Helen? Annette and a baby? Can someone fill me in?

[OliviaMMumsnet]

Who was Annette?
Was there a baby?
Was that the catalyst that made Helen want to give AI a go resulting in HenryTheWonderChild

Think I must have been on mat leave from listening and missed lots
TIA

[MarjorieAntrobus]

Wasn't Annette Greg's daughter? (Do I mean Greg? The boyfriend of many years ago who committed suicide)

[Dahlialover]

Annette is one of the daughters of Greg the gamekeeper, who Helen lived with for a while. She played step mother to them on occasional visits. Greg committed suicide after she left him.

Annette searched her out on the way to visit her grandmother (in Sheffield), having fallen out with her mother. She stayed with Helen in her tiny flat above the village shop (it is a flat which is sometimes big enough for only one but can fit two in it should the story find it necessary). Helen had a boyfriend (Leo?) who was a flakey barman. She cooked him 'Tagine' and wore 'tulip' skirts, but he was not that into her. One day, he came to see her but she was not there so he had sex with Annette (not sure she wanted to).

Helen then spent considerable effort 'councelling' Annette, who wanted an abortion. In the end, Annette vanished and has not been heard of since. Helen went on to develop a desperate urge to have her own baby, having babysat for the Grundies a couple of times and got pregnant in record time at a fertility clinic on the other side of the Borchester bypass.

[TallGiraffe]

So how old is Helen? And how old was Greg? And Annette?

[LondonMother]

Annette's mother was Greg's ex-wife Michelle (I think) and in spite of having a name that might have been French and ending up living in France (Marseilles?) I have a feeling she wasn't French but her new partner was. Annette didn't get on with him or with her mum, so left. She didn't have the baby.

Helen's dob: 6.4.79 so she is now 34. I am sitting here chuckling over the BBC's one-line description of her as 'fragile but doggedly independent'. They're not using my definition of independent, that's for sure!

Greg: committed suicide in 2004. He was at least 10 years older than Helen. They'd been together for about 3 years in all, I think. There was a striking scene in the aftermath when Brian set fire to the shepherd's hut where Greg had done the deed. Brian had been with Will when they went to the hut in search of Greg. Brian insisted on going first and wouldn't let Will see the body - he was still quite young then. Brian has a decent side, occasionally!

Annette must therefore have been 10-15 years younger than Helen. I think she was about 18 when she turned up in Ambridge - certainly no older than 20. The loverat who seduced her while nominally going out with Helen was Leon the Australian barman.

[Tommy]

so glad that there are other Archers Geeks who can fill in all the gaps in my knowledge