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!

Agree Dylan - lazy stereotyping. I only commented on why I think he stereotypes Caroline the way he does.

With the grundys he has been a bit all over the place. Out of all them though I am not sure what he has done to clarrie! She was always extremely house proud and now there seems to be an implication that her level of house proud is still embarrassingly grotty. Because she's poor innit.

Do you think we will ever hear from the people who bought moikes house? Perhaps they will be round to complain to Roy about the noisy shagging

In follow up to my previous posts I think one of the downsides of the Archers under So'C was that previously complex and nuanced characters were painted with a broader brush than previously. Brian is one of my favourite characters as he is fully rounded and can sometimes surprise you without it being jarringly out of character.

Fair point anti I'd half forgotten Racist Roy Tugger lived in part of Moike and Betty's house.

That NBS article is spot on and beautifully crafted:
Ambridge is a place where nobody needs to shout (unless they back into a bull) because this is radio and the minimal inflections of a good actor’s voice tell you all you need to know about grief or desire. The constant listener catches these tiny hints like catching a fluffy day-old chick. Peggy, the matriarch, has had 90 years to practise this subtle shading of the voice and now has a whole colour chart of unspoken emotion.

Any chance we can persuade NBS to try her hand at scriptwriting?

Nancy should definitely be taking the new ed out for dinner and telling him what's what!

Can someone who knows about these things explain how you would begin to explain to Henry the situation in which he can no longer see the man he has been taught to call daddy, while his baby brother has to see daddy three times a week? Where does Helen begin? Jack can see Knob because Knob is his daddy - I thought he was my daddy - He's not really your daddy - Who is my daddy? How is Henry going to come out of this unscathed (Ambridge fairy aside)? Thinking about Gruach's recent post about explaining the character of Caroline to a newbie, I'm imagining in years to come explaining the complications of Henry's upbringing to a new listener (and having to come on here to get someone to remind me of the details )

I still want to know what was in the social services reports that made the Judge make the ruling he did. We've heard Rob being pretty vile to Henry- but nothing that would mean he should never see him again, surely?

I could see a scenario where the SocW thought that Rob had damaged Henry so much psychologically that he shouldn't see him again because simply interacting with him would reinforce the damage. We've heard hints, such as Henry commenting that Helen's hair makes her look like a boy, and the thing about Daddy always winning at Snakes and Ladders, which suggest a pretty unhealthy dynamic. And, face it, Rob's had four months where the only person available for him to control was Henry, plus the motivation to do everything possible to turn him against women generally and his maternal family in particular.

I wonder where Rob can go next in terms of relationships? He'd have to be aware that any woman he goes after can find out the truth via Google, and certainly anyone local is likely to bump into any number of people in Ambridge who will fill her in. His usual style would be to gaslight them so that they believe his version of reality, but unless he finds someone unusually submissive he may not really have time. Realistically he should go back to Canada where there is less chance of the publicity following him.

Agreed AntiBoop. Poor Clarrie.

Rob being done for attempted murder or arson would be good. No harm actually done to people or property and he would be put away for a long, long time - at least until Jack has reached adulthood.

Fink I agree about Phil's death. And I actually sobbed when Jill read out that card. Funny, I remember that being well handled and acted.

I certainly have sympathy with Caroline. I just don't think it's in character for her to be being so begrudging about the whole situation.

As others have said, I don't think Clarrie would ever have allowed GF to be such a tip. And I have no sympathy with Joe's apparent 'right' to die at GF or of Eddie's 'right' to a few pheasants. (Nor of the whole suing Grey Gables, which was too ridiculous for words). But I think the real/old Caroline would have been in favour of helping the Grundies out. And she certainly would have had her game face on at the party instead of being so obviously miserable. She has more class than was portrayed last night

I've also been upset by the Henry as collateral damage aspects of the story line, LillianG. But as for 'coming out unscathed'....well, none of us do that, do we? I thought Pat and Helen's conversation while they were waiting for the family court judgement was quite good - basically, Pat was saying, 'we'll fix the damage, as a family, all of us, over time.' Which is the bottom line, really, isn't it? Henry's five, he's had two years of exposure to a vile person, but he's got a lot more years ahead of him than behind him, and finally he might, as an adult, have to forgive his mother's poor judgment and misfortune for putting them all in the line of fire. And also be grateful for her courage and resilience in getting them out of it again. Henry doesn't have to be a car crash because of Knob. Hopefully the SW will see it that way as well, and give us a decent, properly complicated but redemptive story line in the years to come!

What's the sentence for arson/attempted murder? 3 years? Can't imagine it would see him locked up for long

I believe attempted anything carries the same sentence as the actual commission of the offence. In theory, anyway.

ol-car had a survey done on the house and realised they can't sell without massive loss... can just ax well let the grundys do the demolishing...

Fink, Cecile, did you know that Phil's death was written by Graham Harvey!

The sentence for arson is anything between community service and life, depending on the severity of the offence. Attempted murder seems to range between 6 and 35 years.

You'd do less for murder!

sorry if i am late to this but only caught up with events today...how come Henry suddenly had a social worker pop up and say Rob was causing all this dreadful harm ??? were was social work report in helen's trial and why was social worker not involved all along ...apparently Henry left there with Rob suffering harm for 4 months ! really ????

Poor decision making by the editor thered. He didn't want us listeners to know the social workers were wise to Rob because, tee hee, SO'C is so much cleverer than us, we wouldn't know better than him. The citrus titted arsepart.

But at what point would the social workers be involved? if this harm was so apparent, why was it not part of the considerations at each of the hearings for custody prior to the third one? (am I remembering correctly - Pat and Tony applied for custody and were denied, and then applied again?)

Social workers would have been involved from the day after the stabbing.

I agree with DoctorTwo, it's just very poor writing. If the SocWs had detected all that abuse of Henry by Rob such that it's too dangerous for Rob to see him at all, they would have taken steps to get him removed weeks ago. They would also have prepared a report for the Family Court hearing which would have been available to everyone before the criminal trial, and for sure the social worker would have been a star witness for the defence. In fact I seriously wonder whether the prosecution would have proceeded at all if that evidence was available. But of course SOC didn't want any of that to happen as it would have deprived him of his big dramatic trial and sleb jury.

So I think it's just one of those annoying things that will never be explained because it just can't be explained satisfactorily. Let's hope the next bod learns from it never to try anything similar again.

If Oliver and Caroline are letting the Grundies stay at Grange Farm mostly because of Joe, what happens if Joe dies soon. Will the Grundies be left renting at a peppercorn rent for ever or was there some sort of agreement that they would move out when Joe dies? It all seemed quite vague...

SO'C is so much cleverer than us, we wouldn't know better than him. The citrus titted arsepart.

Don't hold back, DoctorTwo, tell us how you really feel about SOC!