Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Radio/podcast addicts

Discuss your favourite podcast, radio show or The Archers episode.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

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

991 replies

PseudoBadger · 27/08/2016 20:00

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
tomtherabbit · 03/09/2016 16:36

That's what I don't get.

Is Ursula a witness to the 'Kill him' statement? In which case she'll have to perjure herself if they ask about getting the wrong end of the stick.

There's a massive difference between delusion that your son is behaving normally/manipulative and outright lying.

Minimammoth · 03/09/2016 17:17

Is this what we are come to: Flood week. Stab week. Trial week.

What next. Get out of jail ( or is it gaol) week.
Or with Lizzie Docloc, pipntobes, f* week.

Gruach · 03/09/2016 17:29

Oh yes! "Late Night Archers" week Grin. Like Woman's Hour.

SOC will be grateful to you for that suggestion Mini.

tomtherabbit · 03/09/2016 17:30

Like they used to do in Hollyoaks

Olympiathequeen · 03/09/2016 17:56

Wouldn't it be great if arsula was on the stand lying that there was no intention to send Henry to BS, when Anna pops up and says
So why does headmaster xyz say otherwise?

It's surely worth a punt checking
A local boarding schools?
B knobs old one?

It would put the whole premeditated 'I'll kill him' into context.

Anyway. Where's the next title for the thread?

Olympiathequeen · 03/09/2016 17:57

Or does it do 1000 posts before it implodes?

Gruach · 03/09/2016 18:05

We usually get up to about 900 odd before Pseudo calls for suggestions. (Though often something wonderful or hilarious suggests itself before then.)

And then sometime after about 960 she'll announce the new title and we move straight to the new thread.

redshoeblueshoe · 03/09/2016 18:05

I think the thread will be full before the end of the trial.

and I've got a lonely goatherd running around my brain

tomtherabbit · 03/09/2016 18:08

Is he being taken up Lakey Hill?

R4 · 03/09/2016 18:20

Or the new thread title could include "So long, farewell"

I'm not sure if that is aimed at Rob or SOC. Let's say both. Oh, and Anna while we are at it.

Gruach · 03/09/2016 18:59

Carol will fall off the mountain. Anna will return and buy Glebe Cottage ftom Jill.

redshoeblueshoe · 03/09/2016 19:40

Tom do you mean the lonely goatherd ? If you do, no he's not Grin

TopazRocks · 03/09/2016 20:03

A person I knew in childhood did actually 'fall' off a mountain. She happened to be a lawyer as well. There was a FAI (Scots law) and there was speculation that her male companion had been involved in some pushing. A ghastly business. I don't think they ever charged him.

TopazRocks · 03/09/2016 20:08

I am pretty sure Anna assured Helen she would only talk to WA helpline woman to confirm she did call, not to get the content of the call - which is presumably confidential. If asking about rape is a leading question, which i imagine it is, can't she just say 'Lots of men like Knob I mean Rob will rape their victims. I can't help wondering if he did that to you, Helen'.Hmm Okay, maybe not.

TopazRocks · 03/09/2016 20:12

I think you'd need 2 goats, a male and female, or a gay pair perhaps,
to take full advantage of the joys of Lakey Hill. Which i suppose puts the kibosh on the loneliness part.

JudyCoolibar · 03/09/2016 20:45

Yes, Anna did say that. My hope is, however, that now that Helen is trying to open up she would give Anna permission to get the actual record of the call.

Gruach · 03/09/2016 20:54

New York Times.

Pre-trial re-hash but may be interesting for newer listeners. Nice photo of LP and royalty looking adoringly at you know who.

redshoeblueshoe · 03/09/2016 21:24

There's a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall. . . . .
Who started all this singing malarkey ?

JasperDamerel · 03/09/2016 21:36

A Rob and Helen duet of "I am sixteen going on seventeen". You barely need to change the lyrics.

[Rolf:]
You wait, little girl, on an empty stage
For fate to turn the light on
Your life, little girl, is an empty page
That men will want to write on
[Liesl:]
To write on
[Rolf:]
You are sixteen going on seventeen
Baby, it's time to think
Better beware, be canny and careful
Baby, you're on the brink
You are sixteen going on seventeen
Fellows will fall in line
Eager young lads and rogues and cads
Will offer you food and wine
Totally unprepared are you
To face a world of men
Timid and shy and scared are you
Of things beyond your kin
You need someone older and wiser
Telling you what to do
I am seventeen going on eighteen
I'll take care of you
[Liesl:]
I am sixteen going on seventeen
I know that I'm naive
Fellows I meet may tell me I'm sweet
And willingly I believe
I am sixteen going on seventeen
Innocent as a rose
Bachelor dandies, drinkers of brandies
What do I know of those
Totally unprepared am I
To face a world of men
Timid and shy and scared am I
Of things beyond my ken
I need someone older and wiser
Telling me what to do
You are seventeen going on eighteen
I'll depend on you

ErrolTheDragon · 03/09/2016 23:57

Yy Jasper, that song came unbidden to my mind a few days ago before any mention on this thread and it reminded me of TA.

Going back to Justin offering Rob the job - it does seem implausible. Bound to cause ill feeling with Adam, you'd have thought he'd at least have a word with Charlie... So it seems like a plot device to tie Rob to Ambridge whatever the outcome of the trial and custody battle.

EBearhug · 04/09/2016 01:05

Going back to Justin offering Rob the job - it does seem implausible. Bound to cause ill feeling with Adam, you'd have thought he'd at least have a word with Charlie...

Also, he initially employed Lilian as his social secretary, because she knew the socual ins and outs of Ambridge and its environs, and he wanted to get in with the locals and who to cultivate, but now he's completely ignoring what she's saying. I can see in other circumstances... "AIBU to offer the job to this man who everyone is turning their back on, because his wife is on trial for stabbing him, and they're all her cousins. Plus he was bullied or something by my previous manager, and I think someone needs to give him a break and I have a vacancy." If that's all I knew of the story, I probably would be thinking, yes, someone should give him a chance - though for a job he's actually qualified for/has experience in (mind you, Rob probably told Justin in the phone chat that he'd been running Bridge Farm single-handedly, before Helen's [little chuckle] became too unmanageable [stifled sob], it's been so hard....)

But even so, why isn't Justin doing just a little more due diligence and background checking into what went on before? He surely can't have got to this age and been running companies like Damara if he's always just taken the word of anyone who sounds charming and plausible without doing any reference-checking or whatever, because in that case, he wouldn't have made millions, he'd have lost them.

NotdeadyetBOING · 04/09/2016 06:49

Just back after 2 weeks on remote hols with no internet access. Have had a mega Archers binge. My GOD Rob is such an utter arse. And also TASWAMA big time.

Right - make it up to us all during trial week. Or. Else.

NotdeadyetBOING · 04/09/2016 06:49

Also, controversially, why is everyone so down on Lizzie? I know she was vile to David after Nige's demise, but in general I rather warm to her (ducks for cover)

Tuktuktaker · 04/09/2016 07:38

NotdeadyetBoing - I've had my ups and downs with Lizzie, and in fact, felt quite a lot of sympathy with her when Cameron Frazer (or Fraser Cameron, sorry, can't remember the right way round) abandoned her, pregnant, on the side of the road and roared off into the sunset in his high-powered car.
She was always a brat growing up and before she married Nigel, and she was particularly objectionable during the period when Phil was dividing up Brookfield and setting up the trust so that David would inherit the farm. She thought it wasn't fair that she wouldn't own large portion of the farm when Phil died, despite her having contributed zilch to making it a going concern. (This was the thing which stopped me listening to TA, when the SW's and SOC clearly completely forgot about the Trust and blithely decided that David and Ruth would forget about/ignore Phil's Will and Trust, and legally sell up Brookfield and decamp to "Northumbria" without reference to the Archer siblings or Jill. I know SOC and SW's remembered it in the end, but if you ask me, it was only because of long-term listeners asking them what they were playing at, that it was ever mentioned or acknowledged. Bitter, moi?)
Her behaviour towards David in the aftermath of Nigel's death was perhaps more understandable. Her "fling" with Roy was possibly less comprehensible (not really in character, either), and certainly wreaked havoc for his family and her own.

Gruach · 04/09/2016 08:16

It's TODAY! Hmm

And now we have a Court Artist. (First illustration Rob/Hel in court - not a spoiler but don't look if you don't want to see ...)