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

The thought of giving birth without anyone you know! It's too awful. I can't stop thinking about it. I'm maybe a touch sensitive because I had a baby quite recently but is there any chance Pat really will be able to be there? This isn't some awful blind alley, is it?

Agree closing the shop for a couple of weeks was sensible. Now Helen has entered a plea and the trial is September they'd be better getting on with life and not moping about

And I keep coming back to what the fuck is this doing to women who are in coercively controlling relationships? What is it telling them? It's so fucking irresponsible!!

It's also really dull.

Yes we had the big 'omg she's stabbed him' but then it's been a real drag

So they managed to cock up a sl that was actually going well and could have still had drama with a more realistic ending, and they managed to cock up the 'dramatic' sl too

Agree Helen being stabbed by Rob as she tried to escape and him in gaol and her recuperating would be more realistic and less tedious. They could still give the Helen character a few months rest by sending her to a long lost relative for 3 months if needed

Or just stick her in a coma? You know, one of those where she will wake up because they will let Henry in to speak to her at last. And she will immediate get up and back to work

The shop is allegedly shut because running a farm that they have always run that now has no dairy herd is like lots of work, it's like really hard. There are pigs and cows and vegetables and everything and there's only 5 of them (including Neil the pig manager who is supposed to be consulted on all things pig and yet wasn't there when Jazzer was sacked and wasn't at that meeting...you know the one about the pigs...the pigs he manages).

And its not like you can hire shop staff and there isn't anyone who has organic retail experience. Or any farm hands.

So it looks like Jazzer and Rob were pretty much running the place.

P&T had retired except from.doing Tony's beef. So T did the cows (still does) Jazzer Johny and Tom did the veg. J, T and N did pigs. Rob did the shop.

So it should be Tony filling in for Jazzer in planting and pigs.

Clarrie and Sooosan do the dairy.

And if Pat could take 5 minutes out of her hand wringing schedule she could open the shop.part time say 2 till 4 to tide it over.

Was Tom's plan no pigs and no shop or getting rid of pigs gives him time to do shop.? If the latter he may find RobSkullDuggery.

To be fair it might not profit them to open the shop for very limited hours - as they have no passing trade. All the MAMILs and day trippers, etc would need to be confident of finding the place open whenever they turned up.

And of course they don't seem to have enough brain between them all to have dealt with the Rob problem. If they asked me I would suggest that - for the time being - they incorporate the shop into the cafe and let Emma and Fallon run it. That way they can legitimately make Rob redundant. I will not be able to listen if he finds his way back to the till and the sausage freezer.

I couldn't cope with Hellin giving birth with Pat - that would be horrendous.

I suspect they can't make Rob redundant while he's on sick leave but this is where the whole flakiness about business at Bridge Farm makes me foam at the mouth.
If he simply volunteered to do Helen's job while she was PG then I'm not sure he has any rights at all as the arrangement wasn't of their choosing. They merely acquiesced.
Also I believe you cannot make someone redundant and then replace them since redundancy implies there is no need for that employee. Then again, it can be argued that it is Helen that is being replaced because it is Helen's job, not Rob's.
However, he has worked there for less than a year so can be dismissed as soon as his sick leave ends though I suspect Rob won't be in a hurry to be signed fit for work before the trial.

They can dismiss him whether he's on sick leave or not. He doesn't have two years service.

He probably wouldn't be redundant, only roles are redundant not people and if they open the shop there will be a role. No shop and he would be redundant.

Can't they just sack him? He's been there less than a year...........

Pat n Tone could sit in the shop. They don't have Henwee to look after now.

I just wish they'd stop fancying about and start acting like people who run a business... and bloody run the business! They could get someone to run the shop on minimum wage.

Fannying, not fancying. Poncy phone

If they have any sense they will go through the shop accounts and records meticulously, or pay for a bookkeeper to do so if they're all so frantically busy. Not only would it provide material for Helen's case, it would prevent Rob playing the sympathy card and maybe start getting a few more people on their side and dredging their memories of their own encounters with him.

And I have never known what Pat does all day. When they had the herd she never stepped in to do the milking when they needed someone. And she only manacles the dairy.

I'm still hoping there'll be Something To Find when they open the shop.

I'm finding the dragging out interminable. With the exception of recruiting a barrister to be Hellin's therapist/caseworker/anything other than a barrister and Rob coming out of hospital and taking Henwee nothing has happened! It's been weeks!

I assume Rob is going to roll up at some point demanding the shop is opened and he can go back to work. It's the sheer lack of common sense that's flabbergasting.

Hello you two

OMG

Whaaaaa? I'm sure I was one of the originators of this idea: "Emoticon would be very exciting! I'd like The Bull, a tiny pub. MNers would LOVE a pub emoticon, I'm sure."

This is so exciting, I've never helped invent an emoticon before.

So what will happen tonight? Helen has a memory about a button she liked when she was three, and then snarls at Anna through gritted teeth that ROB MUSTN'T HAVE THE BABY OR HENRY. Anna agrees and tells her how strong she is. Anna asks Helen if Rob ever made her feel unsafe in any way. Helen says no, he was a wonderful husband although she didn't really like having her phone tracked. Anna responds by asking her whether she has any more memories about buttons.

Anna rings up Pat and Tony, prefacing the conversation by saying she has some very very important news. Pat and Tony take it in turns to say that it is unfair and inhuman than Helen didn't get bail, and that they are angry about it. Anna gives up.

Henry arrives at Bridge Farm and says 'my daddy says my mummy is evil, I hate mummy, she twied to send me away. My daddy says it's good that I haven't told anyone he's rigorously coaching me evewy day about what I should say in court.' Pat and Tony sigh heavily and say how unfair it all is. And then Tom says something about pigs.

:o Seek

Sounds about right.

Can you Mumsnet from prison?

"And she only manacles the dairy." :o

Superb, Seek!

I am wondering whether the horror joys of labour will unlock something in Helen and she will finally start to talk about what happened the night of the stabbing. So, in amidst the labour pain screams she'll let go and let rip about Knob.

Sadly, there won't be anyone useful there. UNLESS - she has Anna as her birth partner…….?! Now there's a wholly unlikely and therefore given the current editor weirdly possible storyline….

Seek

Also just because! What are we going to use it for?

I can think of one thing. We could start an AIBU about a fictional situation from TA and put at the end and nobody would whinge or complain. They would know from the start what we were about and would just pass by without comment. Wouldn't they?