Really He is manipulating her, undermining her and trying to control her. He's lied outright to her and mislead her more subtly. He's used anger and emotional blackmail and all to try to get his way and to get Helen in line.

The way people were talking on the thread I assumed he'd started beating her or Henry up.

Oh I see. I hadn't noticed that

Imagine how hacked off Pat will be with Brian if it pans out like that?

I love it when caddish, pompous Brian gets told a few home truths, and Pat would do that in spades!

How very true!

Is it not amazing that the youngest child in the programme who is part of a "normal" family with both parents who are still in their first marriage is 13 year old Ben Archer?

The best line this week was Hazel's declamation to Peggy, ending with:
"I am converting the shop for purely economic reasons... If it happens to pay you back for your heartless intransigence that's simply an unexpected bonus."

Oooh take that biatch!
BURN!

Peggy is irritating but Hazel is pretty repulsive and money-grabbing.

Hazel could out-.evil Rob - that voice . She sounds like the Snow Queen or someone really wicked from The Bunty. I bet she wears real fur

Hazel was a Slitheen. I can't get the image of that out of my mind when I hear her. it fits well with her Archers character.

Yeah, it's the measured smooth tone of her voice - very menacing!


Ah that's who she is:- Mummy Slitheen.

Or maybe he got a sample of whatever they test from a stranger. Maybe the temp staff guy who disappeared back to Poland.

And if his wife really did not mess around, then she knows the baby is rob's whatever he says.

Yes. And Helen is completely tractable and compliant since Greg at least. Probably before. I originally thought Rob was in league with the shop manager, but it's not that. He just seems to want to completely control helen, I think.

The marriage on holiday. The shop business. The joint bank account. Low-level stuff like complaining about Helen not being at home to make his dinner.

And now that he's resigned from Berrow farm he's obviously looking to infiltrate and start controlling the Archers' family business. New Tom didn't seem that impressed with his interference but Rob is very clever. I think he will now try and drive a wedge between Helen and New Tom.

Rob going to the meeting instead of Helen looks like has plans to cause problems for the Archer family.

Just finished listening to catch from yesterday. Rob is not right in the head. He winds Charlie up and when things don't go according to plan his mood really does change. Helen better watch out.

I was going to post something along those lines, that beings from Raxacoricofallapatorius aren't known for being nice

He wouldn't have sent his sample in himself, he'd have had to go and have his mouth swabbed so he couldn't possibly have submitted a false sample.

If Jess hadn't been messing around then she wouldn't have admitted she'd made a mistake when blaming Rob.

BIB - definitely. When he twists a situation to make himself look good - like in the cricket match, and that time with the hunt saboteur - I wonder if he honestly believes what he's telling people?

I thought he was in cahoots with the shop manager too, and you're right - Helen has been*hopeless with men since Greg. It always seems like Pat handles her with kid gloves in case she stops eating again.

I think Greg's main aim is controlling Helen - more than money. It would be too dark for The Archers, but if it all went wrong someone like him might decide to annihilate the whole family (himself, Helen and Henry) rather than face up to failure

It did make me laugh at the cricket when Rob said that Charlie had joined the cricket because Adam asked him, and Rob said 'I wonder why'

What is a slitheen please?

They were an alien race on Doctor Who. They looked like humans, but that was just a cover. They could unzip the human skin at the forehead and underneath they looked like big green babies. Because they had to compress themselves inside the human suit they tended to let off a lot of gas from certain orifices

Surely Helen must be detecting the sudden mood changes in Rob. He sounds scary when he puts on that voice.

The Slitheen try to cause a war on earth ending in a nuclear war. They then plan to exploit the destroyed planet by selling it off in radioactive chunks to other alien creatures in other galaxies to power their interstellar spaceships.

They are basically immoral exploitative free-marketeers.... just like Hazel.

Perhaps Hazel is a slitheen!

I had to turn it down tonight due to that retarded fishwife Susan going off on one.

Thanks for the slitheen explanations

Can't believe how easily Rob seems to be winning over Helen's relatives. Rob only had to mention that he didn't like intensive farming for Pat to start thinking she'd misjudged him I'd have thought Pat would be harder to fool. Even Tom's beginning to see what an asset the sinister one is. Pretty soon there will be nobody left not under Rob's spell to help Helen when she finally sees the light.

Susan sounded dreadful when she was having a go at Pat about the shop - such a self-centred woman. You can see where Emma gets it from.

She's dead common isn't she?