Welcome To The Latest Archers Thread !

[mikey4444]

The Archers: Helen Titchener's trial date set

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37197247

God help anyone who phones me at 19:02 on Sunday !

[mikey4444]

It appears to be easy to understand why Rob is like he is, with a ghastly ogre like that for a father.

But it looks as if we could be looking at a re-trial, if the Jury is dismissed.

Its going to be a very long 24 hours !

[hellywelly4]

Don't think any of us saw that coming! Won't say any more otherwise it will spoil it for others.
Poor Ian. What will happen now to his marriage..........

[hellywelly4]

Mikey, I wondered if it would all be stopped, completely?

[mikey4444]

This is some tremendously good writing !

[mikey4444]

Helly....as I understand it, if the Judge takes offence against the Jury member, who was caught texting, then he might very well order the Jury to be dismissed and we will have to start all over again.

Not sure my nerves would stand for that though.

[DTCwordfan]

Thank you, mikey.....

[Hopkirk]

I wonder if Justin is following it in 'The Echo'.

[jourdain2]

I am going on 'catch-up' right now! At 2.15 p.m. OH said he didn't think he could bear listening any more!

[LennyDipp]

If the judge orders a retrial, the CPS may decide that their case isn't string enough anymore and drop the charges.

Alternatively, depending on exactly what was tweeted, the judge may dismiss one member of the jury and the trial can continue with 11 jurors.

This could be the offending tweet: https://s18.postimg.org/veuq5ua95/Tweet.png

And there is a special edition of the Borchester Echo coming out in the morning: https://s13.postimg.org/qyw4v8rxz/Cuckold.jpg

[mikey4444]

Lenny....not sure why the Borchester Echo is in Latin ?

[jim360]

I know that prosecuting counsels have a habit of being fairly aggressive but wow, Mr Bywater ...

[mikey4444]

Jim....in an adversarial system, as we have here in Britain, its inevitable that both sides fight as dirty as they can. Nasty though, I will admit.

[jim360]

Yes, but there's reasonable and unreasonable adversity within the system. In my opinion Bywater was crossing over the line between the two.

I'm hoping that the trial isn't too sensationalised but so far it's been done pretty well I think.

[jim360]

Also, no need to worry about a retrial; the juror in question will be discharged tonight, everything will carry on fine, and Rob Titchener will break down in court and confess when he realises that his father is a POS whose twisted world view has ruined ROb's life and everyone associated with him.

Well, maybe the last one is mindless optimism.

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37286248

[mikey4444]

Well !

Personally, I think it could go either way. I thought Anna has made quite a good job of the defence, but there again, so has the prosecution.

I am not too sure if the defence of self-defence was made sufficiently strongly....it was, after all, the only defence that Helen had, as there was no doubt that she had actually done the deed.

I thought that Jess's evidence would have had more effect than it appears to have done, or I maybe wrong there....perhaps it resonated with the Jury after all.

I guess we will have to wait all weekend to find out !

[hellywelly4]

Sunday's episode is an hour long. What can possibly happen to make the episode that long unless Helen is convicted? I can't stand it!!!!!!!! They (the scriptwriters) wouldn't do that to us, would they?

[jim360]

Ah, the delicate act of weighing up all the evidence, most of which we haven't heard anyway, to reach the verdict that's correct based on what was heard only in the courtroom -- which isn't, sadly, always the whole truth. Never mind that Rob was lying through his teeth; even if the jury had seen that, I don't know if it would be enough to acquit on grounds of reasonable self-defence without being sure that Helen's (and Jess') testimony was also truthful.

It has to go in favour of Helen, else there will be riots on the streets, but I'd find it tough to acquit someone who definitely stabbed the other guy. If only they could admit as acceptable evidence the audio from Archers episode in which the stabbing occurred.

[mikey4444]

helly....wow...I didn't know that...thanks for the warning

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07tqx28

[jim360]

Sorry, omitted a key bit in the last: "...I'd find it tough to acquit someone who definitely stabbed the other guy unless self-defence had been very forcefully demonstrated".