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.

Beautiful scenes with Mia and Emma, really emotional and realistic - I was a little teary in car this evening

I thought the same George. He sounded all soppy every time he spoke to her. They seem to be softening him from his annoying, abrasive self.

waves to @salierithellama

I think Natasha is beginning to see that Bridge Farm isn't as idyllic as she first thought...

Emma is becoming Will's proxy-wife

No, just a loving aunty.

Proxy-aunty!

Great episode tonight.

Tom must have said something about Helen; I can't believe that Natasha hadn't asked, at a minimum, if the boys' father was on the scene.

Waaaahhh. Made me sob that episode did. Waaahh. Marvellous. Bloody love emma.

[Helens's] confession (as yet unmade) illustrates the gulf between them

Helen has nothign to "confess" to as she was the victim not the criminal.

Knob did not use violence to control Helen

He raped her more than once and implied threats to Henry more than once when he would "look after" Henry or take him to activities knowing she didn't think them safe or appropriate. Struggling to see that as not violent.

Helen has never to my memory had psychiatric help or therapy for being in an abusive relationship, a victim of coercive control and sexual violence or being imprisoned and separated from her child for defending herself and Henry. I thought the Lee storyline was intended to lead to her getting help but that would mean two therapy stories running alongside each other which isn't really very TA.

But Susan. Oh boy! CIA indeed. You could hear the glee in her voice, when she said surely Natasha knew about Rob and Helen.

I thought this episode was a good illustration of why I dislike Susan but would hate to see her disappear. One moment she is malicious gossip, the next she is not only noticing Mia but accurately recognising the situation and the best remedy. She is one of the few rounded characters.

The Emma/Mia scene was beautifully done, I hope their friendship develops more. Just in an aunty/niece way

Have to say Mia is being far more reasonable than I would have been at 13.

First I would have blamed Will. For getting together with Nic in the first place. Because if she'd never met him she might still be alive.

Then I'd blame Emma. Because if she hadn't divorced Will he would never have taken up with Nic.

Then I might blame Andrew - because if he'd been a better partner her mother would still be with him. Safe. And alive.

And I don't think the instigator of whatever scheme it was that led to Nic rooting around in a box of junk would escape my wrath either. (Who was it? Don't remember.)

She's fortunate if she has escaped all these 'what ifs'.

Can’t believe Mia is only the second girl in her class to get periods at 13

//entirely not the point...

If Tom hasn’t told Natasha the bit about his sister being locked up for several months and the parentage of her children, what else doesn’t she know? Does she know there was another brother? (Presumably So because of Johnny but...)

Can’t believe Mia is only the second girl in her class to get periods at 13

No, I thought that, but then wondered if I was misremembering her age. I started at 13, and while I wasn't the last, I was one of the later ones. Still, it's probably one of those Ambridge health anomalies, where they don't follow the patterns of the rest of the country.

Yes ... I had to check her age, because the script seemed to suggest a girl of 10 or 11.

I thought this episode was a good illustration of why I dislike Susan but would hate to see her disappear. One moment she is malicious gossip, the next she is not only noticing Mia but accurately recognising the situation and the best remedy. She is one of the few rounded characters

Couldn't agree more. Love the Emma/Mia exchanges , thought finding her being the second to start her periods in her class unbelievable.

“When you get your period”. - sounds perfectly English to me! Are you saying that Engkish is periods and American is period GeorgetheBleeder (appropriate name!) ?

Lovely scenes, so well done.

I'm just thinking back to the over 50 years ago when I started my periods - I had no idea who in my year had or had not started, I remember I was the first of my friendship group, but that's it, so Mia might be stating what she thinks from amongst her close friends, but not necessarily all the girls in her class? (I was at a single-sex school, though, so I can't speak for what might happen in a mixed class).
Caffeine, gosh, yes, I hadn't thought that about Susan, now you've expressed it like that, I feel differently, thank you!

Caffeine I agree with both points you make about Helen - perhaps "confession" was the wrong word - I meant Lee was worried about Helen seeing his Bruce Lee (framed) posters and thinking badly of him. He is imagining that her rejection of him is something to do with the visit to his flat, he has no idea that she is keeping quiet about much more than some embarrassing posters (framed or otherwise). It did cross my mind to qualify the non violent reference - because it is beyond doubt that Knob did rape her (though this was far from clear to us the listeners or even to her at the time. She needed Kirsty to point it out). What I meant was she wasn't a conventional battered wife - if she had been it would have been much more obvious to all concerned much earlier on. I think Helen would find it much easier to say to Lee "My husband used to to beat me up" (and I think Lee would find this much easier to understand) than to have to try to explain how he gradually and consistently undermined and controlled her when she doesn't really fully understand what happened herself. As you say she needs proper counselling which hasn't happened. Instead she seems to be trying to block it out and pretend in never took place - another reason perhaps why she doesn't want to talk to Lee about it. I wasn't in any way trying to diminish what Knob did - quite the reverse. I think it is too awful for Helen even to contemplate let alone begin to explain to Lee.

Sorry, my pedantic soul forced me to do this.
(I was at a single-sex school, though, so I can't speak for what might happen in a mixed class.)

“When you get your period”. - sounds perfectly English to me! Sounds OK to me too 'When you get your period' as in on this occasion, whereas 'when you start/get your periods' plural is the first time.

Emma also said something about 'When you're on' which is more colloquial and more likely to have been what we would have said.

What did sound like unrealistic spoken English was when Phoebe was talking to Lily about Russ enjoying cooking and said something to the effect that 'I'd love to have a boyfriend who likes cooking and is prepared to do so'. Nobody says that.

I thought Susan's revelation to Natasha was a good illustration of why it feels unbelievable that Lee has not yet got wind of Knob. I also thought it was slightly unbelievable that Tom had said nothing at all Natasha. They met through the Nuffield scholarship which Tom had only taken up because Helen was in prison. He and Helen are close - working together on a daily basis - she is not living on the other side of the country out of sight and out of mind. This Christmas - when Tom went to Wales - was her first since being released from prison. I find it hard to believe that Tom would have said nothing at all - even the barest bones. My sister is living at home with my parents, she's just been released from prison - she was married to an awful man - it's a long story. Tom is a family person - Natasha talked about the Bridge Farm family on her drive to the wedding. I realise such secrecy makes for greater drama, but the drama feels a bit fake to me when it is not in keeping with the characters we know.

I also wondered about the age thing and LA to check if she said “in my class” or - more likely at 13 since ther ‘class’ probably varies by subject - “in my year”. She doesn’t, so may be referring to her friendship group.

They way we found out was that you were excused from taking a communal shower after PE and you got that privilege by answering “shower” rather than “yes miss” when the register was called. It was like a badge of honour.

The only way to explain Natahsa’s lack of knowledge is that she and Tom have been so absorbed with one another and their business plans that they haven’t really talked about family at all - Tom did appear to have forgotten about Helen altogether when planning to move into the house with Natasha. But I agree it’s hard to imagine that the lack of a dad on the scene for Henrynand Jack would not have been asked about or explained.