Our modest little The Archers thread has its very own radio celebrity! Join us for the hottest chilli in town, and await the impending doom as all plans go into reverse in Ambridge.

[PseudoBadger]

It's all getting rather delicious. I feel sorry for Kenton the fool

The shop was certainly set up as something for Helen to do. Pat admitted this a few years ago, and that it barely made a profit. It was to do with John dying, Peggy regularly giving Tom money etc, Pat and Tony wanted Helen to have something to feel important about. It always seemed to be run very inefficiently - someone having to make a special trip because Helen had 'forgotten the salad stuff' or Helen insisting on working 12 days a week because she couldn't get the quinoa to behave and so on. All plot devices of course, but overall made Helen look pretty ineffectual.

No-one at Bridge Farm has ever tried to stop Helen doing exactly as she pleased. I'm interested to hear Pat gushing over this latest idea and trying to make it a work of genius.

The shop was certainly set up as something for Helen to do. Pat admitted this a few years ago, and that it barely made a profit. It was to do with John dying, Peggy regularly giving Tom money etc, Pat and Tony wanted Helen to have something to feel important about. It always seemed to be run very inefficiently - someone having to make a special trip because Helen had 'forgotten the salad stuff' or Helen insisting on working 12 days a week because she couldn't get the quinoa to behave and so on. All plot devices of course, but overall made Helen look pretty ineffectual.

No-one at Bridge Farm has ever tried to stop Helen doing exactly as she pleased. I'm interested to hear Pat gushing over this latest idea and trying to make it a work of genius.

But remember folks 'Foxbreath' is Ed. jnr.'s saviour People can be a multi faceted.

I was surprised that St. Shula lied to the police but I reckon the SW's have played a blinder giving her the showdown with Rob. Caroline will of course tell Foxbreath!

So a normal hungry 3 yr. old playing up is enough to make Hell close the shop

She ironed once and Rob told her she shouldn't tire herself out!

What does Helen do all day? Make nice lunches and dinner for Rob which she doesn't really eat herself, I think. And as mentioned, a bit of dusting. When not at the shop picks Henry up from nursery - must be pretty late afternoon if Rob can quite often do it surely? And makes cheese but that happens in batches rather than constant activity I think.

Doesn't seem like a full day... perhaps she has a secret internet addiction. Clearly not MN though.

I always think of Ambridge Organics as like our local wholefoods shop.
I have never been in there with the company of a second customer, I think the assistant spends her day in a trance, and seems startled out of her reverie when you push the tumbleweed out of the way to actually take an item to the till.

She was so strapped for money at Christmas that they've been reduced to eating Steak Diane!
She'll now have no income at all and he's taking ridiculous amounts of time off work.

Oh, she plans to spend time nursing Tony. Keeping him company more like.

Something else occurred to me - Shula refusing a biscuit from Caroline because she's given them up for Lent, then almost in the same breath confessing to telling a whopper of a big, fat lie. And to the police, too. A rather bigger sin than sneaking an illicit Hobnob, surely?

Honestly, St Smugula is a piece of work. Hypocrite, much?

Well you go away for a few days and then there's a lovely new thread and a celebrity in our midst..

Shula will have to go to confession with Alan, it was out of character for her to lie but the moral handwringing and angst with Caroline was very familiar - if she goes back to P C Plot she will be in trouble for peverting the course of justice ... But wasn't the SAB filming everything at the time? What happened to that??

I also though Rob was getting a bit heavy with Henry and Hellin arrived just in time before he lost his temper.
Dayveed is waive ring big time and we still have no resurgence of the sink hole to put a spanner in the works (raining here, btw)...
As an aside how dreadful was Kate planning to completely refurb and re shape her cottage for Feebs...

I will miss Eds Jersey cows, and the pride he took in them... And wonder whether Moike too will wake up and smell the reality...As for Boudicca, could do with her round here re ludicrous endless planning decisions locally

Signing into new thread

I agree with the pp who was surprised to hear Shula/Caroline refer to PCP as "Burns". Made them sound like horrible snobs, as if he was one of the staff / commoners.

No way would she really have lied to the police!

I am going to delurk simply to say that I think Shula lying was entirely in keeping and very understandable - it would take a phenomenal amount of courage to live cheek by jowl with someone you are now potentially scared of having shopped them to the police. Between fear of Rob and potential fallout from family, I can see why she may choose to lie to PC Burns but take issue with it with Rob separately. Not right, but quite human.

I suspect it could turn out as a pretty stupid move by Shula not only to lie to the police but to admit to Rob that she's done so. He's effectively got blackmail rights now - do X, Y, Z (including letting him stay in the Hunt) or he'll get an attack of conscience and Tell All and Shula will find herself charged with obstructing the course of justice. So with luck she'll have to confess to PC Plot just to get him off her back.

Re Hellin and the question of what she does all day, I suspect that she cleans obsessively - to keep Knob happy, to fill up her day, and to burn off the calories. And she probably cooks absolutely everything from scratch, including making her own bread and pasta. Unlike whoever it was upthread who suggested she is so invested in this that she will never LTB, whilst that is very probably what would happen in RL, in practice the SWs are going to have to bring this to that conclusion at some point. I do rather hope they will string it out with a succession of blows:

1. Tom and Pat waking up to the fact that there can be only one reason why Helen was so happy to be back at the shop one minute and talking about going full time again, then deciding the next minute to give it up completely;

1. Caroline telling Oliver about Rob, Rob being banned from the hunt;

1. The truth about the sab coming out, either by Shula confessing or the sab's film being processed, and Rob being prosecuted;

1. Helen continuing to refuse to commit to having a baby;

1. Rob having to pay maintenance for Ethan or being forced to take the DNA test;

1. Rob trying to be too clever re Charlie and Adam and being sacked for that and taking too much time off;

1. Piggoi redoing her will to leave everything to Tony;

1. Various relatives and friends finally twigging that Helen isn't eating;

1. Helen asking questions about the divorce and pushing to set a wedding date;

10 All those stresses coming together and finally building up into one big glorious crisis, probably involving Henry and/or Helen being threatened, and Helen finally seeing the light.

Basically I want to see Rob's arrogance totally squashed. And if for once Helen is brought to realise that what she wants isn't necessarily what's best for her and Henry.

Excellent post, Ici!

I expect Shula's conscience will eventually get the better of her and she will try to make a truthful statement. However it will come at a time when nobody believes her and she will be accused of doing it out of spite because she dislikes Rob.

Unless that phone recording turns up, or another witness.

Perhaps she will end up in jail for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice (ha ha) and the reputation of the hunt will be ruined because they are shown to shelter violent criminals.

Yes I wonder if all the pressures mounting up on Rob will lead him to snap physically big time, but could it be with Henry and not Hellin? He does seem to veer between tolerant indulgence and exasperation. (although tbh Henry does seem to be exceedingly annoying).. We've never had any kind of 'child at risk' type story line ...which though deeply unpleasant would reflect a more Easterendered and sadly realistic view of society...

Nic slapping George was far more forgivable - she was being used as an unpaid Nanny by Will. Stuck in the countryside, unable to drive and isolated from her support network. With a "little prince" boy who was being a bit disney dadded by Will.

But Rob could be seriously scarey to Henry.

One big glorious crisis

Phil! Oh my goodness, that's thrown the cat among the pigeons.

It's turning into Hamlet!

Wooo ...

Nice bit of dramatic whatsiting going on there - 'If you want to keep your farm....' 'I do.' But which farm? Dum dum dum.....

hurray!

Now, who's going to be a bit peeved again? Kenton, Roooth, Pip, Elizabeth, um ...