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

[SarfEast1cated]

I can't bear to listen either - can't we get a petition to the Script writers?

[BertrandRussell]

And if people really are thinking about drugs in the tea, then the storyline is even more ridiculous and doing an even bigger disservice to victims of domestic abuse.

[LillianGish]

This is the essence of my problem with SOC - he is rewriting history and characters to fit in with a plot he has come up with. Fair enough to come up with an anecdote from childhood to fill in the gaps of a new character, but we've known Helen all her life. She is not a person who gets inevitably gets the blame for things that were someone else's fault - rather she is someone who has never had to face up to anything and for whom her family - parents, brother, siblings - fall over themselves to make excuses for and go out of their way not to upset (and in her brother's case, cover up for). She has gone through life doing exactly what she wants safe in the knowledge that that her family around her will take care of her and make allowances however she behaves. Kirsty too has been able to forgive her anything - Ian was her first brush with facing up to someone not prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt. She has never really been out in the big bad world - always working in the family business and living either at home or in the village. Let her panic about how she will cope in a situation that has put her beyond the help of her family, wondering how she will cope with a new a baby on her own, having to demonstrate to people who don't know her from Adam that she isn't a knife-wielding maniac, but don't pretend that her problems stem from having a guilty face - it's an unnecessary embellishment that reminds me I am listening to a story rather than eavesdropping on real life.

[Gruach]

So, is this right? We have:

Yurts
Shepherd hut
Hen house
Hen caravan
Hen holiday home
Fairy grotto

• Probably something I've forgotten.
  
  The SWs are having a larf aren't they? I guess whoever inserts the most doll's house references into their scripts will win a prize at the end of the year.

[redshoeblueshoe]

Lillian thank-you for that post, you have expressed my feelings perfectly

[EsmesBees]

Great post Lillian

[SmallLegsOrSmallEggs]

SOC tack would work ifyou were making up the backstory for a character you first encountered in their recent past as an adult i.e. a short drama series but it does not workforTA.

Drugs though- I think that was just to illustrate what the checks on MBU are. Information broadcasting to show they did some research. There was an article on it - was that linked from the TA blog?

[Eastpoint]

Very good Gruach

[Vango]

In defence of my post yesterday, could I just add that I may have had a couple of glasses of wine whilst listening. The Archers. Driving me to drink.

[BYOSnowman]

It feels like soc knew how long he would be there and has planned for that short term basis. He says he has been planning for the next 20 years but it's all bull.

Thebonly one who hasn't been snow globed is Helen

[LillianGish]

I agree that the drugs test reference was not to suggest Hellin had been taking anything, but more to illustrate the sort of people who will be in the mother and baby unit - it isn't like going to the Ambridge Mum's and toddlers group. The prospect must be terrifying to Hellin who has spent all her life in Ambridge - her closest shave with outside world was with Annette. I don't think she'll be bonding with any fellow cheese makers anytime soon - also prison food must be posing some problems for her (non-organic for a start). There are so many strands to run with and we have to listen to a fabrication from her childhood.

[LillianGish]

SOC will no doubt say he is channelling Ibsen Gruach - he has great literary pretensions (which is why he is going back to EE obviously).

[SmallLegsOrSmallEggs]

Bert and the henhut/gypsy caravan. I said it way upthread and I stick by it. Bert is being deliberately twattish to Lynda and even worse he is using moi dead Freeder as a pretext.

Lovely that he wants to open a garden in memory of Freeder but the choice of day is just awind up.

Now he wants a mini gypsy caravan just to movk Lynda'a shepherds hut. Was moi Freeder particularlt known for her love of hen huts masquerading as gypsy caravans? Was she? I don't think she was.

although no doubt SOC will insert some kind of past incident involving Freeder and Dexy's midnight runners that explains it all

Although I do prefict that after an rnormoys indignant flounce by Lynda over the gypsyhenhut there eill be some kind of making up and they will cooperate to promote both gardens for open queen Sunday.

[SmallLegsOrSmallEggs]

Allo allo moment again. I'd correct the typos but they are so many and so rnormoys (enormous)

[HalsallRedux]

In pointing out the drugs thing I didn't actually think they would get a positive result - just that it seemed particularly odd that Anna T stressed it so very much, and questioned H anxiously about whether she'd been taking anything. It seemed like overkill, to say the least.

I completely agree that after - how long? A few weeks now? - there wouldn't be traces of anything in her urine, but given the way the SLs have been going recently, I still wouldn't be that surprised if they chucked it randomly into the mix.

It was a crap episode and H's childhood sweetie-trauma was a misguided attempt at adding some in-depth psychological back-story which, frankly, we don't need. We need them to stop all this nonsense and sort out the ridiculous mess they've created.

[glamorousgrandmother]

I thought the sweetie story was intended to show that she was weak and easily led not that she always got the blame. I think she said something to the effect that 'I really wanted to eat the sweet. I'm so weak.'.

Agreed that it wasn't really necessary and she'd be better off remembering more recent events.

[enochroot]

I took the childhood anecdote to mean that she's still under the influence of Rob's grooming so she's looking for reasons from her distant past for why she's as flawed as he has been constantly saying she is.
However, she is flawed and always has been. That's why she made such a perfect victim for him but really it shows that she still hasn't confronted what he did to her and so is still unable to speak about it. The memory of the rape is still under the surface and she keeps pushing it back down.

Thanks for the new thread.

[R4]

she still hasn't confronted what he did to her and so is still unable to speak about it.

But it doesn't make sense. If she is as worried about Henwee/SOK as she claims then she would be throwing every little incident into the narrative to show 'Helen/good: Rob/bad'. As ever, she is showing cognitive dissonance - she cares more about minimising Rob's past behaviour than optimising Henry's future welfare. She's not the mother she thinks she is.

[BYOSnowman]

It's all total bullshit. Has she been spending the last month wailing in her cell over the sweet she accepted?

[BertrandRussell]

And I keep coming back to- if you were currently in an abusive relationship, what would you now be thinking about trying to get out. And I want to weep for the lost opportunity.

[Vango]

I'm wondering if Sean has decided that because we've already witnessed/heard most of the gas lighting and abuse already we don't need to hear it again right now? Perhaps we are supposed to assume from now on that Helen is having these conversations with Anna off-air? We'll be going over the incidences and evidence at the trial in September so maybe he's saving Helen's thoughts for then.

I don't think The Archers is supposed to be this difficult to understand! I'm going round in circles myself these days. So many ridiculous plots bubbling under the surface. Haven't a clue what's going on. I need a dose of Susan to bring me up to speed.

[Boomingmarvellous]

Also not quite understanding the relevance of the Hellin and the sweet incident. She certainly hasn't gone through life getting the blame for things she hasn't done! More wriggling out of taking responsibility for her dubious actions.

It does indicate I suppose that she feels that she is a weak person underneath the superficial confidence and that has made her vulnerable to knob?

However I was reading in a book on verbal abuse that the women involved were not meek but we're confident and cooperative and people pleasers, and this is what was exploited.

[Gruach]

I can't imagine, Bert that anyone who had previously recognised themselves in Helen's domestic situation (before The Event) would now even consider turning on their radio in the evenings. Just walking past the thing must be sickening - and the relentless publicity must be torture.

[Vango]

Bertrand I think they've all gone very quiet on the 'awareness raising' front. Hardly surprising. Sean's made a bit of a mistake. He's boring; by his own admission derivative, and now completely unoriginal. All his recent interviews, honestly. Like telling a 3 year old their drawing of the dog is just the best thing you've ever seen! Followed by loads and loads of dog drawings accompanied by big beaming smiles. Poor Sean.

[BYOSnowman]

Yep. Talk about confirming they have no way out.