From Karen Barratt

It's not all good news on the radio/TV front. I wrote to the Radio Times a few months back (see letter below - not published) about The Archers. Other listeners will know that the situation has not improved. The characters spend as much time talking and texting as they do ploughing these days. One of the scriptwriters must be sleeping with a telecom person.


Dear Sir,

Is the Archers being sponsored by the telecom industry? When I tuned in on Monday 31 January, Bert Fry appeared to be doing a commercial for mobile phones. It’s true that many of the plot lines have been developed with the aid of this technology, mostly illicit affairs, but although nobody in Ambridge seems to have a reception problem, we have never had a campaign against a phone mast in the village, not even by Lynda Snell. So, where are they sited ? Lakey Hill would be perfect technically but is probably a site of outstanding natural beauty. There might be a hidden one inside the church but the bell ringers would have noticed. Streetlamps might be possible but I lived in the country once and there weren’t any.

The scriptwriters have also failed to advise certain characters that they shouldn’t being using mobiles at all (Brian-epilepsy, Ruth-remission from cancer, and anyone who happens to be pregnant, regardless of which Grundy is the father.) If the Archers were a Russian soap, promoting Russian government advice none of the aforementioned characters would be let anywhere near a mobile phone.

Thank goodness it’s only fiction and doesn’t happen in real life.