Archers thread #152: The Dog Days of Summer in Ambridge! Rabid rants, tearoom dogfight, Bully Dog George gets it all on camera. Is Lone wolf Rob waiting in the woods? Discuss The Archers here!

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @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 love a son like George, 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.)

Starting this new thread a bit early, as we're near the end of the last thread and I'm out all day today. As last night's episode was a banger, I thought I'd better ensure discussion can continue seamlessly!

The original idea for a dog theme for this thread came from the death of poor Weaver. RIP. The Dog Days of summer are associated with storms and the silly season, so quite appropriate for The Archers at the moment! They may technically be over now, as it's all to do with the heliacal rising of the Dog Star, Sirius (no, me neither), but apparently the Anglo-Saxons considered they lasted into September (thank you, Wikipedia), so that will do for me.

So - what next for Helen, Henry and Jack? Surely even the Bridge Farm Archers will see that she needs professional help? After her outburst the other night they might finally grasp that Henry could do with some too. All very grim.

On the lighter side (perhaps), whither Pip and Stella?

Over to you!

Mightily impressive, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g!

(Will return to current thread now.)

Place-marking so I don't lose the new thread!

Thank you for the new thread, excellent title.

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g for the Canine Capers.
Surely somebody will persuade Helen now she needs some professional help for herself and Henry? Has she even done the Freedom programme online? She will destroy her business if she carries on like this.

Thanks for new thread.

Thank goodness Kirsty was in the car park for the confrontation with Rob to talk sense. Let's hope Helen can resolve things calmly with Henry. How much should she tell him frankly about Rob? About his lying manipulative ways in a way he'll understand?

Also, how much does Henry know about his biological father?

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g excellent work, as usual!

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Tonight can’t come soon enough.

Oh dear, just listened to last night's episode.

Let's hope Helen can resolve things calmly with Henry.

Ha ha, you are a card, aren’t you. This is Helen we’re talking about. You must remember - screechy, stabby, control-freak nutjob Helen. Her with the cheese.

I can’t believe Pip was just cramming in the proverbial popcorn as she watched the George/Helen show unfold. She could have very calmly stepped in and taken her distressed relative aside. I’m getting tangled up working out the precise relationship between Pip and Helen so I won’t risk guessing at it. Can anyone with better knowledge of the Archer family tree step in…

It was an excellent twist to have George record the outburst. Young people film everything these days which inevitably inflames difficult situations even further.

Love the thread title @gasp!

Why should Pip have stepped in rather than continuing to enjoy the cream tea they had paid for and the live entertainment they hadn’t? ‘Being related’ isn’t much of a reason - Helen’s only her second cousin and, were the Archers not a farming family based in a small village, they probably wouldn’t even know one another. As it is, they have never been ‘close’. Plus, approaching Helen can be dangerous 🔪

I've been on MN for a while now and I rather delighted to find you lot all here. Hurrah!
I know I should feel sorry for Helen but that voice....
I listen whilst going to sleep and she didn't help at all last night!

I think George and his rampant misogyny is going to be a looooooong running storyline.

In the spring I read a number of articles in papers and magazines about the number of young men - particularly white young men - who buy into the Andrew Tate world view of women being the oppressors of poor blokes who are so badly done by.

Some of the views my Y13 daughter hears from some of young lads in her class are so regressive that the 90s lads I knew would have been appalled. (not all are horrible, most are lovely young men. But a sizeable minority say some pretty hateful things)

The Archers loves to do social trend stories, and I think this is one of them.

Another 10 bags to charity today…I hope someone like Joy gets Mum’s nice scarf

EmmasBirthdayEarrings
I’m getting tangled up working out the precise relationship between Pip and Helen so I won’t risk guessing at it. Can anyone with better knowledge of the Archer family tree step in…

Helen is the daughter of Tony, who was Jack Archer's son
Pip is the daughter of David, who was Phil Archer's son.

One generation: Jack and Phil, brothers
Second generation: Tony and David, first cousins.
Third generation: Helen and Pip, first cousins once removed.

I think; I stop bothering when my family get to relationships that far away, because they are almost all in other countries or on other continents so I don't really need to know. My first cousins I know; the rest I lump together vaguely, under "kin".

No. Helen and Pip are 2nd cousins.
A first cousin once removed is the child of your first cousin.

Oh, right; they have great-grandparents (Dan and Doris) in common. Far enough away not to be particularly anything, anyway. As with Adam, whom Pip seemed unsure was related to her at all.

And why on earth Pip should be expected to be her cousin's keeper, when Helen is in a frighteningly unbalanced state and might well have a go at her too if she tried to reason with her, I don't know. I wouldn't: I would leave her to it. I would leave her to it even if she were my sibling, let alone anything more remote.

@RegimentalSturgeon "Ha ha, you are a card, aren’t you. This is Helen we’re talking about. You must remember - screechy, stabby, control-freak nutjob Helen. Her with the cheese."

Or possibly raped, abused, controlled, wrongly imprisoned, traumatised, terrified Helen? Just a thought....

Thanks again @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g. Fantastic work with ensuring thread continuity. Really appreciated. Just signing in on the new one so I won't miss any updates!

Adam is Pip's second cousin. It does get confusing when there is a big age gap. Adam is nearer Ruth's age than Pip's.

Hello - hope I can join!

I stopped listening to the archers after the stabbing sl as I felt it did a real disservice to dv victims.

I started listening again a couple of months ago only for the stupid sl to read it’s head again!

I also feel the way Helen is portrayed and perceived as being unhinged is also not helpful to dv victims.

Helen has been pretty strange, and generally nasty, since 1998 when she decided that someone who had helped see her mother through the breakdown occasioned by the death of Pat's eldest child must be got rid of, and definitely not allowed to have anything to do with Pat or the farm any more, because Helen had run away for several months and left her mother to get on with it unaided and she didn't like the comparison that could be made between Hayley's and her behaviour. She has always been a nasty and neurotic person: this was not caused by Rob, whom she didn't meet until 2013, when she decided his marriage was of no importance because she wanted him herself.

true But it muddys the waters. I just feel the whole dv sl was made to be sensationalist and Helen was the wrong character to choose

i started listening again when Jenny died which was very sad but I thought they did well with the sl around it.

maybei will stop listening until Rob is out of the picture again! How long has he got?