The Archers - We Listen So You Don't Have To

[PseudoBadger]

Happy(?!) Sunday everyone

What will this week have in store for us I wonder?

Travelled - sadly not related to the Aldridges. I live in the far north (further even than the absolute furthest place an archers character could be banished to) and it snows a lot. You are right though, in 30 years I cannot recall any conversation about someone replacing a car. I expect Brian has a Range Rover, Lilian a Jag and Shula a Prius.

Helen hasn't got access to any money, has she? Rob got their "joint" salary paid into their joint account rather than her own account. The dowry from Peggy has presumably been spent. I doubt Bridge Farm is doing so brilliantly, what with Rob's shop management and so on. Helen has the potential for lots of future income and assets (if she doesn't end up in prison for 20 years), but she's been financially abused by Rob, and probably has little currently.

Carol had to pull out of Calendar Girls because her daughter needed her - was that Anna the barrister?

I lie. I lie. Wasn't there some madey-up fuss about Pip crashing her car with the tractor and having to buy a new one?? (Packs up wings and heads back to fairyland)

Oh God yes Bajanella that's right- the SHWB needed Mummy to help her through her breakup. Doesn't bode well for Helen does it?

14 Dec - Carol pulls out of Calendar Girls because of a family crisis. Wasn't that because her daughter Anna had split up with her partner?

Wasn't there a suggestion that Anna's relationship had ended in violence?

Not that I recall.

Struggling with a difficult break-up - details of which we have no idea about - means you can't be a super lawyer? Really??

I don't recall any mention of Anna being a SHWB last December, though.

Got to listen again to last night's. I was listening while drinking wine cooking dinner and OH came in. I had been looking for a pie dish earlier but couldn't find it. So obviously that's the time for him to firstly say, "turn the volume up" - can't do, it's on max anyway (on my phone) then remember the missing pie dish and open drawers rummage noisily and then slam them shut. I had to physically pull him away from the drawers while miming zipping his mouth and then he realised.

Anyone got a recipe for tuna bake?

It's stressful enough to watch the OJ Simpson case, and we know what happened in that one, and now this! Is Hellin's defence going to do a better job? I can't take it!

And NOT in a good way

How serendipitous that Jill remembered her goddaughter.

What wonderful timing they all have. Carol returning the call just in time for Jill to get to BF while the solicitor was still there.

Interesting Jill thought Helen needed a lawyer dealing with DV issues. Jill seems to have accepted the idea that Helen was a victim of DV without the usual 'can't believe that nice Rob was a baddie so let's blame Helen's hormones'. That was refreshing.

The solicitor seemed as passive as the BF lot. It all seemed so difficult. I assume Anna knows about coercive control and will recognise the signs. At last there is hope. I was beginning to think the SW were gaslighting the listeners.

backtowork probably Knob will engage Marley & Marley the evil partnership to defend him if he ever stands trial for his abuse of Helen.

I was beginning to think the SWs were gaslighting the listeners.

Surely a thread title hidden therein?

Cars: Ed and Emma's dreadful accident when they took Will's car? The new car Debbie's bio-dad gifted her for ingratiation purposes? Can't remember if that was the same new car that annoyed Adam when Brian put Debbie in charge of Adam's work. (Annoyingly, neither of my Archers books comes with an index, so I'm relying on memory.)

Another Muppets Christmas Carol fan here ("We're Marley and Marley... wooo"), although I think Muppet Treasure Island may have the edge.

Hey, how about a Muppet treatment of TA?

Did we already know Carole's daughter was a barrister? I'm just wondering if it's worth us wracking our brains to remember events that support Hellin's case or if the SW will just forget all that and keeping adding in new facts and coincidences to help her (Knob's tracking her phone so maybe he was using that device mentioned by SmallEggs to periodically record her conversations). I really want all the previous hints and references to be tied up in the conclusion, but judging by Tom's outburst - where he only mentioned the Scotch eggs and none of Knob's previous (and much more damning) behaviour - I'm not confident.

R4 - I didn't get from the conversation with the solicitor that Pat was refusing to help with the costs of a barrister. When he mentioned finding one, she simply asked if it would be expensive, which isn't an unreasonable question - she didn't say they couldn't afford it. For legal aid, they don't take into account the wider family's means and Helen can't have anything very much in her own right, plus she'll soon have two children to support.

There's sacrilege going on in AIBU - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2612433-To-Think-The-Archers-Should-Be-Put-Out-of-Its-Misery?

TeaPlease, the solicitor came on Usha's recommendation.

Helen being Helen, at first refused legal representation when the Police suggested it. I think she had the solicitor foisted on her by the family. He is, of course, a partner in Usha's outfit.
Doesn't Helen own half a farm? She may be cash-strapped atm, because Rob has siphoned it off, but she has assets.

We've never been told that the solicitor is from Usha's firm, have we?

I don't think ownership of the farm has been passed on, just its management.

Also impressed but not really surprised that Jill knew straight away that a DV specialist would be relevant. The older characters have seen it all before, one way and another and some, like Jill, are so practical.

Just LA
hooray for the Tregorans!
Now we know why Carol was brought back- maybe now we will see a DV based case!