Rob and Helen – article

[Blithe Spirit]

An excellent piece, and I wholeheartedly agree with many of the frustrated commenters underneath who are complaining about the Rob-Helen storyline becoming too dark, the Eastenderisation of Ambridge, the lack of balance and continuity in story arcs, the personality transplants, the apparent need to magnify events from a misguided sense that unless readers are force-fed a diet of overwrought trauma, they’ll simply switch off, and… fhow much more does one need to mention?

I mean, come on… anthrax? For heaven’s sake – we’ve only just had a flood. And before that, the whole thing around Route B. What next, a plague of frogs? Famine? Pestilence? Rob revealing himself as Satan’s emissary on earth?

I’ve reached the stage where The Archers is irritating me so profoundly that I’ve switched off. My partner feels the same – he grew up with the programme and has remained a fan into comfortable dotage. He is still trying to keep the faith, but he’s not happy.

Judging from what others are saying, clearly we’re not alone.

Sean O’Connor is way out of whack on this one. He needs to understand two things.

(1) BBC radio listeners are not the same as commercial TV consumers. We don’t have the attention span of a gnat, or the memory of a goldfish.
(2) Radio 4 is not Channel 5. We are in it for the long-haul. We appreciate intelligent drama – both as fans and as consumers of great storycraft. And we expect to be treated as intelligent in return.

As it stands, The Archers negates all of that.

I am still listening to DumTeeDum, as of course we’re a lovely, warm and fuzzy bunch – I always enjoy the cameraderie and hearing what everyone has to say 🙂 But The Archers? Give me a break. When Rob is finally despatched and the flames of hell are licking his arras, and this programme sheds its editor and finally regains an intelligent sense of direction, I might just start again.

But not yet. It’s all too annoying.

[Chris Lowis]

There certainly seems to be a change of tone in the Archers in the last year or so. I don’t particularly mind darker storylines – not everything can be sweetness and light, even in the sleepy rural idyll of Ambridge. Domestic abuse can (& does) occur in the most seemingly prosperous & comfortable of households, so – whilst Rob & Helen can make for difficult listening – it’s not out of place. There needs to be a balance, so it’s important that the writers don’t just “go through the motions” for the regular happier dates in the Ambridge calendar (Flower & Produce, Single Wicket, Christmas Show et al). These are important occasions in the life of any village. Whilst every story needs conflict of some sort to drive it, there must be light and shade. Too much light and it’ll all seem saccharine. Too much dark, however, will result in a storyline so miserable it risks driving us, the listeners, away.

More heinous (to my mind) is the complete change of personality in characters we have “known” for years. This was typified by Peggy Wooley’s rant at the end of last week’s omnibus. Not only was her sneering at Phoebe’s ambition to attend Oxford Univesity out of character, it’s out of character for a human being – what grandmother would feel anything but pride for a granddaughter who had a shot of acceptance at such a prestigious institution? It’s out of keeping with normal family relationships… and that’s just bad writing.

[Author]

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