Rob's return Abuser is back on The Archers as series looks at aftermath of coercive control

'I take it you're his partner," said the hospital doctor to Helen Archer, who delivered a world of complexity in her noncommittal "erm"

- Emine Saner

 

The correct answer, of course, would be: "Absolutely not, thankfully." 

In fairness to Helen - nerves frayed after meeting her abusive former husband, Rob Titchener, for the first time in nearly seven years, only to witness him have a seizure and be taken to hospital - there is a lot to explain. That Rob controlled and abused her, isolated her from friends and family and repeatedly raped her. And that she was charged with attempted murder after stabbing him, then gave birth to their son Jack in a mother-andbaby unit while on remand.

At her trial, she was found to have acted in self-defence, but then Rob tried, and failed, to abduct Jack - or Gideon as he calls him - before we all hoped we had seen the last of him in Ambridge.

This week, though, Rob returned to the Radio 4 drama The Archers. The original storyline ran from 2013 to 2016, and shone a spotlight on coercive control, at about the time an offence was being created in law. Politicians talked about it and organisations used it to widen awareness of domestic abuse; one fan started a page to raise money for Helen (or rather, for the domestic violence charity Refuge) and nearly £175,000 was donated.