Will it be porridge or curtains for Knob? Await a sensible and sensitive ending to That Storyline on The Archers thread.

[PseudoBadger]

Threads are moving so fast! Will this thread be here to welcome SOK?

[ColdTeaAgain]

Oh I hope he lets slip to Patbot on Friday!

[redshoeblueshoe]

Bastard.

[Stickerrocks]

Where on earth does Alf's accent come from?

A ha. Surely Henry will be confused by being told by Rob that secrets are bad, but now being told to keep one.

[EsmesBees]

Rob is taking an unnecessary risk here. Henry will spill the beans surely. Kids that age are terrible at keeping secrets.

[Gruach]

Fool! Has he never met a child? Even at ten they struggle with the concept of a secret. (I learnt that at great cost )

[redshoeblueshoe]

Yes ColdTea after all he only said don't tell mummy

[SmallLegsOrSmallEggs]

Rob: henry has decided he'd like to go to daddy's school. Haven't you old chap?
Hen: yeees
Rob: I thought he was a bit young. But he's determined. Aren't you Henry?
Hen: yees.

Helen: oh. Oh. Henry?
Rob: now darling, I know its a shock but thinking about it I think he's onto something. After all it was the making of me. You do want him to be like his daddy don't you?
Hel:

[Boomingmarvellous]

Spot on small. Also pat is babysitting henwee on good Friday, so that Hellin is alone all day with knob. Think I'll not listen.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Rob: You do want to go to Daddy's school, don't you?
Henry: Awwwight!

I believe the production team has said before that they just edit in a recording of various stock phrases of the young children - they don't come to the studio, they get recorded at home. Helen and Rob have probably never met 'Henry'.

Well, my theory now is that they made a job lot of recordings of that little boy when he was not quite three and for reasons of economy they've never bothered to make any more. Hence why he still sounds rather toddlerish.

Poor kid. He thinks it will just be a glorified sleepover, doesn't he?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

I expect you all noticed too that he said 'and of course Helen has chosen not to take the drugs' or something along those lines. What Helen actually said was something like 'Well, I've got the antidepressants and I will think about taking them'. He was the one saying 'Are they safe to to take in pregnancy?'IIRC.

Gruach, I must have a look on Twitter later. How ridiculous that the storyline only holds together with the social media equivalent of footnotes.

[selsigfach]

But she admitted to Kirsty that she hadn't hit him (although that was the day after, post-rape, when hopefully a few more scales had fallen).
And the school isn't a secret (naughty things that make Daddy feel sad) but a "surprise" which is altogether different. God he's such a cunt, I can't bear him.

[Imbroglio]

I wonder if Alf will be the unwitting catalyst - Rob has him down as an idiot.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

I hope that Rob's nemesis is (a) female and (b) from one of the lower income families he's written off as peasants. I won't readily forgive that nasty jibe about Fallon and Emma being just a couple of village girls.

[EmilyDickinson]

I must admit to being rather apprehensive about this week's Archer's as it's occurred to me that the scriptwriting team might have decided that there would be a certain extra impact to having this story line reaching crisis point in Holy Week.

I could see Helen's private torment being juxtaposed with Easter preparations and in particular with the Good Friday service. Like other posters I fear that Friday's episode, particularly now that we know Helen will be alone with Rob, could be distressing listening.

Is the tea party with Ursula, Pat and Henry on Thursday? A farewell tea party to mirror the last supper? Even more foreboding if so.

On the other hand that theme would suggest a turning point of some sort on Easter Sunday.

(Possibly over infested!)

[Stickerrocks]

I really want it to be Kirsty, Gasp as she has seen through him since the start. Hopefully Fallon will pick up on something soon as well, but I think Emma caught something nasty from the ferret in her bedroom a couple of weeks ago and won't be heard from for a few weeks.

[glowfrog]

Yes, I agree Henry sounds really young! My 4 year-old DD was a little late speaking and she sounds more verbal than he does.

I think Rob is getting cocky, hence telling Henry about the school. I wouldn't have done that until it was closer to telling Helen or even once he was enrolled (even if the relationship wasn't abusive and I was just trying to have my way).

People have been saying that Pat is behaving out of character but I get the feeling she walks on egg shell around Helen - I assume because of what happened around the time of the anorexia and then having Henry the way she did?

Is it me or does Elizabeth have a bit of a thing for Richard?

[glowfrog]

I want a Kirsty/Ian combo - 2 people Rob has made certain to keep from Helen, and he's been especially vile to/about Ian.

[SmallLegsOrSmallEggs]

selsigfach yes but only after Kirsty questioned her. At the point where Rob said about feeling guilty she had started believing him. Spaghetti head.

[ColdTeaAgain]

Yes Henry definitely getting too old for the stock phrases trick, just sounds like a bizarre robot child.

[Duckdeamon]

The boarding school storyline is a total, old fashioned cliche and undermines any realism with respect to the domestic abuse storyline IMO.

I don't trust the writers at all and have stopped listening.

[R4]

Is it me or does Elizabeth have a bit of a thing for Richard?

Gosh, you don't think that the SW would do a two siblings / one love-interest story, do you? *
We haven't even finished the latest one yet (Fairbretheren / Pip).

• that sarcastic is aimed at the SW; not you, glowfrog.

[EmilyDickinson]

We haven't heard from Ian for AGES. Last time I remember was when he argued with Helen immediately after his wedding. I feel it would be a bit unrealistic to have him dashing to the rescue now.

I think Tom and Kirsty are the most likely candidates to help Helen. Tom has little reason to like Rob and has already noticed that something is troubling Helen (though he doesn't know what) and Kirsty knows that Helen is being abused and that Rob has hit her. She just needs Helen to acknowledge what is going on in order to help her.

I think that either Henry will blurt out the boarding school plan (maybe at the tea party?) or Rob will be so confident of his control over Helen that he'll tell her about it on Friday, when they're alone, so there's no one there to witness her reaction and nothing to prevent him being thoroughly nasty to her.

I'm really hoping that Kirsty does another over the fields trip, possibly accompanied by Tom and arrives just in time. Perhaps Tom will hear of the school plan from Henry, know that Helen would never agree to it and realise the nature of Helen and Rob's relationship.

[BYOSnowman]

With you on that duck

So the two siblings one love interest - do we think the sw have only two or three plots they are allowed to use?

[pasbeaucoupdegendarme]

Gosh... P5 before I even found you! Will try to contribute more than just "place marking" this time...

[bidibidi]

The way Rob talked about the boarding school had no time frame, though, it was just vaguely future. So Knob can weasel manipulate around the subject as suits himself and in response to any protests raised, if Henry brings the subject up. Truly only confided in Henry because Knob has no actual friends to share his cunning plans with.