Anyone for a fondant fancy? Let The Archers eat cake...

[PseudoBadger]

TA is in a purple patch at the moment, rewarding listeners for wading through the dross of the previous year few months. Welcome all!

Ifty actually is a teacher at the local school. Don't know why there's so little focus on it though.

Nice episode tonight.

Hmm what's Tony up to? Any guesses?

Utterly delighted to have discovered this thread.
Right: bets as to how long Helen is going to hold out before all hell breaks loose?

Seriously, couldn't Helen have checked Jess's story by asking uncle Brian a question about Rob's supposed business trip? See if Brian thought Rob was in Essex after all?

No idea but glad he's stopped sounding so glum

"Look after your watch in future". Beautifully controlling. Oh I do so hope they are going to carry on this relationship rather than helen just ending it, they've set it up too beautifully for it all to collapse too quickly. Let helen be sucked into his lies...

Tony, that is, sorry! Was a bit slow

Bridge Farm & Home Farm don't have a very pally relationship, do they? Helen ringing Brian out of the blue to ask where Rob was last week would look very odd

Tony is off to research pulse growing for pig farmers, and do further research on stock cattle for disgruntled organic farmers. He was very pissed off as Rob, again thinking he was on safe ground, asked Tom about the cropping schedule the two of them had discussed off-air.

Is it wrong that I want Hellin to crawl back to Bridge Farm and for Pat to take Henry in but tell her to bog off for being such a stubborn and deluded fool? I have no compassion where the cheese queen is concerned.

I think I missed the bit where Rob gave her the watch. Do we know it's Jess' s or is that just MN speculation?

And who would schedule a business event for a Friday evening, especially on Valentine's Day?

I think PC Plod is there for when it all goes horribly wrong for Hellin. Have they had a DV/controlling/emotionally abusive storyline since Shula and Simon?

Ps I very briefly met a TA scriptwriter at a writer thing recently but didn't find out he was in that hallowed circle till weeks later. I have so many questions...

I love this thread.

There must be something odd about the watch as it didn't take her 15 minutes & a pair of pliers to get it out of its packaging

I'm hoping that Tony has thought feck the lot of you and bought 100 cows as his birthday present to himself.

the watch came out of the packing easily because it was 2nd hand

Is Tony sounding happier? I missed it, and it 'a not up yet.

He certainly didn't sound as miserable as he did last week

& he kept turning down free drinks

(Disclaimer - I was listening between radio & phone & may have missed something)

Re-the watch, it could just mean that NastyRob's controlling tendencies lead him to want her to wear HIS gift at all times. A friend's ex was like that - not surprisingly he turned into an utter shit in the end. If she was wearing it Friday, would Jess not have said something? Yes, H isn't going to want to speak to Brian cos Jennifer is such a gossip. Already she's getting isolated from her own family.

I hope too Tony has bought cows for himself, like Gypsy suggests. It would be so brilliant if they just arrived one day. Sadly it won't happen like that.

Is it not just cheap watches that need unpacking? Expensive ones are in a neat little box with a lid.

I agree it was a v good episode.

Interesting about Ifty being a teacher. I never picked that up. Is he a maths teacher then?

Floss - you really made me chuckle.

I thought the line about the watch was do good - it could be controlling or a bad joke between new lovers just in the same way the line about the clothes on Thursday could have been harmless or not ( but I think not is the most likely ) I was just about to say I can't believe Helen has not even told Rob about Jess turning up and then I remembered how obsessed she is with this working out and being all happy families.

no no no, I'm obviously much more conniving than you lot.
Helen contrives a reasonable excuse that looks perfectly innocent to be in Brian's vicinity.
While in his vicinity she babbles on about daft things, maybe how hard it is to settle Henry, finishing with a moan about not having Rob to herself that night (or maybe, this is good, how Henry had to then be used to Rob going away sometimes like X or Y day), connive something to get Brian to chip in about how "Rob did give such short notice for that Great Aunt's funeral" or "Yes, sorry I had to send Rob to see that trade fair that day."
Wouldn't be hard to orchestrate.

Tsk, tsk, I expect better of MNers (but maybe not Hellin).

I think it's unlikely in RL that a new partner in Helen's situation would have gone from Fri night (& when did Jess totter off into the night) until Sun lunch (?) & only given Rob the silent treatment without having a confrontation.

(I realise we are constrained by TA schedules but even so...!)

The watch has nothing to do with Jess. It's a sort of ownership manacle.

Hellin was working on the Saturday and then pretending to be engrossed in the telly until he'd fallen asleep. I don't think she was even trying to give him the silent treatment, just avoiding much interaction, while psyching herself up to ask the question which Henry interrupted.

But then Hellin isn't like 'normal people'. She so wants the dream relationship. She doesn't want there to be an 'evil' interpretation for all this. I thought it was done well. I'm sure he won't tell anything like the truth yet. Off to look at knitting patterns now .... This thread is so very distracting.

Would Jess not have told Rob that she had been to see Hel-Queen?

Good episode though.

I thought the Helen-Jess encounter on Friday was a bit disappointing. I expected Jess to be shocked to find Helen in the house where she and Rob tried to make a go of things just a couple of months ago. But she didn't seem shocked at all - just seemed a bit surprised that Helen was staying there. So did she know about Helen? Even though she (Jess) slept with Rob just a week earlier?

I was also rather puzzled that Jess said she had come up (driven) from Hampshire, yet she was evidently a bit pissed when she arrived on Rob's doorstep. Did she really drive all that way (2 hours or more?) drunk? (Or she may have been sober and then stopped off somewhere for a bit of Dutch courage - though not at the Bull, as we would have heard about it that night, surely.)

Oh dear, I missed a bit.

I thought Ifti was a Maths teacher and that's how Elizabeth got to know him (i.e. through the school)?