DumTeeDum - A show about BBC Radio's 'The Archers'
Dum Tee Dum Episode 73 – The aftermath
Long BH edition this week to address some more difficult issues which have appeared in The Archers this week and consequently the humour content is well down on the norm. Kenton first – the belief is that he is in need of counselling for a mental illness which will take a long time to repair but quite possibly a wave of a magic wand will right matters in days – which would undermine the wonderful portrayal to date.
Next Rob and Helen – was Helen drugged?; just drinks and self loathing thinks Lucy.
Much concern that BBC did not give any warnings of injudicious content. Lucy considers that Helen’s report of her vulnerabilities effectively gave Rob the green light for his actions. Given Rob’s virulent attack on Jim, Pat’s conversion to Team Rob following their kitchen discussion seems highly unlikely to everyone.
Finally Pip’s abrupt employment volte face was typical of how not to handle a story line – we all know the production team can do better. And two people resigning their jobs within days seems against the odds. Roifield can count to 100 in German whilst I side with Miss Mid City over the overuse of Italian this week.
And can I say that Susan feels very proprietary over the shop – and her work is part paid for the management and Post Office aspects.
Kosmo
On this week’s show we have calls from:
Blithe Spirit who wants a word with Radio 4
Dusty Substances who remembers Farmageddon
Jacqueline Bertho who’s ruined her porridge
Yokelbear who wants to talk about warnings
Catherine Kavanagh who’s upset
Witherspoon who’s being washed away by a tropical storm
Cheeahs who knows why Helen had Henry
Ms Alliance who has questions for Pat
Catherine Baigent who’s wondering about storylines
Goddess Deeva who’s had enough of reality
and Miss Mid City who thinks its elitist.
The post Dum Tee Dum Episode 73 – The aftermath appeared first on DumTeeDum.
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- Duration:
- 1h 36m
- Broadcast on:
- 02 Sep 2015
- Audio Format:
- other
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Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes of details. This podcast is a Royfield Brown production. Find others on iTunes. All right. Yeah, no. Hello, I'm Sarah Smith. Proud sponsor of Dum T-Dum. If you want to polish up your Albion, give your optics a wipe, or even mop up after your ferrets, Sarah Smith Cloths are eco-friendly, usable, and washable. And, you know, a bit posh. Sarah Smith, available from Sainsbury's for the posh-er washer. Proud sponsors of Dum T-Dum. [Music] That was me playing the clarinet, playing four different parts of recording it on GarageBand. Yes, that's what you do when you're utterly bored. And there's no archers to listen to. Thank you. [Music] Hi, Dum T-Dummers. This is Allison Segan-Toller. I tweet as cheers. I met some of you, and I hope to meet more of you in the future. I'm sponsoring this episode and the next of Dum T-Dum as part of a fundraising initiative. On the 6th of September, I'll be running a half marathon for charity, from Q Gardens to Richmond Park along the Thames. I've been training for this for about three months now. A half marathon is 13 miles, or just over 21k. And now I've run races before. I've never done one this long. My chosen charity for this race is Minds and Mental Health Charity. It's perhaps good timing that this week we've seen one of the story lines in the archers that deals with mental health really come to a head. This is, of course, the domestic violence storyline with Helen and Rob. While another one, Kenton's slow side in the depression continues on. As a charity, Mind deals with every possible type of mental health problem, literally from abuse and addiction all the way down to well-being and working with vulnerable children and adults. Mind is a charity Helen could go to in order for therapy and support to rebuild her sense of self when she breaks free of Rob, which she will. Mind is a charity that Kenton could go to in order to address his increasing dependency on alcohol and his financial worries. Mind could help birt with his grief over Frida. It could help figure out what on earth is going on with Alistair. It could even work with young Henry as it does stellar work with children. Mind covers all of these bases. In recent years, Mind has become stretched very thin as the NHS is but unable to cope with the increased demands for mental health treatment. The financial downturn has pushed many formerly healthy adults into depressive illnesses and charities have mostly taken up the flack. The health services have had to let go as a result. Donations are needed now more than ever. If any of you have been particularly moved by these story lines on the archers of late, I ask you to sponsor my half marathon. Even five quid will make a difference. You can find my fundraising page at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/seagenthaler, which is S-I-E-G-E-N-T-H-A-L-E-R. I've also posted this link in the Dundee Dom forums and on my Twitter account profile, which is Chia's C-H-E-E-A-H-S. If you want to give it an alternate fashion, just send me a PM on Twitter or we can work something out. I'll call in again next week to let you all know how to raise one and give you an update on the fundraising. But for now, I'm off to run a quick 10k. Hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend and thank you so much. Bye now. This week in Ambridge has been hard to listen to. If you've been affected by the rub and Helen story line, the domestic violence headline is 0808200247. Also in today's Dundee Dom, we're going to be talking about some of the issues that have been raised this week in the archers, as are the caller in a risk, so if you're likely to be triggered, you might want to give this one a miss. This is Dundee Dom's show about the reality of Chia drama that's centered on Ambridge and the Midlands. I'm the Magic Figro that is Roy Phil Brown. And with me, I have the 40 stone diva that is. Lucy Freeman. And the last part of our traveling opera company is you. Now, today's Dundee Dom was bought to you by X, X, X, extra large or extra sexy. Who's it bought? It's made me city because she did one some time ago. So we're going to have to dig that one out of the vaults. OK. Well done, made me city. Lucy. Yeah. Can you remind our listeners? This is one of the bits of the show where they just don't actually listen to us, do they? No. But we say it every week. Yes. Anyway. It's like the catechism. We just go rattling through it like the Lord's Prayer. Absolutely. Please remind our listeners how that will be activated. Don't be dumb of the week if they can be bothered first, erked, or just like motivated to act on this call to action. Yes. If you'd like to sing us at Dundee Dom, give us a plot prediction or blow it out, Uriah. Ring us on 0-2-0-3-0-3-1-3-1-5 or leave us a message on Speakpipe. Thanks, do lovely chambrages for her amazing voices. To Cosmo for his podcast roundups. And to Sarah Smith for sponsoring us. Derek is helping out with the lighting at the Lower Locksley Opera. So we've got the room back again. He did get sent home a disgrace last night though, as he accidentally spot lit somebody's cholera. Claire from Scotland via Canada would get that. No one else. On this week's show, we have calls of plenty folks. So take a deep breath. Blind spirit. Hang on a second. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I need to interrupt you. Sorry. Sorry. Listeners, everyone. We have put this week, we have put some of your calls together. That is not because your calls were not brilliant. People who we've put together with other calls. It's just there's so much to talk about this week for obvious reasons. That to save this show being four years long, we've had to do a bit of judicious squishing. So if you've been judiciously squished, we do apologise, but it does make sense when you hear it. This week, your calls from Blind Spirit, who wants a worthy radio for dirty substances, who remembers Farmer Geddon, Jacqueline Bertow, who's ruined her apology. Yokel Bear, who wants to talk about warnings, Catherine Kavanagh, who's upset with the spoon, who's been washed away by a tropical storm. Cheers, who knows why Helen had Henry. Miss her lights, those questions for Pat. Catherine Beijing, who's wondering about story lines. Goddess Deaver, who's had enough of reality and me. Sounds like she needs to take some mind-altering jokes there. Anne made me city who thinks that Pip is a twunk, but first, before the calls, we have Lucy B Freeman's meanderens, her thoughts, her feelings about the last week in Ambridge. This week on The Archers, was sponsored by me throwing things at the radio and shouting. Rob did more sludging than the famous five on an alpine Christmas trip at the cricket, then marched off home in a huff with Helen, trotting along dutifully behind him. Carol invited Hootie Jill to share her home with her. Now Hootie Jill is being evicted from rockers. Jill burst into tears, just for a change, and was consoled by Carol's special blend of herbs and powerful hallucinogenics. Josh wants to tie in his egg enterprise with the multinational business success that his fair brethren goose ink. Number of gi sold so far? Neil, Toby, for some bewildering reason, keeps kept saying people shouldn't think of him as an ordinary man. No, we don't think of you as an ordinary man, Toby. We think of you as an absolute berk. Pip, in her role as poultry consultant of fair brethren goose ink, went off to weevils with Toby, and she took a picture of a goose with her in case they didn't know what one looked like, presumably. Toby rewarded her with a drink at the bull, at which Pip's relentlessly arch-cocketry carried on, until we were mercifully released by the arrival of Charlie the Nerd, who wanted a drone on about wheat prices and technology, until the entire pub was trying to stand in front of the dartboard, hoping to get an arrow through the head. Susan got a bit bored and turned her laser-like fury onto Peggy Woolley this time, accusing her of deliberately trying to deprive the village of the delights of a troupe of incompetence in Paisley Tabard's man-handling, official price till. Peggy is much more used, to be honest, to people being almost entirely wedged up her backside in an effort to snaffle some of the wooly wealth, so being yapped at by a furious little woman in Maybelline lip gloss must have given her a shock. Who to Jill went to lower Locksley, acres of landscaped grounds, her own wing, living with her loving daughter and her grandchildren, but she didn't like the curtains, so she burst into tears again. There was a bewildering exchange between Harrison, Jimus, and Linda. "Linda, did you know Harrison spoke Italian?" said Jimus, "To Linda, in Italian." Harrisment barely speaks bloody English, Jimus, we all shouted at the radio. Anyway, Harrisment asked Fallon to move in with him. Fallon needs somewhere to do her upcycling. She needs to get an upcycle rack. "We'll get somewhere in the village," Harrisment said glibly. "Where, for God's sake, people talk endlessly about how few starter homes there are in Ambridge, start off small, maybe, aren't quite hall, perhaps, and move up to lower Locksley." Harrisment carpet burns, then went on to try and haul Kenton out of his slough of despond, by revealing that Harrisment has an estranged brother. I got distracted then. I started wondering whether he was called rope or first degree. David then had a lovely moan about the fact that he thinks maybe he should have gone to Handyhawk after all, and then Pip came back from High Wickham, because she didn't like it, for crying out loud. Fine, can we now call them the boomerang arches? So what will happen now? Jill will move out into lower Locksley, the curtains will fall down, she'll move back. I tell you something, if Heather Pett moves into Brookers, doesn't like it, and goes back to Prada, this will descend in too fast. Let us usher all the archers out of Brookfield. Entice them with the promise of a microwave chip in the flood bar, then change the sodding locks so none of the buggers can get back in again. The end. Felt a palpable sense of anger. It's ridiculous. How can they keep doing this? This, this, this, uh, you know, this ridiculous. We're going, we're not going, we're going, we're not going. It was bad enough with that sodding road. Do you not think? You know, we still haven't, um, had the end of the road storyline. Oh, God. On it, but, but you know, if you're going to go, go. If you're going to stay, stay, stop doing this ridiculous. How many more farewell scenes do we have to have? It only to be sort of completely reversed 10 minutes later, where the person comes back again saying, I changed my mind. It's just unbelievably stupid and lazy, lazy, lazy. It's building up tension where there is none. Just to give us a nice, convenient, happy ending, because so many other storylines are clearly not going to have a happy ending, or are just going to meander on because everybody's lost interest. I.e. Alistair. Well, there is a thread undummedidum.com about, um, story lines that have just been left hanging. So that was a neat segue. If I did know any better, Lucy, I'd say you've actually been on to domdidum.com/forums and actually read that thread and thought you'd just have a little bit of a rant. So then you could actually advertise the fact that we have a thread on our forum that says that. I didn't actually see that, but I did go on. I did go on to the forum and see the, um, the discussion about Rob and Helen, and I thought that was excellent. I thought, what sense, aren't we lucky to have listeners who aren't bonkers, ego-fueled, mad people, who just go on, you know, like the loonies that go on to Facebook and just go mad and insult each other and say wildly ridiculous things. And now as they're just so much more kind of sensible and calm and, you know, they don't take things personally and they just sort of are nice to each other. We're very lucky. Are you saying that anyone that goes on to Facebook is a loony? No, of course not. But you know, you know exactly what I mean. The people that drive everyone else off the Facebook archers pages. Oh, yes. No, we are somewhat of an oasis of goodness and sanity. Who are for us? We all need a bit of that, particularly this week. Yeah, no, we do. And on that note, why don't we, uh, nip over and, uh, answer some calls because this is going to be interesting. Hello, ambridge 3962. Hello, Dunty Dunblight Spirit calling. Now, I have to preface my comments by basically saying that as yet I've not heard the episodes for this week. So events might supersede what I'm about to say, but either way, I wanted to respond to the discussion in last week's podcast about the Kenton storyline, which was very moving and very powerful. And it prompted me really to talk about something that's troubled me about the archers for quite some time. And that's its treatment of mental health issues. Now, we all know that there are characters in the drama who would clearly benefit from some kind of counseling or some kind of psychotherapeutic intervention. Helen being a very typical example of that. If she doesn't need, need help, I don't know who does. But I think that if the writers are going to come up with the Kenton storyline, where, you know, he's clearly vulnerable, his personality is imploding, he's on a downward spiral into depression, then needs basically to be an appropriate model of treatment for that. And I agree completely with Witherspoon. What needs to happen in the script is that Jolene says, look, love, you know, I can see what you're going through. I care about you so much. And I want to help you get the help that you need. Let me take you to the doctor and then we'll take it from there. The characters do tend to be very British, you know, as we've already identified. They don't confront each other. They don't call each other on stuff. And this is one particular instance where they really do need to step up to the plate. So writers, editors, please do something about this. Treat it in an appropriate manner, acknowledge it openly so that people, perhaps any listener, one listener can benefit from it. And that's all I've got to say. Bye, spray it out. Right, obviously the elephant in the room is the scene with Rob and Helen. It was hugely unpleasant, as everybody knows, and it was very interesting to see the Twitter reaction to it, and it just made an awful lot of people extremely furious. As we know, the storylines haven't exactly been gilded with a light hand at the minute, have they? My God. So, Blind Spirit talks about Kenton and his mental health issues, and the fact that in the arches, mental health issues are clearly. There's a lot of them. As she said, there's an awful lot of people who could do it, might you? But I know a lot of people in life, just generally, in real life, who could do with a hell of a lot of therapy and have never had any and would never dream of having any. This is where I diverge from the common theme here. I do believe they should have put a trigger warning on. I do believe they should have, when they're talking about Kenton, and when, no, not a trigger warning about Kenton, there should have been a trigger warning about Rob and Helen. But, in terms of the Kenton, the mental health story, and as we know, especially from last week, mental health is an issue that's close to my heart. But it's not up to the arches to show best practice. It's up to the arches to show, it's up to drama to reflect life. And there are millions and millions and millions of people who never, ever get the type of help that Kenton needs. And I do hope he gets it because I know he's an imaginary character. But, you know, he's real to us, and I don't like to see anybody in that sort of distress. But, you can't always have drama that's where people behave like adults and do sensible things. People behave like people, and for drama to be drama, it has to reflect that. So, I'm not sure that it is their duty to sort of, you know, give, demonstrate how it should be done. It's great if it triggers conversations. It's great if it helps people with mental illness not feel alone. And if other characters say, if only Kenton would, you know, go and see a therapist or talk to somebody or join our colleagues on was or whatever, that's great. But to have a sort of a fairytale, happy ending, like the ridiculous one we had with I'm a craftsman, me, who, you know, all of a sudden spontaneously recover. We had Ed Grundy recovering from a crack addiction in two weeks. You know, it's that's just rubbish. So anyway, that's what I think. And I know everyone will disagree with me. But there we are. You were so long in your answer that I've forgotten where you started. Let alone the middle. But I remember you said, the end, he says, people disagree with you. So, I'm just going to just have a quick ramble myself. I think, there's no think about this. Obviously, us being Brits, we know that we still have, though we are much better, we still have a reticence to talk about mental illness. I can think of a drama where somebody has had something upsetting happen to them, or they've had some episode of depression or whatever the heck. And they've actually gone off to see a therapist. Yeah. If this, if the ambridge, if the ambridge, if the arches was set in Pennsylvania, I think they would have trotted off to a shrink. And it would have been part of the storyline. And what I would say is that it's kind of now beholden, because we are much better at talking about these things. And I think the outpouring of warmth that you received, I was talking about your father last week, kind of demonstrated that we do actually need, and this isn't an advert for with the spoons, professional services, but we do need Kenton, as part of his recovery, to go and to get professional help. Not that we're going to sit in with him once a week for a whole little episode, but it needs to be referred to, you know, that he goes off to Felman Borsister, and he sees somebody, and for that to take, I don't know, a year or so. And to say again, it's not going to be mentioned all the time, but it needs to be referred to every now and then. But in a sensible, realistic way, not a, and then they all woke up, and it was all a dream or any of that rubbish stuff. Absolutely, because he has a long way of putting all of this behind him, and it can't just be sorted out by a cheeky quick family tea, you know, where everybody gets things off of their chest, and then it's all right again. And Jill does it, you know, after Jill does a little bit of crying and says, you know, boys, you're breaking my heart. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh, you could be a script writer. That's exactly how I do it. Do you write these tenders? It's you, isn't it? They've written the Rob and Helen storyline so well. And let's hope that they give Kenton, you know, due worth in terms of getting him out of the whole that he feels that he is in, not only financially, but mentally as well. Dusty substances. Hello, it's Dusty substances here. They're a wrong sort of listener. I've just paused while listening to the podcast, because my heart has absolutely gone out to Lucy. Not a stranger in my extended family. To losing people through suicide. And, you know, I just can't imagine how it feels for Lucy. But the points you may spot on, you know, if you see any hint of anything, just look after people. But I'm going to go back to what I said last time about Kenton. And what I did actually say was that the only explanation for Kenton's erratic behaviour at the moment would be a major mental health catastrophe. And I still believe that. My problem then, and maybe still now, is that I can't truly trust the archers to follow that through. So often these sorts of storylines bubble up and then pop without being carried to a proper finish. I'm thinking back to Farmer Geddon. I mean, we had the joy of the stampede at the open farm day. But also all those physical threats to the archer family. And what happened there, actually, bugger all. It may be that this will be an exception. And Kenton is, you know, as so wonderfully analysed by Witherspoon. I'm talking as if he's a real character. I think it's touched me a little bit. Yeah, if this is an exception and that Kenton is going towards a major mental implosion or worse, then okay, that's fair enough. And that's a strong and impressive storyline. I just like to trust that that is actually what's going to happen. Because, as I said before, there are examples that the storylines do play fast and loose with established characters. They do behave in ways that just seem to fit in the need for a bit of sensation or a bit of comic relief. And then we go back as if it never happened. And I should be really angry if this is happening to Kenton. Because it's clearly, you know, listening to Lucy and I'm sure campus other people. It's actually quite an important area to cover. Don't mess about with this, please. Thank you for your call, Dusty. And thank you for your kind words. And thank you everybody that tweeted me and messaged me and everything after I talked about my dad. Anyway, last week, it was very kind of you and it made me very happy and very sad all at once. So thank you. Anyway, she says, "Farma Geddon, what the hell happened to that storyline?" Well, that did get that was one of the few that did actually get tidied up, Dusty. As far as I recall, anyway, no doubt Cosmo will tell me I'm wildly wrong. But it turned out to be a horrible uncle, didn't it, being paid to frighten the Brookfield people with, you know, letting out the cow at the open day and all that sort of thing? I'm temporarily stopped as to why. I can't. Oh, it's because he'd seen he was the witness to something, wasn't he? And they were trying to put it off, testifying. That's it. Yes, Jacqueline Batto, who has before you go on to Madam Berto. Somebody on the forum did actually say that it's got nothing to do with Farma Geddon. But it's the the flood of Geddon that if old Darryl had been around, he would have got out his financial problems with one bound after that flood, wouldn't they, in terms of fixing a pambridge? Oh, yeah. Yep. Yes, because Eddy seems to be quite busy now, doesn't he? Well, everybody is. He's halfway handed. Yeah, dear. Poor Darryl. Yeah, again. Wrong place, wrong time. Poor old Darryl make peace. Hi Darryl. It's Jacqueline Batto from Sanguen here. I just had the most irritating listen to the archers I've ever had in for ages and ages with all like Italian at the beginning. I'm sorry, I don't see the point of all that. An odd word here and there. Yeah, but there's that conversation. Gosh, but nearly put me off my porridge. But then at the end I had the, I felt that it was one of the best, closest to reality conversations we've heard in quite a long time with Harrison talking to Kenton that it's easy to lose your family, but it's hard, very hard to get them back. I was in tears. My poor porridge has gone through ups and downs this week. So I'm in team Harrison now. I've always sort of had an inkling that I liked him and I like the way he handled Fallon and her waviness in the beginning. But now that has convinced me. What a nice guy. Madam Bertot. Yes, she's ruined her porridge, but she is team Harrison. She feels that his his little chat with with with Kenton to try and sort of bolster him up. I did think, oh god, is another character coming in. Harrison's a strange brother who's going to speak exactly like Harrison, but at least we'll know that they're in the same family, unlike Charlie and Tom, who are not related and sound exactly the same. I'd probably just get the same act, it won't know. Maybe, maybe Harrison's brother will be slightly, will be slightly higher or something like that. Anyway, yes, so I'm dreading that. Please don't, please don't turn up. Harrison's a strange brother, but I thought there was quite a kind of, you know, is not exactly romantic, is it? Would you like to move in with me bearing in mind you're being evicted from everywhere else and your bedrooms full of furniture? It's not exactly love's young dream, is it? But to be fair, I think, and I've always said this about marriage proposals, is that for the most part, they're not this massive romantic display, that when you boil it down, moving in with somebody is a part of practical, you know? But it's a moving in, isn't it? Moving in is not a proposal of marriage, but then it's very hard to then inject the romance into the proposal of marriage when you've been living with someone's stinky socks for the last, you know, two years. No, but I think it's the same thing. I think within any kind of drama, when somebody says, well, you marry me, you know, go down on one knee and it's such a surprise, but they've bought a ring. Now, I don't know, but just take that trope, you know, just for an example, you don't go out and spend two months salary on something unless you damn well know that person's going to say this. You're awfully embarrassing to have to take it back, wouldn't you? Absolutely. You've got a pretty good idea that they're going to say, yes, I know an idiot, you know, would go and do that without knowing that that woman is going to say yes. Now, moving with somebody isn't quite the same, but it's it's a case of practicality. It's a case of, well, we've been knocking around together for about six months now, five days out of the week, I'm round at yours. I've got three quarters of my wardrobe there. You rely upon me to feed the cat when you've got a nip out to work early, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It is practical. So I don't think that it's fair to blame Paul Harrison and say it's hard, he loves young dream, you know, because that's just the way that it kind of happens. Okay, minus the flood, admittedly. And anyway, Fallon hates big romantic things, doesn't she? So she's much more, I guess, pragmatism would appeal to her more than overblown sentimentality. You know, it's a case of, it's practical. And then it's a case of cuddles on tap. And I just thought that's actually quite, quite realistic, really. Yeah, it is realistic, but it's a bit, well, I don't know, maybe I'm becoming romantic in my old age. God, I hope not ruin everything. And now we have calls from Yokel Bear, Catherine Kavanagh, and Maeve, who all want to talk about the Robin Helen situation. Hello, dumb stomach, Yokel Bear here. First thing for all these episodes, we're really difficult listening. And I know there's been a bit of talk on the Twitters and elsewhere, whether there should have been some kind of warning beforehand or a helpline afterwards. And I'm of the opinion that I think there should have been, I think the BBC should have put one on. The whole thing with Robin Helen, it was really, really difficult listening. And from what seemed to be hinted to me, I think Rob drugged Helen, that whole that he's up and out and collected Henry and everything the next day. And she's just seemed to be more than a hangover. And I'm wondering whether he drugged that wine. And I feel really uncomfortable about that. I understand that this issue of the gas lighting and the kind of relationship and the kind of person that Rob is, is really important to get out there. But I think it needs to end soon. Because it's very difficult to put it into words, but my gut feeling is, is that, yes, it's important to get the issue out there. But I think that the artist also needs to think about the impact it's going to have on people listening as well. And that's not in any way saying anything should be swept under the carpet. This is a really important issue. And I'm glad that they've raised this issue. But I think that there's a balance between making the audience aware and understanding the issue and making people that might have gone through this feel really uncomfortable. I don't know. Hi Lucy. Hi Rob, I feel it's Katherine calf here. A long time no speak, but I always listen. I wanted to ring in this week because I feel so angry at the way the storyline has become so dark and so evil and so twisted. With no warning, no advisory, nothing at all from the BBC to suggest that this is 7 p.m. in the evening. And perhaps people are listening who shouldn't be small children, young adults, whomever. I haven't been in that situation. I have where I've been in a situation where for four and a half years, I'll add someone else emotionally abuse me the way that guy is trying to tell him. It almost caused me my sanity. It certainly caused me a couple of very valuable interpersonal relationships. And I'm just thankful my family are still speaking to me. It's very triggering. And I'm just really annoyed about it. So I love the podcast. I send you both huge hugs. Thank you for doing what you do. Thank you for making me laugh so much. And I will speak to you all soon. That's love. It's Alison here, tweeting us cheers. I'm getting caught up again on Dundee Dums. We moved house about a month ago and everything has just been a mess. And I finally heard my last one and I had to call in in response to Lucy's excellent observations about why Helen is the way she is and why she enrages us so much. And Lucy very cleverly, I thought, saw that it was totally about her inability to accept that she can't be a perfect person and be all things for all people. I totally agree with that. But I also want to flag up that I think it goes hand in hand with a massive fear of abandonment. Does this have something to do with the death of her brother when she was really young? Who knows? But clearly to me, she behaves like somebody who is so afraid that everyone in her life will leave her behind, that she contorts herself. She bends over backwards to fill the mold and be the person that she thinks they want to see. And it hasn't worked for her. It hasn't worked. Greg, of course, lost his life very sadly, took his own life. Then apparently there was a journalist who she dated briefly after that and that ended in tears. It's sort of not surprising if you can if you take this theory as read that she would decide to have Henry because to have a baby by donor means that you are creating a child who only knows you as a parent and they can't ever turn against you and side with the other one. So she's, respectively, in having Henry made for herself a person who will love her forever no matter what she does. And then, of course, Rob shows up and everything he says is music to her ears because his manipulative sort of chauvinistic way of conducting a relationship is all. It's all right now because I'm here and I'm going to keep you safe and you're going to be happy now and everything's going to be fine. And she takes that as the sign she's been waiting for her whole life. But I see in Helen just a massive fear that if she can't be good enough and if she can't conform to the things that the people around her want, she will be left all alone. Prior to a little hard to listen to recently, isn't it? I made my husband's next to me during the omnibus so I could hold his hand and he doesn't even listen to the archers. And when Rob said that thing about how I told you to stop drinking, what would you listen? He went, so we might make a convert out of him yet. Speak to you all soon and yes, updates on the race to come. Bye for now. Yoko Bear. Yes, I think I was trying. I went on a walk with the dog yesterday with Paul Douglas who is and you've met him, haven't you? Who is an avid dumpedy dumber and avid archers person. And he found it very, very hard to listen to and he said he was listening to it at two o'clock in the afternoon and he said it was very, very disconcerting to hear something. It's funny that we keep sort of saying that graphic. It's not graphic obviously because it's basically scammed words and we're filling in the gaps. It's the it was the minimalism of the writing and the beauty of the acting that made it so powerful. I would not fancy having to explain to my children what had just happened in that scene. At two o'clock in the afternoon and even at seven o'clock in the afternoon, they are perfectly, you know, you can't say, oh, that's after the watershed or whatever, seven o'clock in the evening is a perfectly reasonable time for children to be listening to the radio with their parents, driving back from somewhere or something like that. But there's a couple of things here or maybe even three. Number one is, as you said, it was the great writing and acting and the fact that it was pretty minimal so much so that you had to really, in lots of it, you had to make your mind up as to what was going on. Well, people were tweeting, weren't they? A? What happened? What happened? Thinking they'd missed something. And with that in mind, I think it was, I'm not 100% sure about this. So don't hold me to this, anybody. I think it was probably just about say to play when it went out because it's almost like a Pixar movie. It's a case of, you know, when you go to those Pixar movies with your kids, you, the parent, you understand that the kid doesn't advise a versa. And I think that was just about minimal enough that the kids would have understood. But then again, and then my third point is that without listening back to it, and I will do, so I only listen to it once in real time when it went out. I think that everything in that episode, and again, don't hold on to these folks, but I think everything in that episode, if they'd have been in what we as listeners would deem to be a loving, caring relationship, you go, Oh, is made for a meal. Oh, they're having a bit of a special puddle. Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's because we know all the things that Helen isn't privy to that it was sinister. I don't know about that so much because you could hear the anxiety in her voice already saying she's kind of half trying to sort of conciliate him. She kept saying no to more wine. You could hear the wine hurtling in the glass like it was a bloody oil tanker. You know, he was clearly trying to get her plastered. What he said, the bit that actually made me feel physically sick wasn't the raw bit. It was the when he made her, and this it did make me cry. And it genuinely made me feel sick. And I've been feeling physically disturbed ever since when he didn't make her, but it was after she he said to her, so how come you were feeling so unloved? And she gave him chapter and verse on how defining her total lack of self esteem is. And then he thought, right, I have had evidence now. You have given me evidence that you are you are somebody with no self respect. So that to me is a green light and off I go. And that's when he did it. And it was as if in his mind, she had just handed him her go ahead, do what you like. Okay. Again, I really should have listened to that show again, considering we have so many calls about it before podcasting. But I've got to just try to sort of a party downstairs sleeping. And I didn't quite have the time because recorded this like half nine on a Monday morning. So, and I was quite that bollocks bit out. Anyway, my point is this is that. Oh, I've got to name your brains gone. Carnival weekend. Oh, God. I was trying to make Lucy. Oh, God. You could listen to that show. I believe and say that. I mean, well, no, it's not the case for anybody missing turbos. I mean, all of this, that she put out her vulnerability, but also the fact that she totally trusts this man by the rather, I would say, I don't want to say pathetic, but I just can't think of a better way of saying it by "Do you love me more than you love Jess?" No, it is pathetic. In the true meaning of the word, it's pathos. It is, it is pathetic. And here is somebody who, as we've said, you know, week in week out is a fascinating character and you just nailed last week. And you could, I'm sure in Rob's head, how that played was, my wife trusts me completely and I just want to protect her. We know that he is a sociopath and he's damaged, but he in his world wants to protect her. He does have like it or not. He has some semblance of a relationship with Henry. This is his family. A relationship in terms of there, there is love. Yes, we can see that he kind of loses it every now and then, or he's on the verge of losing it, but he loses it with just about everybody, you know, but he is there to protect his Helen, his family and he is found that place, that beautiful place. And again, it's because of the whole backstory with his short temper, his anger, his lies, his deceit to us, the same thing as lies, his just, you know, his lack of real empathy and his controlling manipulativeness that we read into that whole scene much more, because I'm sure your average teenager would listen to that, not even as your average teenager, but your average person who does listen to that and say, "Oh, well, blah, blah, blah, blah." Obviously, at the end, there was the overall, and we don't know what that was about, you know, we have our suspicions, you know, and there's enough of those going around on the Twitter as to whether it was, you know, something slipped in anyway, let's move on. But, you know, and I just think we need to commend the writers with the detail of how this is all being played out, which is, again, the reason why just to link this up to the previous call, that we need, I hope that what they're not doing here is putting all of their rightly eggs in one basket, just with this Robert Helens talking play, because I thought somewhat short-changed with the way that Pip just seemed to want to hide Wickham, and then just came back. Here I am, you know, she's had half of a conversation with Toby, and Toby says, "Oh, you better stop in here," and "Oh, your brother's a very good entrepreneur, he's got some eggs." Do you want to miss out on that? Now, come on. Yeah, yeah, she's a bright girl, isn't she? She's not... We all knew she was never going to go, but we all suspected she was going to go because of her granny and the fact that, you know, her mother's going to be out of commission at the farm. But for her not to go, because, oh, they changed, I wouldn't go to Brazil for another year or whatever, and she just got her degree. She has applied for one job, got it, proper golden girl, right? She's about to see the world. She's after high Wickham, and she was back in a map of ours. Yeah. Now, you know, that... Where was the detail in that? Where was the anguish, you know, not even... And then we have all this in-depth, beautiful, layered, complex character exposition through the writing of Robin Helen. And everyone else is just like skipping along in the background. Absolutely. Yeah. Yoko Bear mentioned that he thought that Robin drugter, particularly by Helen's reaction the next morning, but I think alcohol and self-loathing is enough to produce that kind of reaction. And the terror in her voice when she was sort of going "Rob, Robbie, you there?" when before she answered the phone. The thing is with Helen, all the way through this. I swear to God, she has... She knows what Rob is like. She's known, but she cannot let herself have failed and made a wrong choice again. I think maybe in the beginning, it was fine. I don't know when the realization hit, but the fact that he... She didn't really believe him about Jess, the fact that she's lying to him now, the fact that she kept shielding people from him. Oh, no, I'll tell my mum. I'll tell whatever. You know, there's a huge part of her that never, ever, ever believed him, but she wants to so badly, that is overwriting all her sense. And now she is having to face the truth. And she suddenly realized she now, it's gone too far. She's... She can't extricate herself easily. You know, it's... Oh, God, it's so horrible. Actually, you know what you were saying about? You could listen to this and not realize. See, Cheers, I'm muddling everyone. I've got a huge list of names here and I'm muddling everyone. Cheers said that she... 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He's been exposed in that instance as being a liar and manipulative because the next day, he said, "I couldn't keep you away from the booze," when he was obviously encouraging her massively. But again, I think that still slightly validates what I'm saying is that the way it's been written was that you could just about, just about, I know I classically try and sit on the fence with most things here and see this from both sides, but you could just about conceive as why a casual listener to just that episode would say, "Oh, it's a bit peculiar, but Helen's peculiar with this nonsense about do you love being bored in your love chest? How old is she, 16?" But yes, when you have the other bits of evidence, i.e. the next day, and you listen to him saying, "Well, actually, I've tried to keep you off the booze," and Helen knew he was lying. Then you go, "This man is completely not to be a wrong one." Cheers also mentioned the fact that Helen had had Henry to create a person who would love her forever. Now, whatever happens with Rob and Henry and Helen, that is the single most damaging reason to have a child ever. It is, there is no way out. When you do that to a child, there is no way out. It's a horrendous thing to do. Anyway, yes, Ms Alliance and Catherine Bajent want to know where is Pat in all this, so now we'll play their calls. Hello, Dumty Dum. Unsurprisingly, it's not going to be my usual call this week, pointing out daft silly things in the storylines and making silly jokes about food, because, as everybody is already, I'm sure, been discussing. It's been a bit of a harrowing week listening to the archers this week. I do think, on the whole, the week's been very well written, but I'm not sure about the way the actual cliffhanger with the presumed rape was handled. I think partly my concern about it was that it was left quite open initially as to what actually had happened. I'm imagining this was partly due to BBC compliance issues in telling a story like that in the archers. But for me, this made it even more problematic and disturbing than perhaps knowing what Rob had actually done. So sort of leaving it hanging in the ether for 24 hours. I mean, I think most of us guessed what had happened, but it wasn't completely conclusive and it was left to the opening scene of Friday for us to get exactly what had happened, which I do think was very well played. I mean, the silence and the phone ringing and then Helen trying to control herself as she answered the phone was really chilling and harrowing to listen to. And from a dramatic point of view, I think it was very effective in confirming what had happened, whether or not that's what we as listeners want to listen to is another matter, I think. Poor Helen, I just, it felt awful listening to it and hearing Rob's justification was sickening, but I think actually a very accurate portrayal of someone in his situation. I think Pat bothered me a bit as well. I think, I understand that the story was that she was trying to find the good in Rob over the week. Helen's say now they're married, but I wasn't quite convinced by the ending. I think she's long been anti-Rob and the viciousness of his verbal attack on Jim, even despite Rob defending Pat's corner would have contributed to the return of her previous disinclination towards him. And I think given Helen's troubles in the past, she would perhaps have picked up on Helen's demeanor at the opera. So her conversion in the cliffhanger, which to me just did not really ring true because it was so total and complete and I didn't feel it was earned. Thanks very much, bye. Hello dumpty dum, it's Miss Alliance here, calling in after being severely traumatised by the archers on Nibust this week. I don't understand Pat's reaction to the titchenob. Mesmerising as he is, I can't see how she'd fail to perceive any, the real distress that her daughter is in, bearing in mind that she's seen her through all her problems with Greg and the anorexia and everything else. Wouldn't you even just say, are you okay darling, you seem a little bit quiet or something? It just doesn't seem real to me, what do you think? It was all part of Rob's manipulation, obviously, but he started to be extra, extra nice to Pat and saying, actually, I'm not the, I'm not the evil capitalist that you thought I was, look at me, I just got sort of bullied into it and really my heart is with the land or whatever cobbles it was coming out with. I can't believe she fell for it, I really can't, as Miss Alliance, what do you think? Miss Alliance said something in her core about it and somebody on Twitter the other day and I thought, and I sort of forgive me for not remembering who it was, but they said considering Pat has spent the last five years panicking every time Helen refuses a biscuit, surely she would notice the fact that her daughter is extremely subdued, is not at all with it, looks extremely unhappy and emotional and wouldn't just go bleating on about what a wonderful man her husband is, she would say, are you okay? You know what, Liz? Again, and I deliberately don't do this just to, well, look, I suppose my role on this show is to- Devil's Advocate. There you go, play Devil's Advocate and whatever, and to be your whipping boy or whatever the heck the expression is, but there's all of that, but then, you know, my instinctive position forces me to think that in the real world, there's a- Pat is struggling with a couple of things here. Number one, she has a daughter who has had her bouts of problems with food and with obvious loneliness, and as far as Pat's concerned, all of a sudden, not all of a sudden, but for the last two years, she's had a partner who, from Pat's perspective, she has been able to rely upon, and I think it cannot be overstated the way that rub looks after Henry from the outside in terms of he picks him up from school, takes him, you know, goes on to the park with him on his own. Now, come on, in our own experience, looking at family members who have new partners, and especially fathers that take on another man's child, it's one of the kind of worries that you have, you know, that will accept that child as the road, and from the outside, you absolutely have. So, that is going to allow Rob a whole load of latitude in Pat's size. Yeah, yes, that's very true. You know, it's Kerry Davis about to walk in, by the way. He's wandering around talking about Kerry, he did have a rather fetching kind of out pine out of it yesterday, long canvas shorts, little jaunty hat, kind of, it looks really like he should be oatling, and I checked and breached his the whole life. But anyway, moving swiftly up. It's going to be wearing feathers and nipple pasties. And I'm going to keep on saying we have to commend the writers with this, but you have to, because it's just too simplistic, say, you know, where is Pat in all of this? She is Helen's mother, yes, but also Helen is a mother herself, and she is a grown up, however damaged you might think that she is. And Pat has to trust that Ellen has made the right choice with the partner that she has chosen, based on, and I would say based on the evidence that Pat has seen, Helen has made a decent choice. For no other reason, then the outward appearance of Rob's relationship with Henry, you know, because if that was my daughter, that would be my overwhelming concern. How is he going to treat my, my grandson? Yeah. And you've let certain things not go completely, but you go, oh, well, you know, so this thing about him just leaving, leaving his job, you know, you go, that's a bit peculiar. She has got more, I mean, she's saying, so did you not know then? She's saying to Helen, so did it come as a surprise to you as well? And Helen's going, oh, mum. Yes. Let's not dwell on. I mean, it's unhappy. Yeah. Yes. Anyway. With the spoons corner. Hey, baby, I hear the blues are calling to salads and scrambled eggs, mercy. Greetings, Lucy, Worryfield, and all dumb tea dumbers around the world. It's with the spoon here, without Angus Haggis. Handsome husband and he are back in New York while I visit my mom in Florida, and it looks like I may have to cut the trip short as a tropical storm is heading this way. I hate Florida, but my mom is celebrating her 85th birthday. Fortunately, she's in good overall health, but does complain of knee pain from arthritis and is unable to walk long distances. Although she has a group of friends, she's also a bit lonely and does miss my father, who passed away five years ago at the age of 90. Now, how do I tie this into our favorite show? Last week, Lucy noted that while the archers was doing an excellent job of exploring the lives of older people, it was all too depressing. While I agree with her on the first point, I do think the octo and non-agenarians of Ambridge are in remarkably good health. Haggis nearly 91, Jill nearly 85 and Caroline nearly 84, Joah Spry nearly 94, Caroline Jim in their 80s, all with an area of physical complaint. It's great to see that they lead active lives, or maybe accept Caroline, but realistically, they could have an occasional aching pain. Maybe it's the water of the river Am, someone should take a sample. Let's go from the lighthearted to the serious. First, I did find the end of Thursdays, and in follow-up Fridays episodes a bit confusing, and I don't think I was the only one who did. Regarding Rob, he is becoming increasingly one-dimensional, or at least very predictable in his evil doings. We just don't know enough about his backstory to understand what makes him tick, which is frustrating. I don't think the script writers were originally planning to develop his character into such a snaggly whiplash, but they saw how we the listeners were reacting to him, and decided to take him down a one-way path, and eventually I still believe over a cliff. Could Pat, normally so sharp, have been so easily taken in by him this week, and not even seen that her daughter was out of sorts on Friday? I think not. What I would add to Lucy's sharp analysis of Helen last week is that we should also take a look at Pat to understand Helen's neuroses. Helen grew up seeing her mother as someone who was relatively speaking able to achieve it all, a satisfying career, a happy marriage, and raising a family. So Helen is certainly striving to at least match and then exceed what her mother has achieved. What about this desperate quest for a knight in shining armor? Often we see this when one's own father has absented himself at an early point in the child's life, or was woefully inadequate. This doesn't really fit the description of Tony. Also, Helen's expression of extremely low self-esteem on Thursday is quite different than the woman I first met a few years ago when she was standing up to her father and deciding to have a child on her own. Now that she appears to have been date raped, literally, and questioned, did Rob add a little something to the wine he was serving? How will her acute stress reaction play out, and when will others around her wake up to what has happened? Will she confide in someone? Somehow I think that Tom will play a key role in this. One more thing, Pip has decided to stay. What a surprise, not. This means more of Toby, Ugg. So till next week it's with the spoon signing off, missing my dog and hoping to stay dry and to get home ahead of the storm. With the spoon, I think you meant Christine, not Caroline. Aren't you cardboard is who you're talking about? Because I don't think Caroline Sterling would be overly overjoyed to hear you talking about her that she's 85. And for once I disagree with with a spoon. I'm sure he won't care, but I feel quite anxious about it. Tony did absent himself for Helen's childhood. He did what a lot of cowardly men do, which is let his wife take all the anger for the entire couple. And it was always Pat that would get cross with Sharon, Pat that would get cross with the children, Pat that would get cross with anybody that wound her up, because she used to be a lot more hot tempered than she is now. And Tony was in the background kind of doing a bit like Neil, you know, lovely old Tony, married to that that Harrodon. Poor old Tony, isn't he nice? And he managed to manage to keep out of all the drama that which is which is fine if that's your choice. But when your mother is being hard on you, you want your father to stand up for you, not to just cover his own arse, which as far as I can remember is pretty much what Tony did. So that would make sense in terms of Helen having an absent father and therefore needing to fill in that gap with quite authoritative control figures. And also obviously losing John, she's always felt like, well, as Tom has feeling inadequate and second best. So yes, so I'm disagreeing with you with a spoon with or without Basil and Angus Haggis, this time. Hello, jumping down. God is Steve over here and this week I'm definitely not singing. I don't know what to say really. I'm wish I could say we're shocked at Rob's actions with Helen. I wish I could say I didn't sit coming. I wish I didn't have to say I told you so to anybody who said that Rob was all right, really. I wish I could say I wasn't worried for Henry's safety now. And I wish I could say that my heart didn't break for Helen here in an obvious post-traumatic situation. I also wish I didn't have to say I'll pat you her last hope. I just hope beyond hope that Ian notices and talks some sense into her or Kirsty comes and talks some sense into her. I'm actually really, really bloody traumatized and triggered by the whole Rob Helen thing, especially at the moment with well as name it, it's marital rape, isn't it? And it would seem under the influence of drugs because she didn't have that much wine. There was something more than the wine. He put something in it. I think he roofed it up. And yeah, it's just, I don't, it's not often I'm speechless and yeah, I know I've got this whole big reputation of titching of must die and yes, he must and he must die slowly and painfully. But it's all a bit real. goddess diva, who is clearly, she's all about die, titching of die and never more so than this week. But as she said, it's all, it's all got a bit too real. And it has. And I don't think just having people pomps in about speaking Italian is a good enough foil for bankruptcy depression, alcoholism and domestic violence that we are wading through at the moment. Where has the light attached gone? I know we can't wave a magic wand because it takes three, you know, it's all written three months beforehand. But bloody hell, they could have thought this out slightly better. It's kind of like the thought, Oh God, yes, it has all got a bit, you know, world at war, hasn't it? It's all gone a bit toll story. What can we, what can we, what can we do to like, oh, just, just they'll be fine. The audience will be fine. Just give them, just give them some funny foreign language that will do to sort of as a swap. And it really won't. It's not, it's not, it's not good enough. I don't think, sorry, they're all going to get cross me again now, but don't care. And this mid city, Pip is a twink. I do agree with that. I think she is exhibiting a lot of, is it Generation Y? Is she Generation Y? I never understand this Generation X Generation Y business. Me either. But young people, anyway, it's, my, my friend is a TV director. And he started off, he was my best friend, Andrew, who I was at school with. When he started, he was a runner. And he was a runner for people like Dale Winton and various other light entertainment celebrities who I will not mention, because he had a hideous time. He was the lowest at the low. He was treated incredibly badly. He frequently wasn't paid. You know, he was living in terrible flats, but he, and he worked all the time because he knew it was a competitive industry and he wanted to get on. He now has runners working for him, who say, "Can I have a chat with you?" And he says, "Yes." And they say, "Can I have an assistant producer credit?" And he says, "Why?" And they said, "Well, because that's what I want, that's what I want that. It will look good on my CV." And he says, "But you're not an assistant producer." And they argue with him. And he kind of says, "There's a sense of, I don't want to do this kind of in my day, but there's this huge sense of entitlement now that seems to run through that generation. And Pip's like going, "Oh, well, if I'm not going to Brazil for a whole year, sort it then. I'll come home." You know, they want to be important. They cannot cope with the idea of being a nobody. And working your way up, they just want instantly to be a something, have sort of just be given respect rather than earning it. Does that make sense, or do I sound like a very old age pensioner, grumpy type person? Not that old age pensioners are grumpy, but you know what I mean? It does make sense. And I mean, massively inclined to agree with you. But dare I say it, you know, we get over a certain age and instinctively, that's what you think about people who are younger than you. And especially people who are just entering, you know, the career ladder. Yeah. I mean, I don't want anyone to be up a chimney or down a mine or anything if they don't want to be. Of course not. But I do think you need to do your time. Yeah, exactly. Because that's what makes you good. I agree. But we sound like old farts. We do. You can't take this position without sounding like an art. I'm getting to the age now where I'm embracing my old fart must, to be honest. And that is all you call a rinerus. Really? It is. Good heavens. Oh, it's because we're paying a few back to back. Okay. Yeah. Cool. Right. Now, let me just check the emails. I'm not sure. We had any this week. Oh, yes, we did. I'm so sorry. We had a email from our American trucker friend, not American European trucker friend. Do you remember the lady that was emailing? Yes. But yeah. And she's called it your European trucker checking in. She's called Emma Freeman. Excellent surname. She heard the episode when I was infusing about being a trucker. What about her being a trucker? I'd be a terrible trucker. And she said, the enthusiasm on the podcast perked her up. She was driving through Germany at the time, through the night. And she has sent us a picture of her lorry, which she's huge. And her husband had washed it for her, especially for the photograph. And she says that we've been interfering with the scripts because the innuendo level on the archer scripts now is now through the roof. So she thinks it's it's all down to us. And she's going to be buying a t-shirt soon. And I'm going to post the picture of lovely Emma on Twitter, where I don't think she'll see it because I don't think she's on Twitter. But anyway, we are very excited, Emma. And I know you're five weeks behind. And God knows where you'll be when you hear this. But I just love the idea of you trumbling around Europe in that gigantic vehicle. Listening to us? It's very exciting. Anyway, that's it. It's his. Um, do I ever tell you that I studied German three years at school? Did you? Uh-huh. You did not. Guess what? I guess what is the sum total of three years of comprehensive education than in German. It's going to be the ability to say something like my dinghy, a sprung a leak, isn't it? What is it? I can count to a hundred. Right. To say I was the world's worst, so putting it mildly. It's not a very you language. It's too formulaic. It's too rigid. Everything about that guttural. Spanish? I can see you doing Spanish. I can see you. Yeah. I've had much more success with Italian. And even I'm still incredibly poor at, but like German. Yeah. And the thing was I launched into learning German, so well into my tricks. I love German history. And I don't just mean all of them, you know, or the Nazis on this, you know. 19th century German unification, the Holy Roman Empire, everything. I was there. That first lesson I was right was bringing it on. We're going to nail this German thing. Three of the most horrible, painful years of my life, twice a week doing that language. And just, I couldn't drop it fast enough when my options came around. But anyway, I love Germany. Well, I learned German and then went to Switzerland where they speak Swiss German, which is equivalent of learning how to speak Gaelic, and then then coming to London and wondering why no one understands what the bloody hell you're saying. It was a totally, I was just, I just silent for about five weeks trying to figure out the hell anyone was talking about. And that is just all a neat segue, folks, just to say, if you haven't started to listen and download the great podcast, the history of English, you really should, you know. And I know you just listen to me blather on each week, Lucy, you don't do a thing that I ask you to, but please listen to that podcast. You've been such a brilliant linguist who can speak, Arthur doesn't have languages. No, this is a myth. This is a myth. Oh, shush, shush. Italian, French, German. No, I can understand them. I can't launch into them. You know, that's not true. You understood all of sandwiches last podcast. You understood all the little backwards and forwards and the arches is sweet. You know, a whole load of people that's going to go over their heads, you get it. Anyway, well, that's what Miss Mid City said. Cultural elitism. Sorry. Absolutely, it was. Hi, it's Miss Mid City here. And I'm annoyed about all of the speaking in Italian business. I'm annoyed because it's clear that Jim can speak and he pronounces its Italian very well. And Alinda apparently cannot. It's not a case of him speaking classical Italian and her speaking in the binocular. No, he simply speaks Italian grammatically correctly and with a good accent, like what you're supposed to. And Linda hasn't learned how to conjugate her verbs and doesn't pronounce it very well. And anyway, it's a bit rude, in my opinion. It kind of smacks of some cultural elitism and snobbery and it's totally unnecessary. And I don't know why they're doing it. It's a little bit stupid. And it strikes me that we never heard Usher and her auntie Satya speaking Hindi or Punjabi or Urdu or whatever. And no one else needs to go around showing off in a foreign language, like Cantonese or Dutch or German or even French, maybe because they can't. But you don't need to do it. I've had enough of it. Can you stop it now, please? It's presupposing a level of understanding which easily I would say 70% of people actually didn't have. And it doesn't matter how light and how they're trying to dumb it down. It actually was called for elitism. But anyway, I don't know not cradio for, but Kevin Stroud. Kevin Stroud, the history of English, please people. I know Paul Douglas is listening to it. He loves it. People do actually tweet and say, "Oh my god, it's amazing. Thank you." Because it absolutely does such an amazing job explaining where we get our letters from. It's from the Phoenicians or certain key words within the English language and wherever they are of a Germanic route. But then with the French verbs that come in, it's just absolutely brilliant and done in a way, which doesn't patronize. But also still has that level of being able to inform. It's just that it's absolutely brilliant to go listen to it. In matter of fact, Lucy, instead of having your little alcoholic liquid break, go download the podcast and we'll resume the end of this show afterwards. Okay. Hello, I'm Sarah Smith, proud sponsor of Dum T Dum. If you want to polish up your Albion, give your optics a wipe or even mop up after your ferrets, Sarah Smith cloths are eco-friendly, reusable and washable. And you know, a bit posh. Sarah Smith, available from Sainsbury's for the posher washer. Proud sponsors of Dum T Dum. Fancy getting your mouth around something warm? Something comforting you can really get a firm grip on. Why not buy a Dum T Dum mug from the shop at Dum T Dum.com? That was damn lovely. Good day, everyone. It's Millie Bell here. I'm not even going to touch the Rob and Helen issue because I'm pretty sure that Roy Field and Lucy will cover that and certainly that did dominate Facebook this week. So I think I will instead move to some other things. One of the things that amused me this week was Philip Hales on the Archers Appreciation Group. He said, "When you go on to the Archers website, you are confronted with a map of vorsature. However, whoever compiled this seemingly is unaware of how the road naming system began in the UK in 1913. Roads A1, A2, A6, Radial, Radiate Out of London with the A7, A8 and A9 in Scotland. Subsidiary roads leading off these arterial roads attract further digits e.g. A11 off the A1, the A110 leading off the A11 and so forth. So it seems quite unusual to see that the road between Photoshop and Boardchester is the A9 110, which should be somewhere in Scotland, not in the outskirts of Birmingham. Under the zoning system, the roads portrayed should be A4s and A5s, certainly not A1s. As this would indicate, their geographical position is being somewhere along the eastern side of England. Those people who know and love me know I do love a good anorac and I thought that was just brilliant anorac-ing, so well done. The other thing that came to my attention was from the Archers webpage, not the Facebook page, but the webpage, which was that they pointed out that Rob had some choice words for Charlie this week as he walked out of his job at Barrow Farm. And artistlessness hasn't even choice the ones for him. Someone said I hope he doesn't get a job at Donald's, if anyone is capable of gobbing in the coleslaw, it's him, that was Richard Gilbert. With all the charm of a cheese grater in your underpants, a good match for Hazel Woolley was another one. They imagined the Axis of Evil could be formed with the Union of Tichina and Woolley. Emily Thomas said imagine if Rob and Hazel got together, their shagging would open the gates of hell itself. "Inferior to a turkey baster, Henry's not your son," says Archers listener. His father is a respectable turkey baster, not a psycho like you. Vincent Murphy on Twitter said, "Oh Rob, always a slippery as a small figure slathered eel." And Becky Black said, "Robbie is so low. He could walk under a dachshund wearing a top hat." Becky Black said, "Sorry." And then Simon Hitchcock replied with, "Lower than a bow of constrictor's freedom." So it would seem that he's not universally loved, which we knew. Bob Robertson said, "Discript writers, this was in the Enbridge Addicts. As much as I admire your wonderful writing and the characters you cleverly create for us to enjoy, I would like you to resolve the cruel situation you have scripted between hell and Rob before it becomes rather too abusive." It's quite a long post and I went where you'd all have, but actually that was very popular all over Facebook. Many people are not happy with a storyline and are actually finding it quite chilling. But as I said, I will leave Royfield and Lucy to talk more about that and hopefully our resident psychologist, psychiatrist will speak on that too. So very lively week on Facebook. Let's keep it up because it's great to interact with you all and certainly the last couple of weeks, whether we like it or love it, is creating a lot of talk on Facebook. So hopefully, I will see you soon on Facebook. Hooray. Thank you Minnie Bell. I love a bit of Millie, you know. And just to say, yes, our Facebook group is just ignited and it's lovely to see all 700 and odd of you chatting away and it's all fab. No, but anyway, Lucy, it's time for you to give us your hashtag #TheArchesTweets of the last Septimana. "Pion a pint," said he's drinking, he's miserable. It's wonderful how well Kenton has adapted to the role of a traditional British pub landlord. Susan Cassab said Linda speaks Italian like a native of Surrey. Christine Michael said, "I picture Susan wearing her tabard all the time now, even in bed." I'm not sure whether Christine's in bed picturing Susan in her tabard or Susan's in bed wearing her tabard. Either way, it's disturbing. Wanda Barn said, "That awful moment, run elderly parent, when you leave your son's 7.5 million pound farmhouse for your daughter's manor house." Yes. And could she moan anymore? And then there's wadgers. This is Tweet of the Week. Who said, "I am not a Peggy fan, but screeching at a three million year old woman is out of order." It was a fantastic bit of radio. Well, I could just love the way, even when Susan said, "Right, well I can't stand here talking. I'm going out the back." And you could hear her clumping across the shop, stamping like a three-year-old, stampy, stampy, stamping. I don't understand though, this is a volunteering job. And then the job she actually gets paid to do is in the farm shop. So she's now jeopardizing her paid job. Someone said this on Twitter, by the way, so sorry for stealing it, and I can't remember who you are, but it was a very, very good point. And I'd been sort of coalesced, my thoughts had been coalescing along that way, but you put it very succinctly. She's jeopardizing her volunteering role. She's jeopardizing her actual paid job for her volunteering role. It's just ridiculous. And I know she's nuts, and she's got a huge sense of being aggrieved with absolutely everybody all the time. But all of the ambridge conventions are turned on their head with that volunteering role, because she is the boss. That is the reason why. And she's in charge of all of her class people. Absolutely. Absolutely. And on that note, Chris Lewis, Susan Carter, Borsicha, Rogue Assassin, great post on DuntyDum.com this week. So there you go. Chris does these great posts, and you can read it by going on to DuntyDum.com. Does that mean that the show is just about over? It does. Good. Now, this is going to be a little bit of a long one. I'm going to rattle through the back end of the show. Please go. All right. Well, don't slow down, though. Otherwise, you'll get it wrong, and then you'll get crosses yourself. Right. You are right. Thank you. Go to DuntyDum.com to join in the debate, especially on our forum. Where? Samantha Dean. Jolene. Miss Midsity. Diane Telford. Yokel Bear. May Begley. Maggie Kavanagh. Sally Annerley. And Valerie Bayless. All chipping with their thoughts as to whether the script writes have gone too far with the depiction of Rob and Helen's evening in. And if you need it yet, another reason to log on to DuntyDum.com. Go there to buy our merch. And don't forget, you can also go to patreon.com. We are a Patreon post that's DuntyDum where you can support the show for approximately, well, not approximately, absolutely two dollars, which is approximately about £1.30. You can also donate to us by going to our site and hitting the donate button. Order of John Archer News. Now, slowly, slowly, catchy monkey or whatever the expression is. But we have received our second email regarding who has been given a John designation. And this one was from Kate Nichols. Hi, Roy Field and Lucy and Millie Bell. I think you wanted people to email if they had an order of John Archer. My dad is John the 7th. Please give him a shout out to cheer him up while he recuperates the most successful operation on his leg. Now, if you are... John, we want a picture of you hopping. In the next two weeks, we want to see a picture of you hopping across the room. And only then will we be satisfied that you are properly better. Right? So, picture him hopping. Honestly, a picture of him playing football. Then he absolutely has recuperated. That's true. Legs all good. So, picture you with your grandkids playing football, please John the 7th. Now, if you are a John, we beg you to email in and claim your Johnhood for our new page on the website. We specifically need John's 4 to 6 to confirm who the egg you are. And as Lucy said before, a photo would be nice if you have one. Remember to get in contact with this. You can send us a voice message via the site or you can call us at 0203031-3105 to leave us a voicemail message on telephone. Or you can find us on the Twitter's where we are at, dumb, dumb. Or you can tweet me where I'm at Roy Field. Me @ LucyV Freeman or Sarah Smith, @Sarah_Smith. There you go. Cool. I was, yeah, again, you were your wonderful professional self and I was totally pants and I need to have a shower and see what my guests are doing downstairs. Sounds like they're singing. Are they? Oh, yeah. Well, no, you know what that is. That's knotting your carnival. That's the amazing start to chime up. Oh, wow, that's lovely. Maybe next year you'll come. Yes, good. A bit frightened of it because I don't like lots of crowds but I'll give it a go. If I'm with someone who knows what they're doing, that's fine. I just don't like the idea of me flailing around, not knowing where I am. I tell you that some of the roads do get ridiculously congested, you know, but invariably those around the hardcore dance hall, our systems and drum and bass ones, which I don't really think are your thing. So if you just stay well clear with those, you'll be fine. But I tell you, yes, I was absolutely lovely. I quite love drum and bass though. Really? Yeah. Are you a bit of a jungleist? You don't know what I'm like at all, do you? Damn right, I don't. Because you just like, you know, shattered all of my illusions of you, you know, just that every weekend you just behind your rag baking with your children and telling me that you're a bit of a jungleist and do you like drum and bass? It's like, what? I have the single most bizarre iTunes collection you have ever seen. Sometimes I feel embarrassed about it and think, if I die and someone has to look at my iTunes account, they'll think this woman was nuts. But anyway, wouldn't that be quite accurate then? Stretch your face. All right, yeah, listen, I'm going to love you and leave you. All right, because I've got my guest downstairs. Say hello to everyone from me. I will do. Bye-bye, Lisa V. Bye-bye. Hello, Lisa in my field. I've taken a few days after listening to the podcast of last week to ring you and I wanted to have a think and show my support for Lucy because it happened to me too. I came home from school one day when I was 14 and the undertakers were outside my house and I saw them take something out and my father had hung himself. It's very difficult to describe how you feel and what you go through, but I know that I wanted to support Lucy and if she needs to talk or anything on anniversaries or at any time then she knows where I am. It's also very difficult to listen to Kenton at the moment because I can see where this is going. It's a very fine line between being all right and not being all right. I know that fine line myself now because my husband has an incurable cancer and I didn't cope at all for 18 months and I did get in very, very low and luckily my doctor stepped in because she could see what was happening. I'm very lucky. I've got a very good GP. I haven't listened to the arches this week. I haven't wanted a chance. It's not really relevant I suppose but Roy Field and Lucy, if you want to play this on the podcast I am quite happy for you to do so. There will be other people who have mental illness or oh and that's by the way why my father killed himself. He was mentally very unstable and the doctors didn't know what to do within. It was the 1970s and you know the things weren't very advanced I suppose medical science. Anyway if you want to play it and if it helps other people or other people want to contact me then that's fine. I've got no problem with that and again Lucy big hogs, lots of love. I know where you're at. Hello dumpty dum. It's Scott here. Scott M on Twitter. A second time caller in a row and to be honest I thought the reason that I would be calling in would be to point out Linda's complete inadequacy as a drama critic. Being a freelance theatre critic myself I thought this would be the thing that would get me really worked up as much as farmers get worked up about the farming techniques in the show as Cosmo gets about his bits of accountancy which I have to be honest don't interest me all that much but obviously things have taken slightly different turn over the last couple of weeks and I just wanted to say as I said to Lucy on Twitter I think I'm full of admiration for the strength she showed in last week's episode of dumpty dum talking about her own family situation Lucy you're amazing. I had my own mental health crisis going on for two years now got very very close to doing something which I now know I would have regretted and with the help of family and friends I've got through it and my life has never been better since and I know that's not the case for loads of people but what irritated me over the last couple of months on dumpty dum has been seeing Kenton descend and recognising that descent and then hearing people just say oh he's got all he has to do is snap out of it and knowing that that is not the case when you're in that position people telling you to snap out of it can actually accelerate the spiral rather than halting it and it's good to see that on this podcast and in recognition of what the character of Kenton has been going through I think people are beginning to realise that there's more to it than that on the upside when somebody does manage to break out of the spiral there are points in life where you can actually snap out of it you can actually take control and bring yourself back and to anybody who's going through a friend or relative in a really dark place I know it can be really stressful wondering about how you can bring them back 100% to the person that they were and that they should be and just bear in mind that you don't have to you just have to be there for them help them through the darkest points get them to a point where they can see the light at the end of the tunnel where they actually know that yes they can actually help themselves to get out of it and they will run with it like I did and that's it basically I'm going to go now because I'm getting more weepy and I don't want to do that okay bye To remind you that 60% of sales on Amazon come from independent sellers farmer Bob of Princeton popcorn howdy we'll read 60% of this ad fire away Bob small business owners like myself are growing their businesses faster on Amazon by getting help with things like shipping shop small business on Amazon especially Princeton popcorn Amazon every day better how do you feel when you switch to Geico and save on your car insurance it's like going to work on one Thursday morning and thinking to yourself just one more day until Friday but then somebody in the elevator says happy Friday then you check your phone quickly and discover today is actually Friday so yes happy Friday random stranger in the elevator happy Friday indeed yep switching and saving with Geico feels just like that get more with Geico
Long BH edition this week to address some more difficult issues which have appeared in The Archers this week and consequently the humour content is well down on the norm. Kenton first – the belief is that he is in need of counselling for a mental illness which will take a long time to repair but quite possibly a wave of a magic wand will right matters in days – which would undermine the wonderful portrayal to date.
Next Rob and Helen – was Helen drugged?; just drinks and self loathing thinks Lucy.
Much concern that BBC did not give any warnings of injudicious content. Lucy considers that Helen’s report of her vulnerabilities effectively gave Rob the green light for his actions. Given Rob’s virulent attack on Jim, Pat’s conversion to Team Rob following their kitchen discussion seems highly unlikely to everyone.
Finally Pip’s abrupt employment volte face was typical of how not to handle a story line – we all know the production team can do better. And two people resigning their jobs within days seems against the odds. Roifield can count to 100 in German whilst I side with Miss Mid City over the overuse of Italian this week.
And can I say that Susan feels very proprietary over the shop – and her work is part paid for the management and Post Office aspects.
Kosmo
On this week’s show we have calls from:
Blithe Spirit who wants a word with Radio 4
Dusty Substances who remembers Farmageddon
Jacqueline Bertho who’s ruined her porridge
Yokelbear who wants to talk about warnings
Catherine Kavanagh who’s upset
Witherspoon who’s being washed away by a tropical storm
Cheeahs who knows why Helen had Henry
Ms Alliance who has questions for Pat
Catherine Baigent who’s wondering about storylines
Goddess Deeva who’s had enough of reality
and Miss Mid City who thinks its elitist.
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