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!

Gosh, the contrast between Ed & Emmur (real problems but support each other well anyway), vs. Hell & Rob... ugh. I think that's one of the most painful things I've listened to on TA for a while.

& maybe Adam & Ian as a loving-couple contrast too, whatever Adam's weaknesses.

I loved The League of Gentlemen, but then I do have rather an odd sense of humour. Ambridge has a lot of parallels with Royston Vasey in my mind, particularly the village shop.

Going back to David Copperfield, Gruach, I'd forgotten about Ruairi! He'd be an ideal Steerforth to ruin Keira in due course. I think that Salem House was one of those Victorian private schools which took boys of any age and any level of ability, the key assessment at application stage being 'Can you pay the fees? Good, your boy can start tomorrow, and yes of course we can keep them 52 weeks a year until they're old enough to work, if they live that long'. (Not as bad as Dotheboys Hall, but not far off.) So if Ruairi flunks out of his public school and has to be sent to something akin to St Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys*, he might find Henry there too.

*I don't want to compare J K Rowlings with Dickens, but I did love this name.

Toomuchtea Yes I noticed that Urs. did not say our first grandCHILD. Interesting…..

They may just be a family (like my ILs).who overvalue one gender. The whole little prince thing. Rob may have got his ideas about the importance of sons from his mother.

I also do not think he is nc with his parents. I think he lied just to keep Helin away from them. For one thing at that point it was not clear he and Jess had actually split- there was a lot of grey area there.
And I don't think he wanted them meeting P and T either.

Its not surprising H didn't mention dinner party as doing so would be extremely PA.

And as I said upthread, I too suspect Miles is gay (and/ or Rob is too)

Abd it does not matter how controlling his dm is. Its no excuse. He's an adult. Sympathising with an abuser is what keeps women enmeshed. If a dog bites knowing why it bites does not make the bite any less painful.

The "Little Prince" sleep suit thing was nonsense. On so many levels:

1. Ursula and Rob's background is far too middle class for her to like something as tacky as that.
2. it made for clunky radio - you don't say "and here's a sleep suit with "Little Prince" written on it, you say "here's a sleep suit" and the recipient reads the slogan silently and reacts accordingly "oh, he'll love that!" etc.
3. does one ever gift clothes to a baby that is less than 20 weeks' gestation? Surely you only give such gifts after the birth?

That said, I did love the sound of utter panic in Helen's voice when Ursula said portentously "lets hope he doesn't turn out like his father".

It's absolutely no excuse. Thinking about it, my DH had a very controlling manipulative mother & a gay brother from whom he was estranged for decades because mother fostered rivalry and distrust between them.
DH isn't remotely like Rob.

The reason Ursula has only communicated with Rob by email is because her appearance now has been shoe horned in at short notice. With decent script writing we would have witnessed some phone conversations.
Like this, it's easy to reference as many historical emails as necessary to imply some kind of plot.

I only started listening a couple of weeks ago lured in by your brilliant thread titels! and want to run and kidnap helen

A couple of weeks?!

Oh soup, we have so much to tell you.

How are you finding it?

I feel right at home in ambridge :o

Did any one get the "Dot and Ethel" East-enders style reminiscing vibes between Emma and Ed yesterday?

Checking in

We could be talking about this Little Prince, which would not be tacky. However, I bet that wasn't what we were meant to think of.

Oh heck! Have just LA to the last two episodes. My blood went cold when he did the line about having already given her money for maternity clothes. Brrrr! He's so scary. I can't cope. He's crazy. I feel sick when I hear his voice. How is this actor ever going to be able to work again on radio? His voice is so sinister.

What will Pip say when Rex asks her out? What if she says yes? Will this cause a big rift?

Loving the carrot in Brian's lap. Yes, Jennifer would have cut them up - because who serves whole carrots?! - but it was funny.

Had David forgotten about the anniversary or his he thinking what we're thinking? She's not coming home. But what about the bairns? Would she really not come back for Christmas? No one leaves their kids like that before Christmas surely?

Love the lovely Grundys dancing on the lovely wooden floor in the lovely family farmhouse. Yy to the Christmas miracle! Please! I like predicting nice things.

Hi All = Newbie here, but really an ancient lurker. Archers addict until Nigel fell off the roof, so unfair ! Never understood why he couldn't survive but wheelchair bound?
Picked up again a while ago but tendency to get a bit lost at times (where the 'ancient' comes in) so glad of this thread.
Just popped in to say hello.

Ah yes Gasp0de I had forgotten about Le Petit Prince, who is indeed very Petit Bateau Joulesy middle class. I must LA to see if she says "the Little Prince". Doubt it though.

vegetable as afar as I know the Fairbrethren are only selling their geese directly - can't be Bridge Farm shop as not organic and I doubt Susan would have them in the Village shop out of loyalty to Clarrie.

Vita I do hope Emmur was not reminiscing about her Little Willy .

Ursula has only come out of the woodwork now because Rob has done the right thing and sired a male heir. I can certainly see where he gets it from now.

But how depressing! I was living in hope that Rob's mum would arrive at some point and put Helen straight on her son's true character. But oh no that would be far too generous of the script writers. They must really hate us.

And Rob only emailed his mother now to gloat about said son and seek parental approval. I doubt there were a string of emails before the scan.

And Rob only emailed his mother now to gloat about said son and seek parental approval.

Not sure that he was after approval. Do you think that there is a of-the-male-line-only Trust Fund somewhere.

Haven't heard tonight's yet - but I wanted to say what a lovely voice Rob has when he's got 'the charm' on, such a pleasant timbre when he was talking to Ursula. God I hate him.

I quite like the idea of a Petit Prince onesie. I looked a lot like the boa constrictor while pregnant.

Before I relurk - been listening off and on for 7 years I think. My first memory of the Archers is wanting to punch Kate a lot because of how she was treating Hayley and for her unutterable smugness. My eldest is a girl twin for Henry, so spent a lot of time howling at Helen, and my youngest ... well, let's just say I sometimes call him in a Northumbrian accent...

Thanks so much for the thread, I'm staying here until Rob gets unmasked as I can't listen to him :)

I suppose Ursula and Bruce will stump up for the school fees for Little Prince but not for Henry.

If it gets that far, which I hope it won't.

This story line started out subtle and thoughtful but is steadily becoming more and more ridiculous as the SWs compete to see who can add more improbability and contradiction to what is now a tottering edifice.

That's because it's all building up to Christmas, and the big EE type disaster/reveal or whatever, and so the excellent slow burn intensity has now been ramped up to pantomime levels.

Which reminds me that any moment now BBC is going to be unwatchable for me because of the annual miseryfest that is the EE at Christmas ad. Or, heaven forfend, ads.

Back to the subject of literary parallels and Little Prince onesies ... are we going for The Princess Diaries? Ursula will reveal that Rob - and SOK, in due course - will one day be head of a small principality located somewhere in the Home Counties. It explains why Rob always feels so superior to everyone else. And why he expects his princess wife to be constantly putting her feet up.
He was set up by Ursula to see if he could find his way in the real world, à la Trading Places. She has come to tell him that he has passed the test and can come home for Christmas.

Too far fetched? Even by current TA standards?

Why do Rob's brother and father work together in farming whilst Rob is seemly estranged from the family? Is it because Miles (Niles??) is the golden child and Rob has a deep rooted jealousy of his brother and in turn hates his father for favouring one son over the other.

Perhaps that is why he is still in touch with his mother as, although his issue is not really with her, he doesn't want to anything to do with his dad and brother and so she gets kept at arms length too but he cares just enough to send the odd email (bless).

Maybe his brother has daughters so Rob had to email Ursula with the news he has produced a boy, knowing the news would be relayed to his brother.

Dear god I am over infested!