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

[PseudoBadger]

Knob can't file for divorce till a year's up. With regard to what SmallLegs said, by the end of our marriage, mine would just automatically assume a polar opposite position to anything I did or said. To him, he was right, and I was wrong, end of.

BTW, as usual I forget to thank you for the new thread. Reading it is the only way I can bear to keep up - and then it's still pretty painful.

My DGM listened to every episode from day 1 to her death in the late 60's. I have not entirely given up hope that I'll be able to listen again.

I wish David would tell Pip to get a bloody grip. I had a long distance relationship at her age and I wasn't bloody pining away, staring at my phone every second of the day when I should have been supporting my recently bereaved mum on Mothers' Day. She's pathetic.

TASWAMA

"Jill's generation thought women couldn't do without a man"

Yeah, course they did. All those suffragettes and ambulance drivers and delivery pilots and..........

It will be a year by GADD, won't it? Or not far off.

R4, surely it is reasonable for Ruth to be a bit sad on the first Mother's day after losing her own mother.

The Ursula SL is just silly. It's not the Archers any more, the characters are no longer believable. Even Wayne has changed from failed dope dealer to master chef.

Jill's generation grew up in the second world war and were only too familiar with the concept of women managing without men.

Not to forget that Ruth had a miscarriage on Mother's Day a couple of years ago.

I too thought Ruth missing her mom was very poignant and not wick getting oning at all.

All these inconsistencies.
They might as well bring Darryl back.

I know you lot don't like him, but to me, as an expat Brummie (now living on the Welsh borders) he was a comfortable reminder of the rogues and wastrels of my teenage years. I didn't mind him at all.

There's been no mention of him living in the shed throughout a cold and stormy winter and there's been a steady run of building work in the village that he could have done.

If Ruth had said "I'm blessed to have you lot here but I miss my mum" then I could have understood. But it was the gloomy tone and the deep sighing throughout dinner that got on my wick.
Ruth will never come out and say something. She has to huff and puff and sigh until someone has to drag it out of her with a "what's wrong?"

She was trying not to spoil it for everyone.

She's like one of those irritating people on Facebook who just posts a sad face and then gets pissed off with the friends who don't jump in with 'what's wrong hun?'

Agree that Ruth's huffing and puffing was very heavy-handed. Pip's being absorbed by her phone was very realistic to me, but I think if everyone had been behaving true to character Ruth's loss could have been signalled by David laying a hand on her arm and saying "Are you alright love?" I didn't think Jill's comments about Helen were in character either - more like something Susan would have said, if someone had to say it to signal a general lack of sympathy. I think Jill, who was very worried about her own sickly daughter's health when she was pregnant, would be someone who might be sensitive to Helen's health and wonder why she wasn't sharing a Mother's Day meal with her son. The trouble is it gets in the way of the plot if people behave in character - I think we all have to pretend to be new listeners still working out who is who.

I read this and hoped it might be a hint that Jill would be the one to say "Hang on, something's not right here..."

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1rwXHXKw9nG4xWbHTCvjbhk/the-mothers-of-ambridge

In general I'd say the purpose of the BBC blog is to fill the blog ... Though the background info is useful to new listeners.

But I'm disappointed to see in the Mothers of Ambridge entry that Noli and Sipho no longer speak to their mother. That's that then.

I think the Knob/Hellin and now Arsula plot will charge ahead to its own conclusion regardless of how anyone around them might or might not behave. Pointless to speculate, it has been set in stone ready for the audio book and no existing character traits or previous plotlines will be allowed to stand in its way. One thing we can be sure of is that it will make Nigel's roof plunge seem like the height of realism. All thoroughly dramatic and exciting if you are a new listener, utterly infuriating if you've been listening for more than six months.

This thread is bloody fantastic. Absurd boarding school idea predicted LOOOOOONG ago. But earliest they take them is 7. My poor father got shoved off aged 7 and it explains a great deal about his entire lack of EQ for starters. Maybe they are planning to despatch the bastard child to China where they take them from infancy.

Whole thing is just so silly, though. As if Arse would be prepared to cough up for educating this despised child having just met him etc.

Did anyone else notice the reference to Knob's terrible childhood/the awful atmosphere at home that made boarding school seem ok by comparison? No doubt there is some back story mileage to be made there at some stage.

My worry is this story is not even close to being done.

Who the hell is going to want to listen to the Helrob sl compressed into 90 mins?

I feel the ed has ideas above his station. It's not frigging Shakespeare mate

All thoroughly dramatic and exciting if you are a new listener, utterly infuriating if you've been listening for more than six months.

Couldn't agree more, Lilian. DH is a recent convert and lapping up the Helrob drama as I tut/rant.

Isn't the audio thing just a test run for the coming blockbuster film? Which is no doubt the reason for all the actor unavailability K.D. complained of?

(I'm not even sure that I'm joking.)

Who the hell is going to want to listen to the Helrob sl compressed into 90 mins? Someone who has no interest in the backstory, but enjoys a bit of drama - which really sums up the difference between writing for The Archers and writing a stand alone radio play.

Who the hell is going to want to listen to the Helrob sl compressed into 90 mins?

It could either be a useful "don't fall for this" educational tool.
Or it could be a Primer for tools.

Cutted, I don't think anyone objected to HWMNBN being a rogue and a wastrel. In fact I'm not sure you could really describe him as a rogue, he just got involved in wrongdoing through his general feebleness and incompetence. What I objected to was precisely the feebleness and the way that when anyone tried to help he just did nothing and then whined on about how he knew he was useless and how grateful he was to them and how awful it all was. In fact, most of all, it was that awful whiny voice.