He's behind you! Rob's not the messiah - he's a very naughty boy! Watch The Archers pantomime here.

[PseudoBadger]

Oh no he isn't! Oh yes he is!

De-spreadshitting to actually comment on the story line (or as I note Emmmder2015 called it upthread, a sorry line ).

Wasn't Helen's reaction to Rob's post-scan enthusiasm also partly the increasing realisation that Rob is a chauvinist who delights in having a son, implying he sees girls as second rate, when normal people would be happy with either? Rob's sexism was reinforced earlier to the listeners earlier with his comment about rugby and women.

Posting for the second time today rendering myself an official infrequent poster not de-lurker by the mornington crescent DDD rules. Looking forward to spotting the Helen/rob baby name thread here. My money's on Robert Bob Robby Robertson the first. However the gender scan must have a small false positive rate...?

I was musing today whether I could re-start listening to TA as if I were a new listener, and knew no Ambridge history.

I don't think I could, and am not going to even try.

Surely it would make sense to have "be a long term listener" as a requirement of being Script Editor or scriptwriter?

Doesn't Rob have an estranged brother, one he was jealous of? We need some more backstory. We need Ursula to appear.

I haven't listened yet but I'm disappointed. Not because it is a boy but because Rob was right. I so wanted him to be wrong.

Well it was always a 50:50 chance that Rob would get what he wanted.😁

Well it was always a 50:50 chance that Rob would get what he wanted

Well a 105.1:100 chance it would be a boy

Oh dear, the odds were in his favour.
I just can't see the point of the SLs these days, except for the Grundy's "homeless at Christmas" which is so unbelievable as to be farcical.
Even the Rob thing - he strolls around the village being an utter arse to everyone and nobody seems to notice. I thought your classic abuser would put on a bit better face for the public?

De-lurker delurking to note that on the bbc writers room they have an ad for a writer which includes...yes..writing for nob face et al.

I'd go for it if I lived in Birmingham

I remember listening to a radio programme years ago. In rural India the farmers used to wait to go to have their cows inseminated until later in the day as they said that cows conceived later on in the day would more likely to be female. Scientists found out that this was true, Sperm to make females was slightly heavier and so more dropped in the flask and so later in the day there were more female making sperm than male making sperm in the flask.

Rob wasn't hanging around when he delivered his sperm! And you all think that he knows nothing about cows!

Thanks TooMuchTea I see a theme here

The Grundy story is bloody ridiculous, surely anyone in that situation would sleep on a sofa bed rather than ditch their elderly father in a hostel!

The thing is with Rob is people probably see him as a bit of a stuck arse with a bad temper but he hasn't really done anything bad enough in public to make them think he could be anything worse than that, especially with all the displays of affection and pride for his perfect wife and being such a good father figure to Henry

Only a matter of time until he starts fiddling the books for the shop. I wonder does he and Helen have a joint account?Does she even have a clue about her bank balance anymore or is that Knobs job now?
And where is Tom? They could at least script it so it feels like he is still around!

Arghhhh! I'm not listening tomorrow! I am

They are following the old soap standard of building someone up before their uber dramatic fall

...falling under the wheels of the milk tanker would be fitting.

How likely is a 16 week scan to be wrong about foetal genitalia I wonder...

puddock, I wondered about the possibility of a false positive too. I had a lot of scans with DD2, including one at 16 weeks, and they did say they could tell me the sex but might not be accurate. Mind you, this was some years ago and I guess things might have moved on.

As for Rob and the village, one thing I noticed when I was living in a village is that there's an accepted view of someone to which everyone (at least outwardly) subscribes. Then when it all goes dramatically pear-shaped, everyone suddenly comes out with the many things they've noticed over the years, and obviously clocked but not mentioned.

I had a scan at 17 weeks.
There was a bit of reluctance to state the sex and we didn't press. The radiographer explained that there had been litigation sometimes when they had got it wrong. We said we weren't bothered either way so he told us. He did get it right.

I knew the sex at 14 weeks.

OK - I am
I checked, as DD had a scan on Tuesday, they said she is 14 weeks, so I asked on behalf of Hellin could they tell the sex, she said not for at least another 2 weeks. I then went back through the threads and the rape was 14 weeks ago. I trust the real life person at my hospital over the crap sw's

I wonder if this is how they're planning to bring this whole sorry thing to a denouement - that Knob will just ignore and/or be downright cruel to Henry and Hellin will face a sort of Sophie's Choice - abandon Henry or give SOK to Knob.

febreeze did you know because of the scan ? or did you just know ? I knew my 2nd dc was a boy in a knob kind of way she wasn't

Though the rape was 14 weeks ago, Helen would be at around week 16 as the pregnancy would date from the beginning of her last period, assuming a 4 week cycle. Didn't Knob time the rape for when she'd be an optimum fertility?

All this talk one post of Ursula has reminded me of another one.

Could this be a family photo of Nob with his mummy and estranged brother?
No wonder he has psychological problems.

Does anyone know how they record the children's bits of TA? Do they come into the studio? I reckon for Henry they just have an "OWWWIGHT" button on the mixing desk thingy

If I recall correctly, the actress who plays Jill used to do the voices for the v small children.

Dipank yes I imagine he would have

I reckon either doing a male baby sets up the abuse and marginalisation of Henry OR there will be disability (possibly revealed later as 2/3 ye old - autism perhaps? Or severe dyslexia? Something that enrages rob's sense of entitlement to a perfect boy)