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!

On a lighter note, I see from Twitter that Keri Davies has written the Christmas week episodes, which has inspired a bit of speculation about what might be happening by then (he says no references to snow - pity, I love it when they take a rave stab at predicting the weather and get it dreadfully wrong ).

keridavies ‏@keridavies

Saw my Christmas Day episode of #TheArchers recorded today. As is traditional, there were mince pies in studio 🎄

Serenity Seeker @ianperkins69
@keridavies @BBCTheArchers an hour special with Titchyknob. In his executive apartment. Alone. Crying into an empty box of After Eights.

The Archers ‏@BBCTheArchers [retweeting above]
This year's Christmas Day episode has accidentally been leaked onto Twitter

"The night I gave you our son"

(The gren one is meant to indicate vomiting, btw, not envy.)

Green. We could do with a sigh emoticon. Well, I could.

I'll just throw in about Rob saying to Ursula "Three hours access on a Sunday! How will the child ever get to know ME?? "

Also Rob dissing Kirsty and encouraging Tom to leave her and go to Canada, not letting P&T know that he, Rob, knew where Tom was while Pat was wailing at Bridge Farm (did I remember that correctly?)

The singing was sad, because TW is a great actor and Rob does feel that he's done nothing wrong and is genuinely sad and hard done by. But I thought "Oh he's sad. GOOD"

ExtraJumper I think the family court hearing is coming up because the Judge at Helen's trial ordered psychological (/psychiatric?) reports on Rob. (The ones that have been compiled by a young girl, probably not a proper doctor at all! Hah!)
Pat and Helen have also had one-to-one chats with this "girl". I can't wait to hear how that turns out. I really hope we hear what's in the reports this time, maybe the doctor will state her findings in person?
We had no previous mention, or detail of the contents in the social worker's report at the previous trial. Although it turned out to be of huge importance.

I'm also interested in what Helen said to the doctor at the hospital that time when she managed to get an earlier appointment so Rob couldn't get there in time. She said "I said what we agreed I would say" But did she really?

Not forgetting when Rob punished Henry for eating chocolate by throwing away his favourite cuddly toy, with an undercurrent of saying such a toy was inappropriate for a boy.

Gaspode, I'm enjoying the recap, too. (I'm still convinced he's Ethan's father!)
Cheesy, I was just to post about Canada as well, that was seriously strange - most of all that no one called him on it at the time, although, to be fair, I suppose they were engrossed with Tony's encounter with Otto.

Also Helen wasn't allowed to go and decorate the Home Farm tree with her family.

Then Rob did Christmas Morning with Henry and let Helen sleep through the present opening.............

Plus:

He appointed a hopeless woman to manage the shop while it was still in Borchester, and somehow or other prevented Helen from overseeing her properly, and it ended up going so badly downhill that Helen decided to close it.

I still can't work out how the rest of the family were supposed to just accept Rob's involvement in all that. It was long before Helen was pregnant.

I think he was telling her at that point that working nearly full-time alongside managing the house and looking after Henry was too much for her and not good for Henry, so she should cut right back on work.

I was just about to post the Christmas thing! Helen missing the present opening was awful. He's just so deliberately cruel.

I'm worried about Roy and Kirsty being cast as lovers in the Christmas show (where is that going?) … And I'd love it if we got to hear Lynda explaining to Rob why she hasn't offered him a part!

Lynda is the one person in Ambridge who wouldn't even hesistate to tell Rob where to get off. Well, Jazzer too - what a duo!

Vango- nobody else really seems to have picked up on that scene- it's one of the incidents that haunts me......

I don't like all the signposts we're getting about Roy and Kirsty, although there is some nice potential in how Tom will react when he hears his best mate has got together with the woman he can't admit he's still in live with.

I can easily imagine Lynda saying, "The thing is Rob, if I cast you, then no one else will take part, and the show is what counts, so I'm sorry, I can't give you a part and that's all I can say on the matter. "

How downtrodden must she have been at that time Bertrand? So defeated, with no-one to turn to. Pat totally onside with Rob at that point. So, so sad.

I can just hear Lynda saying that EBearhug – genius!

I'd forgotten the Christmas presents but yes, that was truly horrid. Making sure Helen missed out but saying 'I thought you'd like a rest' (= aren't I SO caring).

and don't forget that the rape(s) came out at court under oath
that must count for something.

The letting her sleep on Christmas morning was dreadful, didn't we seem to think that she was being drugged back then.

"Don't forget to drink your tea, Darling".

There was all that stuff about hating tuna bake and not letting her serve whatever she planned for the dinner with Ian and Adam. He dashed out and bought steaks.
All the codswallop about his parents not coming to visit.
Ordering pudding with custard for her and getting Henry to giggle when he treated her like a child to make her eat it.

Not to mention being absent on Valentine's day and spending it with Jess. Told some story about a conference in Essex?

I just remembered about Christmas morning and came back to say. But it looks like everyone remembers how awful that was. I was convinced he was drugging her. She seemed not to even recall the evening before and said drink didn't normally make her forget. And when Pat suggested she might be pregnant she seemed genuinely CERTAIN she couldn't be. Poor Helen. And Pat congratulated her! You're right Vango, she had no-one on her side at that time.

Enochroot Tuna bake is not a good meal for a REAL man. It was horrible for Helen and homophobic to boot.
When I said Helen had no-one on her side, I meant she had no-one except all of us.

Enoch He told her the smell of Tuna made him "feel sick" and she threw it in the bin.

She was making a stir-fry for Adam and Ian when he mocked her efforts and went out for steak.

And at Tom's stag do he spiked the drinks of both Kenton and Tom before the train debacle. Nasty nasty nasty. Keep him away from the children!

Oh I misrembered, I thought Adam and Ian were supposed to eat the tuna bake. I know it was a dish of Helen's that they knew and were looking forward to.
Can I join in the NO!!!! to the Roy & Kirsty possible storyline. Neither of them would be interested in the other. Also I'd really like Alice and Chris to stay together forever, and I hope his voice comes back soon.