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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To Think 'The Archers' Should Be Put Out of Its Misery?

80 replies

JoffreyBaratheon · 11/04/2016 21:20

Ack. I just caught a minute of it tonight. It's still as awful as I remember. Turned it off as silence is preferable.

60 (or a million, whatever it is) years ago when it started, it was probably vaguely credible. But now you'd have to be a millionaire to be a farmer. And who cares about the traumas of rich businessmen?

Last time heard it was a couple of years ago when a character who was a pensioner when I was a child (and I'm in my 50s) was shagging a cockney half her age. It was actually creepy and weird.

Why do people still listen to it? (if they do?) Surely it costs a fortune - all those actors on a permanent wage packet... I was on a train in the same carriage as one of them once, and my god, did she love herself. She was shouting loudly into her phone for the whole journey on her mobile - just in case she wasn't centre of attention, for once.

My husband used to listen to it and he is a townie. (So an element of fantasy maybe?) Ditto my dad, also a city boy. I grew up in the country and have always thought it a load of self indulgent bullocks. It's so middle class and such tosh.

So AIBU to think it's time to concrete over the farm, build a nice council estate, and move on?

OP posts:

Itinerary · 12/04/2016 01:54

I don't mind putting up with The Archers (by switching it off) as I like most things on Radio 4, and there are zillions of worse programmes on the radio in general.

TowerRavenSeven · 12/04/2016 02:10

YABU. It's on my podcast, I just started listening a few months ago when things were getting interesting with Helen & Rob. I binge listened until I caught up and am quite enjoying it. To each their own.

Stanky · 12/04/2016 04:23

I've never listened to it, but I have fond memories of it being on at my Nan and Grandad's house. My Nan loved all the soaps, my poor Grandad!

heron98 · 12/04/2016 04:48

I love radio 4 but I cannot stand the Archers. It makes me cringe. All these posh people overacting and sighing dramatically and don't get me started on the fucking annoying kids.

Andrewofgg · 12/04/2016 06:12

Peopke who like worthless self-indulgent bollocks pay their licence-fee too, you know!

I kicked the habit decades ago. If you still listen to it don't despair, there is a cure for it. It's called the off-switch and it works and it is free to use.

derxa · 12/04/2016 07:40

What are the plebby accents? Where is it set?

JessieMcJessie · 12/04/2016 07:57

Felicity Jones hasn't played Emma Grundy for years. The part was recast about 7 or 8 years ago.

YesThisIsMe · 12/04/2016 08:03

It's set more or less in Worcestershire. Birmingham is the nearest big city.

plimsolls · 12/04/2016 08:07

YABU and wrong about how the actors are paid.

StillDrSethHazlittMD · 12/04/2016 08:33

RAJAR figures (which researches audience levels for radio) indicate that 5 million people listen to The Archers via radio and 1 million online. However, that's number of listeners listening at least once a week rather than necessarily all listening at the same time. The 14.00 broadcast has an average of just over 2 million listeners. It is the most listened to programme on Radio 4 other than news.

To put that into context, EastEnders (which is the most watched programme on BBC1, with Countryfile coming second) viewership is generally between 6 and 7 million.

So, not really a huge amount in it, really, but a week's episodes are recorded on one day, the cast are not paid retainers, and The Archers overall budget is tiny. The cost of one episode of EastEnders would cover the Archers budget for a year, probably two.

It is now ludicrous to spend as much as the BBC does on EastEnders and ITV Coronation Street in regard to audience figures now that the days of 16 million per episode viewers has long gone. Cost per viewer is disproportionate.

In comparison, in terms of cost per listener, The Archers is a no-brainer. Why stop something that brings in those figures for a tiny outlay. Good business sense.

AugustaFinkNottle · 12/04/2016 08:45

But I do think it's a massive waste of money and can't for a second be 'cheap radio' as the same amount of airtime could be used on yet another programme about the social life of the dung beetle, or whatever, and that would cost a fraction of the price...

And would get a tiny fraction of the listening figures. All this fuss from someone who on her own admission doesn't listen to it- you do know you're being ridiculous, don't you?

Andrewofgg · 12/04/2016 08:47

Good business sense? I suppose so and in a world which does not rise up and hang, draw and quarter all involved in the creation and preservation of BGT and the X-Factor it's very harmless.

StillDrSethHazlittMD · 12/04/2016 08:57

Andrew I quite agree about those shows. And the costs involved with them are exorbitant too in terms of the "return" of viewership.

redshoeblueshoe · 12/04/2016 09:06

Joffrey - I always thought you were younger.

I love the Archers. Personally I have never understood why anyone would watch East Enders.

TeenAndTween · 12/04/2016 09:12

I'm struggling to listen at the moment due to the Helen-Rob domestic abuse storyline.

However that storyline is raising awareness of DA across loads of R4 listeners, and for that itself it should be applauded.

In fact, now is probably a good time to repost this link too: Helen Titchener Rescue Fund for Refuge which has raised over £110,000 so far.

Original poster

JoffreyBaratheon · 12/04/2016 10:44

Ah they were mithering on about "You don't know what to say when this kind of thing happens" - I did wonder what had happened. I thought maybe one of Linda's poodles had weed on Grandma Archer's hydrangeas or something.

I don't know who 'Rob' is but am assuming he started out as a perfectly boring, ordinary character who had a huge, inconsistent personality change round about the time a new producer came onboard? That's usually the way. I remember when Eddie Grundy was the village flasher, creepily stalking people and then got turned into a lovable comic character... (That was when I was a kid and my dad listened to it every Sunday. I had to hear it as that was the only way I'd get a fry up).

OP posts:

AugustaFinkNottle · 12/04/2016 10:55

Your assumptions are incorrect, but why make them anyway, OP? If you're interested, listen to it, if you're not, don't.

Original poster

JoffreyBaratheon · 12/04/2016 10:58

So you're telling me Linda's poodles didn't run amok in the hydrangeas? Blimey.

OP posts:

Stickerrocks · 12/04/2016 11:16

I don't have Sky or cable TV. I don't bother watching football, reality TV, talent shows, American dramas, Scandinavian detective programmes, TV soaps, the Jeremy Kyle show or other daytime TV. (Actually, thinking about it I only watch rugby & the news on TV.) However, I would never suggest axing them, because many people with different tastes to me enjoy watching those programmes.

Radio 4 is the background noise in my life. The Archers gives me 13 minutes of me-time in an otherwise busy day. Nothing really happens most of the time, but when it does, I genuinely care about it, because I've had the characters bumbling along on the radio for many, many years.

If you genuinely aren't interested in The Archers, I don't see why you would bother starting a thread on it. I wouldn't randomly start of thread calling for Game of Thrones or Match of the Day to be axed, when a) I've never watched them and b) don't give a monkey's about them. As they used to say on Why Don't You - switch off & go & do something less boring instead.

Alleycat1 · 12/04/2016 11:30

Just to reiterate - there is something called an OFF switch. May I politely suggest you use it JB, and leave those of us who enjoy it to our listening pleasure. It is not supposed to be a documentary any more than ghastly Eastenders or Coronation Street. And don't get me started on the drivel that is reality TV!

Gruach · 12/04/2016 11:44

I don't have Sky or cable TV. I don't bother watching football, reality TV, talent shows, American dramas, Scandinavian detective programmes, TV soaps, the Jeremy Kyle show or other daytime TV.

I'm worse. I don't have a TV at all.

But even I know more about what's on the TV than people here who claim to dislike TA - from the vantage point of not having heard (or understood) it for years.

OP I wonder if you mean Lilian and her former partner Matt? You and I are of an age - and she certainly wasn't a pensioner when I was a child! None of the currently older TA characters were - even Joe can only have been 50ish when I was 10.

Andrewofgg · 12/04/2016 12:43

I remember Walter bloody Gabriel!

Sunshowercap · 12/04/2016 12:57

YABU. VVVVVVVVVU

Surely it costs a fortune - all those actors on a permanent wage packet
And actually also wrong The actors are paid per session; and it's not enough for it to be their only job. They do other stuff as well.

BBC budget cuts have really cut into TA - the writers are public in saying (on Twitter anyways) that there are severe limits to how many characters they can have in each episode, purely on grounds of budget.

AlbertHerbertHawkins · 12/04/2016 12:58

I have listened to the Archers all of my life. If it were no longer there I would be bereft.

StarlingMurmuration · 12/04/2016 13:01

YABU. I've been pulled in by the Helen/Rob storyline. I had listened to it occasionally before, just if I happened to be in the car when it was on, but now I'm downloading the podcasts and listened to them on my commute.

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