Orange Is The New Black in Ambridge. Just ask Helen. But will anyone in The Archers ever ask her WHY?

[PseudoBadger]

I reckon this thread will see us through the Euros, both footy and referendum. Await the clunky topical inserts here.

Totally frustrated by Tony. I get his rationale about no-one knowing what happened but he's Helen's dad not an interested bystander. It's not normal for a parent to be so dispassionate about their only daughter. Tony should be as partisan as Pat. Instead he comes across as someone who doesn't really care enough.

Please, please let the new editor end this nonsense.

Exactly, at least Pat has regained a bit of fire but Tony just seems prepared to let it all happen around him without getting too involved. And why aren't P&T (and Kirsty, Tom etc) telling the village how they got it so wrong about Knob?

Happy Birthday BOOP.
That book gets very good reviews on Amazon. This thread's DDs are turning up trumps at the moment.

On the archers, everyone seemed to bend over backwards to do things properly, follow the rules and get the right advice. It used to be like a public information broadcast.

Now they seem to be competing over who can be the biggest blundering idiot and ignore the obvious, like consult your solicitor who is supposed to be on the case...........before you make a decision involving your grandchild in a sticky situation or blurt out what is happening to the other. (or buy a bluddy tin of paint and not mix flour into it )

I am not sure I can bear to listen to this load of bolleaux this evening.

I'm currently listening to the Pip and Toby bolleaux. Can it get any worse?

Oh and Tony - you are an idiot.

Oh lord , sorry I'm going to shoot Toby. And no Pip, that telling off doesn't redeem your general ghastliness.

It all sounds hideous, I think I will give it a miss.Pip always sounds like a schoolgirl trying to do 'acting'

I couldn't tell Pip and Alice apart at all during their chat yesterday. I gave up trying to follow in the end. Old Pip was whiny but at least identifiable.

I agree that Tony's equanimity makes him seem disinterested. My dad is pretty laid back, but when my wanker ex divorced me, the beast awoke!

Were it not for the constraints of actors' schedules and career plans Alice's new found enthusiasm for farming might have been the one thing that drew Debbie back to Home Farm.

No human being on earth would have blabbed to Rob about their baby-visiting plans. Utterly ridiculous.

Yep. So now we're going to have Rob shouting "follow that car!" on Sunday, all kitted out in his superhero Fathers4Justice clobber. No idea why we call Dave and Ruth the Dopeys when we have Pat and Tony.

And Alice sounds like the poshest phone sex worker ever. I hoped she was going to offer to have Phoebe stay until after her exams. Poor Phoebe!

I think Tone is actually yet to be fully convinced of Knob's crimes, which may explain why he's still prepared to converse normally with Knob: "I mentioned it in passing".

I think Tony was actually spot on in his analysis of the paper article. BF keep acting like everyone should know Rob is the bad guy when they don't know and they haven't told anyone else.

All anyone knows is his dw stabbed him. He nearly died.

He is also correct about playing the game re. Contact. Although he shoud have said they would have H this Friday. No way would I tryst Rob to still bring him after they've missed a visit. He'll just say they cba on Sunday. Plus he won't let them have him o/n Fri then again on Sunday so they lose a visit.

Mentioning the visit was I assume was Toby going neh neh neh you know of Father's day, We are going to see your son. So neh. I imagine he knew precisely what he was doing.

^ I don't mean T believes Rob is ok. I mean he is aware of what ppl who don't know what (little) Hel has said must think.

I don't think Tony was mentioning seeing Jack in order to taunt Knob. If he had, it would have been obvious when he was telling Pat about it.

I'm past caring. It's all so silly. We are about 10 weeks on and still no one is communicating with anyone else. With the exception of people saying things they shouldn't oughta to Rob.
Utterly ridiculous and unbelievable.

Law in action last night was about coercive control. I switched off when they used a Helrob scene as an example.

It's all being so badly dealt with now - at what point is someone on the program going to mention coercive control rather than radio 4 just talking about it in other programmes and trumpeting what a good job the archers is doing.

I couldn't face listening to that either BOOP. It seems so pointless for us all to become world experts on this subject while TA becomes sillier and sillier. In their position Pat and Tony shouldn't even be brushing their teeth without prior legal consultation. Still no word on Rob's BF "job"? And the comedy villainess still at Blossom Hill Cottage?

It's really hard to believe that a group of supposedly vaguely qualified writers + editor + director, etc could mess a story up so badly.

Perhaps they're setting up Tony as the one who uncovers the 'worst' of Rob's crimes, as he has been the most (I know this isn't quite the right word) sceptical as to how awful it has been for Helen.

• So sorry - AntiBoop!

Listening to the news, I'm drawing parallels with RL i.e. Jo Cox (RIP ). Everyone's first question is "what happened?" The second question is "why?"

It's annoying that no one (not least The Defence) has properly attempted to get it out of Helen and unbelievable that the village isn't wildly speculating gossiping about motivation.

Pah!

Happy birthday for yesterday BOOP !

The thing I liked about OldPip was that at least she sounded local. (Borsetshire is kind of Midlands-y isn't it?)

All the young people apart from the working clarsses sound like drama school toffs to me - surely they would have some kind of local twang
The posh people in my region don't have broad accents but are still identifiably from here.

Or is it just that all TA accents sound the same to my untutored Northern ear?

SOMETHING will obviously happen now that Rob knows P&T are off to see Jack on Father's Day. I don't think Rob would go up there - why would he, as he knows Helen has said no? But knowing they're away means he knows they're not available for something else, say if Henry is 'upset and is asking where Granny and Grandpa are and can't understand where they've gone.'

I could easily see him saying that P&T going off to see Helen/Jack is disruptive and upsetting to Henry (look how upset he got on Father's Day) and this is one reason why he must have both children.

I did wonder if Henry might have some sort of 'accident' on Sunday, but that seems too awful even for Rob.

Or perhaps Rob will rock up to the shop, or the teashop and start dropping poison. It's far too good an opportunity to miss.

Not just you, Trevor, and I'm a posh southerner!

IIRC all (or most?) of the Home Farm adult-children were at boarding school for a large part of their youth so would be expected to have fairly neutral, not so local accents. Can't remember about the Brookfield clan (Shula etc ) though I think Elizabeth was expelled from somewhere smart. The Bridge Farm offspring went off to agricultural places so at least had some non-Ambridge influence on their accents. But Pip has never been anywhere. Other than work experience in Yorkshire. She ought to sound like the Grundys!