Badly done Helen, badly done - you're as stuffed as a Grundy turkey. Discuss The Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

New thread in time for Friday's episode...

Haven't listened - just read Lowfield summary.

I've been remembering Nov 5th's of old, when DC were still kids, we had a joint street bonfire on the old railway path next to my house. And we all looked out for all the kids all the time (as it were), even if one of us was distracted all the other neighbours would be keeping an eye on things.

Hmm.

I'll actually be quite surprised if it all comes to a head this Christmas! This could go on for years and years and years....

This could go on for years and years and years - that's what I said earlier on this thread. I agree it's even more plausible when Rob has this incident to hold over H's head.

I agree stickerocks that as soon as the baby comes along Henry will be put in his place - slowly and insidiously, just like with Helen.
I can't believe that I actually have moments when I worry about what one fictional character is saying to another

Am I the only one listening to this and cowering waiting for the slap?

No slap will be as painful as Helen's gradual realisation of exactly what "parental responsibility" means to Rob.

I actually have had enough of this storyline now. I don't want an abusive relationship played out in my kitchen 6 days a week.

Would R feel the need to slap H? She so meekly gives in to his anger and accepts his portrayal of her as hormonally imbalanced, that he doesn't need to "punish" her with violence.

I think he will lose his shit at Christmas and push her down the stairs or slap her.
Either that or she'll find out the baby is a girl at the 20 weeks and he'll push her down the stairs then to try and get her to miscarry.

I've had enough of it too and I haven't listened for the last couple of days. I read the catch up on here and I'm glad I didn't listen.Not sure I can stand to any more. It it so horrible.

I thought it was clunky.
Susan can't look after Henry.
Sign post. Sifn post.
There will be fireworks.
Flashing lights.
Henry George stay near.
Is that the casualty theme tune I hear starting up in the background?

They could have written that so much better. Helen could just have told him H is goibg to fireworks. I'll be going along after work. Then you hear the Susan being distracted scene and play out the rest. It didn't need the heavy handed sign posting at start.
Although the Hel apologising for (not) undermining him and saying I thought it was an open discussion was well done.

I've just had a slightly Rob style thought.
Shoukd pregnant women really be making unpasteurised cheese? Borchester blue is surely full of listeria.

CUP great post - my favourite!!

I definitely think Rob will hit Helen before Christmas.

I'm like Bigbuttons, I've stopped listening as I don't want to hear Rob/Helen. When I read there are episodes without their storyline I listen but reading about it is enough for me.

I agree SmallLegs. V clunky (badly done, SOC, badly done). Interesting that we had been predicting some harm coming to Henry while he was in Knob's care. I'm wondering now if this one of those precursors to something more serious happening to him (hunting accident?) which of course will be absolutely nothing to do with Knob - one rule for him, another for Hellin. Agree with DDD that I don't think he will hit her - he doesn't need to and that would be much harder to explain away. I think one of Hellin's difficulties is that she doesn't know how to explain what is happening - Knob won't let me have anything to do with the shop, Knob forced me to have a secret wedding on the Isle of Wight, Knob won't let me be involved with my own son and now has legal control over him, Knob won't let me have a life of my own. Knob raped me and now I'm pregnant with a child I didn't want (but I'm not even sure if that's what happened and I've left it too long to say anything). I don't think Knob will do anything that he can't provide a perfectly good excuse for and which can't be be dressed up as a perfectly understandable misunderstanding by a pregnant woman who is not thinking straight. In a way what he is doing is more terrifying than physical violence because it leaves no visible marks and so is much harder to prove.

I am leaving the room now When H and R are on. Perhaps soc counts this as a huge success though as many are gripped. I don't want to be entertained by domestic abuse either. One reason I don't watch EE.

Indeed. He made it very clear yesterday that he is now the sole responsible parent in the household. And Helen a mere incubater.

I don't want anything to happen to Henry. But he may soon find himself separated from his mother. Rob has clearly already booked a bed for her in some sort of correctional facility.

I agree, SmallLegs, the storyline was a little too "neat", and at the bonfire there was that Casualty-like sense that Henry was going to have an accident. But it is a way for the writers to mess with our heads the way R messes with Helen's: see, R's judgement is good and maybe H should stop working (I'm parrotting the line, not saying I agree with it!)

In a way what he is doing is more terrifying than physical violence because it leaves no visible marks and so is much harder to prove.

That's why I hope he doesn't hit her and she ltb anyway.

The sl os really starting to dominate though. So either it is going to recede in the background again or it must be coming to a head soon. I hope for the former.

I think it's good that there is no physical violence (bar the rape, which even then can be explained away)- emotional abuse is a story that needs to be told. And The Archers does cover many things that aren't "entertaining"- from Elizabeth's abortion to Jack's dementia and so much in between. It is an "educational" programme as well which informs the listener. We all know about the ins and outs of emotional abuse because we've read the relationships board, others do not. My mum had no idea it was an abuse storyline when we talked about it a couple of months ago- in her sheltered, trusting world she didn't see the signs (luckily, my Dad is lovely and doesn't abuse her, but in a different life she would have made an easy victim).

I missed an episode earlier this week which covered the meeting about the events at Berrow. Was it really said (by Adam?) that the animal that had got into the silage was a chicken? Who has covered up the finding of a dog's body parts?

There seems to be a conspiracy of silence to stop Lynda finding out. I think it was Jennifer and Carol who stopped Charlie telling her.

He was a bit vague. Lynda's ears clearly pricked up when mention was made of a dead animal, but he definitely avoided saying it was dog. I don't really understand why - surely it would be a kindness to tell Lynda who must now have resigned herself to the fact that Scruff almost certainly drowned in the flood? Instead he whiffled on about the possibility of dead birds being scooped up with the silage. It seemed surprising to me, considering how vocal Lynda was being at the meeting, that she didn't press him on the issue.

The problem I have with the sl is that it is dominating to show now and leaving other sl under resourced

And the writing is not brilliant imo - they are very lucky to have actors who can pull it off tbh. If we had eg the pip actress in the Helen role and one of the fairbrethren playing rob I think we would all be scoffing at the ludicrousness of it

He said somethimg along the lines of : in these cases it is often caused by poultry.
The carcass was very decomposed so we haven't established what it was yet.