Discuss The Archers here. There's hut construction, new teen arrivals, pastured eggs, pining Pip and other fun Spring-like stories to choose from.

[PseudoBadger]

Maybe if we don't look directly at the other storyline it will disappear?

So Rob was getting Henwee ready for school and had already phoned up for an appointment?
The time doesn't fit. Let alone Rob's misrepresentation of her sleepwalking despite Henry's statement that he wasn't worried.

I just hope (forlorn) that Helen told the psychiatrist the truth and lied to Rob - but suspect that Helen gave the "party line" and threw away a chance of help.

tibb - but it didn't feel like Helen was trying to hide anything from Rob - she effusively volunteered how sorry she was. Whereas you'd think if she had said one thing to the psych and wanted to portray something different to Rob, she would shut down the conversation - "let's just get home" - to give herself a chance to construct an edited version of what was said in the consultation.

Hi ColdTea , I really hope it doesn't happen, it would be too many painful storylines at once - and you're right Knob will probably delegate all childcare to his lovely mother...

It is incredible the way the fact that he hit her has been so completely whitewashed. I was so hopeful when she said "you bastard" and went for him that she was breaking out of the cocoon she's in, but no, brainwashed back into it within minutes. Now even she thinks she was the one who attacked him. It really is terrifying seeing how this sort of abuse happens but I am supportive of the storyline, yes it makes for hard listening but it needs to be done.

But yes, I like to think I'm a better husband than Rob , but if he can make cups of tea, get a 5 year-old ready for school and fit in a call to a (very early-opening) psych clinic, manage a conversation with his wife and still remain so calm, then I need to know his secret.

Checking in. I'm klaxon-watching from now on. Didn't listen tonight and don't want to. This SL was such a great opportunity and they're completely fucking it up. I know it's drama but for crying out loud they have a duty of care to the thousands of women up and down the country who are living with this. It's just getting ridiculous.

For that reason, I'm oot!

On a lighter note, I vote for 'feminyne mystiquery' to go in the next thread title

DadDadDad you must be busy tonight keeping up with this.

I did like the bit about the pasting table

The thing I find slightly unconvincing about the Rob Hellin story is that there have been so many instances of him managing to pull the wool over people's eyes and get away with it - from diverting the culvert, to cheating at cricket, to trying to blackmail Charlie about being gay, telling Ian about Adam and Charlie, taking over the farmshop and many lies about Hellin - and he's never once been caught out. Surely someone is going to say, hang on a minute... After Kirsty got thrown out and told never to darken their door again, we didn't hear her mention it to anyone. Too many loose ends left dangling.

When she was in hospital a few weeks ago seeing an antenatal psychiatrist was on the list of things they were going to do for her. I expected a nice long stay in hospital while she got fully sorted. I didn't expect her to be out in no time.
So why did he have to push for a psychiatric appointment all of a sudden if it was already on the cards?

It's the back-tracking that irritates me more than anything. Does one writer not read/hear what another has done a couple of weeks before? Isn't the editor's prime function to oversee the storylines and ensure continuity and credibility?

I applaud the story line and the performances but it's being done now so sloppily with too many inconsistencies and absurdities. I suspect it's all ramping up to allow SOC to go out in what he will see as a blaze of glory when it will actually be a cheap ending to what was a subtle and fascinating story.

Or maybe they have talked to so many experts that they don't know which one to go with.

Busy? No, just procrastinating, as I ought to go bed.

Thanks for the reminder of Joe's delicate attempt to discover Lynda's weight. Very entertaining, but all based on a rather thin premise: as if even Eddie would say, "OK, Lynda weighs 9 stone, so we don't need to worry about this bed supporting 10 stone, we'll test it up to 9 and a half - just to be safe." Surely, you're not building that precisely - you just say, "well if the two of us can safely sit on it with our feet off the ground then it will take one person lying on it"?

enoch - I thought Helen said in tonight's episode that her appointment was on Friday (?) (so already booked following up from the hospital stay, as you say), but Rob had managed to find a slot today that had come up, so it was just bringing it forward so he could maximally exploit the sleepwalking?

DumDeDum is very interesting..............

And there was me thinking that most beds should be able to carry about 13 stone per person. What are they building the bed out of? Balsa wood?

Thanks Dad. Must have missed that.

You all just don't see it do you. Or don't want to.

Maybe Rob is planning on getting a wet nurse.

So why did he have to push for a psychiatric appointment all of a sudden if it was already on the cards?

Because Helen stood up for herself, albeit momentarily - he's got to get her back under control, and telling her she's a threat to her son and making it official by involving medics is one way of doing that.

Henry is just a trial son to show the world Rob's potential to be the best father in the world. He will serve no purpose once his half-brother arrives, so must go. I can't believe Tony will be up for that - nor will Pat, but it is Tony who will speak up. If they really thought Helen couldn't cope, they would take him in - partly as a substitute John, just as Johnny is partly a substitute John.

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I have another evening class tomorrow. Please could you all post a bit less? Takes hours to catch up!

Words ...?

As someone said earlier, this started out as such a subtle story and, as we discussed its development here, I've been prepared to believe most of it - even moving in a MIL to ramp up the abuse. All of that (except the boarding which they simply didn't bother to research) might well be happening in any town or village across the country. But last night crossed a line. It was an excellent use of radio - and I'm sure there are evil, calculating psycopaths walking amongst us - but it's no longer an everyday story; its melodrama.

And I've quoted Keri Davies' tweet in acknowledgement of the outside chance that Helen told the actual truth rather than Rob's version. Or even that her telling Rob's truth is more revealing than they anticipate.

What is it that I'm not seeing?

he's expecting H to produce a strapping teenage lad already wielding a cricket bat...
Absolutely Slice!

What will Rob do to H if the baby is small or sickly or colicky. I dread to think.

The scenes with Joe, Ed and Lynda were laugh out loud brilliant.

What will Rob do to H if the baby is small or sickly or colicky. I dread to think
...or a girl!
Unlikely I know after so many scans, but it does happen.

If the baby is a girl he will hit the roof.

I think the plan is to get Helen out of the picture and have him and his mother raise it.

EasyTiger they are making the bed out of a pasting table

Although the whole Knob/Hell thing is so frustrating, I imagine it's happening all the time. The DV programme last night showed how women, even when their lives have been threatened and they've been beaten up etc can still say things like "I hope he's ok" and "I only ever loved him". For a psychiatrist, psychologist or CBT therapist to tease out EA from Hellin's complex mental state is going to take considerable time and the NHS will only provide a certain number of sessions anyway. It's also one thing to say to a patient "you can breastfeed without harming the baby on x or y drugs" but that doesn't mean the patient will believe you.