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!

CheesyWeez, I think you're conflating two incidents there. Jack was born in May so Helen was already about four months pregnant at Christmas. She knew she was pregnant so would't have been drinking, nor would Rob have let her even if she'd wanted to. However, I wouldn't put it past him to have been slipping stuff into her drinks. After all, he had such overweening pride in his own powers that he utterly discounted medical opinion that it wasn't in either Helen's or the baby's interests to have the birth at home, so he probably pooh poohed any idea that slipping Helen a mickey finn was not going to be good for the baby (before we even start on what he was doing to Helen).

The time when Helen was struggling to remember the night before and didn't want to believe she was pregnant was the night when Jack was conceived - i.e. the night he raped her and made sure there was no birth control in use. I don't know if he'd drugged her then, but he'd certainly plied her with drink.

IIRC for the dinner with Ian and Adam, she then had to scurry around to make something to go with the bloody steaks - mash I think, nice and steamy so that gave him the chance to criticise something about her hair.

He had a major strop once when he'd cooked dinner for her but she'd eaten with Pat - I think it was something stodgy too, during her pregnancy when he was doing the 'must eat lots/look at the size of you' headgame - vile under any circumstance but really evil for someone with a history of anorexia

Yes Gasp0de! You're right. Awful man. Helen probably slept badly at Christmas after Rob had robbed her of her Christmas Eve tree decorating at BF. I hope this Christmas she tells her family how much better it is this year.

It was, of course, (thanks!) the "night I gave you our son" that was just a blur for Helen. And on stabby custardgate night Rob put the exact same music on, probably expecting an action replay of that night when he was so generous. I'm so glad that did not happen.

I'm not listening to Archers until I'm certain things are going badly for Rob (childish, I know, but I can't bear him to win! it's fiction, fiction, fiction...). But if the SW were ever tempted to get shot of this character, the acres of space devoted to him on this thread (and no doubt others elsewhere) would dissuade them. So think on...

It's interesting how much food played a part in that whole story.

I caught the end of the repeat - Lynda is an unstoppable force, isn't she?

And, yeah, to echo what was said upthread, I so want to hear her telling Rob the score, preferably directly after - within his hearing - sweet-talking Eddie into the production.

Yes, we need Lynda to sort him out!

I really hope Justin and Rob are in the same room when Justin calls Lynda and is persuaded to take a role. Rob will be incandescent with rage when Lynda tells him he's not welcome. :o

Brave move Louise 😁.

Let me be the first to say yes. Yes you are. Probably the only one.

Wasn't valentines the night Jess turned up and made a 'he's so wonderful blah blah' speech which totally didn't make sense once soc realised he could do an abuse sl? So we never actually found out where he was that night. A lot of the plotting was haphazard at that time though as they were still going down the 'rob fathered Jess baby' road which they had to veer off

As long as Kirsty doesn't end up with Tom I don't really care

Maybe Justin will tell Lynda that he'll only take a part if his faithful sidekick Rob has one as well. In which case I sincerely hope Lynda tells him that they'll have to manage without him.

Kirsty 4 Roy has been debated on here a few pages back, I feel sure ...

I'm still hoping that the SWs excavating forgotten characters remember Patrick

Sorry to admit it but I found tonight dull, dull, dull. Eddie and Joe on the rob, again. Shula being angsty, who cares. Alistair and the new vet, big yawns.

I briefly wondered if the poor apple crops at GF and Brookfield had anything to do with mysterious springs/sinkholes etc but I couldn't be bothered to think too deeply about it.

I liked it tonight! I wonder if that revelation of Shula's has given Elizabeth food for thought.

Francis, pedantry is my middle name! I couldn't remember her hours but thought it was probably not five days a week. However, she was still making cheese as well, not to mention business meetings from her role as a partner in Bridge Farm, so it probably came to a bit more than 60% all told.

My principal feeling about Roy and Kirsty is weariness. The younger people of Ambridge don't seem to look much beyond their childhood/teenage friends for their love interests, do they?

Hayley - John
Hayley - Roy
Kirsty - Tom (at least twice)
Brenda - Tom
Ed - Emma (in their teens)
Will - Emma
Ed - Fallon (I think)
Ed - Emma (again)
Kate - Roy
Alice - Chris
Fallon - Jazzer (very briefly)

Who have I missed?

Not as good as last nights episode but I do like it that we are hearing from a wider range of characters more regularly. Feeling more like a village again.

Really do NOT want Kirsty and Roy to be anything more than friends. Please no drunken radio snogs