He's not a pheasant poacher, he's a pheasant poacher's grandson. Join us for trials, tribulations and tipsy tractor trips in Ambridge.

[PseudoBadger]

Will this thread see the end of The Trial? And SOC?

Gruach it will soon get crowded in here as all the occasional fans turn up to share the trial. We can sneer at them just like football fans who hate it when their team gets a good FA cup draw and the "plastic fans" come out of the woodwork for the big game. I am like that grumpy old codger in the corner of the pub that doesn't say much but is always there with a drink saying "I remember the bad winter of 1976" and "I remember when the Dog Woman lived at Nightingale Farm"

I don't want Rob to leave! There, I said it!

The actor is too good for TA to lose. So ... I want him to have an epiphany of sorts (bear with me!), get some erm ... counselling and stick around. A changed character but not too nice.

And it's not any more ridiculous than other things that have happened under SOC.

Rob becoming nice would be just as annoying as Elizabeth recovering from her serious heart complaint and Dan getting over his juvenile arthritis and Pat forgetting she was a feminist Greenham Common woman. He could stick around injecting poison into events and spoiling the cricket club and we could all hiss and boo when he appears and Henry gets slowly more screwed up. I would prefer him to be consistently charmingly horrible.

Well rob being a dairy man and now seemingly able to run the estate is bizarre. I guess In socs world if you can do one job you can do them all.

Whilst rob is a good actor the ludicrous sl around him are too much and the sooner he leaves the better. I just hope soc has had no hand in recruiting his replacement

Agree with pp that his inability to deal with the 15 min slot has been his biggest failure. How often before him have we had two nights to cover one etc?

Topanga1 Nooooo........

Rob must get his comeuppance. I agree about Tim Watson, but I'm not sure I can cope with Rob redeemed. I suspect he will stick around though as he will make the BF Archers' lives a misery over Jack/Gideon and Henwy by fighting them every inch of the way. Regardless of the outcome of the trial.

I guess In socs world if you can do one job you can do them all.....
Agree with pp that his inability to deal with the 15 min slot has been his biggest failure.

Maybe because SOC thinks he can do any job. when he clearly can't

Top - actually, I don't think that's the spirit of these threads. Newcomers have always been welcome here. The attitude of those who are long-term fans is usually to encourage those who are more recent listeners and to answer their questions. I thought that's what this symbolises -->

So, passing MNers, lurkers, non-listeners - come and join us!

(That was in response to your football fan analogy)

I thought SOC would take Rob to EE, to repeat the Hel/Rob story. In fact if Hel gets sent down she can go too.
I am embarrassed that I would be happy with that

Dad that is because you are nice and welcoming and a good person
So you can patiently answer all the questions "Who owns Blossom Hill Cottage?" "Will Scruff come back?" "Which is Toby and which is Rex?" while I sit and mutter darkly in the inglenook with my point of Shires

I thought SOC would take Louiza and that was the motivation for the stabbing episode. Helen gets a long sentence and disappears as she builds her TV career. Maybe that's the reason that Anna is having the crisis that is making her a crap barrister. I'm trying to be kind

We lose Helen but gain Anna as a character.

I think the actor who plays Rob is very good, however I just can't stand listening to his character Rob on air.

I don't think I can stomach years of aggro between him and the Bridge Farm lot, not to mention Ursula and her dentures!

I think there are lots of us relying on this thread to keep up to date who can't bear the SL.

I've been listening for 25 years, last break was Nigel.

I think SOC is doing a RuthnDavid/Hugely Hoff story line in his own life.
"I want to move to television … hey someone has offered me £7million to go to EE … I'm definitely going … oh yes I am, I've told everyone about it and I'm definitely committed to going [digs out old toys including his MY First Radio Producer Set"} … … … actually, I think I'll stay in Ambridge."

Annie!

Wash out your mouth!

Actually - after an alcohol free August and a glass of wine with the six o'clock news last night I was feeling nicely drowsy by about 7.10 pm. So when Adam started wailing about having to work with/under Rob I almost convinced myself it was a nightmare of my own imagining. I really don't see how this will be bearable listening.

My First Radio Producer Set

Why haven't the Bridge Farm Archers written down everything that they can remember about Rob and Helen, from start to finish. Then Tony and Tom could have given it Anna as a framework to work from; it would give her dates and a chronology. Plus, it would have clarified the sequence of events in their own heads, and helped them to remember bits - perhaps Tom might have remembered the bruise?

Pure when I think about it, though, I can't really remember anyone actually communicating with each other about Helen's defence being self-defence. Perhaps I missed a crucial episode, but they all went from being uniformly deluded to suddenly talking as if they had all decided that he was abusive, they went straight on to "how did we never notice before?" And so on.
Did I miss something?

Puremince, can I ask? are you Scottish? I like your pure dead brilliant user name!

BTW I think the reason Lizzie has recovered from her heart condition is due to the valve replacement she had; Likewise Dan has outgrown the juveile arthritis, which can happen esp if it is treated promptly (presumably thanks to DocLoc). Lizzie is likely - were she real! - getting some follow up and might be on warfarin (depending on the surgery she had and type of replacement). I know we never hear that, as we never really hear of anyone else getting follow-up - e.g. Ruth after her breast cancer, Jill and her cataracts. I suppose it would be a tad tedious to hear all that, and we have all those other exciting things happening in the village ....

Is it this coming Sunday we have the hour-long episode?

No, Sunday 11th, which is why I think it will be the verdict that night. I won't be answerable for my actions if it doesn't.

Excuse me popping up to ask a question. I'm a very long term listener and lurker on these threads, although I have been on holiday and haven't read it in a while and can't face searching back through 13 pages to find the answer, but WHAT HOUR LONG EPISODE?

THIS ONE!

How did I miss this?! Have there been any announcements after TA about it? (Although I did have to catch up 2 weeks on iplayer, so maybe it was then).

Tsk. TA is 15 mins, that's what makes it good.

Will the Omnibus be 1hr 45 on 18th?

I have been listening since aged about... 15? when Neil proposed to accidentally-pregnant Susan. Since then TA has been comforting and has accompanied me living with my parents, other students, through two marriages, during meal preps, cleanups, bathing babies, etc, (as a PP said.) One or two sit-down-and-cry moments, such as when John was killed. Apart from that, totally safe to listen to in front of the children. And all in the 15 minutes which is the joy of it.
Until now, it's all wrong, awful abuse and anxiety. The incongruity of anxious indignance on Helen's behalf set against the everyday stuff about cakes and sheep which I used to delight in. And not even fitting into the 15 minutes. Please let it soon be over and return to normal! Give me my old friends back, I haven't heard from Alan, Usha, Amy, Nic, Hayley, Kathy, (You know, Kathy, Pat's BEST FRIEND) and so many others for too long.

I feel a bit better for saying all that in public.
Thanks everyone.

Rob actor is certainly very good, but that awful laugh he does makes me homicidal so I really don't think I could take him sticking around continuing to be horrible. However, I could definitely enjoy a few more months of him sticking around and undergoing a whole series of humiliations.

My ideal would be:

Helen gets acquitted; Rob loses his claim to custody of both children with the judge saying he's a nasty manipulative tosser; Stefan reappears and Tells All so even Susan acknowledges he's not the hero of the flood; he tries to gaslight and rape Charlotte, she kicks him in the bollocks and tells him to get lost; Charlie comes back and tells Justin all about how Rob cooked the books; Bridge Farm Archers find the evidence of him doing the same with the shop books; hunt sab reappears, he and Shula co-operate to get him charged with assault; Justin sacks him; he gets charged with fraud, coercive control, rape of Jess and Helen and attempted rape of Charlotte, gets convicted, goes dahn for at least 20 years and is last heard of getting a taste of his own medicine from Borsetshire Prison's version of Genial Harry Grout.

That would all make me very, very happy.