Will Lynda agree that the Grundys are fungis? And is Peggy finally realising that Helen is faaahmly? Await the Ambridge Fairy on The Archers thread.

[PseudoBadger]

"Get outta my village" screams Peggy Mitchell

Aux armes citoyennes!

May I say how much I have always loved and admired Peggy?

That was rather splendid. BOOP!

BOOP de BOOP for Peggoi. Perhaps the sweet reference was somehow intended to tie in with Hansel & Gretel story that Rob was telling Henry. Although I've no idea how.

Must be less painful being an omnibusser (as I am) I'm off on holiday soon, so I shall listen daily for a bit, I am not looking forward to it

Arghhh so close to telling Anna something important for once!!

She pretty much has told Anna now - she's not looking forward to seeing the baby, she wanted to wait, Rob didn't, she has to keep the baby safe from Rob. Anna is experienced in this area of work - she will be able to read between the lines and see the coercion.

What is it going to take, for Helen to actually tell Anna what really happened? Her precious Henry is now living with Rob, for god sake is that not enough? If I were in Anna's shoes I would be getting pretty fed up by now. She has zero chance of winning this case if she has absolutely nothing to go on, except for an anecdote about stolen sweets at primary school FFS

Oh fgs. I'm out of patience with Helen and Tom.

Anna will probably tell the story in court and employ a couple of violinists. At the end she will say 'and do you know who that boy was? That's right' and she will turn and point her finger at rob

There won't be a dry eye in the jury box

I do wish someone would just ask Helen why she's so determined that Rob mustn't get his hands on the baby.

I'm quite bemused by the amount of time Anna is spending with Helen. Surely the Legal Aid fund isn't going to pay for a QC to spend time telling Helen about the mother and baby unit?

I think she'll tell Peggy

It was rather odd. Visiting a client on a Sunday when there's no urgent matter? On LA? And I thought Anna was supposed to be a DV expert - surely she should have known something about mother and baby units. I couldn't really see the reason why she was there.

Nigel Pascoe QC tweets:

Anna Tregorran is some barrister. Advice beyond the call of duty. Still may get a breakthrough admission letting bad character be alleged.

Surely the Legal Aid fund isn't going to pay for a QC to spend time telling Helen about the mother and baby unit?

Indeed. Wouldn't it be better for Anna actor to put on a different voice and pretend to be SW if the TA budget does not stretch to 2 actors. Sirely it is SW who would explain about birth in custody etc.

And for someone who job repies on cross examination she is not great at getting info out of people is she?

I wonder if, after Helen has had her baby, Anna will stop being so soft with her, and basically say "right, I cut you a bit of slack when you were pregnant, because you were traumatised enough as it was. Now, I'm going to start getting tough, because you have no excuse now to need a lie down every 5 minutes. You are facing a long time behind bars, during which, Henry will be in Rob's clutches...so don't get sad, get MAD!"

Or at least I bloody hope so, anyway.

The worst of this endless chats between Anna and Helen is it just feels like badly written manipulation of the audience - everytime we're walked almost up to the breakthrough and then it fizzles out. To me this has been the defining characteristic of SOCs reign - constant badly done playing with the audience, a bit like the Route B where we all knew that it was never going to happen but they still kept trying to force us to want to care. The boredom that a lot of us are feeling with this shows that when they do it too often and too badly we just get fed up.

I think you can get some quite nasty things from compost can't you (am too knackered to try googling the specifics). I hope Lynda isn't going to get poorly and end up missing the Queen's Birthday event. At a slight tangent mushrooms gave me one of my top 'I heart R4' listens - a documentary all about growing mushrooms that I caught on a long car drive, the kind of thing that I'd never have sought out but was utterly fascinating - did you know there are only actually about 6 sources of spores for commercial mushrooms in the whole world!

Yes just after I posted I was thinking well surely if Anna is so highly experienced then she has had more than enough clues and should be able to put two and two together!

Why are Pat and Tony whinging about paying Rob sick pay without apparently thinking about giving him notice?

Yes Augusta I wondered that too. Along with probably every other listener who has ever been an employee or an employer.

Do we really think that Bridge Farm are going to give up on the John Archer Memorial Pig Unit. Or is this yet another it-will-never-happen SL.

Yep. Peggoi was certainly the highlight of this week's TA. Tonight's was woeful. Again.

I can't work out why they aren't opening the shop.

Is Anna definitely a QC?
In any event I felt for her tonight, she must be fast losing patience with Helen - I know I am as a listener.

I make it nearly six weeks since the attack. What are they doing if they are not opening the shop - spending all their time hand-wringing instead?. It's yet another stupid, own-goal decision because it's giving the impression that they are incapable of running the business without Rob's input. It's all apparently gone to pot since he left, hasn't it?

I agree, they have really shot themselves in the foot by deciding to close the shop. Surely they are going to need every penny they can get, to cover Helen's legal fees. Someone has to cough up for all the time Anna spends sitting there while Helen witters on about everything except her actual case for defence.

I think they said Helen would qualify for legal aid.