Things To Do in Ambridge When Rob's Dead. Can The Archers get Home Deliverance for Helen?

[PseudoBadger]

At the moment though it is Helen who is being airbrushed out. Don't forget, she was banished from watching Henry open his Christmas presents and now they have a lovely photo of Daddy, Henry & New Grandma to send him off the prep school with.

Yes - what was that about 'fat ankles'?

Vile man.

I heard the three seconds when Arse was saying about how it was a shame they couldn't send Henry away to his real dad's

POOR LITTLE MITE

then I flounced from the kitchen

(OH is still listening)

(which is annoying, but handy for an update if curiosity gets the better of me)

At least David laughed at Rob describing Helen as taking up too much of the bed and having fat ankles as being naive.

I'm quite sure Knob didn't so much as mention his mother last Mothers' Day, so why the overkill in doing things for her this year?

Why would Arsula assume Helen would be wholly unable to cope with a newborn when she did so previously as a single mother?

I wondered about the fact that Helen sounded if anything happier than usual. You would think that she would still feel awful about nearly scalding Henry. Which therefore makes it appear that either the whole thing was massively exaggerated by Arsula, or that it was in fact Arsula was responsible. Though in that case you would expect Henry to have spilt the beans to Pat and Tony. I'm deeply confused

It's like a Victorian melodrama. Helen will be banished to an asylum and Henry sent to some gradgrindian prep school to be bullied mercilessly and have his spirit broken.

Just to clear up one point, my children are all under sixteen, so I'm pretty sure I'm not a FIL. Sorry to ruin the mystery.

This is perfect!!

He's buttering up Ursula now because she's got money and he's running out of that.

My prediction is that he's going to file for divorce after the baby is born, cite Helen's inadequacies as a wife and mother, claim a goodly chunk of her assets and make a bolt for it to Essex with the children.
If she survives, that is.

Have 5 year olds ever been able to board? Surely 7 has always been the usual age (and now it's older than that in most cases)?

I knew someone who went at 4 or 5, about 40 years ago. Christ that makes me feel old!

But surely he doesn't want to actually be responsible for the children - he just wants control.

He needs Helen dependent on him, not shot of her all together.

My father boarded from age 7, but that was in the 1940s, so not entirely up-to-date information about modern practices. I think that was fairly normal then, but most these days seem to go from 9 or 13. (This knowledge is based entirely on driving past signs outside schools, rather than being scientific in-depth research.) I think you can go earlier in exceptional circumstances, which presumably is something like both parents being posted to a warzone or something.

Suggesting Pat and Tony aren't interested in Henwee is ludicrous - he used to live with them and they are now both retired for goodness sake. When Ursula took Henry to their house in the middle of the night they already had a bed made up for him. I keep saying this, but I'll say it again - this storyline might work if Helen's family lived miles away, or even in Birmingham, or if Helen didn't have much to do with them (like Kirsty for instance or almost anyone who doesn't have family in the village), but all the Archers live in each other's pockets - Helen has not only her parents, but her brother, grandmother, aunts, great aunts, cousins Uncle Tom Cobley and all living in the same village. They are constantly in and out of one another's houses, or shop or pub, at church, in the village panto or other theatrical extravaganza and celebrating any number of festivals together (Bonfire night, strive Tuesday, Valentines Day, Mother's Day, Easter not to mention various Ambridge-only event involving wassailing) not to forgetting countless birthday teas and cricket matches. None of them has a life of their own - that's how The Archers works - in many ways that's the whole point of it. We have to forget all that for the purposes of the story so Arsula (a woman who Knob was supposedly estranged from - though we have to forget all that as well) can pay for Henwee to go to an imaginary boarding school that takes five year olds in order to remove him from the story (rather as Ruari had to be removed once he had served his purpose though his banishing was much more believable in the context of the story). As my late father (a huge Archers fan) would have said - it's a bit far-fetched.

I once had a boyfriend who had some serious issues. Most of them seemed to stem from the fact that he was sent to boarding school at eight.

Well done David for not conspiring with Rob's misogynistic shite.

Chilling things Ursula said:
It's not good for a boy to have a mother who [dotes|adores] him so much.
Sorry cannot remember the exact words but I could almost picture Rob hanging his head and saying yes mummy.

It is annoying that they are making Rob the victim of a manipulative mother. I wonder if she announced she was landing on them and Rob tried but failed to turn the situation to his advantage.

Still no excuse. My exmil fucked my ex up by making him feel unloved and his nsdf made it worse by being an appalling sexist, racist who battered his 3 brothers who in turn bullied him.

It may explain why he is fucked up but it does not excuse him being a serial abuser.

Ursula has outmanouevred him there. Unless that was his plan all along and when he said Helen will never agree to it he meant so you'll have to do it mother while I wash my hands.

If Helen agrees to it I will have no sympathy for her. Please make this the thing that wakes her up.

I think Jills little summation was probably a fairly accurate reflection of what a lot of Ambridgians think of Hellin although I doubt it was her status as a lone parent that made them think she might struggle to find a man.

I wonder if Helen has yet asked Ursula why she didn't turn up to dinner that time with Tony and Pat...

Henwee is getting on for 6

Nope. He was 5 on 2nd January.

When did Ian punch Rob??

I can't get worked up about Ursula/Rob/Henry because I can't take it seriously. They have jumped several sharks.

Ruth was in fine form tonight. Had her three children and devoted DH taking her out for a Mothering Sunday meal out but was she happy? Was she heck as like. She gets on my wick.

When did Ian punch Rob??

Wasn't there some charity run? Or cycle. The thing with Bradley Wiggins.

Ian punched Rob when they did some sport challenge thing (?Sport Relief?), that time that Bradley Wiggins made an appearance.

Yes - here's Lowfield - www.lowfield.co.uk/archers/weekly.phtml?20140316

Yes, that was a very satisfying punch.