Game of Farms: The 4 Houses of Ambridge. Bleak House, Boring House, Sitcom House and About to Breach the Terms of Their Tenancy House.

[PseudoBadger]

Never mind the yoghurt - who is making the Sterling Gold?!

Nooooooo.... Justin lives in a box in my head marked 'Lovely'.

He'd already started telling Henry not to bother Helen and to be quieter before he announced the visit.

I think we're going to find that Ursula has exactly the same views of obedient children and of how a woman should have absolute rest during pregnancy.
I'd hazard a guess that Rob was suppressed when Miles was expected and is now doing the same to Henry.

I don't believe Rob has any strong feelings about either obedience in childhood or rest in pregnancy.

But I'd find it hard to explain. He is an opportunist. His - possibly unacknowledged even to himself - goal is to become (via control of Bridge Farm) a king in his own mirror and to achieve global supremacy for his own son. He's realised that the most effective way to do this is to completely shut down Helen as a functioning human being and take possession of all she has, all she stands for, in her community - love, respect, skill, professionalism, family position, profit and inheritance. He wanted a child, now she's pregnant he can use that as another reason for lockdown, while doing all he can to separate Henry from her. (Because if he really cared about Henry being too boisterous he would be encouraging him to look after his mummy by sitting quietly beside her or doing lots of fetching and carrying for her - rather than doing his best to ensure they're never in the same room.)

However - I won't be surprised if the SWs attempt to explain his behaviour differently ...

I think rob is just lowering the bar on henry so that normal behaviour becomes "naughty" and that he can punish him and isolate him.

Rob's baby must be the best and get all the praise and plaudits. But henry has a huge advantage with his doting extended family..

The thread in chat about being naive makes me wonder whether we're missing something. Is going up Lakey hill a euphemism for something? Would explain Pip and Matthews '5 star afternoon'. Bleurgh.

I've always understood Lakey Hill to have two particular functions for the villagers: firstly as a venue for seasonal jollity requiring some physical effort - egg and spoon races, falling down races etc; but secondly as a place for (otherwise stable) couples to take a stroll when they have fallen out, attempted reconciliation and one of them at least wishes to put a lid on the thing by verbally reconfirming their dedication to their current domestic life. I'm pretty sure Jill and Phil did this, Ruth and David of course, and it's how it was used yesterday by Pip and Matthew. So pretty significant - but they went back to Rickyard afterwards.

By the way, do any of you oldies need a translation of Fairbrothers speech: "showing your bits on Snapchat" and being "in the friendzone"?

Thank you for your kind offer D3 but I understand these. However, i do^ need a translation for a "five star afternoon". I can guess what it means but is the phrase actually A Thing, or is it something that the SW have made up? I need guidance because my DD has never discussed one with me thank the lord.

Yes agree with others who have said Knob cranking up the control of Henry is nothing to do with Ursula coming. It's just the next stage in his total take over of all that is Helen. He will want Henry to fear him but for him to not really realise quite why he feels this way, he will just know that he will be in trouble if he doesn't do as Knob says. If Knob has control of Helens child, it's all the more easy to have control of her.

Thank you for the explanation Gasp0de!

Ew.

They were obviously sat at Rickyard playing old tapes of '80s groups. Might not have only been Five Star.

(Do not tell me the truth.)

I totally agree about the power thing, Gruach. It's his primary motivation for all he does.

I'm just trying to make sense of the little bit of back story we have - that he resents Miles, claims to have had a miserable childhood, was very edgy when Ursula arrived a few weeks ago and so on.

I wonder if we are going to be fed a 'reason', even an 'excuse' for his behaviour. I also wonder if Ursula is going to be the one who smacks Henry so that she is portrayed as the villain and Rob as a previous victim.

I understand that abusers often were abused themselves but he has to be held responsible for his own actions as a grown man.

Maybe Ursula is there to keep Pat away?

Eeek, EBear I'd forgotten about 5Star. I know the yoof like their retro and throwback but there is a limit.
Do you think they were playing Rick Astley at Rickyard?

Would this help as an image of Rob?

Boop for Kenton and Wayne bonding getting on over the meals. Also the reactions to Close Encounter.

Everyone's different about discussing stuff with parents, I suppose Pip N Mathew ARE just across the yard from Brookfield, they can't pretend otherwise

Ah, it was CLOSE Encounter......now I understand why they were all crying. Scared the shit out of me, that film.

It's all reminding me of this excellent but creepy as hell poem by Ted Hughes (yeah, exactly):

“The Other"

She had too much so with a smile you
took some.
Of everything she had you had
Absolutely nothing, so you took some.
At first, just a little.

Still she had so much she made you feel
Your vacuum, which nature abhorred,
So you took your fill, for nature's sake.
Because her great luck made you feel unlucky
You had redressed the balance, which meant
Now you had some too, for yourself.
As seemed only fair. Still her ambition
Claimed the natural right to screw you up
Like a crossed-out page, tossed into a basket.
Somebody, on behalf of the gods,
Had to correct that hubris.
A little touch of hatred steadied the nerves.

Everything she had won, the happiness of it,
You collected
As your compensation
For having lost. Which left her absolutely
Nothing. Even her life was
Trapped in the heap you took. She had nothing.
Too late you saw what had happened.
It made no difference that she was dead.
Now that you had all she had ever had
You had much too much.
Only you
Saw her smile, as she took some.
At first, just a little.

That poem IS creepy Asking.

If you think of poor Sylvia ,it makes my skin crawl.

Thanks for the new thread pseudo, for the hilarious post about the army of TA listeners DDD and for the poem Asking - very apposite.

And thankyou all the rest of you for keeping me up-to-date (non listener).

ebearhug in response to your post on the last thread I can't keep up I am also the product of a R4 upbringing. Every time I go to see my local team play football I find myself repeating an Uxbridge entry - [newly-signed midfielder Jonjo] Shelvey - A bit like a shelf

Scary poem, but so apt.

That poem just made me shudder!

Thank you asking as trevor says, very apposite when was it written, do you know? Seems hard to believe he would be referring to himself - or was it a guilty stage he went through after Sylvia's death?

The Henry business is so sad.

I don't think I know Helen's character enough to know why she wouldn't be starting to worry about Henry being on his own with knob.

I mean, are we to assume she can no longer make excuses for knob in her own mind but is too scared to do anything about him? If that was the case surely she would be starting to realise how awful it all is for Henry. Apoligies if I'm staying the bleedin' obvious. I listen on catch up when I can and don't like to read this thread until I've caught up.

Ooh I'm glad you all saw the relevance of the poem as well. I'm not sure of the date, Blanket - it was published in his New & Selected Poems in 1995 and listed as "previously uncollected" so could have been any time. It's certainly stuck with me.