Thefts, arson and abuse: The Archers - it's an everyday story of cuntery, folks.

[PseudoBadger]

Thanks to Lancelottie for the title

DadDadDad maybe we should call you RobRobRob

That is exactly what Rob would do bastard

I felt a bit dirty for writing it - to think my brain can come up with something so nasty...

But please, don't call me RobRobRob

I agree he will be saying mummy won't let him downstairs.

Do we think the being called to get Henry from the party was genuine ?

Also the "you're heading for a nervous breakdown" comment.

D3 - now you're scaring me

I thought the real life henwee was a female actor who specialised in child voices?

Louisa said in the Radio Times this week that they've never met the child who plays Henwee, but the voice reduced her to tears when he says at some point "I'll look after you Mummy". (Not a spoiler, as he could have said it already.)

^ what D3 said.

Helen might have put up with Rob's abuse towards her, at a (giant) push she might believe Rob has Henry's best interests any heart. But she will never forgive the binning of Thomas the Rabbit.

But, Annie, why? I'm not a monster.

sticker I think that was last week, Helen was crying and he said he would look after her

He did already say it, Sticker, sometime last week when they were alone together - I think when they were playing on the floor, the same conversation when she conspicuously didn't answer about always being together with daddy.

Ooh another hard to listen to one. Though I was brought back to reality by Henry's chirpy 'mumeeeeeee!' Could have been much more upsetting if he'd sounded tearful

He said I'll look after you mummy recently.

The 'incident' happened after the party. Rob told H to sit still and watch telly and do not eat the lovely yummy big chocate egg I have deliberately left in your line of sight.

I discussed this with my kids. They said taking the chocolate away is fair enough. Bin it if you keep playing up. (Mine have had small sweeties binned for majorly kicking off whilst full of sugar) but what kind of person bins a cuddly toy???

I tend to tune out from his toddler tones because they are so annoying.

Tonight's one was so hard as you feel the shift in Helen's sense of security go from semi stable to totally, wildly unsupported.

K is a brilliant friend. H needs to hang onto that phone.

Did anyone else suspect Rob stole her phone?

Agree about Knob telling H to use his phone being out of character. He would write it down and make her dial it on her own phone.
I can believe him saving the pharmacy number on his phone though, he'd want to have it instantly to hand for when he orders Helen to get the prescription.
I think making her use his phone is probably going to be a plot device to get Helen to discover something or access Jess's number...tomorrow's Friday drama? Would of preferred her to get hold of his phone of her own accord when she realises she needs to do some digging.

Yes, you'd think Helen had learnt one thing from Rob: to keep her phone with her at all times.

I thought K was pushing too hard, and that her constant references to Jess was just going to wind Helen up, but it seems that it was the right way to go. Maybe you need to be harsh with a friend in order to fight the harshness from their abuser? (In fact, when Helen said she had to go and couldn't have another tea, K just ignored her and said "peppermint or camomile" which reminded me a bit of a Rob tactic).

Rob doesn't need to worry about Helen finding numbers or texts in his phone. He is so arrogant, he knows he can explain it away, probably by telling Helen she's imagining things.

That episode was very difficult to listen to, although part of me was almost glad that Rob showed his true colours again so soon after Kirsty's pep talk and after Helen had been given the second phone (good thought Kirsty!)

Did anyone else think that Rob's been hiding/moving Helen's phone again? Thus killing several birds with one stone. He gets to tell Helen off for being forgetful, makes her doubt her competance, he's the capable parent who is around when the party mum calls and Helen is unable to use her phone to speak to anyone he doesn't approve of.

I suspect that Henry wasn't badly behaved at the party at all, and even if he was would any mum of a five year old actually call the parents of another five year old to say so? I wouldn't ever call parents about a badly behaved five year old as I would (gently) handle it myself. I would however call the parents for a child that was upset and missing mum or dad. Henry is, I think, a bit on edge, as is Helen. He may have become tearful and overwhelmed at the party. I can well believe that Rob was irritated at being summoned, especially if he was spying on Helen(!) and arrived to find Henry in tears. He's the kind of person who would decide that any display of emotion was Henry "letting him down", particularly if boarding school taught him to have a stiff upper lip. He probably expects his step son to show more self control at the grand old age of five.

I suspect Helen was less willing to argue with Rob this time because Henry was in the house. Was he out last time? I don't remember him being around. I suspect that she was very conscious that Rob was in a dangerous mood, that he is capable of violence and that he had already been more abusive to Henry than ever before. I think that she was worried that if she argued with Rob, Rob would either take it out on Henry, or would be physically abusive to Helen with Henry either witnessing this, which would be very distressing for him, or the physical abuse hindering Helen's ability to protect Henry. I'm sure her priority, with a young child in the house, was to try and avoid Rob becoming any angrier.

However, I think that, for Helen, Rob has now crossed another line. He isn't a good dad to Henry, in fact he is now definitely abusing Henry as well as Helen and Helen will want to get him out of this situation.

On a lighter note I saw yellow towels on sale in Sainsburys today and thought of Shula.

Funny how when a dickhead parent like that says 'You have to be more consistent', they always mean 'You have to be harsher', not 'consistently nice, reasonable and cheerful'.

I suppose Rob is consistent, though. He wants Henry to have everything chosen by Rob and nothing chosen by Helen.

It's odd that if there had been a massive issue at the party (so bad that the parents had to ask the child to leave), they didn't say anything to Helen when she went to pick Henry up.

Could Jess have fixed the DNA test so that knob was not the father, to ensure he would have no input in the future of Ethan.

Rob might have taken her phone - or, did she deliberately leave it at home as she was meeting Kirsty, and she already suspected him of using it to track her before Kirsty mentioned it ?

I think his mask is slipping and he's likely to lose control in front of someone who will do something about it. I'd rather hope Helen will make her own decision to leave though rather than Tom or Kirsty saving the day.....

Yes I'm assuming he made sure she left without her phone. His confidence in his own power over her is cracking.

Agree Kirsty was pushing Helen quite hard but sometimes a bit of tough love is justified. There will of been a lot of unspoken words in that conversation. Helen may be protesting Knobs innocence but Kirsty can see what she really thinks and Helen knows that.

Minimammoth I think you've just given the SWs a very clever suggestion regarding the Jess/Ethan dilemma. I was never convinced that Jess slept with anyone else around the time of their separation. She was adamant that the baby was his, so much so that Ursula was involved and Jess was prepared to get the CSA onto him. She pushed and pushed me for the DNA test. Maybe she realised during the course of events that she'd made a mistake and that she had to do something to tamper with the outcome. Maybe she made some new friends with similar-aged babies who, on hearing her story, talked her out of pursuing him and leant her a baby for the test at her end? Mad as it all sounds, I'd prefer that as an outcome to that unresolved and frustrating storyline.

Emily Fink but how could Rob have taken Helen's phone? Do you mean maybe out of her bag? Tbh I don't think so. Unless she IS forgetful enough to not to check her bag before she leaves the house. I wouldn't do that personally if my child was at someone else's house. And she didn't protest about it. Though I suppose she might think by now that there is no point.

Depending on the nature and scale of a child's trantrum, I might call the parents. But as Emily suggests, it's equally likely that he was just very upset and tearful rather than having a spoiled strop.

Poor, poor boy. :-(