100 Archers threads! We are truly overinfested. Whether you need some help from a therapist in a tabard, or want to move your wife in with your FWB, there’s something in Ambridge for you!

[PseudoBadger]

Well hasn’t it been a fun few years! Thank you all for supporting the threads and sharing in love and critique of The Archers.

i think Ross is going to have an affair with Elizabeth- he has his eyes in the family silver

Why doesn't Elizabeth hook up with Roy again?

The first boyfriend after an abusive ex is a huge step on the road to recovery, there will be a lot of mistakes.
Lee spent too much time down the gym getting himself fit instead of being at home looking after his kids and giving his wife spare time for leisure activities. He's shown remorse about it to Helen but that doesn't give his ex wife and kids that time back.

If Lee was a good man, he'd be patient and wait for Helen to come to him.
He's miffed he missed out on a bunk up.

Thanks jenny everyday is drama day here Mothers and babies all fine.
Who's Lee?

who's Lee had to laugh at that sorry, after my ranting!
He's the new karate teacher.

If Lee was a good man, he'd be patient and wait for Helen to come to him.
Not getting your reasoning there. Helen has ghosted him, hasn't got the courage to face him and has given him no clue as to mitigating circumstances (he has tried to enquire but has been pushed back). Why on earth does she deserve his patience? They have only had three dates; he owes her nothing.

Helen's always been a touchy, prickly, thorny, high-maintenance, difficult number, and never comes across as that bright or interesting, to be honest. Since the relationship is very much in the fledging stage (and a lot of fledgings die, let us face it, and a good thing too, or we'd be knee-deep in birds), there would be no reason except bewilderment and a desire to find out what the hell is going on if only to reassure oneself that one hadn't grown two heads , for Lee not to simply cut his losses and move on.

We have to remember and find it credible that Lee knows nothing whatsoever about Helen. He’s a simple soul with his framed posters whose marriage broke up because he spent too much time at the gym - not reasonable in the eyes of his first wife, but far, far removed from Knob’s shortcomings. I can easily believe that Helen finds it hard to broach the subject - she doesn’t want to think about, doesn’t know where to start explaining how coercive control works, still doesn’t really understand what happened herself. What I find less hard to believe is that based on her previous experience she would have embarked on a new relationship with a man like Lee in the first place (ex-wife who he describes as unreasonable, disputes over access to children - I would have thought these would have been red flags for Helen).

Sorry that should say what I find harder to believe ...

fledgings dying... a good thing too or we'd be knee-deep in birds
not with all the pollution and pesticides we produce or culling done by the National Trust.

Also, Helen is probably feeling downright embarrassment as she thinks to how Friday night ended, and just can't bear to look Lee in the eye.

"framed posters" - Lillian, I love the way you keep the candle burning for the no-blutack theory (I'm with you).

Ref. Adam's voice, it's important, esp. in radio, to have some sort of distinctiveness in the characters' voices, hence the slowness, and depth, of his voice , we don't wonder who he is do we?

I must admit that I don't know much of Bruce Lee and his philosophy. A quick google says that he favours "simplicity, directness and personal freedom". If the Karate Kid* is such a fan then why is he wasting his time on "touchy, prickly, thorny, high-maintenance, difficult" Helen. Unless he thinks that there is mileage in a yin/yang relationship.

• Do we think the Karate Kid is really called Lee, or did he change his name in honour of his hero and was born a Kevin or a Kyle.

I think the posters are an important metaphor - Lee’s main worry was that the posters might make Helen think less of him whereas Helen is worried that confessing she was in an abusive relationship, stabbed her husband in front of her son and subsequently went to prison might put Lee off her. The gap between the posters and her confession (as yet unmade) illustrates the gulf between them and their expectations as to why the other might be cooling off. The fact that Lee is a martial arts instructor adds an extra layer imo. The idea of him being strong and protective rather than using his strength in a violent way contrasting with the fact that Knob did not use violence to control Helen. How does she begin to explain to him. I would think think this were being well done, but for the fact that it is impossible to believe that spending so much time in Ambridge he wouldn’t have got a whiff of the truth already.

Both Lee and Helen compatibly dull dull dull. That aside I do think we are being a bit impatient with Helen. She clearly does not understand what happened herself. She probably hasn’t got the words to explain to Lee. I have had to dig deep for that empathy as I do find her incredibly hard work

Thanks for the enlightenment George.

The thing is with Lee and Helen, she's been flaky from the start. When things were going well earlier, she suddenly dumped him, told him they couldn't even be friends, but then they got back together, and now she's done this.
It's understandable that he's annoyed. He thinks she could at least tell him what he's done wrong, and if she wants to end things, at least let him know.

Yes Still Remember what she was like in Prison? She wouldn't admit ,even to herself, let alon e to her lawyer that she had good reason to stab Rob. she still seems to be stuck in her denial, she does need good psychiatric help. It is infuriating I agree.

At this point, I'm almost hoping Lee does pop into the village shop when Susan is on duty, so that she can fill him in on Helen's past. What he then does with the information I don't know or much care.

Helen has been horrible to the dairy staff recently - looking for and finding fault, dissing them to Kirsty, micro-managing, asking them to lie on her behalf - so I wouldn't be surprised if my Susan's tongue mis-spoke itself in a fit of pique.

Sterling analysis there, Lillian!

Re Adam's voice - when he first returned from Africa, listeners complained to Feedback that he sounded indistinguishable from several of the other men (Alistair and Kenton, probably). The languor developed very rapidly after that. I was astounded to discover the actor (Andrew Wincott) also plays the husband's best friend in Clare in the Community, where he sounds completely different.

Enjoying your research into Bruce Lee, Radio! Helen wouldn't understand 'simplicity, directness and personal freedom' if these things poked her in the eye. Or went for a walk with her, took her for a Chinese and invited her to a cosy dinner. In the (inevitable) event that kindly Lee finds out, I hope he will retreat to a neutral distance and offer Helen the most unthreatening of friendships. Maybe she will see this as the moment to start sorting herself and her children out.

BOOP for Clarrie’s hilariously unconvincing lying about Helen’s whereabouts.

Listening again ... a BOOP for Lynda shelling out £20 for Poppy's picture of Monty.

Wow, Gabrielle that is fascinating! As soon as I thought about it, I could 'hear' mentally that they are the same voice/actor, but I would never have guessed without a tip-off. I do love hearing the different things actors can do with their voices. Of course, that just raises the issue of why so many of the other characters all have to sound the same when the whole point was supposedly to get more characters played by real actors.....