheapest for similar bouquets often varies.

It doesn't serve the plot but it seems to be what happens.

The misspelling matters to me - it looks like not only do you seem in a hurry to have the character deadded but you don't care about her name.
The R, A and K names have a separate issue, but Jill wasn't ever Gill and Lynda most definitely isn't a Linda.
I spotted a misspelt Keira but I'm not too bothered about it, other than it doesn't fit how Emmur says it, Kee-ur-a

Anna Louise Tregorran was 'Anne' in the distant past.

Im not in a hurry .It just seems ridiculous to me that apparently they have recast her only to have her die quite quickly, when for a long time it has seemed that Jill/Gill would need to be written out.

Anyway, Im not going to fall out about people who dont exist.

I'm not sure if Fallon would like living on a houseboat, because of her love of cooking - the kitchen space/facilities would surely be rather limited?

As others have said, I hope the "transferring money to Alan" story will be wrapped up quickly, without any long drawn out repercussions for the poor man.

I'm glad they've killed her off rather than prolonging. It does explain why the actress didn't seem very invested (the first &) last time she was on the official podcast. Who's next - Jill or auntie Chris? Mind you, Lesley Saweard who played Christine isn't dead yet.

I look forward to Josh moving into Glebe Cottage, getting into business with Esme, stealing Lynda's idea for a dog field, and a little baby Josme/Esh.

Any thoughts on the Amborge baby name? Will it be a classic (Amber's choice), or a double-barrelled unique monstrosity (George's)? (my own sister has the unique type of taste, poor kids)

Fwiw I'm enjoying the recent scripts and story lines. Farming and seasons are mentioned more regularly and part of storylines. It's almost as if they've listened to our complaints!? NoJoy has been silent until this week, but maybe they're turning her talent for everything, and magical money to buy the house, into a running joke?

I agree. Having only listened for the last 10 years, I had no idea who Carol was other than a thoroughly unpleasant and self centred random woman. No tears shed for her, whereas I felt I “knew” Jill, as she’s been a regular for the last decade plus, and with all her character quirks, it would have made more sense for the SW to use this storyline for her.

Jill's character is a tricky one because she was a main character for a long time, and because the actor had become frail, the character remained a robust but silent character, which meant she was/is conspicuously absent.

The Carol character was too present, and seems to be for the sake of a SL. The Anna actor is good so I'm hoping that she and Stella will get together(, upsetting Pip).

Joe Grundy died peacefully in his sleep about 6 months after the actor passed away. I think the gap is so that the death can be written sensitively into SLs. Phil and Peggy had quite a gap too.

@Agapornis , I think the baby will be George Jr or Georgia/Georgina.
I think the name will reflect the parents' aspirations or vanity, and I think vanity will win.
Both grandfathers are William - might we see a Billie-Jo?

But they didnt have to write out Jill now, if they wish to be sensitive. What I mean is it should have been Jill rather than Carol.

Jill, Jim or Auntie Cardboard. There's no shortage of older cast members at an age when they could quite reasonably be written out. Sean O'Connor brought Carol back during the Rob and Helen story and it seemed to be largely so that Anna could be asked to be Helen's barrister. Carol and Anna then fell silent. Nothing could have been simpler than to for one character to report to another that Carol was leaving or had died or gone into The Laurels. No need whatsoever to recast the role and get her speaking again - unless, for the second time, Carol's return was simply to get Anna in place. Anna is a lesbian who as far as we know is currently single. She is probably closer in age to Stella than Pip is. I have every digit crossed that Stella is going to be saved from Pip and Pip will leave Ambridge in high dudgeon and finally go to Patagonia. She could take over from Josh.

The Pip and STella wedding plans have been very quiet. Or has it already happened and they're already married and I blanked the horror of the ceremony and celebration from my memory?