50 ways to leave your lover. Get on the bus Gus, give a knife to your wife, Rob. How not to write helpful storylines masterclass from The Archers.

[PseudoBadger]

Poor poor Henry

Perhaps being on the wrong side of the criminal justice system might have served me better ...

We might fill a thread in 24 hours here.

That's going t screw up DadDadDad's averages isn't it

Phew, finally caught up with all the posts.

I found the episode quite confusing to listen to. Everything seemed to move so fast and it's tricky to work out what's happening when it's on the radio.

The way I visualised it was:

Henry calls from upstairs and despite Helen's protests Rob goes up.

Whilst Rob is upstairs Helen calls Kirsty but Rob comes down more quickly than she expected and catches her using the secret phone. Helen hangs up before the call connects.

Kirsty calls back and Rob makes Helen answer. Helen says that she can't really talk, that they're still having dinner and that she's fine. (I would have thought that Kirsty would have realised that Helen couldn't talk because Rob was there and have known from her tone of voice that she wasn't fine. I wish Kirsty had called the police there and then.)

Helen tells Rob she's leaving, taking Henry with her and he'll never see her or the children again.

There is then the sound of a slap and a scream, so I think that Rob slapped Helen's face.

Rob gets the knife out of the drawer (so they must be in the kitchen) and tells Helen to, "End it now, do what Greg did." Greg committed suicide, so he's suggesting that she kills herself with the knife. It sounds like he forces her to take the knife. I envisaged him forcing her fingers around it so that he was holding it too and maybe even pushing the knife up to her throat.

Then Henry comes into the room saying, "Stop it, stop shouting." Rob shouts at him to go away. Henry refuses. Rob says, "Come here you little..."

And Helen says something like, "Get your hands off him..." So Rob must have grabbed Henry. He's just slapped Helen so Helen must have feared that Rob would hurt Henry too.

I pictured Rob being between Helen and Henry and as having turned his back on Helen to grab Henry.

After Helen says, "Get your hands off him" there is a thump (sound effect of Rob being stabbed) and Helen says sorry. It almost sounded to me like she'd forgotten she was holding the knife.

Rob is injured but not too badly as he's able to say, "Helen put the knife down. Helen!"

I think that it sounded like Rob then moved towards Helen, perhaps to take the knife, perhaps to attack her. Helen screams again and there's the sound of at least one further stabbing noise.

I think that Rob is dead. He didn't say anything or make any sound after the second stab wound. He's not moving. Henry believes he's asleep and Helen seems certain that she's killed him.

I hope that Kirsty has had the sense to call the police and an ambulance.

It doesn't look good for Helen that she stabbed him at least twice and has not called the police or ambulance herself. Especially when she threatened to kill Rob last week in front of two witnesses.

I would hope that the first stab would be deemed to be in defence of Henry and the second in self defence.

If she did indeed as sounds like, stab him after he was incapacitated, then as the article says, manslaughter.

And I am afraid to say rightly so.

But mostly what BYOs says the death rate for abusive soap partners is 100%. Very concenient for SW bloody awful portrayal of women.

They could have had drama without this. The dramatic escape. Rob's dramatic pursuit. Rob's dramatic arrest. Rob's dramatic release on bail followed by another dramatic attempt to get to Helen. Dramatic flight to women's refuge.

They could still have had the doubters and believers, still have had the court case. Still have had Helen struggling to prove it. And the dramatic breaking down of Rob's public facade.

AND been praised for being original, realistic, ground breaking and useful.

Now they have got a heavily pg women most likely going through a court case. A baby to deal with. Henwee to deal with. The SW are just not up to it.

Here's Nancy Banks-Smith's take on last night's events

I might need some title suggestions to avoid the next MAD PANIC

Ooh that is a genius idea, Kirsty can lie and say she saw a Rob attack through the window!!

Rob's lines were ridiculous. He would not have risked unborn child- only person he seemed to really care about. Until yesterday he believed he was a good bloke managing under difficult circumstances. He had no grounds (in his head) for self reproach. His goading of Helen blew that for ever. The whole Henry in bed, tuna bake, half packed bag rubbish was not logical, but this never has been very logical. Became pointless when Urusla appeared.

Love Nancy, she's spot on as usual.

Particularly liked this bit:

It was, unusually, a two-hander. One of those head-to-head encounters which are used sparingly but to great effect in EastEnders where Sean O’Connor, The Archers’ exciting editor, comes from and where he is shortly returning. Ambridge, which allows no occasion to go uncelebrated, is even now planning a pageant.

I agree, although TA doesn't have the huge public following that something like EE does it could have done a lot to highlight that refuges are vital and used by women from all walks of life.

Just seen this on Twitter

Comments? ("Pretty much" is a very non-commital answer )

Oh dear. Have both DCs here currently stabbing different items from the fridge, trying to recreate that odd 'popping' sound. Cabbage - nowhere near, water melon - almost, grapefruit - that's the one!

A little light relief from Tim Bentinck on FB: "Well all I can say is that Ruth better start honing her custard making skills cos I'm a bit picky myself..."

Oh for the days when teenagers just sat in their bedroom and did not spend their revision breaks stabbing fruit and veg...

Except it wasn't a two hander was it? There was Kirsty and Henry

That was the first thought that popped into my head too BitOutOfPractice!

all the publicity/interviews etc have been strangely vague and non-committal. Last night was Act 1 of a 3 act play (I hope)

Perhaps it had to be written around rl knobs and rl Helens real life/contracts/potentially better job offers. It's sad but it's probably not just about the story.

Be good to hear from brother Miles. There's far more to come out I think. There's a pattern of hot things too: Scalding, toad in the hole, fruit pie, mobile hen houses (was it him).

The World at One have just said they''ll be covering it too.

Bore thanks for the link. I loved the helter-skelter, hugger mugger confusing conclusion

Exactly

Forgive me if someone has mentioned this or Ive got it wrong, but wasn't deaddoorknob trying to make Helen kill herself first ?

So she was desperate for her own life and Henry's.

Incidentally, does anyone know what has happened in the tv soaps abused woman kills husband storylines? Do the wives end up in jail?

BOOP - don't worry about the averages. Yes, this thread will stick out, but that's part of the story the stats tell - the day the posting exploded. I might be back with a graph.

and nearly 600 posts since last night so how come this isn't in Discussion of the day or Trending ?
Olivia - I'm asking you that one

It's about to be discussed some more on The World At One (Radio 4)

Pseudo could you work in a Hardy reference for the next title? Someone upthread mentioned Hells and Kirsty setting out for Stonehenge. And I think 'Cuntery, folk' should be part of every thread title.