Archers thread #147: Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder how old Ambridge is. Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Many thanks to @PseudoBadger for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to have the general public watching you work and asking questions, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Title comes from this poem, with which I drive my family to distraction at this time of year.

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz
I wonder where the birdies is.
The bird is on the wing.
But that’s absurd, the wing is on the bird.
Or so I’ve heard.

Ogden Nash

Apologies to @TeenDivided for ignoring her good ideas for the thread title. Here they are to kickstart our ruminations:
'window on the world of cheesemaking'
'how long until the intercom is fatal'
'will Brian settle in new pastures'
'Springing towards Easter with Widowers, Windows, and wails'

Over to you!

"Natasha's irritation with Jess just showed that she hasn't got a clue about abuse and the legacy it leaves."
I agree. But a position shared by very many people. Including the enormous number of listeners who dislike Helen and the boys.

Jess’s extreme disquiet about N being there - she sounded terrified all the way through. She almost cried when she realised she’d dragged H over there for nothing. However I thought she sounded genuine when she denied being in touch with him.

OTOH H: I’m doing this before I’m in court” and “Now - she thinks he’s a monster.” Those were worrying lines, I can see why people (here and on Fb!) wonder if he was actually just outside the pub!

N should have carried through her idea of moving to another table.

Jess having had “no one in her life” since Rob was hardly surprising. H is extremely fortunate to have her loving and supportive family around her and latterly, her very loving relationship with Lee.

@CurlewKate I agree.

The offence is attempted child abduction I think.

Oh yes a brother, had forgotten him (did we ever meet him?) Mr T snr was horrid but it seemed to be Ursula that called the shots, the senior bully.

(Yes the 3 voices arguing over each other was good but rare for TA AFAIR.)

I guess it's just for plotting but why didn't Helen confide in Kirsty? It's like Pat and Sula again. Do script writers not keep up with who is friends with who. @Chemenger where's the intern?

Actor availability. But also, it was a neat counterpoint to Helen's falling out with Natasha and Tom over the photo shoot, Natasha is family and she had the advantage of some emotional distance, but having been around at the time, yet, being family, it wasn't inappropriate for her to have been told all the details.

Also I live hearing Natasha, good actress, lovely voice.

Natasha is a good rounded character as noted here. She is parts good and bad but I do feel for her being married to Tom, poor woman.

NB re Natasha I meant to type NOT having been around at the time, not "but".

I think Tom and Natasha deserve each other, classic greenwashed businesspeople but would murder their own grandmothers (watch out Peggy!) for some cold hard cash. Also often quite unkind, although I agree that Natasha is the better of the two.

I also liked the men arguing -> apologising scene, it was quite funny when they all said sorry one after the other.

Bellringing is idiotic not only because Alice would probably rather dive into a slurry pit than do it, but also because Chris does it too so babysitting would have to be arranged each time. What does any single parent want but a huge fuss each week so they can hang out with their ex in a stuffy tower.

When is the funeral? Will they serve the non-mol to Rob by the graveside? It will be a good time to catch him.

You know- I have memories of Alice being a bell ringer before. Was that a dream?

And isn't Kirsty on her belated gap year? That's why Helen's living in her house.

What a silly episode. How do men of Adam and Iain's age and experience not know how trusts work? Why would they know, if they've never had occasion to use one? They probably don't know how a lasting Power of Attorney works, either.

She’d have been an excellent person to liaise with disgruntled Ambridge residents. Or to answer phones in a little pre-fab office. He'd sold the business. Jobs like that were not in his gift. He did try to persuade Adil to keep her on.

Should I be worried about this encyclopaedic knowledge?

Kirsty is managing the rewilding project and living as Roy's lodger while renting her home to Helen/Lee/boys. This makes as little sense as Oliver lodging with the Grundy clan, but at least she isn't living as a lodger in her own home.

I may have to tune in live tonight in case Rob appears, but they are probably toying with us. It'll be 12.5 minutes of David moaning about flytippers, Christoper trying to persuade Alice to be a bellringer, and Justin moping over not getting his award and picture in the Echo.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g Phew-at least I no longer have to worry about my encyclopaedic knowledge.....

My knowledge is being drawn from an ageing encyclopaedia with many pages missing. I had totally forgotten we'd ever heard Rob's father. Was it at the trial?

Did we ever hear his brother? I've forgotten everything we were ever told about him too. Had he inherited the family farm, or have I made that up?

I distinctly remember Rob's father saying, with regard to marital rape, 'It used to be the case that what a man did in his own home was nobody else's business' or words to that effect.

[[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/KVL2b9gBzsJ8xfKzSGQrCj/helen-and-rob-the-full-storywww.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/KVL2b9gBzsJ8xfKzSGQrCj/helen-and-rob-the-full-story for those who want a refresher of the Knob/Helen story - including a few bits I'd forgotten (or misremembered). I only goes up to the stabbing though - I'm also trying to remember what happened when Helen was in prison on remand and Henwee was forced to live with Ursula and Bruce Tichener.

Apologies to those who don't like photos (I don't like them myself and I'm not sure why it did that it wasn't intentional)

For reasons best known to themselves, Mumsnet have now set things up so that if you post a link you get this picture preview unless you click on the bin symbol on the link before you post. If you do that, you just get a clickable link.

oh is that what the bin symbol is? So if I click on that my post will go though? (there was a question I wanted to ask elsewhere).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p04rs2s7 I also came across this clip (hopefully with no picture this time) of Helen's final words to Knob, which reminded me that he had snatched both boys and was driving away with them in a storm - until fortunately the road was blocked by a fallen tree. It doesn't appear to me from this that Knob would be facing any charges - hence why he was able to flee the country.

I felt that Jess was upset that Helen knew that Rob was back and hadn't contacted her to warn her.

I'd have been bloody furious in her place.

I seem to recall that Rob's brother is called Miles.