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!

rob&justin - I can feel an educational storyline reg employment tribunal coming on...

Well if I was Pat I would do exactly the same with my daughter. She's coming from a place of love, not control as Knob was obviously. I think they are setting it up so she comes across Rob while she's out. Scenes between those two amazing actors are radio gold for The Archers SWs.

She's coming from a place of love.

Poor Helen though. Isn't that how she reconciled herself to all Rob's suggestions? She's asserting herself because she doesn't yet trust that anyone has her best interests at heart.

Oops sorry my mistake about psychiatric report. It was for Henry wasn't it not Rob

Was it? I thought supervision of Jack was to be supervised pending a psychiatric report. That suggests it would be Rob? I do hope so, he'd be infuriated at the thought that he needs a psychiatrist after saying that it was both Helen and Jess who were the loons.

It would be nice if Rob died under the general anaesthetic.

Yes, he is the tenant at BHC. It's a mystery how he's been paying the rent all these months.

Re Jenny and fidelity:

Adam is her child by a red-haired Irish cowman, Paddy Redmond. Adam is supposed to have red hair, but I don't hear him like that (this makes sense in my head). There was a huge scandal (in the country generally, not just in Ambridge) when Jennifer revealed in 1967 that she was pregnant as she was (get out your smelling salts) not married. PR had left the village and there was never any question of marriage in any case.

The following year Jennifer married Roger Travers-Macy who adopted Adam. They had Debbie in 1970. He proved to be a rotter (before my time, don't know the specifics) and they split up in the early 70s.

Brian and Jennifer were married in 1976. They had Kate and Alice together. Before long, Brian's roving eye became a recurring storyline. However, according to the BBC website JD was the first to stray: she had at the very least an emotional affair with John Tregorran (husband of Carol, father of Anna) in the early 80s. Then she had a brief fling with Roger when he reappeared in her life hoping to rebuild his relationship with Debbie.

As far as I can recall, that's been it since.

at the idea of 'hearing' a red head gasp. i think it is genetically possible for posh people to have ginger hair - look at Prince Harry. Although as a Celt I have to say that I've never been too convinced that his hair is red, Strawberry blonde at best. In any case I digress....

Pat has witnessed Helen driving madly into the farmyard with a very alarmed Peggy in the car and spooking Otto so that Tony got trampled. She's seen Helen driving fast in Ursula's car too. CC or not, she's not got a good driving record.

Did Justin intimate that he might rescind the job offer if Rob were charged with something? He seemed to leave a little caveat hanging in the air. Otherwise I think it's a ridiculous decision of Justin's to employ Rob. He even praised Rob's work ethic though he doesn't know Rob's penchant for long lunch breaks.

I liked the PinkTape / family lawyer blog you posted a few pages back GaspOde (I've been catching up on about 10 pages!).

enoch that's not what happened with Otto! They were coming back to pick up something that Peggy had forgotten. Tony was already on the ground when they came into the yard, as was Henry.

Don't you think Justin is planning to uncover all Rob's crimes and misdemeanours as a sort of gift to Lillian ... and the village?

SingingAvocado, I liked it too! The scarcely repressed horror and despair at the way the family court stuff was done was very amusing to this non-expert. I am meeting a barrister friend soon and I am hoping for an extended critique of the legal issues.

enoch, Vango is right, but just because Helen wasn't responsible for Tony's accident doesn't mean she has no record of causing injury to older men because of her erratic driving - remember when she knocked Mike over while she was drunk? I don't know if Pat knows about that, but we do.

xmasadsboohiss (bit early for you to start getting worked up about that, isn't it?) - it's not because Adam is posh that I don't think of him having red hair. You can't get much posher than Damian Lewis or Eddie Redmayne, after all. It's just to me he sounds like someone with dark brown hair. (I love red hair - I'm a Celt myself and would have loved to have it. I don't though, although there's a slightly reddish tone to my mouse-brown hair in a certain light - or so I tell myself, anyway.)

I'm not reliable here. Debbie sounds to me like a woman of about 5'6" with thick, shoulder length honey-coloured hair and a nice curvy figure. I got a bit of a shock when I first saw pictures of Tamsin Greig.

I don't read any implication that Justin is planning some kind of exposing of Rob, and that doesn't seem to be the sort of thing someone like Justin would do.

It just feels like Justin is a practical businessman, has some how bought the idea that Rob is a fantastic manager, and knows it's a big inconvenience to try to find someone else, so hoping if he plays it right, all the "fuss" will die down, and Rob will just get on with the job without any problems for Justin.

Presumably Helen's been driving for about 20 years? Mike aside, I don't remember any other criticisms of her skills (until Rob started to chip away at her confidence).

Adam, to me, has thick, flattish, coarse sandy hair. Debbie is the image of Tamsin Grieg. Alice has long, thick blonde hair. Ruairi has thick auburn hair, like his mother. 😁

Also, instead of blaming Pat for returning to over-protective old ways, why not blame Helen for being back to her old stubborn "I know what's best for me" ways?

Meant to add

haha gasp. i made up my user name during the (non) festive season a few years ago and have never bothered to change it. no point now - it'll be right on trend in about a week! Helen and Rob look exactly as imagine them as does Brian. Ian's pic was a bit of a shocker though!

I don't think Justin is playing too much of a game - just waiting to see if he can get away with employing Knobfeatures. Adam will go nuts presumably.

What I don't understand is why Adam (and Brian) - who I thought Justin respected - have not given Justin their strong views on employing Rob (after Lil appeared to fluff the issue).

Through my job I've met 'Adam' which was a bit strange!

xmas - so you reckon Adam doesn't yet know that Rob is going to be the manager, setting them up for some friction when that kicks in?

… and 'Lynda' and 'Nic' so when I hear them I can only see the actors!

dad i'm presuming he hasn't heard yet although i wasn't listening so much in august so may has missed something then?

Gosh! Things are about to get extremely difficult for Adam. I don't think he knows about Rob yet either. And what's Ian going to advise, if they're even talking by then? 😕

Brian told Adam about Rob just before trial week. It led to Brian saying that Justin must expect Helen to be found guilty and that he was a good judge of these things. Ahem....

Ah yes, so he did. Well remembered. But I guess (like the rest of us) Adam might now expect that the offer has been withdrawn!

Indeed, and it really does stretch credulity that it hasn't!