SOC reveals he's a quitter whilst Keri sews up plot holes on Twitter about the wicked wife-sitter! Discuss the Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

Not long until our thread's 3 year birthday!

In the real world Kirsty would be absolutely bloody livid and would go straight to Helen's family and have it out with them.

You know, raise her concerns, point out what has been obvious to us, ignored by them.

Even if Pat doesn't agree, (Tony is elsewhere so we can't count in him) Tom knows something is wrong. Surely this is a perfect way for Tom to redeem himself. Not in a romantic way but to support Kirsty, to believe in her fears and to team up and take on Rob and Ursula and free Helen from her tormentors.

I don't think we are looking at years of this SL but I do think it could take months. Possibly until after a disastrous home birth (where I pray everyone survives) when the family and other villagers have the scales fall from their eyes and see Rob for what he truly is.

Tony was in it 2 days ago.

Do we know when SOC is leaving? In particular, do we know if it's May?

May was suggested up-thread, but I'm not sure if that was based on a best guess from what the BBC etc have said, or whether an actual date has been officially announced.

I like your thinking Gruach
So as the smokes drifts away from the ruins of Blossom Hill Cottage and the last ambulance winds up the hill towards Borchester General a crow flaps past and SOC shuts his laptop with a decisive click.
My work here is done! he says...

Should be followed by the dramatic version of BG we get on the big occasions:

Dum dum dum dum DUM DUM
Dum dum dum dum DUM DUM

De te dum te dum te dum.... etc

Mystic Bore predicts:

SOC has set wheels in motion for a SL that will be played out over decades.

H will eventually realise what is happening to her, there will be much drama before/during birth and her subsequent escape.

Knob will take SOK away to be raised by wolves himself and Arsula.

In years to come, SOK will return to claim his inheritance...

Or in the really best episodes where we get no final BG at all ... I'm thinking Phil's death, Nigel's death ... Ursula & Rob's all-too-timely demise.

Didn't the BBC press release (quaint phrase now) say SOC would be leaving in "late Spring"? So no later than the end of May ...

Oh - Keri D. has tweeted:

Planning my next #TheArchers week (29 May-3 June). Horribly complicated actor availability issues, but I think I've solved them. Onwards!

What a tease!

No actor availability issues with Bartleby or any number of rampaging livery horses, pigs, cows or bulls....

Is he the new editor then?

Birth of SOK must have occurred by June and that's a tangential event so it looks like the new editor is going to be stuck with whatever SOC has left to pick up and affect a couple of decades or more.

No, he has explicitly ruled himself out. He'll be writing his next set of scripts.

7th June is episode no. 18,000. We can reasonably expect a lot of publicity around that, and that usually means some fairly major plot development. Hmm.

Nice interview with Buffy Davis (Jolene) here. I should warn you that there are pictures. She comes out with the joke I've heard before but never fail to laugh at that 'Jolene Rogers' is more of a mission statement than a name.

no easy way Kirsty could take this to Pat... Pat would want to hear Knob's side. Knob would tell Pat 2 faced lies & Helen would 100% confirm Knob's version of events. Pat would have to side with exactly what Helen says she wants. Pointless to go to H's family (for now).

I suppose everyone is right the whole thing will only finally get revealed when Knob does some physical violence to Henry. :( Instead, I'd love Carole T. to be the trigger to unravel Knob's tangle of deceits, but that would be too tidy.

I quite enjoy the Hell-Knob storyline. Not as a forever SL, but Knob getting his comeuppance will be all the more delicious for the long wait.

Maybe Kirsty could end up with Rex, Is Rex too young?

Kirsty needs to speak to TOM!

I'm hoping the new editor will boot the Fairbrothers, they really bring nothing to the series.

Kirsty needs to speak to Ian.

If H had a sign of friendliness from Ian then I think she would spill the beans.

Rob's already subtly planted the idea in Pat's mind that Kirsty encouraged H to take Henry out of school so I don't think Pat would listen to Kirsty and it would be hard to admit that someone who's only just come back to the village has noticed something that Pat should have seen months ago.

Interesting about the 18000th episode. The Comeuppance?

Actually I wish Helen would talk to Adam and 'fess up about spilling the beans on his indiscretion. At least then Ian and Adam could sort out their problems.

The Adam/Ian thing is another story that's been dropped too suddenly. I'd rather hear how they're getting on than suffer more of Ursula.
The Hel/Rob story could have bubbled under for a while without Ursula having to be brought in. It didn't need spicing up!

Nothing to do with anything, I realise, but find it beyond astonishing that we hear nothing about Kate's children in S Africa. Ever. Zippo. Plenty of yurt chat, but even someone as selfish as her wouldn't be able to forget they exist.And what about JD and Feebs - they'd care, wouldn't they?

Not entirely sure why I have got all over agitated about this particular non story line all of a sudden, but had to get it off my chest.

It's worth saying again and again BOING!

However I think there was a mention of one of the children's birthdays a few weeks ago. Brian said something about Kate having rushed into the house one morning to Skype them. (Or perhaps to enable Brian and Jenny to speak to the child as well.) But the emphasis was more on Kate never being available to talk to her father.

Never mind. One day Nolli and Sipho have to arrive in Ambridge ...

I got the impression that Nolli and Sipho had (understandably) had it with Kate and were pretty much estranged from her.

The thing is with the Kate and SA children thing is, we have to remember that we don't hear every single conversation that the characters have and these things are discussed "off air ". I mean, I'm sure Lynda and Robert discuss what to have for dinner. And ed and Emma discuss changes to access arrangements but we don't hear them because it would make the programme to dull

Sorry for being a. Obvious and b. Typo strewn. I'm a bit tipsy. It's been a bit of a week