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!

RandomDent I know what you mean about the moaning, I was considering not coming on here because the negativity gets me down. Nothing's perfect. Not even TA.

I'm just hoping we get back to character led drama soon. When I think back to big stories (eg Brian and siobhan) it was often about annoyance with the character. But under soc the negativity has been much more about the holes and the ludicrousness (eg the great move north)

But it's your opinion The Anti The suggested move was not so out of character, I know people who have moved for lesser reasons.

That was just an example. And yes it is my opinion. I still think it can only get better with socs departure though!!

Let's hope you're right. Just caught up on last 3 days. It was really good to hear Helen sounding so strong again.

How long before Rex hears about Pip and Toby?

The move north was ridiculous because we knew it would never happen. And plenty of it was wildly out of character, e.g. the fact that no-one seemed to see the problem with completely uprooting the children at vital stages in their education and none of the children objected to being taken away from their friends.

Doesn't seem like 5 minutes since Vanessa W left.....😁.

Home I hadn't thought of that re: explaining to Henry why he can't see Daddy anymore, but can see Jack! I too hope that actually he will be relieved to be away from Rob, even if confused about it as well.

The judge said it was evidence from the local authority social worker, who is different to a cafcass officer. That means there must have been a child in need/child protection plan in place. How annoying that it wasn't alluded to anywhere.

hometomandalay yes and as well as Henry being conflicted about his brother's access to Rob, for a nearly 6yr old who has learnt to enjoy or at least believe in hunting and toughing it out with hard cricket balls, it's going to have quite a psychological impact on him to have to back-peddle into the gentle world of cheesemaking, learning to appreciate mismatched artisan tearoom furniture, a bit of dirt here and there as well as not having to cower in the corner. Not to mention the inevitable blood n custard nightmares.

'Rob said he wanted to be your daddy, but he was nasty to mummy and to you (eg the rabbit) so the court have said he can't be your daddy- because the most important thing is for you and mummy to be safe. But he is Jack's daddy. So the court have said he can see Jack sometimes but only if there's another grown up there to make sure Jack is safe.'

The reason this has been such a terrific SL is the realistic portrayal of slow burn DA and the degree of jeopardy involved for Helen and Henry. Shades of grey though, and from personal experience, my siblings and I would have been extremely to have been abruptly separated forever from parents despite what we went through.

The judge said it was evidence from the local authority social worker, who is different to a cafcass officer. That means there must have been a child in need/child protection plan in place. How annoying that it wasn't alluded to anywhere.

Yes. I'm quite sure they could have mentioned the social workers being involved without giving away that they were gathering loads of evidence which would win the case. In fact, they could have said stuff like having Pat and Tony talking, or Pat and Jenny, or Shula and Brian or I don't know who, "the social workers are involved, and they'd do something if they thought there was any problem," and it would have all felt a bit more tied together (and we wouldn't have had so many comments about where are the social workers?)

The reason this has been such a terrific SL is the realistic portrayal of slow burn DA and the degree of jeopardy involved for Helen and Henry.

Yes, but I still think there are many aspects of it which could have been better, had we had a better editor.

Imagine how Rob's going to be when he sees Henry playing cricket with Johnny on the Green. Particularly because they'll be using a wind ball............

shallishanti
"But he is my Daddy, you told me so. And I love him. He plays cricket with me and said he would take me hunting. I want my Daddy. I hate you and I hate baby Jack".

There's a thread running in chat about insidious child abuse in the 70s/80s and how one of the realisations now is how damaging this behaviour is for children in the long term. I can only hope that one of the unspoken arrangements made this week was for some significant counselling/play therapy for Henry.

I just don't believe that he'll understand it enough if he's just left to settle back into the bosom of his family. Rob is all he's known as a father figure. He's been around since Henry was three, in one way or another. Henry was told that Rob is his Daddy and loves him very much. So whatever we and everyone else think of that relationship Henry thinks it is about him having a Daddy and that this is how loving Daddies behave.

And heaven forbid that Helen ever has another relationship (unlikely I think given her history before Rob and this recent nightmare) and tries to explain to Henry that this person is now his Daddy...

The social worker's report must have been really damning for this to have been the outcome. Much worse than anything we've actually heard........

It's true the resolution of this story has been rushed and ridiculous.

I can imagine both editor and writer simply running out of steam "Had enough, can we just wrap it up and get out? Want my life back ..."

I bet they know perfectly well that listeners will feel dissatisfied - but they just had No. More. Energy.

But it CAN happen Judy It happened to my family, we were all in different stages of our education etc. (admittedly we weren't part of a farming dynasty on our own thousand acres or so )

I've remembered and have been annoyed with my parents for doing it for a long long time .

It's the being on the land that been in the family for generations that made it particularly unlikely though. And it did feel like a clunky plot device the whole way through.

Other than the format changes I just don't think soc understood the archers. The Helrob sl was overly dominant and was clearly put on a timetable (so it could be wrapped up before soc left). It wasn't quite slow burn enough!

Of course it can happen, ppeatfruit. The point is that it was never going to happen to Brookfield, and we all knew it.

The problem with the move north was not that it couldn't happen in real life, it was that it was never ever going to happen in TA. We all knew that and still had to listen to endless weeks of a plot which we knew was going nowhere.

You've nailed it birdsdestiny.

The CC SL was slow burn -very well acted and deeply uncomfortable - until SOC got the EE job. Then everything speeded up - remember how quickly Helen met Jess and decided to leave. Then we had a Groundhog Day summer, and in the last 2 weeks the professionals suddenly got their act together, Helen woke up and Pat remembered who she really was.

And, Gumpendorf, I think you just nailed it too.

I caught some of it again on the film, and was thinking about the snakes and ladders thing. Given that you can't win by skill, Rob has to have "always won" by cheating, and you can just hear it: "No, Henry, I threw a 4 to land on that ladder, don't lie and say I threw a 6, what have I told you about lying, daddies don't love boys who lie." But how pathetic to need to win against 5 year old.

After Rob threatened Helen after the criminal trial, Pat said something like "He can't hurt you again" and Helen said "No, he can't". I hope that was meant to signal her feeling she didn't need to mention it because it had no effect on her.

Well we thought knew the move wouldn't happen but they didn't . After all it's not actually true is it?