The Archers - It's so much more than just a soap. It's a bloody drama!

[PseudoBadger]

Will it still be Sunday tonight?

Something will come out about Rob.
He didn't adopt Henry because he didn't want a CRB check...

I can't believe the writers would go to all the trouble of carefully researching the storylines and banging on about the new coercion /control laws just to bang up Helen.

I'm not having it.

How will boarding school come out though?

Only Rob & Ursula know that they actually went to visit and they are not going to say. As far as Pat and Helen know Rob had just told Henry is was a possibility. I don't think it would occur to either of them he'd actually visited.

I suppose if Henry says 'Daddy says I would go to his old school' the might follow it up or just assume it was one of those hypothetical conversations.

Lila I was just going to say the same thing! It would be a bit convenient though. I think Jess will be key - including the fact that Hellin met up with her recently.

Hopefully a marketing or registration letter from the school will pop through the letterbox. That is what usually happens when you express any kind of information.

I'm sure the SWs have forgotten all about the remarkable scarring

I agree that evidence from Jess, which is basically exactly the same abuse which Helen endured, rape, controlling, physical violence, loss of self etc etc, will be the clincher to get Helen off.

I am tired already.
How are Lynda's llamas I wonder?
Where is the church money?

But even if it is shown that Rob was planning to send Henry to boarding school, it's not illegal to do so, and while we know that it was part of his abuse of Helen, it could easily be seen as Rob's attempt to keep Henry safe from his unstable, violent abusive mother. And Helen said that she would kill Rob if he sent Henry away to school, so proof would just make things worse for Helen, surely?

Even if a boarding school brochure does arrive, Abraid, what proof is it of anything illegal?

He looked into boarding school for Henry - many people would think that's a sign of good parenting, not of bad parenting!

Incidentally, a kid from my class (6 years old) was enrolled in a Swiss boarding school, to begin mid year. I knew, but his parents didn't tell him, they thought it would "upset him". So they took him to Switzerland "for a holiday" at Easter and just didn't bring him back with them.

If "normal" parents (thank god it's not normal, but it's certainly not illegal or grounds for SS involvement) can do this then what Rob has done doesn't come close to being on the radar, surely?

I was expecting Gruach to get excited about Criminal Justice, an acclaimed story similar to HellRob written by Moffatt who also wrote Dr Who. But it's a different Moffatt/Moffat.

It would be neat if it was discovered that Rob had indeed been drugging Helen for months but it would spin the whole thing even more into the realm of melodrama (though it wouldn't surprise me if some men out there do exactly that).

So ... say everything does work out as well as possible for H - the jury are all like 'yeah, he was a bad 'un - you did the world a favour' etc. Does Rob have any route for pursuing her through a civil court for damages or anything?

Because I totally don't agree with this analysis that the Archers have tonnes of money at their disposal. I think funding a good lawyer will be tough for bridge farm (maybe they'll have to sell off parts of the business?) and no way will random cousins or other people in the village start stumping up considerable amounts of cash. Whereas we know that rob's family is wealthy (prep school plan) and Bruce sounds like he's going to be out for revenge.

EnglishFern it's not so much the boarding school but the fact that Rob lied about it. But as has been pointed out, he could easily argue it was to keep Henry safe and he knew Helen would react badly etc.

I agree that if the boarding school stuff comes out, that is bad rather than good for Helen. It proves that rob was lying to her, but given her reaction when she found out (but was then persuaded it wasn't true), it could also be seen as a also a motive for murder.

It was a kind thought R4! But I see Ben Whishaw is in it.

I was in the middle of reading The Pating Guests when custardgate happened. All of my leisure time is current being spent on thinking about spousal murder.

Currently.

What's the remarkable scarring Pseudo? I've forgotten as well.

Not at all happy with the BBC though. Having tempted me into buying two TA books I feel they should have arranged a few quiet weeks in Ambridge so I could concentrate on out-geeking Gasp0de on the thread.

Never mind. Still time ...

When HellRob first started seeing each other, Hell commented on a noticeable - but old - scar and asked about it. Rob said something along the lines of "there's a story to that but I don't want to go into now." I always assumed that it was the result of a tiff with Jess, probably because that's what Rob/SW wanted me to think.

"I agree that evidence from Jess, which is basically exactly the same abuse which Helen endured, rape, controlling, physical violence, loss of self etc etc, will be the clincher to get Helen off."

But how will it get her off?

I think the bonding school fiasco will go against Rob and for Helen. He went behind her back and enquired although he'd only been in Henry's life for a couple of years and Henry has a set of grandparents living down the road.

Any step father organising and visiting a boarding school, without the child's mothers knowledge would be seen as bat shit crazy by any "normal" jury person.

When Bruce arrived in Ambridge
tinyurl.com/zg3cgtv

Bertrand as she has suffered two years of abuse, she may be charged with a lesser crime.

I'm not sure how much help Jess will be. They were childhood sweethearts. Hell is late thirties so I am assuming that Rob & Jess are similar ages. So Jess endured Rob for nearly 20 years without attempting to kill him. Hell attacked him after less than nine months' of marriage.