One Flue Over The Shepherd's Hut - Discuss The Archers Here

[PseudoBadger]

I do hope Lynda has a carbon monoxide monitor in there...

Brilliant drama cost-cutting:
'Is everybody coming?'/ 'Is everyone here except Dan?' repeated at least 3 times.
SWs: 'Yes, but we couldn't afford to pay for any of your spouses, children, or brother so you'll just have to imagine that Ruth, Jolene, Alistair et al are all fascinated by an unnamed popular video game.' Definite BOOP.

And another one for Lilian & Justin doing what I imagined the Snells were up to yesterday!

What a supportive cousin Shula is. She's already decided Helen's case is absolutely hopeless despite having no idea what Helen's case is. And that from someone who has more reason than most to be aware of Knob's propensity for violence and deceit.

Re Shula (though I'm only going on Augusta's post):

All those New Listeners who are riveted by the Hel/Rob thing know nothing of the stuff we heard before it got All Dramatic - or should that be Even More Dramatic? And SOC seems to have rewritten history anyway. If the stuff we heard were to come out, it would seem rather odd to those New Listeners, wouldn't it?

Shula is the only person who has actually witnessed Rob being violent........

I wonder if when Oliver gets to hear about it he'll tell her she has to go to the police.

Did you hear Justin- "a man of his calibre......." Ffs

Thank you Gasp.

I think Lillian might disabuse Justin of Rob's goodness. Incrementally of course. Lillian might save the day. Unlike most of Ambridge, she's been about a bit

If I lived in Ambridge and knew what the other residents seem to think they know - Rob could be a bit of a twat but apparently adored his wife; Helen could be a bit emotional at times - then the questioning occupying my mind would be WHY did she stab him? None of them seem to be questioning that. And my thought would be - Rob must have been an awful husband and perhaps Helen was acting in self-defence; or Helen had absolutely lost it and was suffering mental illness/psychosis* at the time.
They all seem very uncurious.

*I am not suggesting that people suffering mental illness/psychosis are any more inclined to stab their spouses; but in a case where a wife does that to her husband, apparently completely out of the blue, it would be something I would wonder in the absence of another reason.

Fink
I have a bad feeling about Dan on the battlefields...
Surely not that would be so distasteful.

Apocalypse, yes, I too wondered whether all that 'Everyone's here except Dan. Isn't Dan brilliant?! Dan will be a major by next week!' stuff was meant to be SOC does dramatic irony. I hope not, I quite like Dan. I could cope with the fake shock of him having some sort of gender/sexuality identity coming out story, but please don't let anything horrible happen to him!

I think Dan's for the chop too.

Rob is just horrible. I am not sure I believe it when SOC says that he is just there to guage H's reaction. I am left feeling that Tim Watson has bigger fish to fry than playing baddie Rob. The spell is broken and I almost really don't care what happens to Helen. Perhaps I will tune in again in a few years. I have lived for most of my life not being believed by my family. I don't want to listen to some hand-wringing from well-meaning parents/siblings/cousins.
On a more cheerful note, is the pasting table still in one piece? I love Lillian's cackle. Ha ha!

But what battlefield could Dan die on? Surely even SOC isn't going to invent a war to kill Dan off in?

Easy you just brought a lump to my throat. That's awful.

I like Shula, she's a good egg. I'd hate it if something happened to Dan.

Soldiers do die on training exercises, in the UK...

Dan's going to disappoint Shula horribly by eloping with earnest and oh so Christian Dorothy. They will elope because she doesn't believe in fun sex before marriage and he really wants to do it.

Then there'll be half an episode with Shula going on and on and on about how she just wanted to see him in his dress uniform on his special day.

No, Dan will disappoint Shula by eloping with one of his comrades.
We might get a run up to that where he tries and tries to convince himself he fancies her, then he takes her to a musical ('a gay musical called Gay')....she confronts him, he has an epiphany, he goes back to his barracks (do they have barracks still, is that a thing) and declares his love for nice oxbridge type.
She is not called Dorothy by accident.

And he'll sing, "willies, willies, I love willies!"

OMG I think I just coughed up a bit of lung at your post Shalli. "'a gay musical called Gay'" and "She is not called Dorothy by accident." 😂😂

how come everyone is gossiping about Neil and Josh but not Helen and Rob?

They are getting the HelRob gossip out ofthe way before we hear them.

I thought Shula's line, "it's wonderful to have things back to normal again in the village" (about the village hall) was poignant and served to highlight individual perceptions and the distance of other people, even close ones, from the Bridge Farm tragedy. I do think that reflects real life.

Do people really have classical music playing in the background at a family dinner?

Yes especially at a 'special' one Wips Does that makes us terribly MC?

Of course. Just nothing that obvious.

I thought David sounded just like Tamsin Grieg when she's doing Fran's getting-pissed voice on Black Books last night...

I wonder if we're going to have an episode where Rob gives his account of the stabbing?
All my predictions are always wrong, but does he know that Jess told H about them having sex that night? He will spin it to say that H was unhinged and jealous, she spoke to his vengeful, bitter ex-wife (the one who had claimed he was the father of his child just to get money from him - wry Rob chuckle); the ex claimed he had sex with her after he was living with Helen - and that was why she stabbed him.

The half-packed suitcase will be used against Helen. If she was so scared of him why did she leave her packing on show, and why did she plan to leave him in his presence? And at the time if her pretence that she was packing her maternity bag was even slightly credible to Rob, that must have meant there was nothing in there for Henry. So she clearly intended to leave Henry with Rob. So she was an uncaring mother, but at least she trusted Rob with Henry.