The Cheese Queen needs to tread Caerphilly. Camembert the tension? Join The Archers thread and hope it gets Feta from here on.

[PseudoBadger]

Sorry but I couldn't resist an opportunity for puns galore

I don't think she's pretending: that's not the way TA usually works, that there's a narrative underneath which listeners don't know until later iyswim. Things rarely 'turn out' to have been the case: we hear them first and the drama is in the way they're told to others or found out. Based on how things normally work, I think if she was lying we would have heard her mutter 'oh thank goodness for that' to herself before speaking to Fallon.

The problem is that the inevitable pregnancy is a bit of a crummy story line whichever way it pans out. I cannot foresee a termination - although its not an uncommon thing, it would be hard to get that right. She could lose the baby but it is not that long since Ruth suffered that. A phantom? maybe?

I dont know, the best I can do is that he becomes unbearable and she leaves him during the pregnancy and he is vile forever.

But actually stilllearnin Elizabeth's termination SL was excellently done. Because she told her family what was happening it caused immense ill feeling - and what we saw was this enormous decision having a profound effect on her - she really grew up and became a more rounded human being.

I must say I don't see Helen confiding in her family in that situation - but they're clearly getting Kirsty in position to support her in whatever decidion she makes.

Occasional poster here, just listened to Friday's ep & feel really unsettled by it, chilling.

Oh I can remember Elizabeth getting together with Nigel but not really before that. I did enjoy Kirsty's comments about Helen the other day.

Tonight had better be good - I missed out on Glasto tickets (well, so far -always room for a bit of begging/ string pulling!)

I was pondering the other night - do they have different SWs for different story lines or just different episodes? Some are so better done than others - is what I am thinking. Anything Brookfield has been pretty variable both in the writing and the SL itself, whereas H&K has always been well written.

Annoyingly I can't immediately see anything recent about the writing rota. Certainly in 2013 they were working to a one SW per week format - but also saying things would be changing under the new editor.

But I did come across this reassuring Telegraph article about the plan to digitise the archives - and how listeners keep the SWs up to scratch.

Possibly when they go for the scan there will be a problem and he will blame her. He was definitely going to hit her.

Just listening again - the cricket match is even better than I remember with lots of veiled references. Adam asking Knob if he ever does the decent thing (a rhetorical question to which the answer is obviously no!) and Knob's triumphant "Yes Henry I've won" - after deleting Helen's video. HP's throwing in the towel at Trowell sounds even more incongruous when listened to immediately afterwards. A set piece to finish off an awkward storyline. Kirsty's return has to be to rescue Helen so for this reason I wouldn't be at all surprised if she and Tom got back together - she and Tom against Knob (who was instrumental in the whole moving to Canada after the jilting). Haven't listened to the omnibus for ages, but I think you can see all the little pieces slotting in together more clearly when you listen in a long stretch.

Yes LillianG. We need a hero or something against a villain, 'tis the rules, surely .
Regarding Heatherpet, some consistently would be nice, the' cant wait to get away from that place' was that the care home or Prudhoe? The place she could not possibly leave last year. The granny heather thing is annoying too, they have never referred to her as 'granny heather' before now.
Also in the rain in a services car park? Not rained in months.

Its rained here - and quite recently. There was a lovely picture last week of a BMW being swept away in the only ford in town - which is usually a trickle.

Tbh it has put me off ever visiting prudhoe as it is clearly a insisted place that won't let its inhabitants leave. A bit like hotel California. But maybe a bit less rock and roll

I think it was reasonably clear that it was the care home HP was desperate to get away from. But it was irritating that she was depicted as looking forward with unalloyed pleasure to going to Brookfield and be with her family as if it was the only thing she had ever wanted, when it's only a few months since she was adamant that, given the choice between Prudhoe and her friends and Brookfield and her family, Prudhoe won every time.

Yes stillearnin certain storylines are written by certain writers. A woman writer who'd been doing it for years ,sorry I can't remember her name, was interviewed about it. She does the good ones!

I just heard the end of the pg episode again on another podcast*, and it struck me again that that, "we don't need to worry about that Henry, we know you'll be having a little brother" seems to be a whole new level of crazy.

He's seemed pretty deluded up to this point - you get the impression to some extent at least he believes his stories re. the hunt sab being the aggressor, him being a hero of the flood, Charlie victimising him etc. But to state you know something you absolutely can not know?! It's as though the excitement of winning the cricket match single-handedly, everything going his way, Ethan not being his almost as though he caused it to be so by insisting that was the case, has made him think he does have a god-like power over the future. I will it so, and so it will be. For me that is beyond the nasty/manipulative/emotionally defective stuff of the past and into the realms of well and truly unhinged. Are the scriptwriters getting a bit carried away, or is this realistic and I'm perhaps naive about this type of personality?

*Alison Balsom on D.I Discs, who sounds lovely btw

Ok if she's not pretending I recommend TOP and pass it off as mc, on no account should she allow herself to be tied to this man

Following on from SevenOhTwo, she's as delusional as he is. She was convinced she wasn't pregnant because it wasn't in 'the plan'!!
In fact, that's the only thing she seems to think she's lost control of.

(Yes, I admit she probably is pg.)

Just LA to the film. FFS - have they never met a 4 year old? Why does Henry sound like a 2 year old? It's really getting on my tits.

Rob 'badly done, Helen' was really disturbing. Much as I think it's stretching the bounds of credibility to have Kirsty waltz back into the village and a job as health club manager, I'm glad she's back to save Helen. I liked the way she asked Helen if she'd said the wrong thing - she really does have the measure of Rob.

On that note, Brine absolutely knows who Kate is. Who were these 'the others' she was meeting in town? Friends from her course?

LA to Ruth whining to Dave about him not knowing how she feels made me feel crosser than it did the first time I heard it. She was almost making out that HP was hale and hearty until David callously cancelled the ludicrous move to Prudhoe. HP died with her daughter beside her after having a singsong together. What a lovely way to go

LyndaNot, are you sure you mean Kirsty? I don't recall a scene recently where she talked to Helen.

I suspect Rob is convinced the baby is a boy either because whatever he wants has to come to pass, or because he's got such manly mancub-creating sperm. Wasn't there some research somewhere that said in fact men with the most testosterone tend to sire girls?

Oh I don't know, I think you're allowed to be a bit irrational when you're grieving and I also think that the frustration and anger over David's u-turn would have not completely disappeared and so makes sense to surface now. I felt quite sad for Ruth listening to that actually. (but then again I cried when HP died so I'm easily moved )

It was Fallon who said something about saying the wrong thing. Kirsty almost said she couldn't believe Helen would marry such a git, but stopped herself and said something polite.

Crikey that was a marathon read, I only usually listen to the omnibus so avoid this thread all week. Thank you all for keeping me entertained this afternoon even though you didn't know that you had

Now, daft question of the day, I've been wracking my brains for hours, I think I used to know but I can't now for the life of me work out was SOC stand for? Apologies for my ignorance.

the frustration and anger over David's u-turn would have not completely disappeared and so makes sense to surface now

Or, again, David could be biting lip/tongue and thinking, "so glad we didn't go to all the cost, upheaval and disruption of a moving a whole family for the sake of one person who was bound to cark it in fairly short order."

SOC = Sean O'Connor

Thank you R4