Quelle surprise! Rob hasn't FOTTFSOF and is in fact hiding in the bushes at Henwee's school. Discuss the latest unlikely Archers events here.

[PseudoBadger]

What do we want?
Realistic storylines!
When do we want them?
As soon as the writers see this!

Having said that, other than a criminal conviction, I don't get why he would care. He just moves to a village the other side of the contact centre surely

Those poor children should be taken off Helen, she can't look after them and is still prioritising Rob over their safety. I sincerely hope he doesn't get away with it because of her idiotic refusal to call the police when any other sane person would have done, i.e. immediately upon realising Jack was missing.i think he wI'll have though, having listened to a TW on Facebook - we're not going to be hearing from Rob again for a long time.

Now Ursula will apply for and receive visiting rights. They will be unsupervised.

Oh-sorry - forgot this ia not the real world.

selsig I wouldn't say she's prioritising Rob over the children, she's prioritising not wanting a fuss. Or rather, not wanting another court case. That's why she didn't report the abuse and rape. I can sympathise with that.

Her head needs ripping out of the sand doesn't it? She's so determined to just get on with things, but Henry in particular is going to be (or in real life would be) seriously fucked up by this. What's that saying 'show me the boy of 7 and I'll show you the man'?, I know he's not 7 yet, but still. His lack of a father, real or pretend, and no explanation for that status, the abuse and bullying he's been subjected to which is completely unacknowledged, the terrible things he's witnessed.... he's got ant-burner and future bully written all over him!

Jack hadn't been gone long. If they took her kids away for leaving them in a car on their own property , they'd need to take a lot of ours too! I doubt if the SS would be able to cope

I'm in a rural setting. In Helen's shoes I could have called the police while I was in range of the wifi at the house but at that moment her only thought was to get Henry in the car and try to catch up with Rob whose car was parked nearby.
Once I'd left the house I wouldn't have been able to rely on getting a phone signal and the nearest police station - 20 mins away - was shut a couple of years ago. A police officer would only have turned up promptly if the car just happened to be nearby. Otherwise I would expect to be waiting perhaps 30 mins or more.
Once the women had got Jack safely in their possession they wouldn't have called the police from where they were in a storm. Get home and call from there. His car can be traced wherever he goes once he gets onto main roads.

I didn't say they should be taken off her for leaving them in the car but because she has consistently put their needs second to Rob - whether that was wanting a nice happy life with him when he was mostly playing nice, to not telling Anna anything to help her case, to keeping quiet about Rob talking to her after the case. As for not wanting to make a fuss, if she made a fuss he could be out of their lives for good - behind bars and with no contact. If the police don't even know about this incident, she would be liable for not turning up to the next scheduled contact.

My family started by feeling deprived of the 6 car pile up / sinkhole / bunting garrotting / gorefest (that I'd been promising them).

However, this morning's conclusion seems to be that the 'Helen roars' storyline was actually more satisfying. A far more pleasing breakfast conversation than the usual Trump-shock.

I think that it's (another) thumbs-up for HuwKanuw. He was left a poisoned chalice by SOC and has managed to resolve it fairly satisfactorily. The drama last night was proper radio: we could hear dialogue instead of various sound effects and confusing "aargh" and "help!" from unknown quarters. There was tension and possible disaster set up but it was resolved realistically, not with an TV-soap style apocalypse.

Well done HKJ. Sort out Pip and we'll all be happy. We'll let you do an apocalypse there!
I have even forgiven him for the sin of doing Thursday-on-a-Friday (but don't make a habit of it).

What's to stop him rocking up at the contact centre and denying all knowledge? Without reporting it will end up sounding malicious as all witnesses were her family. It needs dealing with now

He's not a stupid man but they sure have portrayed him as one lately.

I haven't enjoyed this sl at all and just want it totally over

she has consistently put their needs second to Rob

That is just not true. It really isn't.

I think it's time we all remembered everything that Helen's been through. Emotional abuse, physical assault, rape, childbirth, isolation, prison, cross-examination, a trial, the family court......

Could we not cut her a bit of slack? Maybe she thought if she called the police they'd blame her for leaving the children unattended in the car?

I'm not going to read any more if everything's Helen's fault. Honestly.

Agree r4 that he seems to be trying to fix the messes.

Its been reported now, I expect we will hear more about that on Sunday, talk in the pub maybe. Of course, if Rob hasn't been caught he might not know that, but I doubt he'd take the chance, and his plea to say goodbye to Jack sounded as though he knew he'd blown contact bigtime.

He's not a stupid man but they sure have portrayed him as one lately.

He's not as clever as he, or others thought - not good at his job even. He knew how to do one thing - coerce women and manipulate people - extremely well, but once the game was no longer on his terms he had no clue how to play it.

IMO the only thing Helen is guilty of is giving rob more chances than he deserved - she should have reported him every single time he turned up etc

Hopefully now this is reported it will all come out.

Hope Jess is ok

If Helen was to tell everyone about the flood I can imagine a few villagers who would insist on involving the police and then Justin would be in the shit too! Every cloud and all that

Could we not cut her a bit of slack? Maybe she thought if she called the police they'd blame her for leaving the children unattended in the car?

I grew up on a farm. I can't imagine any parent in the situation of 2 children of that age being in a car in a farm courtyard and being told one of the children had forgotten something would do anything other than leave them in the car for a few minutes.

Re calling police at our farm mobile reception is terrible. You would have to use a landline , wasting time when you could be going after them. Our nearest police station is 8 miles away and I doubt has more than a very few officers.

I don't think they are portraying rob as a stupid man but as someone for whom life is unravelling. Wife vindicated. Labelled a rapist. Sacked from his job. Minimal contact with his baby. Exposed as a culvert blocker.

He's desperate because he needs to be in control and control is one thing he doesn't have over anyone or anything at the moment and he has effectively lost control of himself,

Well you have to be pretty stupid to think the night of a major storm is the best time to abduct your child.

I wonder how he got out of the mud

I assume Kirsty and pat were the other side of the fallen tree? That's how I pictured it in my head but

Josh was going to bridge farm and had to turn back. So why was rob going in the same direction as josh initially?

I liked the episode and the conclusion of the story - no big drama, no dead people, just Rob being exposed for the pathetic loser that he is. EXCEPT that Helen should have called the police and the fact that she didn't want them to made no sense.

I get the points about rural mobile reception, but we could at least have heard someone try!

The Anti I don't think that knob thinks like 'normal' people (worrying about the weather) he has an obsessive controlling personality. He told Henry the day before that the 'surprise" would happen the next day.

Also the new ed. wanted to get the story tied up quickly

I'm not sure why it's stupid to attempt abduction on a stormy night? It makes it more likely that no-one will be out and about, so less chance of witnesses etc.

What it suggests though is that Rob must have been watching Helen for a while to be able to seize an opportunity like this.

Vango I agree with you about Helen.

I agree with what people have said about the reason for the culvert blocking being a greater threat to Rob. Additionally, there are more independent witnesses for that - apart from Stefan, Lillian has heard him admit it, and he has also admitted it to Justin. Once it's out there Justin would have no motivation to keep quiet and would need to be seen to be on the side of the angels.