She and Rob both do the honeyed dripping poison really well. Bruce just does the nastiness.


I haven't been able to hold out either Mind you I'm working this Sunday until 2pm and I couldn't hold out until that late so I'm listening to it as it's aired this week. Gripping stuff!


Nobody knew that. I'm sure everyone listening was stunned at that. We knew he'd raped her once, but the fact that he'd done it repeatedly was definitely news to us all.

I'm on my second custard doughnut. Aaah, the soothing power of sugar ....

Might it have been more interesting to leave the whole thing with 'just' coercive control? Now that we know that Rob has been repeatedly sexually violent does it perhaps diminish that side of things in the audience's mind and make victims and perpetrators less likely to get help to stop it, because their situation isn't as 'extreme'?

Phew! Need a lie down in a darkened room after tonight's broadcast!

We are fairly rattling through the witnesses - I thought it would be much later in the week before we heard Helen in the witness stand.

It is annoying and adds little to the story to have the gallery occupants commenting and talking whilst the testimonies are being given but I suppose it is to move things on a bit faster.

Only just heard tonight's episode.

As everyone has said the gallery interjections are really annoying but absolutely correct for the drama about 'everyday people'.
I was really moved by it and must praise everyone (yes Pat too) for their outstanding acting skills.

Last night's episode left me on a high.
Tonight's left me quite upset.

Simply superb writing and marvellous characterisations.

(Btw this is a respectful and friendly thread and the person who wished cancer on Ursula should be apologising for the offence he caused, not continuing to be rude.)

That was certainly a bomb-shell for listeners: we already know far more than most of the characters, and then the writers go and show that there's still stuff they haven't told us. Puts us on the back foot without actually having done anything unfair with the storytelling. Clever writing.
It also makes sad sense- it increased the chance of her resulting -unwilling- pregnancy.

It's going to be interesting to see the prosecution try to worm their way out of this one.

Absolutely. Goodness knows what he's done to her, aided and abetted by his appalling mother too.
The way Helen wailed out "I'm sorry" to her parents in the gallery was literally breathtaking i.e I was stood in the kitchen gasping

It's going to be unpleasant listening to the counsel grilling Helen.
How can he do that? He must know Rob has done these things, or at least have a strong inkling? I wouldn't have the brazen gumption to do it.

By a black leaded range with a copper kettle boiling away merrily I hope.

Hahaha! "You know me so well" Not quite a range. It's a solid fuel rayburn which I only relit last week as it was getting damp.
There is a whistling kettle though

We can all have gallons of amber tea from it during ArchCon (Archers Convention) 2017

ETA: Just re-read the above -^^^^^^^^ and now totally get why you all thought I was 50!!

Well I doubt the prosecutor will go down the swivel-eyed "there's no such thing as marital rape" line of cross-examining -not unless the writers are complete WUMs. So I suspect he'll simply say she's lying in order to gain sympathy from the jury.
But, as the Guardian's pet lawyer said in the article I mentioned up-thread, there are many other ways Anna could proceed to make this an open&shut case. *claps hands rapidly and symmetrically in anticipation...

They might say she's making it up to save her own skin, and if it really happened, why didn't she go to the police.

Yes. And those of us whose loved ones have died on doorsteps because of lack of medical attention, bled to death as a result of multiple pitchfork injuries to the arse, been shoved into sausage machines or slurry pits and had their colostomy bags burst innumerable times deserve a bit of consideration and sensitivity too. Maybe not one in three, but we are here

Think we might be in for a dramatic surprise tonight - the EPG gives no details of what's happening, just that contemporary rural drama stuff.

On "Lowfield" it says "Helen is challenged" for tonight so I'm guessing it's going to be more of the defence that Helen will find difficult or the cross examination. We wait with anticipation.

I hope he also mentions Rob's snide-y remark during the race that he was smiling because was enjoying looking at the cottage that HE would shortly own ...

I also hope that Peggy's will stipulates that the cottage goes to Helen and Henry, and doesn't mention Rob at all.

I don't know about repeatedly, but I got the impression that on the occasion that it happened on air, Rob referred to the 'last time' and I understood that to mean that Helen knew what was coming as it had happened before.

Don't think the Prosecution would be wasting Court time if they had an inkling that Rob was an abuser. Rob was probably asked those questions in preliminary meetings and in his own brash and confident way, Rob would have brushed the claims aside and denounced them as preposterous.

I would love to be a fly on the wall when Susan Carter hears about Helen's testimony. Plus, Justin can't in good conscience give Rob that job now.

I thnik it fair to say that quite a lot of artistic licence has been used in this respect. They should have more than an inkling if they had investigated thoroughly. Both Kirsty and Pat are witnesses for the prosecution. Both are openly hostile to the apparent victim. Now would one not think that given a prosecution witness who is spitting venom about the so called victim, the police and the CPS might ask a few questions to find out why Kirsty and Pat are not exactly on side when it comes to Helen's MMO in this matter? The role of the police and the CPS is to get to the truth of the matter and not to simply put someone in the dock to see what happens

But Helen hadn't made those claims at that point, so they'd have had no reason to ask Rob.

Helen hadn't disclosed the rape to anyone (with the possible exception of Cazz and maybe Anna) until the trial. Rob might have disclosed the slap, but passed it off as being because Helen was hysterical. Rob's other abusive behaviour was much more subtle, everyone bar Kirsty was completely taken in until the very end.

When Helen muttered an apology to her family for disclosing such a harrowing thing in the court, it actually made my heart ache.

I have a meeting tonight at - guess when - 7pm .
iPlayer will be ready loaded!!

Monthly meeting of the Cambrian Crocheters is it?

A fascinating subplot to see -though pretty unlikely- would be the eventual fall out of events between Ursula, Bruce and Rob.
At what point -if ever- would the parents understand their own role in Rob's attitudes and actions? But such glorious moments of sudden self-awareness are very unlikely and hugely indulgent, so I shall concoct them in my own mind instead...

You'll see flocks of pigs flying on the backs of unicorns before that happens!