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

[PseudoBadger]

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

Jessie waiting for a dramatic moment (probably a Friday) to turn up at the police station. Soc has all his exciting Friday night cliffhangers mapped out I'm sure

He's such a fucking idiot. Can't wait for him to return to his spiritual home

If only I could go to the police station and sort this all out BYOS

Ha - yes. Ruddy phone.

I'm sure someone out there records the episodes and could just pop the tapes in to the station

I wonder if they're going to do that ridiculous thing they tend to do on TV of having the barrister doing her own sleuthing, finding Jess in the middle of the trial and producing her as a "surprise" witness? ISTR it used to happen on things like Judge John Deed, except there it tended to be the idiot judge or his girlfriend.

I've just thought- I'm enjoying Eastenders at the moment- will it go all horrible again when he goes back?

Shame he didn't die, because the Silent Witness crew could have sorted it out.

Emilia puts on pretty but practical outdoor clothes and goes to Ambridge.

Grauch. That's why I found Jill and Lizzie's discussion so refreshing. Ambridge Legal Fairy aside, it was a real discussion between family members of how they might help in unusual circumstances. Where is JD? She was good after Tony's accident, wasn't she?

Rob's appearance last night was back to the Rob/Ursula pantomime days. It grossly unbalances the SLs as other characters are drowned out. Tim Watson is an excellent actor but I would like Rob to become a silent character now.

Shame he didn't die, because the Silent Witness crew could have sorted it out.

I wish Dr Locke could remember his forensic pathology days.

Thing is, imagine if a woman posted on here that she had been stabbed almost to death by her partner. No-one on here would question that she should be allowed to see her children would they?

There are no allegations against rob. he is a victim not a defendant. Plenty of women go to court to testify against their partners who have committed violence against them. Their children are not kept from them even if those children are witnesses. On that recent BBC documentary it was the woman's son who escaped from the house while the partner was beating up his mum and rang the police. And he maintained contact with both parties.

So while the story is infuriating it's not unrealistic that Henry would go to see Rob. In fact as Rob has PR he would have rights over Henry which Pat and Tony wouldn't. So it would be best for Pat and Tony to allow Henry to see Rob rather than be obstructive and risk losing contact with Henry if Rob were to move away with him for instance.

I think in this instance once it goes to court Helen will be painted as the abuser. Rob will sight the cases when she raised her hands to him and he had to defend himself, and the sleep walking, and the things he made up that she'd said to Henry. And Henry witnessed her stabbing Rob so the stabbing will be portrayed in the last of a long line of abuse.

This sl is relentlessly heading to bad stuff for Helen. But in true soap style some evidence will pop up to expose rob and get Helen off the hook

Right you lot - why did no one warn me that last night contained
super-annoying Pip - she's bloody awful.
I don't think SOC & Co have met a child, and I'm not even certain that they have ever spoken to a real adult woman.

Philip Pullman tweets:

Helen should have killed Rob outright. The bugger's going to come back even more twisted and vicious. This will run and run, I hope.

I hope not!!!

Surely a social worker would step in if their are allegations of spousal abuse and disallow contact for either parent until the facts are established?

But Kirsty has made allegations. Yes it is hearsay and not established fact. The police must have documented her statement being a prime witness and as they allege abuse have they just disregarded it? Poor show if so! It's on the record so they are being negligent if they do.

And as for switching genders and saying if a man had attacked a woman she wouldn't be banned from seeing her child, we all know (as do the police) that such attacks are far more common and a man is more likely to be the physical aggressor. Knowing this and how rare it is for a woman to stab her husband (the police being aware of case histories of abused women snapping like this) they should be exercising caution and instructing P&T to contact them before making any decision involving henwee? After all they are not discussing the attack with him because it may contaminate evidence.

But we are clearly in cloud cuckoo land and the police are cardboard cutouts incapable of protecting key witnesses.

In rl a social worker or a police officer would be present with any contact with either parent.

It might not run and run as all the new listeners who turned in for the gory details may get bored and switch off if it does.

Doesn't a drop in viewers mean the TV soaps just up the dramatics again, and keep on doing so. I feel so protective towards the Archers. SOC is destroying something I love. Radio drama ought to be included in community protection orders (or whatever saved the village hall)

How is Rob going to manage for money when he gets out? Will he try to come back to work in the shop? Presume they have gone through Peggy's money. Maybe he will try and blackmail them!

He IS going to blackmail them. He's compelled them to bring Henry to him and listed his injuries, worked up some tears and Pat's said sorry.
He's going to expect money next and, once he's got Henry back, they'll have to do exactly what he wants if they're going to see him at all.
He and Ursula will, of course, carefully programme Henry to give a version of events that damns Helen.

I don't think I can take the unrelenting inevitability of it all and I wish she'd killed him once and for all.

Gumpen, yes, Dr locke to the rescue!

In rl a social worker or a police officer would be present with any contact with either parent.

I have no knowledge of normal practice on this, but I'm dubious. Going to the scenario of the woman beaten up by her husband, wouldn't the norm be to restore the children to her as soon as she is physically able to look after them, in the interests of restoring them to some semblance of normality? I find it difficult to believe that a police officer or social worker would move in with them till the husband's trial.

I expect Arsula will bail out Rob anyway.

I'm with Bertrand
TASWAMA
I imagine SOC will send a man to save her.
I have suggested something similar for a thread title before: Fuck Off SOC

"In rl a social worker or a police officer would be present with any contact with either parent." no they really wouldn't. And you can't make the statement that because it's rarer for a woman to stab her husband things should be done differently. A stabbing is a stabbing. There were no previous allegations, no previous charges against Rob, Helen hasn't made any statements confirming that Rob had ever hurt her, and she made no attempt to get help for Rob after she'd stabbed him.

People only know from this storyline that she was being abused. But in RL if you knew a man who was stabbed by his partner you would hopefully not jump to automatic conclusions or consider that his children be removed from him any more than you would a woman. It just wouldn't happen.

But surely there should be social workers involved because of H witnessing the stabbing and his mum being arrested? Or not?

Especially since the child in question was so obviously happy to visit his father and the two people closest to the defendant were only too pleased to facilitate the visit.

What gets me is Pat asking him if she could pass on a message to Helen. If there was anything he wanted to say, he could write to her himself. And what sort of message was she imagining?

'I'm so sorry, darling. I shouldn't have provoked you. It was all my fault. I know I deserved it.' ????

The prosecution will have a field day. It shows that H's parents don't believe she was abused and that there's no reason why Henry shouldn't be returned to his father.