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

[PseudoBadger]

Will it still be Sunday tonight?

Loving all the verses. It was all getting a bit heavy with the legal stuff and it's nice to laugh.

When I'm listening I like to pretend I'm evesdropping on the best bits of the conversation and just enjoy being nosy. Angst about the melodrama is not really my thing.

From Tony:

I hope you are finding peace on the ward.
I know just what it's like to be gored.
The trouble started with tuna bake.
As I said to Otto: "Let's stick to STEAK!"

They haven't said whether Helen's in hospital, have they? If she's in the cells I bet she's completely stopped eating.

They charged hellin with attempted murder after speaking to henwee so he clearly didn't say something that benefits Hellin. Looks like he didn't see anything valuable to the defence.

The no comment is obviously because Hellin isn't in a fit state to answer questions, but guarantees remand in custody. I hope the solicitor can arrange some psychiatric care pretty damn quick.

Thing is she didn't need actually psychiatric help until now! When she finds out that she won't be seeing Henwee it'll send her right over the edge.

Bravo shiny

I think she probably did need psychiatric help, given her anorexia and in particular given what Knob was doing to her mentally. It's just a real pity she didn't receive it a long time ago.

I think Feedback should be linked to this thread

I wish there was a like button for all the poems. And DDD's "cliched scriptwriting" crack.

Did anyone else think that it was a bit heavy for the child interviewer (a specialist police officer I think?) to launch straight into "you know what a LIE is, don't you Henry" within about 30 secs of meeting him?

I was also annoyed that the interviewer was all timid and "oh, do you think I did OK?" to the detective. I'd expect a person in that role to have utmost confidence in her skills and the appropriateness of her questioning and certainly not to be interviewing with an agenda of getting evidence to support a particular contemplated charge.

I rather liked Christine finally getting her chance to boss Piggoi about a bit. Wasn't George Barford arrested for murder once in the past? Before my listening time but some sort of tragic accident I think? If I am remembering correctly, it would have been nice if Christine had mentioned her experience from that time.

It takes me so long to catch up with the threads nowadays, but loving it, especially the poems.

I've stopped listening again (thanks to Brasula) but I did listen to the one where Helen met her solicitor and he said she needed to tell him everything. When she was subsequently interviewed by Bad Cop Bad Cop she sounded a completely different person. Was she all hystericed out by telling all to the solicitor and was deflated and flat? Had she in fact not told him anything and was being tight lipped? Or, has he managed to impress upon her the seriousness of the situation?

I understand why she's not commenting, but it's very frustrating.

Is it terribly wrong of me to say I hope the baby doesn't survive? Regardless of what truths come out about Knob, if he and the baby survive she'll never be free of him.

Said it once and I'll say it again: Badly done, SOC, badly done.

Oh and by pure coincidence, our speakers at WI last night were two women from our local family crisis centre. They used to be part of Women's Aid but some years ago were phoned by a desperate man suffering terrible abuse who they just couldn't turn away, and they got him and his children to safety. They decided to separate from WA so they could help men too. They had the first men's refuge in the UK.

Anyway, I got to chatting to them about TA - one was a listener, one wasn't. The listener said how well the SL had been handled up to now, and how she wishes it hadn't turned out like this. Yes, this happens, but not that often, and a denouement that empowered victims to leave would have been so much better. She wanted to hear of Helen getting help from WA or whoever, for the midwives to be involved, a real multi-agency effort, which is what happens so often, so well.

What we've all been saying, basically!

for fans of Will Ferrell

I think police interviewers need to establish at an early stage if the child knows about the difference between truth and lies. What I wanted to happen was for Henry to say "Yes, I know about lies, Daddy told me it's very disobedient to tell lies and he fwoo my teddy away that Mummy gave me because he said I was disobedient. But I don't understand because he told me not to tell Mummy about going to live in a school and that's like telling lies, isn't it?"

Regardless of what truths come out about Knob, if he and the baby survive she'll never be free of him.

In rl this isn't necessarily true. Abusive men make an enormous fuss and bluster about going for custody/ access etc. They may well drag the victim through court repeatedly (although less so if they have to pay for it) but if and when they get access they often donn't stick to it and usually just fade away because in reality actually having to look after your kids isn't as much fun as going mine, mine, mine like a 3 year old.

Plus my bitch ex doesn't let me see my kids is a much better sob story to tell your next victim.

Just saying in case anyone reading this thread is staying with a FW in case he gets the kids. They very rarely do (alrhough it is worth gathering your evidence)

Do you think we'll see Rob in the future dressed as a superhero chained to the Clifton Suspension Bridge?

God- just had an awful thought- you don't think there's a MRA Support for Rob reddit?

I don't think many MRAs listen to R4. (I hope)

Augusta I wasn't objecting to the question about lies being asked, just to the speed with which they jumped from "hello Henry" to asking the question.

Surely there would be a bit more chat to establish a rapport before jumping straight to that part?

I know there's no time on air to play out the whole rapport-building bit but it was clear that we heard everything from "hello" to "so you know what a lie is?" and it was about 20 seconds.

Thanks SmallLegs

Tony is in a less forgiving mood than Pat:

My daughter stabbed you in the guts
Because you told her she was nuts.
We hope the jury will decide
It's justifiable Knobicide.

I just realised. Hellin is probably going to give birth handcuffed to the bed.

shiny

I'm disappointed though that being charged with attempted murder and not being found guilty will let Helen off the hook entirely

Annie, that's not my understanding. It appears that she wouldn't necessarily be let off the hook because it's open to the jury to make a finding of GBH, and it is also open to the prosecution to put that forward as an additional or alternative charge.*

Augusta - oops, I left out a rather crucial word in that post which completely changed the meaning. I meant to say that if Helen was acquitted of attempted murder that I was disapointed that she would NOT be getting off scot-free - because of what you orsomeone else had already said about the judge/jury still having the option of going for guilty on wounding.
I would love to see Helen get off any charge but only in a way that has some resemblance to the English legal system, and thought a successful defence to attempt was the way to go. Sad that is not the case

Not sure if this LSE blog post on Hel/Rob has been linked. There are a few interesting words on family annihilation ...

Thank you for all the brilliant poems on here

My lesser attempt from Bruce
"You married Helen
To provide an heir,
But Stupid Boy
You gave her a knife.
Now you are truly gutted,
And the brood mare is facing life.

Stupid boy, no