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!

It was good to hear Rob all desperate and pleading for a change. Shame Justin didn't rescind the offer. Was it ever a proper offer or just a discussion about the possibility of employment before? If the latter, there couldn't be any legal fall-out for Justin. It is ridiculous that a man so concerned about PR and reputation that he'd employ an alleged rapist and a man who's had a child removed from his care by the courts. And WTF was Pat on? She was worse than Rob had ever been.

New Ambridge observer out. 'Suck it up, loser ' ambridgeobserver.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/a-family-reunited-rob-rejected-and.html?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=the_archers&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=radio_and_music&m=1

And ... Keri Davies tweets:

Reading the pack of draft storylines, research and archive notes for Tuesday’s #TheArchers script meeting. I’m writing Christmas week.

Archive notes? Have they given Baby Jack a job?

Yes Rob did sound rather desperate, that was enjoyable at least!

Justin didn't sound at all keen. Agree that it just doesnt fit that after all the effort he's put into local PR, that he would still take on Rob. Lets hope he has a plan.

I predict a nasty Knob shock interception of Helen as she is at the wheel on the way to or from collecting Henry. Will give her terrible fright, she'll prang the car again and……….

Hope I am wrong.

Surely Rob will be charged now with evidence-based cc? Helen's sworn testimony must be enough

I had sort of warmed to Justin (only because I love fag ash) but tonight reminded me he is a repellent old toad

It's possible, of course, that Justin doesn't give a damn about how he is perceived locally, and only gave fag ash the social sec job to get into her knickers.

I don't think he needed to give her the job to do that!

Do you think Jenny has a counsellor on speed dial that she could refer Adam and Ian to?

Lilian wears knickers? I can certainly see her in a fur coat...

All these assertions that SS woukd have had Henry out of Knobs,clutches at the merest hint of psychological abuse. Do you mean like Ss protected:

Maria Colwell
Victoria Climbie
Baby P
Young women in Rochdale
Countless others.

Oh yes, SS have really good radar for abused children and young people just like my aunt's,the Queen's cousin

Yes, notDead, I worried about an incident with Knob when she's out in the car. He's going to be ever-present. Maybe Justin will sack him for leaving work early too often, and taking looong lunches. He has previous for that too. I'm not sure i like Justin, and tonight he sounded, I don't know really, like a certain type of man, i suppose. Too tired to explain what I mean. It was good hearing a less confident Knob though.

Has JD told Adam (and Ian) she told Knob about Adam's straying?

Lilian wears knickers?

Yes. But only to keep her ankles warn darling [cackle]

Ohtheroses- the reason those cases are in the news is that they were the tiny minority where it goes wrong.

The social workers obviously got it completely right in their reports on Henry- so why didn't they remove him?

Topaz - I don't think Jenny has. It's odd, because she doesn't sound concerned that she hasn't come clean.

I thought she apologized to Adam tonight? And he said something about there wouldn't have been anything to tell if he hadn't behaved the way he did......

I wasn't sure, Bertrand. I heard Adam saying about it being his fault, which it is f course, but traffic was bad outside and I missed bits. And didn't hear Soosan mentioning salad cream on 2nd listen of last night either. Grr. Oh well, off to bed now. Good night, all.

I think Justin has stalled pending further developments - he is playing the long and smart game in my opinion.

But why be so pushy about Knob starting work quickly if that's the case?

Interview with Louiza Patikas here, complete with MN reference.

Oh yes, SS have really good radar for abused children and young people

Yeah we do actually. Less of the sceptical sarcasm please, it's really offensive.

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

Well Gasp0de, since you put it so nicely...

The HelRob SL was really well done until the stabbing. There was a mention of Social Services the day after, then nothing until the Family Court decision. Nothing in the criminal trial, not even in the jury room, which was an hour of Catherine Tate shouting over everybody else that as she didn't stab her abusive husband nobody else should either. To go from that to Not Guilty M'Lud in under 10 minutes is utterly unbelievable. To produce the SWs evidence right at the end in a Ta-daa type of way treats us all as fools and paints SO'C as some sort of second rate magician. Small Daniels, perhaps.

The only reason the SWs were not referenced and their evidence unheard was for SO'C to have his Big Ending.

You have no idea how much editing has gone into this post to keep the profanities out :o

I thought Rob wanted to start straight away and Justin was,delaying until 10th October. Reasonable to expect a charge in that time I think. As it is he won't start now before November and may not be well enough then.

SOC by his own admission didn't realise what he was doing at the start of the story - I think he thought he was writing a strong, commanding male role. It was only when it was pointed out what a knob Knob was that he started consciously writing him as such and that's when it started to go a bit EE - culminating in the stabbing. The start of the Knob and Helen saga is the only bit of subtlety SOC has managed during his tenure - the rest of his plots have revolved around existing characters undergoing complete personality transplants and acting against type. Justin is a case in point - terrifying boss, buying up Brookfield to demolish it and move there with his wife when it suited the plot, turning a blind eye to problems at Berrow and getting rid of his right hand man (Charlie) when his presence became a bit awkward, reborn as bumbling country gent with a caricature of a wife to provide Lillian with a bit of love interest and now we are supposed to believe that having spent months polishing up his image to win over the people of Borchester he is going to employ a multiple rapist - all so Knob can stay on the scene. Caroline is being forced to suffer a similar rewriting of character at the moment, all the Brookfield Archers had to change character for the duration of the Great Move North others have just been removed from the story entirely with no explanation (Kathy and Jim to name but two).

To be fair, I don't think Knob being a knob was something that crept up on SOC and had to be pointed out to him: although he was originally envisaged as a sort of Brian replacement, they decided very early on the coercive control storyline. There was a phase when SOC was tediously coy about it, and when the subject came up in interviews he tried to make out that it was listeners reading all sorts of things into the script that weren't intended - but it was very obvious that they were fully intended, e.g the controlling of what Helen wore and the tuna saga. It's true to say that both Knob and Helen are amongst the few characters that haven't had startling transplants, and long may it remain so. Knob becoming a reformed character overnight would be a bridge too far.

I was shrieking at Pat when she tried the dissuade Helen from driving and reminded her of the prang. I wonder if it signalled that Helen's family can be controlling too.