Come in to The Archers thread - we've redecorated! Take a seat in that distinctive yellow chair and discuss events in Ambridge.

[PseudoBadger]

New thread for tonight's episode.

Do you like the decor then? My 'personal' assistant did it.

It was better that Pat wasn't there. She would have been doing the 'How could I have been so blind?' bit. This way Tom had a chance to talk some sense into Helen. Let's hope she takes it on board.

I wish they'd pointed out to Helen that if she pleaded guilty she would almost certainly wave goodbye to any chance of seeing Henry again, because she'd be handing Rob the perfect argument for saying she's violent and unpredictable and shouldn't be around small children.

I do wish someone would get a psychiatrist to her.

You'd also wonder that they are not monitoring her for some sort of prenatal psychosis. We know she is not psychotic but they don't.

Why wasn't Pat planting cabbages?

Dad3 - 😄 yes that's right. Not clever really, I just spend too much time around teenagers I think. (FYfurtherI - from "ship" it follows that "shipping" is hoping for a relationship between two people that haven't got together yet).

Blimey. Miranda's ghastly. And in a cheap stereotyped way, not in a potential for a decent character way. And it sounds like Justin has previous for dallying with the help. In my mad plot development mind, I really want Justin to make a pass at Kate - so we can hear her wrestle for half a second between her Eco credentials and the chance to bag a passing millionaire sugar daddy.

Maybe when Miranda commented on Lillian not being a problem because of her age it was more because Justin has a history of impregnating his younger dalliances

Although I still picture him as Fred Elliott so that gives me the bleurghs

I wanted to yell at Tom to tell her that in the world's eyes Rob can give the children stability and she will never get custody unless she pleads not guilty. At least Anna is trying to give a rational explanation for Helen's thought process.

(I'm really sorry and I know this is totally inappropriate, but I can't share elsewhere, because it will get back to the person concerned. But at the school today I genuinely heard someone say "I'm sorry I can't help at the school fete, that's the day my horse is getting Rolphed".) thanks. Off back to the millennium wood now.

I am right in thinking that all Helen has to do tomorrow is say not guilty or guilty? Does anything else happen at a preliminary hearing? I do hope she listened to her brother. I agree that someone in that state should not have to plead either way without psychiatric assessment.
I think it is important to get Helen thinking about what happened, especially just before the incident. It sounds like she can only remember the awfulness immediately after.
Some years ago, I came across a fatal accident ( of a motorcyclist) and when the police asked details like what other cars I had seen and where the bike had overtaken me ( it was a quiet country road so he must have overtaken me before the crash) I had no recollection. But when I drove the same route next, I had a clear memory of the noise of the bike roaring past me, ( and where on the road that 'unimportant(to me) detail' had occurred. Initially it was obliterated by the awfulness of what I saw and had to deal with. (Ps I know this is fiction but I presume it is based on reality!)

Can I be the first to say shark infested custard mini.

Sounds entirely appropriate Sara. Although, without looking it up, I'm pretty sure the last time I read about Rolphing was in Vogue a couple of decades ago. Something to do with someone (sorry) sticking their fingers up a person's nose - thereby improving them both mentally and physically. Is it the same Rolph?

But my! Young Troughton Jnr was pushed to the limits of his reading aloud abilities today. There was definitely at least half a second when I almost believed in him.

Glad to see Brookfield in less selfish mode ...

A guilty plea would surely waste Anna's talents and the potential for a lovely long drawn out trial?

This is getting sooo dull.

I am familiar with Rolfing. It is deep tissue body work and releases fascia, fantastic stuff but you have to expect pain. not heard of it for horses, I bet they neigh loudly.
Stick or Blossom Hill custard

Sticker, mini - a canary with a machine-gun, surely?

Or a banana with a flick-knife?

Helen and pat are unlistenable at the moment, they are just portrayed as the worst kind of hysterical women unable to make a rational or clever thought. I'm finding it fucking irritating to listen to

It was the canary what done it, or the banana more likely as it was a knifing.

Someone must have a joke about who gets custardy of Henwee?

I'm afraid they have Lillian.
It has to be real custard, it's so easy to make doncha know, and must be intelligent enough to look after Henry. Super custard with special powers.
< it's been a long day>

DDD here's a task for you (if you want)
I was wondering how many of us have stopped listening because of the HelRob SL. I know I have.

On More Or Less last week they were talking about how net immigration figures are reached. Astoundingly, it's not by counting up any government paperwork carried out in offices in the UK, but by placing people with clipboards on ferries and Eurostar and asking every tenth person where they have travelled from.
Except they can't actually waylay every tenth person as they walk onto the boat etc, so they have to remember their face and go and stalk them down in the cafe or wherever.

I was pretty shocked. I hope DDD's methods are more scientific.

The thing about custard though is that it is easier to make it from scratch than using the powdered stuff. The powdered stuff always turns out badly if I make it. The tubs are wonderful though.

If you can't have a sensible conversation about custard, ie, tell your dh to shape up over silly expectations, then you know it's time to leave.

I don't think that method of counting immigrants is unscientific, provided one understands the potential sources of error. Presumably they can validate it against other information such as school places, housing, employment data, and of course every decade they get a census to help realign their estimates.

Anyway, if you all PM me your names and addresses, I'll pop round with a clipboard and ask about your listening habits. Then get kicked off MN for stalking

I am somewhat concerned that both Anna and Tom were convinced that H should plead not guilty on the grounds of self defence when she hasn't said anything at all about what happened, other than a few vague words about Henry not being safe. How can Anna be so sure that she will get enough evidence to argue self-defence? How do either of them KNOW she didn't pre-plan the whole thing? How many relatives of cold-blooded murderers have believed that the murderer wouldn't hurt a fly, only to have the scales fall from their eyes as the evidence emerges.

I am fed up with the way that Helen is being played now, as a jibbering wreck who can't string a sentence together. Even with Anna's explanation about her state of mind the wittering is getting very tedious.