Culvert operations in Ambridge - discuss The Archers here. It's not his baby by the way.

[PseudoBadger]

Is Ed's wedding very soon?

Spread of cards for Hellin, he did punch the hunt sab, he IS Ethan's father, he did block the culverts, he is a coward, purlease get on with it.

Can I just check, was the culvert where Charlie almost drowned and was rescued by Adam the same culvert as the one which Stefan saw Knob trying to block?

If so, why was Charlie trying to unblock it? Was it (a) because he knew about Knob trying to block it but realised they had Gone Too Far and the village was at risk or (b) he knew nothing but was worried BL/Berrow farm would get the rap for bad culvert maintenance or (c) neither of the above?

I can't recall, did Adam just find Charlie trying to unblock, or did they go together and identify the problem?

They went together and identified the problem. They were trying to unblock it because the water was flooding the road meaning the milk tankers would not get to Berrow. (Implying Charlie did not know that unblocking it would cause the water to reach the cowshed).

I think when Stefan said someone could have died he may have been meaning Charlie.

All this imples C did not know what R had done and when he finds out he may be

Do we think Charlie and Knob are in cahoots over the culvert skullduggery? After all it was Charlie who asked Ed to clear the culverts and keep mum about what he found. If blocked culvert was protecting Berrow Farm why did Charlie risk his life and break his ankle and have a close encounter with Adam while trying to clear one? I don't think I have ever been this unclear about what has and hasn't happened in TA. I think it goes back (sorry to hark back over old ground!) to Enderisation of flood week. Because we can't see what is happening - ie which culvert is being unblocked, effect of unblocking of said culvert, which direction is Knob coming from in his mysteriously acquired boat etc it is difficult to have a picture of what actually happened. Too much action and not enough talking. It is unsatisfactory because it means Sock can go back to making it up as he goes along in the aftermath. The Knob blackmailing possibilities are more interesting - there is some dramatic tension there because we know that he knows and that if he uses it he will be betraying Hellin's confidence. How will he explain that away to her?

Cross post Jessie

I'm glad rob isn't the father as that was taking the story the wrong way IMO

His true colours coming out slowly is much better without a cheating SL. Although I still get the impression Helen likes the situation she finds herself in. Maybe that's just acting though

Agree with mink - Charlie didn't know but clearly suspected. He may have thought they were leftover from building so their collective fault rather than rob deliberately blocking.

I feel for the cows...

I wouldn't put it past Sock to have Knob sacked then discover his CSA letter forgery paraphernalia in his desk (or even better on a high shelf which tall Rachel could uncover while investigating culvert skullduggery )

I think Charlie didn't know about the deliberate blocking till he got there and realised corrugated iron hadn't got there by accident. But he wanted it cleared up quietly to avoid scandal for Damara. However I am suspicious of Stefan. Maybe Charlie has realised that David and Tall Rachel are on the scent so he's laying the trail to rob. Rob probably is the culprit but somehow he'll get Stefan himself implicated. Summat like that anyway.

The csa letter def wasn't forged because Jess admitted it was not Rob's baby.

I agree Charlie fidn't know but after finding rubbish in culvert he realised they might be blamed for mot keeping culverts clear.
Hence covert culvert clearup.

Maybe stefan is Ethan's dad

At the time of the flood I looked at the map but there's no indication of which is high ground and so on so it doesn't help but I think mink's right. Charlie and Adam came across the blockage and wanted to make the road passable for the milk tanker.
I very much hope Charlie isn't involved in the blocking in the first place but I don't think so. That's something Rob went off in the boat to do and I'm surprised David didn't ask Stefan when exactly he saw Rob stuffing the culvert.

I believe Charlie has realised that a blocked culvert would bring blame on BL/Damara and the general state of the ditches seems to have been poor so he hired Ed to do a clear up and told him to be discreet.

Charlie might well suspect Rob of doing it but Charlie almost died so the likelihood is that he is covering up sloppiness rather than deliberate wrong-doing.

(It is odd that the outfit which got the maintenance contract that Adam lost seems not to be mentioned at all these days.)

The kiss is a secret because Helen doesn't want Ian hurt but the silly bint told Rob so the SWs must have some idea of Rob using the info at some point. If his back is to the wall he'll use any weapon he has.

One other thing puzzles me and that's the design of Berrow which is state of the art and new. Why was it built in such a way that the cattle pens would be flooded by the culvert? Have planning laws been broken when it was built and is that why Charlie risked his life and wouldn't want attention drawn to it?
That might be Rob's ultimate blackmail material.

Did Rob save the lives of hundreds of cows that night at the expense of the village?

I don't think that Charlie had a hand in the original culvert blocking. He realised it was a Bad Thing and got non-too-bright-and-desperate-for-work Ed to clear it on the QT - he couldn't ask that of a big company with a reputation to protect (Adam's replacements, R'n'B Contracting, or whatever their name is).

Jess only sort-of admitted it wasn't Rob's baby. It could have been Rob or someone else and she has gone along with the (?apparent?) DNA finding.

I hope that you are wrong about about the planning regs for Berrow enoch. Wasn't it Brine's baby; he must know the lie of the land. I'm hoping that it was a case of not forseeing a once-in-a-lifetime eventuality.

I suppose the outcome depends entirely on what particular angle the SWs (Sock) decided to emphasise in the aftermath of the flood.

If they are saying that flooding is a consequence of bad building practice and so on then the blame will go all the way up to industrial- scale farm units, corners being cut, H&S regs being broken and all that.

I don't think they intend the consequence of such a massive story to be the exposure of something as petty as one man's panic/laziness/ selfishness/ sheer propensity for skulduggery.

They're toying with us. Rob's going to come up smelling of roses. Dammit.

I'd agree with you R4 if Brian were as pure as the driven snow......

Oh, I agree with you that Brian The Businessman would cut corners but I don't believe that Brian The Farmer would site the cattleshed in a flood risk area.

Hmmm. That's yet another weakness on the plotting of this. And why didn't the cattle pen flood when Charlie unblocked the culvert?

One thing falls into place. I have never understood why Rob tried to break into the shop but I had also thought that there was no one at Berrow Farm. Now we find that Stefan was there and probably some other workers.
Perhaps Rob intended to phone Stefan and instruct him to jam something into the culvert then thought better of it, decided to do the job himself instead when he spotted the boat.
But that too is a weakness in the plotting and an over-complication. He had sent Helen home minutes before. She would have driven the road past Berrow, wouldn't she? Why did he not just go with her, get her to drop him off, stuff the culvert and walk home? 'It's my responsibility to make sure everything's battened down properly, darling. Don't worry your fluffy little head about me. I'll be home before you know it.'

The sad thing is, SOC may point to these threads, and others elsewhere, as evidence of TA being discussed, debated and engaged with, so his method is a success.
What that would totally overlook is the exasperation and even anger at poor storylines and established characters over our lifetimes and theirs being made to spout drivel and act completely uncharacteristically.

Is there anyone who agrees that David "betrayed" Kenton? Or does everyone agree that it was a seriously bizarre thing for a previously sensible adult woman to say, however stressed she was?

Surely Kenton's real problem is the flood damage.
He would otherwise have come home from Oz and spent lots of the B'field money on re-furbing the pub, not caring that custom has dropped off to almost zero, but the fact that the pub is out of action is not David's fault. He would have frittered the money away in no time anyway because he's Kenton and that's what Kenton does.

Why did he not just go with her, get her to drop him off, stuff the culvert and walk home?

Wasn't that because Plod and David were insisting he needed to stay with the Bull crowd to help out? IIRC Rob didn't send Helen home - he desperately wanted to "take" her - possibly, as you suggest enoch, so that he could stop by the culvert. But his cunning plan was foiled by the bulldog spirit of his fellows.

I just realised that Stefan said he was out for a walk when he saw Rob stuffing the culvert. Out for a walk in the torrential rain, looking up and not at the ground huddled under his unbrella or hood? That's a bit unlikely isn't it? I don't think it means that Stefan is lying though, but I do think it's bad scriptwriting.

Rob blocked the culvert before going to the bull with Helen though. He may have gone to check but it was before gettibg in the boat that he was being very confident that Berrow would be fine

As for baby - I think we can forget that now. If it turns out to be his that would stretch credibility to breaking point (or stoop to ee level were I believe they are relying on blood groups to determine paternity)

They need to be careful not to make rob too panto villain.

I'm a teeny bit disappointed that he is soooo evil as I like the idea of a DV SL and the abuser is totally fine to the outside this showing how hard it can be for victims to be believed

I thought it was that Stefan had seen rob sometime earlier in the day. Rob had warning of the flood, didn't he, and I think he'd been walking by the rising Am with H&H.

I think rob is innocent

He was merely disposing of all the meals Helen has cooked

Surely that makes him guilty of environmental damage?

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I think if David were guikty of betrayal at any point, it was in betraying his family's heritage in selling off BF in the first place. But plenty of people have had to do that sort of thing for all sorts of reasons, because emotional attachment doesn't always match road-planning, finances, etc.

He hasn't betrayed Kenton, though. The sale could have fallen through for any number of reasons, right up to the last minute, and Jolene would be aware of that. You don't go round spending money on unnecessary things like holidays until you have the money. (Well, you shouldn't - Kenton has always been that way inclined, though.)