My mum said she wants me and her to start listening to the Archers but I'm not so sure. I mean how can you get into something that's been on for 65 years and not feel like you've missed out on way too much? Lol

Well you've got to start somewhere! Very few people have been listeners for all that time.

Just enjoy it and don't feel you have to know everyone and everything straight away. Slowly getting familiar with the families and connections is one of the joys of the Archers and it's written in such a way that encourages this; for example Ruth reappeared this week after being 'offscreen' (offwave?) for a while so they made sure there were enough references to her name, children calling her 'mum' etc.

Pip kept referring to 'Auntie Elizabeth' too - all bits of the jigsaw!

As Welsh-lad says, you've got to start somewhere! If they were relying on listeners who started listening 65 years ago they wouldn't have very good listening figures! Someone else said to treat it as if you've just moved into the village and learn the characters over some time. You'll be hooked very quickly 😀

I went on Wikipedia and studied the family tree on there first of all and then the BBC site. I figured it made more sense to get a sense of the central dynasty and the two main farms and then build from there.

To quote an acquaintance "ooh what a two-faced little bugger!" I hope Rob gets caught out any minute now. Typically, if you tell lies, eventually your lies will come back to haunt you and you will get caught out.

Yes here's hoping. I want him discovered, disgraced.... then pulverized into the village shop wall by a runaway milk tanker. Susan can be on hand to scrape bits of Rob out of the masonry with a spatula and some wire wool.

When I first started listening to Rob's police interview I was getting annoyed because I could tell where he was going, but as his diatribe continued I found myself getting amused because I think he's stitching himself up.

The detective kept trying to get him to detail what happened that night, but he seemed more concerned about directing the conversation towards slating Helen and running off lists of her past 'crazy' actions.

Then when the interview was wrapping up, he kept adding in more and more. The fake tears capped off a very odd performance. Also, he doesn't seem to be aware that it was Kirsty who rang the ambulance and probably saved his life. If he did, I doubt he'd be trying to blacken her name and imply she's a lesbian (something that is only a bad thing in Rob's world) because that doesn't gel with her actions on the night.

The thing with Rob is that he's used to Helen just accepting what he says, but he's dealing with a hardnosed police detective now who's used to hearing bulls**t all the time, so he's on dangerous ground. She certainly sounded sceptical, but then I suppose they do have to challenge what they're being told and play devil's advocate.

I can see Anna making mincemeat of him and getting a 'not guilty' verdict eventually, though we're a while away from that.

Indeed - my dear Paul, the Police are simply not interested in a litany of character flaws. "Can we make a case?", in-essence, do the facts add up to illegality rather unwise conduct or impropriety and do the said events require caution, keeping an eye out, charging or whatever, is the only thing the CPS or the Procurator Fiscals up here care about. They don't want to arse-about on cases they can't prove unless the hypothesis is incredibly compelling and eventually Helen is going to start looking to at least one of them like the victim she is. Rob is digging himself a hole and by volunteering additional information at this stage as everything the Police take or record has to be made available to the Defence and this allows the Defence to and counter it as a direct result of a glorious thing call Discovery. Basically his goose is slightly cooked, it's just going to take a while to slow-roast him.... What a happy thought!

I would say he's afraid, he knows he's pushed Helen so far that she's prepared to do the previously unthinkable and that would terrify anybody. He's feeling vulnerable, weak, sick (the physical consequences would be ghastly) and every bully is a coward at heart and finds his own victimisation intolerable. I'll bet he knows enough to think she's got a few counter-claims her own, like being sexually assaulted and probably child abuse in the mental sense of the term, not to mention whatever Shula might choose to say and he reckons offense as the best form of offense.

Well, at this stage it's all about getting custody of his yet-to-be-born son and possibly even Henry because he will want to get back at Helen for daring to stand up to him and, of course, knifing him.

He's already slipping up in his haste to get to the goal and I think that'll continue.

In the short term things will continue to get worse for Helen, just to ramp up the tension, but it's obvious that the long term aim is that Rob will eventually get his comeuppance and Helen will be exonerated fully. That will be a good day, but the inevitable backtracking from the residents will be frustrating.

I'm calling it right now that we'll eventually hear busybody Susan saying "Well, I never liked him. I had a funny feeling about him!" to someone she's serving in the Post Office. And of course no one will take her to task because the humour is derived from every listener screaming "no you didn't, you silly cow" at their radios.

Well that was interesting! I don't think the officer taking his statement will be able to use any of the rubbish that Rob was splurting. She was there to take a statement about what happened on the day of the stabbing, so I'm glad she popped that in at the end.

Agree with others that Rob is going to trip himself up with all the lies he is currently telling.

Absolutely

I'm still hoping Jess will appear as a witness for the defence.

It think this will happen, closure for her and some kind of 'justice' for Helen? I wonder if we will get to know any more of the back story re Rob and Jess, manipulators like Rob have been carrying on in this way for most of their lives, viz he was trying to manipulate the police officer in the interview. As noted upthread he is just making it bad for himself, he has such an ego he truly believes he is right about everything and everyone believes him and agrees with him

Hmm I was a bit surprised that the police woman didn't want any background information. I always assumed that motive and the surrounding tale was relevant in these and all cases and if you think about it and Rob was right about the series of events then he would want to speak about and explain it all. I mean it would be kind of impossible to start with 'well she grabbed a knife and stabbed me' and if you start before then explaining her behaviour would be relevant.

It's kind of ironic that the defense is taking it's time to gently coax out the whole story from Helen and indeed that there is an assumption that there is much more to this than the stabbing itself and yet the prosecution in the form of the police don't want any other narrative than what occurred that night

Well the solicitor is there to defend Helen so would obviously want a mitigating account of what happened. The police were very matter-of-fact with Helen, as they are with Rob.

I think she will. After all, why else would they have brought Jess back for that one episode if they're never going to use her again?

Helen will eventually open up to Anna Tregorran and I'm sure they'll want to get Jess involved. After all, Jess can explain what Helen told her and all that occurred before the stabbing, so the prosecution can't pretend it was a story that was concocted post stabbing as an excuse.

Not looking forward to Rob instructing for Henry to be taken into Ursula's care while he recovers in hospital.
He has the right after all as the legal parent. Pat and Tony will be so upset.

I didn't think he actually adopted Henry. I'm honestly not sure he has the right to do that, as he doesn't have sole custody of Henry so surely Helen, as his mother, gets a say?

He did adopt Henry - the paperwork was all signed.

He has a 'parental order' rather than full adoption rights.

Yes .Rob wanted to adopt but got cold feet when found out that there was a lot checks into his back ground.He than found out about the 'parental order.

Oh I though those were only used for surrogacy. Pretty sure 'adoption' was the word used at the time. Perhaps I'm wrong.

Ah right. Thanks. Hope Pat and Tony can get Henry back then

[quote=Welsh-lad;82215015]Oh I though those were only used for surrogacy. Pretty sure 'adoption' was the word used at the time. Perhaps I'm wrong.[/QUOTE

It might have been a Parental Responsibility Order which means that he can make decisions about the child but cannot cut off the Birth Parent's wishes entirely.

Ffs, Pat really hasn't got the measure of Ursula, has she?

I also thought he'd adopted him. However, it looks like a parental order is better in the long run as it can be reversed, unlike an adoption, so eventually when Helen is freed she can get him out of Henry's life

Now's the time for Pat to re-locate her bloody backbone. Surely she won't give in without a fight.