Silence in court! Discuss The Archers and shout from the gallery here. Send him down.

[PseudoBadger]

What day is it again?

So I suppose I'm saying that Anna should have found out more about Ian's relationship with Rob, decided if he was a reliable character witness and briefed him to expect an attack from the other side.

And that I do think it was a real risk for Julian to question Ian the way he did. It happened to work in Rob's favour by discrediting Ian as a witness. It could easily have gone another way and reflected very badly on Rob.

Cecile, I'm sure Anna wouldn't go along with Shula lying in court, but I'm not sure that she has to tell the prosecution anything about their witnesses.

A friend was telling me fairly recently about an enjoyable day he had in court in a civil case about a mortgage fraud. The defendant called a supposedly independent witness to give some sort of evidence about the duties of solicitors to prevent mortgage fraud, and it turned out that one of the barristers acting for a third party knew of this witness having acted for his wife previously. He didn't cross-examine the witness but contacted the wife quickly and got permission to pass on relevant information to the claimant's barrister. Said barrister started asking some fairly neutral questions about mortgages and what you do to prevent fraud, and then suddenly said "And of course, Mr X, you have direct experience of mortgage fraud, don't you?" It turned out that there had been findings in the divorce that that was precisely what Mr X had done. Collapse of Mr X and his evidence.

I know that was a civil case, but it suggests there's no duty to forewarn the other side that their witnesses are known liars.

Thanks, Judy. That's really quite interesting, and I assume comes from the slightly different duties of solicitors and barristers. I didn't ever think Anna would have to tell Julian that Shula initially lied to the police though, that is going a bit far. I'm not sure that if she knew the truth and Shula then lied on the stand that she could or would let that pass though.

Psuedo I am prepared to write you a letter stating you are not available for work on Sunday.
Welcome to all the new posters
Rubycat - you have captures the spirit of the thread, lets hope the one hour programme on Sunday concentrates on the flower and produce show

I wonder if the cross-examination of Ian necessarily did work in Rob's favour? I know I'm biased and all, but I might feel a bit sorry for someone who'd simply turned up at court to support a friend suddenly having his private life and problems paraded before the court and the Press. I see the point about his dislike being more entrenched than you might expect from the abuse allegations alone, but the jury may still say to themselves "So, a friend of the defendant's doesn't like the man she says abused her. No surprises there."

They might also wonder why the prosecution takes it as axiomatic that Ian would dislike Rob just because he told him about Adam's unfaithfulness - after all, Rob's excuse is that he was doing him a favour. Additionally, they might wonder a bit about Rob's motivation in telling Ian. It's not as if anyone has ever suggested they were friends.

Shula won't be a witness. She's in a state of impotence, unable to rectify her mistake, unhappy with her home life and no longer even the queen of cricket teas. Her own sense of who she is has been shaken - from being the churchwarden pillar-of-the-community type, she now knows she's a lying hypocrite. Bruce's comment about her being a decent person and on their side must have really turned the knife in her self-inflicted wound. I do hope they meet up again, maybe in the shop with Susan....

Another thought (whilst listening again 😕)! Jess said she never had any money when they lived in Minnesota and Canada. Did we ever hear her talk about her job before Canada or back in the UK afterwards? Was the stuff about her 'mistake at work involving a child' all an early lie from Rob?

Yes I thought that - 2 very different stories aren't they?

OMG 600 posts!

Just heard last night's episode and have managed to engineer cleaning the floors (MIL arrives in 2 hours and of course this is the week the cleaners have been on holiday!) so that I'm trapped where the computer is for a few mins .

So much of it was well done last night, am not sure about the final twist though. I thought it might have been 'I'm not sure it will resume, the police are here to talk to you about the rape allegations'. I'm agree with those saying it's not the loss of the jurour that's the issue, more that it's given the CPS an opportunity to re-evaluate if the case against Helen is strong enough now all the shit is coming about Rob (surely there must be rape investigations to come now?).

One thing that I particularly liked was Jess telling her story about their relationship - it sounded very much like Rob can't hold down a job for long - he'd kept moving from job to job in the US and Canada. Am struggling to understand when she qualified as a social worker though - she came back to the UK as one didn't she and straight into a job (I remember speculating early on in the affair that she might get revenge on Rob and Helen by raising concerns about Henry - boy did I call that one wrong!). I'm guessing the Social Worker job is in the culvert of forgotten plotlines, otherwise they'd surely be making a song and dance about it on Anna's side as she would have too much to lose by lying in court.

MIL is staying until Monday - I need to find an excuse to be away from everyone to listen on Sunday...any ideas? 15 mins I could have easily managed but an hour is going to be tricky.

RockandRoll - a well timed nap should do it...that's what I'm planning in order to get a clear hour to listen.

Even got my DH listening and commenting on Rob's dad.

I wonder whether Jess could turn out to be a bit of a concern in cross examination - as she is, understandably after being married to Rob, a bit inconsistent in her stories...

The allegations against rob are secondary at this point. Currently they are merely being used as a defence for Helen, who is still on trial.

Having said that, it seemed obvious that the prosecution solicitor was on to rob re having intimidated Jess.

Rock, can you engineer it so you're cooking at 7 on Sunday evening, whatever you're cooking takes a long time, and of course you need the radio on while you do so?

I suspect PP are right about the plot twist being there to give them a chance to have an episode away from the courtroom. I don't really see how the prosecution can drop the case with those stab wounds and Rob stoutly claiming that both wives are deranged liars, but it would be good if they did.

It sounded to me as if Julian was thoroughly fed up with the Titcheners. I liked his statement of not being Robs representative but for the prosecution.
I am beginning to feel worried for Shula, if Alan doesn't save her, could be going towards suicide.

Loving this thread, thank you Pseudo and everyone contributing.

Just a small point, everyone, how on earth did Rob manage to get a work permit for the States, while chopping from one job to the next? I don't know about Canada, but it's implausible for The US of A.

Is it very bad taste to call it Shulacide 😮

Thanks for suggestions for Sunday. Cooking probably more plausible than nap but not by much DH generally cooks and suspect MIL knows this

Don't worry about Shula. She will get depressed, start listening to radio head while drinking and then a friend (Caroline?) will notice and say she is going to make a determined effort to spend time with her, but won't. And then Shula will be a ok. Just like Roy.

Alan will help Shula out of her Slough of Despond. It is his job after all. Maybe she will start a charity to help abused women - that would give her renewed vim and purpose and Alastair can sod off.

I'm so excited about tonight's episode! I'm very hopeful that Pavel is about to return...

Why pavel?

Headache, Rocknroll? An hour's lie down in peace just what the doctor ordered, surely?

I am v. hopeful we will get a non trial day today. Fantasising about hearing Soosan either eating large slice of humble pie or - more likely - tying herself up in knots as she attempts to convince everyone herself she never liked the man….. Surely we can hope for some scenes where Rob is treated like scum by various Ambridge residents. Let's face it, we have been waiting for sooooo long!

Perhaps Stefan could rise from the dead to give testimony from the other side….

But what makes you think Stefan is dead? (He says, noting your appropriate username)

Well, I suppose I am being facetious, really. Would be too EE even for SOC to suddenly reveal that Knob had done away with him.

And yet……. when there were all the questions over the accounts and paperwork and Charlie wanted to run various things by Stefan he was suddenly 'unavailable'. Knob came out with the cock & bull story about him having shot off back to Poland for 'personal reasons', but Charlie was most insistent that he speak to him and - let's face it - in this day and age it's hardly a challenge to track people down. Presumably still has an e-mail account, FB profile, for instance? So just didn't stack up to me.

What doesn't stack up is that neither David nor Jennifer have any recall of meeting Stephan him telling them that Rob blocked the culvert.
OK, they told Charlie who came back and told them he couldn't actually pin it on Rob but you'd think they would be talking about it now, wouldn't you?