Roll up roll up! It's nearly Apple Day in Ambridge. Grab a slice of Borset apple cake and see who's got the longest peel in The Archers.

[PseudoBadger]

I'm so happy with the return to the little things. Enjoy the new thread!

I think the salmon was the victim?

He's an unproven rapist and abuser in Archer World, but not in ours. We heard him doing both.

Did we?
I admit I have missed whole chunks (and am still missing whole chunks of the awful Pip story). I did hear the stabbing and thought it sounded like H was intent on killing him, and sorry when Kirsty saw he was still breathing. Of course you are all right and I am wrong. It was just the last line of the song sounded so sad.

We heard lead up and aftermath of two rapes and we heard the abuse (taking car keys away, gas lighting etc). We heard him be cruel to Henry and try and get him a place at boarding school.

The stabbing scene was terrible so I can see how if you only heard that and nothing else you might think he was hard done by

I didn't only hear that. I heard the rabbit too, Thomas Rabbit. Of course you are right, and the driving and Kirsty not being allowed so of course you are right.

There were loads of incidents over the two years. One of the worst, I thought, was the day Helen tried to take Henry out of school to go on the steam train (for Roy's birthday?). Remember Rob's sudden arrival at the school, his conversation with the teacher that implied Helen was mentally unwell, her palpable terror and our fear of what he might do to punish her? I could barely listen at the time. Of course we now know he was tracking her phone. Horrible.

Yes that was chilling

It's hard to feel sorry for him when they are welding on horns and a tail. Would be much better if they had been more nuanced

I don't like Helen- never have and I don't like her much more now!

"No one likes a noisy boy"

I don't agree that he's undergone any radical character transformation. He's been loathsome since he arrived, horns and tail firmly attached. Homophobic from the start. Breaking off his affair with Helen and treating her so cruelly when Jess arrived. Getting Charlie sacked. So many examples.

And the New Years Eve party dress that was too revealing 😟.

And the tops that were sent back as they were not suitable. So Helen bought some from charity shops.

He wasn't all out evil at the start

And a lot of what was identified about his character from the start is us projecting as he was originally written to be a Brian replacement! It's just soc isn't good at writing people that aren't one thing only

Oh, that train thing was horrible, I'd been thinking that the chance spare tickets were going to mean helen got to talk to kirsty and it turned so bad...kirsty on the train worrying about her friend.

But rob really does believe himself that he's a good daddy singing to Myson. Urgh. (My previous post was meant ironically)

What about his fight with Ian on the Sport Relief cycle when he pointed out Peggy's cottage and sneeringly told Ian that it would one day be his? And his lies to Helen about Jess?

I must admit I was a bit blind to Rob at first and didn't pick up on his behaviour as quickly as others did. But then I wasn't such an avid listener then. It was a long process of insidious and gradually more obvious behaviour that was pretty well done, I thought.

He did much worse things, but the emotional abuse of Henry upset me most. The thing about the stuffed toy in particular. That particular cruelty would have been unforgiveable in a partner for me.

It was also good that they chose someone like Helen as the victim. Someone who divides opinion in the village. It would have been much harder to build a negative picture of someone who had always been strong and who was universally liked.

Of course Helen played her part. But Rob more or less told her that he had singled her out as a desperate, lonely, easily biddable single mother. I think what I'm trying to say is that regardless of the original intention, it seems his true character was fully formed from the start and only slowly revealed. Now that the village has heard the truth, there's little point in him keeping up any pretence any more.

Enjoying this recap of all the reasons we know Rob is vile. Has anyone mentioned his behaviour on Tom's stag night? Can't remember all the details, but wasn't he openly homophobic and also wasn't he largely responsible for Kenton ending up on a train to Wales? There was such an edge to all that, it was never just drunken japes. Nasty vindictive stuff, always framed to pitch the majority in the group against one or two people he had decided were inferior and vulnerable and could therefore be isolated, ridiculed, humiliated - in a word, bulllied.

Very much the sort of person who, if called out on his bullying, says it's all banter and the accuser obviously has no sense of humour. Yuk.

Just going to throw in "Little Miss Giggly".