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

[PseudoBadger]

Will it still be Sunday tonight?

Place marking

Thanks for the clarification of quiche earlier, I did get a bit confused and wonder whether you had adopted Ja'mie (from Summer Heights High)'s definition...

I too can't see how they can turn it around.

Before Sunday, I was hoping for Rob to get found out:
Perhaps Rob's bad actions during the flooding coming to light; big fraud at Berrow Farm uncovered by accountants winding it up; Stefan's body turning up in a sink hole and Jennifer and David going to the police about it; Canadian police turning up to arrest him for something despicable etc etc.

...but remembering that Susan got 6 months in chokey for sheltering her brother and the perceived misogyny of the script-writers, I can see that Helen is headed for a long spell in Holloway. I certainly don't see saintly Shula saying that Rob did indeed assault the hunt sab.

Marking - all moving too fast for me. Glad to see Helen listen to the solicitor last night.

Is there an option for Rob to decide not to press charges?

EnglishFern when you say 'pat' ending did you mean something like this?

Helen: He was going to hurt Henry....he made me choose....sob sob
Next Day....
Doctor: Rob's woken up. It seems he's confessed that he was attempting to kill Helen and Henry. He's been drugging her for some time too. His wounds aren't as bad as we feared and one of them is self-inflicted. He appears to have knocked over a bottle of ketchup as he fell as well. He's told us he's sorry and that he's also killed some bloke called Stefan.
Police: That clears that up then. You're free to leave Mrs Titchener. We probably never need to speak of it again.

Just like the real Pat and her completely unrealistically speedy-never-referred-to-again change of opinion about Rob himself.

What, with the stab wounds & all? No. The police will prosecute regardless.

We've had someone with a policing background on a previous thread saying "not pressing charges" is a bit of misconception. Prosecution can happen without the victim giving evidence or even cooperating (of course, prosecutors will need the other evidence to be solid).

I'm guessing "not pressing charges" just is a shorthand for cases where unless the victim is willing to speak in court, there's no realistic chance of a prosecution - or maybe it refers to civil cases where the victim is bringing the case.

Vango - very good; at least we have some hope now that if the ending pans out the way you describe, no longer will Pat just say "I know you are doing your best, Rob."

One quick and easy way out of this for the sw is for both Helen and rob to die

Well I'm not listening any more, and regret having started again tbh. I feel used, which is nothing to what a lot of survivors of abuse feel, I imagine

Brought I echo this. And I'm irritating myself now speculating about what will happen next. We know it's fiction. But what about the real-life listeners who are being/have been abused? What will they be gaining from the new development? Such a disservice to them.

.

BYOS - and they can both skip down the road to EE and re-unite with SOC.

SLEEP/REPEAT ad nauseaum

I really hope that any ensuing legal wrangles will lead everyone else to slowly work out how Rob didn't only mistreat Helen. I was pleased that he wasn't dead, because that means there is still scope for him to get some sort of comeuppance.

So, with any luck, Shula will suddenly remember the issue with the hunt sab. And Ian will see how he and Helen were played, possibly talking to Adam about it too. All at Bridge Farm will realise how he tried to take over the new shop.

I'm an Archers Optimist. I want to keep listening, I want a satisfying conclusion, and I want to have good things to say about it.

Are we still BOOPing? It's hard to keep up with the threads, but I would like to BOOP point the acting this week. It's been superb, especially from Louiza Patikas.

Thanks for the new thread, Pseudo.

This is rather good

I like legal dramas but that's not what the Archers is for! And you have to pay attention to detail, which is difficult to achieve in something that happens in 15-minute bits and which a lot of people dip in and out of, not listening to every episode. It will come across as boring in this format, as someone already noted. I don't think they will go down the road of a court/legal drama. It has to happen another way. If they do have Helen standing trial, we won't hear the actual trial, we will live it through other people's reactions and discussions?

Does anyone know how far ahead the actors are in knowing what is going to happen? For example, does Timothy Watson know whether Knob is going to be alive or dead?

Whenever the actors are asked this they say that they don't know anything beyond what they have recorded. And I understand recording happens roughly a month to 6 weeks before broadcast. (If I've remembered the details correctly ftom the last time the BBC published a schedule.)

He and his agent will have made a shrewd guess if his bookings have dried up!

I have been thinking that we can't really be suprised they couldn't do a DA storyline well. When they first wrote abusive Rob, they thought they were writing him as a nice normal person and had to be told that he was actually abusive towards Helen.
I haven't listened regularly for a while but I remember hearing an episode ages and ages ago when Knob was making her change her outfit again before they went out and I could see where the story was going. Since then as I've dipped in and out it has been obvious so I think it must have been the plan from the beginning.

Presumably enoch - but at least one SW has recently exclaimed over the difficulty of writing scripts when more than one vital actor will be unavailable for the allotted recording date.

I really don't see why they can't come up with a better system. It's a poor deal for the actors who can't rely on work - but it's worse for us. How often have we asked why a particular character wasn't heard in a story that must inevitably have involved them?

Thanks for the new thread. Belated happy birthday Pseudo.

I predict Rob will be found out based on future not past actions.
I.e. Helen will be all set to get sent down. 11 hour intervention Just as it looks hopeless Rob will either be caught attacking her, stalking her or attacking someone else.

Because if it was EE that is what would happen.

But as pp said on previous thread the fact that someone is not nice is not a grounds for stabbing him. And he isn't obliged to prove or disprove his innocence when it comes to DA as he isn't on trial.
Likewise killing Stefan - separate trial (although I suspect Stefan is alive and well having been threatened).