As doors slam shut in Rob's face and behind SOC, a new door opens for the next Archers editor. Are we expecting some New Tricks, or just Archenders?

[PseudoBadger]

Welcome one and all. No spoilers please!

In 18 years time I reckon one of us will be explaining to the next generation of listeners why Henry's estranged brother Jack has decided to change his name to Gideon 😁.

I wish Tom and Kirsty hadn't done their snoggathon yesterday. It felt a bit a) wasted SL and b) eeiiuu after all the mother and family love in. Maybe it's just that I find Tom a bit sexless. My best ever TA snog was Ford and Fallon.
Quite liked Paul too though bet it was a bit yuck kissing an ashtray.

Ford?

Harrison 'Ford' Burns?

Oh yes, durr!

I am interested in where Tom and Kirsty will go. There is no doubt that she has now cemented her position as a member of that family sonic some ways a reconciliation with Tom would be the obvious next step. However Tom did a terrible thing to her- ironically, if he were not Helen's brother then it would probably be incumbent upon Helen in her role as return-a-favour best friend to warn Kirstybiff getting sucked back in...

Kirsty off

He did terrible things to her twice!! She's a complete idiot if she takes him back, no matter how much he has allegedly changed.

I personally find he has become much duller since Canada

Yet mildly less obnoxious. I remember him playing away with the supermarket buyer, but what was the other misdemeanour?

Oh the wedding! I'd got it into Mr head it was Brenda he dumped at the altar!

Well he cheated on her and dumped her for the buyer

And then he dumped her at the altar

That's two pretty major betrayals of trust!!

There was also the time Lynda put on The Mikado and Tom was openly leching after the woman playing the lead role, although he was going out with Kirsty at the time. She and Kirsty got together to play some sort of trick on him, which implied that they thought it was funny rather than obnoxious. [Hmm]

He also nearly bored her to death by going on and on and on about ready meals. And she had to spend all of her spare times helping him.

Dylan Brenda dumped Tom having become stifled by the whole 'here's where we're going to build our house' (right next to the family farm) thing. Kirsty (second time round) was a rebound relationship. Hopefully they're older and wiser now. Mind you, Helen probably should have told K about Tom's 'having doubts' conversation before the wedding day.

Tom should have told Kirsty before the wedding day!!

Wasn't that Brenda? To be honest, they've rather merged into one in my mind.

To be honest, they've rather merged into one in my mind.

Mine too.

Well yes, of course AntiBoop. However, Kirsty saw Helen's silence as a betrayal of their friendship. I know how I'd feel if I were in her shoes.

Yes, Brenda was the one being ground down by the ready meals!

It was both of them being ground down by the ready meals wasn't it? Old toms true love!

Whilst Helen should have said something she was in a very difficult position caught between her brother and best friend

She found herself in the same position with Ian. I know it's difficult, but she lost both best friends at a time when they were the only two not taken in by Rob.

i feel sorry for Ursula. There, I have said it. Basically, she has spent her whole life in a CC relationship. She is a Helen/ Jess who never escaped, never had a Kirsty. Remember Jess saying how Rob would have just picked away at her till there was nothing left at all, if he hadn't left her for Helen. Well that is Ursula. She is just an empty shell, nothing left of her but obedience to her husband and craven support, desperate for appreciation from her awful son, who clearly doesn't respect her,
My mum came from a seriously EA family and she was like an empty shell too. Never held her own opinions or stood up for herself.
Ursula didn't see a way to escape, the only way to survive psychologically at all was to just adapt and 'convert' wholly to the role given her by Bruce. Yes she is awful, but victims don't have to be nice, and she probably didn't have much chance of being a decent person after the life she's lived and abuse she has been through.

Part of me wants Ursula to leave Bruce and get taken in by Carol Treggoran and they can be eccentric village witch types together.

Oh God I hope Ursula does not stay. I can't bear her teeth sshlurping.

Helen and Anna. I could imagine Helen feeling safe with a woman in her life having had such disastrous male relationships. Anna will associate success and a raising of her self belief with Helen and her case and mistake that for feelings of affection for her.

I don't feel sorry for Ursula. Yet. She's a deeply unpleasant person in her own right, despite her marriage and despicable son. Helen was desperate in the beginning to get to know her, and to extend the hand of friendship. She was spurned by U from the outset. Outside the marital relationship she seems to have plenty of opinions of her own and is very good at standing up for herself (think of all the times she's belittled Helen in front of Pat).

De-lurking - just wondering why Rob was so secretive about his parents at the beginning. He avoided Helen meeting them for ages. Maybe he thought their obnoxiousness would give him away?

Also, how can he be so deluded about the rape? He must have had a very twisted upbringing if he honestly doesn't view plying your wife with wine and holding her down as rape. When he whines, "what did I ever do to you/what did I ever do to them?!", like he did yesterday, it makes me want to punch his face multiple times.