Loxfest is over. Locket-gate is upon us. Discuss Mowgli, Rob's new secret and of course the new road here with other Archers fans.

[PseudoBadger]

New thread for hopefully an exciting Sunday episode. Poor Hayley.

Can they have another paternity question again so relatively soon? Or maybe that's it, maybe Jess met one of the Grundy boys one dark night in deepest Borsetshire .....

FWIW I find it quite plausible that Jess and Hayley have never previously met. H wasn't at THAT party and I can't really keep track of where all their homes are. But anyway Jess was only in the village 2 minutes so why would they, esp. as Jess had JD fawning all over her then.

Marking my place - am behind this week.
Loving it all though.

I missed it tonight due to circs beyond my control & they haven't put the podcast up yet

(Woe, woe & thrice woe)

Helen's a former anorexic - she probably loves throwing away food.

Finally, someone has pointed out that Rob is still married.

I can't believe how rude Helen was to Jess when she is/was screwing her husband behind her back. And she lied to her about the party (okay they weren't seeing one another at that point but she pretty much said nothing had happened until the marriage broke down which is rubbish).

I've always been astounded at how the guilty party can rewrite history in their heads to position themselves as the aggrieved (you see it a lot on relationship threads on here) but Helen was totally plausible.

I must say that I am loving the juxtaposition of HellRob and RotaLiz. Two whole episodes full of hateful self-serving people. Brilliant :o

Just read that dreadful blog nonsense - the actors seem to have far less insight than people on here. Are they just too close to their characters?
Much prefer reading analysis from our panel of experts here - can't help thinking the actors seem to have missed the point. Keep up the good work!

Found the podcast (phew)

Catchup still not there though

(a) I doubt the actors are as infested in all this as we are.

(b) I strongly suspect Keri Davies made sure they didn't say too much.

(c) They won't know too much of the future direction of storylines, anyway. From previous articles/documentaries (yes, I am the complete TA geek) they get the scripts when they arrive to do the recording. They do about six weeks' worth of episodes in one go, and only about six weeks before the first ones are due to go out, so the furthest ahead the actors know what's going to happen would be about three months. I suppose they are given some idea of how long and how frequently they'll be in the cast when they're first booked, so the Jess actor probably knows whether she's going to flit in and out for another six months, but not much more than that.

Keri D (the formerly blessed Mr Keri) posted on a FB group to say that the unblessed Vanessa Whitburn never ever used the notorious phrase about SATTC

So I'm a bit about what he says

Mimsy I hope you are not suggesting that the actors aren't so over-infested because they know it's not real

Please remind me what SATTC stands for.

Sausages at the Core(of Ambridge).

Actually, some of that is wrong and DH has fallen asleep (the rotter). So I can't ask him. Shaking Ambridge to the Core sounds right?? My memory is carp these days.

"Shock Ambridge to The Core"

It's what they boasted they would do by throwing a nice person off a high building....

Stupid BBC.

Shaking Ambridge To The Core, Lillian

Supposedly it was what Nigel's dive off the roof would do

(But Mr K insists that was a R4 invention, not from TA team)

(Sorry - bit precipitate there. Maybe it was in fact a media quote. Maybe I only think I remember HER saying it in various R4 interviews...)

Just listened to the podcast... what a piece of work indeed - brings up the idea of a paternity test and then segues neatly into trust being the basis of a marriage. Yeah, right, he's good at that.

I see now why they had the scene with Hayley yesterday - just so we did already know Jess was pregnant, otherwise all the stuff about breathlessness and needing water wouldn't have made sense. Though Jess and Hayley palling up as a duo of scorned women could be good.

Is Mr Keri gaslighting us? I'm sure I remember hearing VaBlessA warbling on about SATTC.
That was a great epi, I do hope Jess is now based in Borchester and will keep buzzing around upsetting CheeseyKnob's fragile equilibrium.

Hopefully Jess will turn up periodically with the Roblet. Who will (despite parentage) turn out to be a delightful child. Rob, in the face of inevitable paternity testing will have reinvented history: 'darling Helen, it was (sob) emotional blackmail, she was going to kill herself if she couldn't have me one last time'... 'oh you poor noble abused man ... slurrp' ... so then he will start custody proceedings for his true offspring ...

gahh. Surely Helen will see through him soon esp in conjunction with the hunting thing. (isn't Henry far too young to be involved? )

Freddy & Lily exchanged "I hate you I only pretend to like you for Mum's sake and even then only on her birthday" lines not so long ago. I don't see why he'd consult Lily; might be pleased to have some info she didn't, for that matter. Or just about aware that Lily would go ballistic and that would make things more complicated. DS1 is same age as the fictional pair, so I just think how much he'd internalise something like this.

Does make it obvious that F. delivered the locket knowing full well what it meant, though, doesn't it?

He's only lad in household of females & staff, no, that could be tough.

One thing I am grateful for is that there saved up the denouements for September when we are all back from holiday

Hayley will find out next week. Teenagers can't keep secrets and once radio carter starts broadcasting the whole village will know!

As for Jess, I think she will stick around. Maybe start hanging around the village and passing on her views. Again radio carter will enjoy spreading the pregnancy news

ps: can anyone give a sequence of events that happened at the housewarming party? Sorry, I missed that episode.

I still find it hard to believe te twins hate each other. I'm sure they were always very close and any 'hating' probably reflects their closeness than a real hatred

love-hate-rivalry
Why does Jess cling to Rob? Why would she bear his child?

Because she's a silly little woman who can't resist the powerful urge for a real man

The sw have a very poor view of women

Jess probably is a bit nuts, a sane woman wouldn't do all the stuff she has done with a guy who treated her like that. And what does Jess want now? Insists she doesn't want him back, so the baby tease is some kind of revenge-mind game (or she really does want him back)? Tell me that all isn't nuts.

I don't see the EA elements in R+H relationship at all. Maybe because he's too obvious a selfish prig. Takes himself too seriously but so does Helen (take herself too seriously & take him too seriously) so they suit each other.

Re the timing of them going to bed, I interpreted it as Helen going outside, rob leaving her alone for a while, then joining her. But he must have left her alone for hours if it was bedtime, and of course there's a roast chicken going to waste

Actually I suspect ex-anorexic Helen might find throwing the food away quite distressing - there can be a "feeding others" element, watching other people enjoy food you have prepared but not indulging yourself... Though Helen is "recovered" so things may have changed for her