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!

Yep I like that script!

I know the writers have said they've taken lots of advice on this storyline but the introduction of Ursula just turns it into a pantomime.

It is unfortunate that Helen was so awful in the past that Pat and Tom are scared to talk to her. Hopefully Tony and Kirsty will save the day.

Yes I noticed that "hunting pal' too Wipsglitter .

IIWM and my MIL bought in different detergent, obviously Arse doesn't think environmentally friendly detergent cuts it. I would as politely as possible tell her to eff off. And take her Proctor and gamble shit with her

If my mum hadn't liked my partner at the outset, I doubt she'd now be behaving like Patbot - she'd be giving Hercule Poirot a run for his money in getting to the bottom as to why I was always so miserable. That's the part of the storyline that bugs me most. Everyone else can be explained away, but Pat? No sense whatsoever.

But as northernluker says hell has always been a problem, Maybe Pat is just taking stuff at face value to save her sanity. She certainly doesn't agree with a HB.

Which of course will end in hospital anyway, I don't reckon knoburse are going to stop an emergency ambulance getting there are they?

Toomuchtea, I think it must be the Ambridge health fairy who has cured Helen's anorexia overnight. If she were hiding food or throwing it up I would expect the SWs to have signalled it in some way, and anyway her weight, ketones, iron levels etc must (surely?) be being regularly monitored now.

Yes, I agree Grumpy, especially as Pat was the "feisty flag-waving feminist in the village" back in the day. Pat never treated Tony like "Lord and Master" why does she do it to Rob, and why hasn't she twigged that the decline of the Ambridge Organics Shop in Borchester correlated with Rob's involvement with it? I always saw her as being more financially savvy than Tony.

Augusta (great name by the way - do you like newts?) yes, it's the Ambridge health fairy at work again. Or alternatively the midwives who act like no midwife ever, as far as we can see and don't do blood tests etc.

Her past history of stubbornness makes it easy for him to shrug off the home birth idea as Helen's and convince Pat that she's on a hiding to nothing talking to H about it.

Rob and Arsilla are going to attempt this birth on their own, aren't they?
No need to call the midwife yet, dear.

Toomuch you're right that it's really improbable that she's just eating now because she's being made to - but we're getting no heavy handed sign-posting that she isn't, as Augusta says, so sadly I think the SWs do just think that this strategy by R and A would work....

The fact that we are spending most of our time discussing how to justify pats personality change implies it has been very badly written indeed

I just can't buy this sl anymore tbh. I think they ratcheted it up too fast so they can get a dramatic end

How much better would it have been if she wasn't pregnant and he was slowly slowly doing this - only hearing from them every so often but everytime thinking 'how does she put up with that' until it gets worse and worse but we have a few years of it rather than this rather intense period where over half the episodes are focussed on it

A bit like Brian's affair with siobhan. It was painful listening but it just fitted in - it wasn't made a priority

I think some of it is self-fulfilling though.

This storyline has got so much attention in press & social media, it can't be allowed to just trickle on.

Lots of people are getting what they've asked for.

The blood test that was done after her collapse showed anaemia. Helen wasn't eating enough, it wasn't that she wasn't eating full stop, though I do the SWs wanted to dangle that in front of us.

Pat has protested over time at a number of things, she isn't happy about the home birth for example. She wasn't happy about Helen stopping work or changing her name either or indeed about moving in with Rob - but every single time she objects it's Helen who has said ' this is how it is' and she's got nowhere. And all the time there is this running background of what a good bloke Rob is - stepping in to work his socks off when Tony was trampled, doing the school run, rescuing Christine from floods, playing football with Henry, enthusing over a pregnancy. Rob has probably worked harder at his relationship with Pat then anybody else and she sees him as the means to keep her daughter safe and happy.

18 years ago John went out on the tractor in a bit of a bad mood, having failed to get back with Hayley, and he never came back. Can you imagine what that might do to a mother? I think Pat is always a tiny bit on edge and that's why when Rob said stop driving and I was shouting at the radio 'OBJECT', she didn't. Because actually she thought that might be safer given Helen had just had a minor prang.

Pat's only human after all. At the moment she thinks she has a charming, committed, hardworking son in law who adores her daughter, a father for her grandson and a new baby on the way. Her daughter declares herself to be happy, seems financially secure, is well supported to keep healthy.

Now in fact Helen is desperately unhappy in a controlling and abusive relationship where she has been raped at least once, financially she's screwed, she's no home of her own, no income of her own, her movements are restricted and the perpetrator of this wide-ranging abuse has also got legal rights to said grandchild as well as to the offspring he forced Helen to bear. Add on to that the fact that by working in the business Rob is potentially giving himself some legal rights over the farm too. If they divorce in say 5 years it's going to take a lot of Usha's law magic to sort that one out. If I was Pat the temptation to stick head in the sand and say 'Everything's FINE' woud be strong.

Toomuchtea: sadly I can't claim to be a newt-fancier, I suppose if anything I'm a Wodehouse fancier.

redshoes - the scene I'd really like you to write is one where Kirsty bumps into Helen (in the park?) and they know Rob (and Dracula) are not nearby. What can Kirsty say to Helen that will nudge Helen towards admitting her problem with Rob and seeking help?

I honestly don't think it will be Kirsty. Rob has undermined her all along as jealous, spiteful and out to cause trouble.

He attempts to intervene have been clumsy if well intentioned.

My hopes are still on the midwife planting the seed, which will be confirmed by Shula and Tom and hopefully Adam.

But that's what would make the drama, Kirsty well aware that it's a rate opportunity and having to choose her approach carefully to avoid Helen just clamming up.

Rare not rate

Kirsty could get Tom and Pat to trust their instincts again... but the question is what can anyone do unless Helen herself chooses to leave?

Cannot help but feel, AugustaFinkNottle, that aunt would be calling aunt like mastodons across a primaeval swamp, about many of the current plotlines.

Toomuchtea. I think that's probably my favourite Wooster quote.

I think that Kirsty and Tom ultimately are going to play a big part in bringing Helen to her senses/supporting her, given that both are currently clearly very uneasy - but it may only be after or alongside the big birth drama/disaster. I agree with LyndaNotLinda that we need Tom to talk to the chicken suppliers.

One of my favourite quotes too

Absolutely agree with everyone about the chicken suppliers. It's a very, very irritating loose end.

But isn't that quite realistic? I'm expecting it to come up in a few months time with Tom saying to Johnnie despairingly, "if only I'd phoned that chicken supplier!" dum ti dum ti dum ti dum

There could be a showdown. Tom will carry out a forensic examination of the books, divulge his findings to Pat and Tony, and present the evidence to Rob with PC Harrison lurking in the tea room.