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?

Kind of picturing Bruce looking like this:

Ok, as you were...

Surely there have been more reviews of one story in TA in the past year than of the entire show in the past half century? Here's another. Miranda Sawyer in The Observer.

Gruach and I'm guessing SOC is trumpeting far and wide that his reign has been a success, which it has been, if you measure purely in those terms? Of course, if you measure in terms of an everyday story of country folk called Archer, not Titchener, with decent characterisation and non-botched story-lining, then I personally term it a resounding failure.

This is how I picture Ursula - I am hoping she will be unmasked at Thursday's tea

Annie excellent!

But, but, but - Ursula is emphatically not Hazel Wolley!

or even Hazel Woolley*, sorry {sheepish emoticon}

Knob Tits:

To be followed by:

I thought the part of Miranda Sawyer's article on Alice Isn't Dead was also going to be about TA.

I really did go to sleep after posting last night and now I've got to start work. I can see there are a few questions for my attention but I'll catch up later.

One question for post-counting geeks like me: should I count Kristina's filling of the end of the last thread, after Pseudo makes the leap to this one? My inclination is NOT to count them - if we do, what do we do if someone goes back and end-fills other earlier threads? (My practice has generally to make the link at the end of each thread to be the cutoff)

So did I EBearHug I was all pleased someone had remembered Alice existed! But no.
D^3 Count to the new link I reckon?

My practice has generally to make the link at the end of each thread to be the cutoff

Sometimes you get posts which are not just thread-filling after the new link has been posted, though, and I don't think they should be ignored.

God Knob is good. So sodding slick - it's unbearable to hear.

But agree with PP who commented on the absurdity of Patbot not volunteering her services at BHC when Knob went on about how exhausted his saintly mother was having taken over shamelessly stepped in heroically to help poor Helen.

Actually think that scores extremely high on the stretching credibility storyline hall of fame.

I don't know why but I always picture Ursula as Sheila Hancock, but taller which is weird as I don't know how tall SH is

Btw - just wanted to say how much I like current thread's title. Brava.

EBearHug - interesting that you should be the one to make that point, because I definitely have counted your last post on the previous thread even though it came after the link because it came in the minutes after the link and was relevant to the discussion happening then. So there's always been a bit of discretion about my counting, and I am happy for someone to come up with their own count!

Interesting point in the Observer article. It is Rule No 1 for soaps that they are ruled by Strong Women. The Strong Women have been decidedly not on the case in this SL. It would have been better if the abuse had been more hidden, more obscure; if they had not put such a spotlight on to it but let it rumble for years with some people (including us, the audience) wondering but not quite able to put a finger on it.
But I suppose that it had to rush to a conclusion to fit in with SOC's career plans Public Service broadcasting about the new law, and to hang with plot holes and inconsistencies. That's why I don't like most drama - especially soaps - because I am left scratching my head and saying "Why would they do that. Does not compute". TA used to be, mostly, reassuringly normal and believable.

It would be hard to do in a radio show but I would love Kirsty to go through this list from Refuge with Helen. I think that she'd have to say yes to at least 16 out of 23. In fact I almost wonder whether the scriptwriters are working their way through the list.

Are you afraid of your partner?

Do you feel isolated?

Does he cut you off from family and friends?

Is he jealous and possessive?

Does he humiliate or insult you?

Does he verbally abuse you?

Does he say you are useless and couldn’t cope without him?

Does he physically hurt you?

Does he shove, slap, punch or kick you?

Has he threatened to hurt you or people close to you?

Does he constantly criticise you?

Does he have sudden changes of mood which dominate the household?

Is he charming one minute and abusive the next? Like Dr Jekyll / Mr Hyde?

Does he control your money?

Do you change your behaviour to avoid triggering an attack?

Are you unsure of your own judgement?

Does he damage your possessions?

Does he smash up the furniture?

Does he threaten to harm or kill the pets?

Does he threaten to kidnap or get custody of the children?

Does he drive fast because he knows it scares you?

Does he lock you out of the house during an argument?

Does he tell you what to wear or how to do your hair?

"Interesting point in the Observer article. It is Rule No 1 for soaps that they are ruled by Strong Women."

Always remembering that a Strong Women is any woman who does or says anything that distinguishes her from a doormat......

Radio 4 is covering domestic abuse now.

Womens hour Emily?

Yes. I just caught the end of it. They had someone from More Or Less (maths and statistics programme) talking about how many women are killed by their partners.

Bit odd having a 5 yr. old making a pyramid of jam jars (or was it fresh fruit out of season?) If it was jars it would be dangerous surely?