Follow the subtle trail towards the Christmas storyline climaxes in Ambridge - discuss The Archers here

[PseudoBadger]

So many possibilities.... A visit from the Titcheners Snr? Baby of the wrong gender? A ruined wedding? Re-housed Grundys? RuthRex?

The abuse part may be written well but the pat character has been annihilated.

Trying to predict what Knob will do with that information about H's previous car accident...

Yes yes yes I agree bigbuttons. Rob is in no position to criticise anyone about relationship infidelity! And his thinly veiled homophobia was horribly grating too. I hope Helen's excellent relationship with Ian will win out here.

Here's a thought, is now the moment when all is revealed and it turns out that Ian was actually the sperm donor for Henry?! That would be a bit gutting for Rob....

Or am I missing something?

Only that what Rob says has nothing to do with what's in his head. He doesn't want Helen to go to the wedding because they're her friends not his (and he has fallen out with both of them). Plus the small matter of something definitely being behind his extreme homophobia.

He doesn't care about the Adam and Charlie thing from a moral point of view. He's just saving it up for leverage.

"I don't think I could be that hypocritical"

Put Joe in a home? It would kill him! And he would take his ferrets and cause all sorts of havoc. Perhaps he will go into the Laurels like Marjory A and Uncle Tom and Jack Woolley.

Think the Laurels costs doesn't it? Well out of the Grundy's' league unless someone else paid.

(Dies of a rogue apostrophe ...>

Interesting suggestion that driving is one more thing a pregnant woman shouldn't do.

I just can't see Pat going along with that. They seem to have mislaid her character.

I happened to be in the car between 7 & 7.15 today so listened for the first time for ages, & bigbuttons has said exactly what struck me

Adam had a brief NY flingy grope with Charlie, vs Rob persistently shagging Helen while still married to Jess (still living with Jess!), & yet Helen let him get away with those horrible remarks!!!

God.

Please don't tell, Rob!

Pat! Listen to her! I felt sick for Helen.

Poor Grundys. When will the good thing that will make them have a happy Christmas happen? When?!

What has Rob done to Tony's tables to make them acceptable?

With any luck Pat will break it to Tony that they've all become taxi drivers for Helen, he will ask her whether she's on glue, will then join the dots with Rob's attitude to him, and pennies will begin to drop (apologies for mahoosive mixed metaphors).

But I have a horrible feeling that that's too optimistic.

Onlies tend to fall into one of two camps in my experience - independent, outgoing, resourceful which starts as little kids when they have to make their own entertainment, friends, turn up to things on their own with no sibs etc or the more 'stereotypical' spoilt, clingy, timid etc

Very true,Gruach, but she's reverted SO suddenly from the 'la la la, I'm so happy, aren't I lucky to have such a wonderful man' to her present state of grovelling panic at the slightest thing

Maybe they think it is because she is pregnant.

The actual accident annoyed me. I am going to give SOC bod and assume that her lapse in concentration is because she is miserable and not because she is pg. But suggesting pregnant women cannot drive ffs. Pat treating her like a mobile incubator ffs. Just until the baby is born...after that who cares.

The only hope os tgat on one of the occasions when they are ferrying the incubator-formerly-known-as-Hellin about, that she will have the chance to have a conversation with them. That is if sye is not too busy putting her feet up to talk what with being pg and all.

I feel furious and have even listened to this episode. Most mothers of daughters in this position would be questioning their Sils behaviour and talking to others about it. The driving thing is ludicrous.

I was just pondering why none of the the other SW try and intervene with SOC's meddling when it came to me in a flash - SOC is Knob! His intervention in the Archers is like Knob's intervention in the shop - he knows nothing about it and is trying to impose his will on a team of people with much more experience than him and for some reason they have all rolled over and done whatever he wants. We can only hope that among them is someone pushing job applications under his nose for jobs on Coronation Street and Emmerdale, but I fear not. Pat's transformation really is the final straw. No wonder the Knob storyline has been so well executed so far (and no wonder SOC couldn't understand at the beginning what people were seeing in Knob!)

Every single time she requests a lift from her mother or That Man they will enquire about the purpose of her trip and then tell her they can take care of whatever and she should be resting at home.

Time for Kirsty-to-the-rescue ...

Love that theory Lil'G!

It's almost like someone came up with a really good abuse sl and they have parachuted it in so the characters don't quite work in the roles trey be been given

I think it works very well and it's the best story line for years.
I do agree that Pat is surprisingly taken in but that's all part of the fun of the plot line.

I suspect all the actors pussyfoot around SOC in the way Hellin pussyfoot' around Knob for fear of being written out or replaced.

Fair cop ipaid I didn't explain very well. I didn't say that the so called stereotype ones are a tiny minority in my experience (no more or less than others who are timid etc) and actually most I lies confound that stereotype and lots tend to be very independent. My bug bear is then suddenly making Ruth fit a feeble untrue stereotype that she never was and expecting us to believe it. I come from a long line of I lies and am part of it myself, I wasn't trying to be negative about them. Totally the opposite

Truly this is all now shaping up for Enders style Festive Woe isn't it. Joe in a home, sad impverished Grundys, Helen chained to the house and so on...

Whoever SOC thinks is best Deogratis

To add my strong feelings on this whole Ruth thing probably have something to do with he fact the whole "what about when your parents die" was thrown at me a few times about onlies over the years and firstly it's grossly rude and insensitive and secondly total bullshit in my experience. I'll stop using this thread as my own personal therapy now though and go back to slagging off the storylines