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 The thing is, the story is not for real.
Since the tale of Helen and Rob Titchener, characters in the
BBC's radio soap opera "The Archers", reached its violent climax
in Sunday evening's episode, a lively public response has shown
the power of this peculiarly British cultural institution.
Set in fictional Ambridge, an archetypal English village with
its pub and cricket team, the program began in 1951 as
entertainment but also to inform farmers about modern methods
that could help boost production in the austere post-war period.
In 1955, character Grace Archer died while trying to rescue
horses from a fire in an episode broadcast on the same evening
that Britain's first commercial television station was launched.
Millions of listeners were distraught, and the BBC, Britain's
public broadcaster, was accused of seeking to sabotage its new
rival's launch.
With claims to be the world's longest-running soap opera, The
Archers has some 5 million regular listeners and is so much part
of the nation's cultural landscape that many Britons can hum its
jaunty theme tune whether or not they follow the story.
After Sunday's episode, #TheArchers was trending on Twitter as
tens of thousands of listeners vented their emotions.
"Oh. Oh my God. Oh God. I'm shaking. Oh Helen." wrote user Katy
Gilbert.
"At last, Helen has cracked and turned on Rob in the Archers.
Massive sympathy all round," tweeted Timothy Kirkhope, a
Conservative member of the European Parliament.
The Helen Titchener (nee Archer) Rescue Fund, set up by an avid
listener, swiftly hit its target of raising 100,000 pounds
($142,000) for the domestic abuse charity Refuge.
"IRRESPONSIBLE"?
"The dramatic twist in Sunday evening's episode led to a huge
spike in donations," wrote Sandra Horley, chief executive of
Refuge, in a statement on the charity's website on Tuesday.
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"Sunday's episode was a realistic portrayal of how a victim of
prolonged abuse may one day respond when she is in great danger,"
she said.
But Erin Pizzey, who in 1971 started a safe house for women and
children fleeing domestic abuse that later became Refuge, denounced
the plot line as irresponsible and unlike real life.
"Imagine an impressionable listener who is being abused by her
partner. She now might think it's OK to attack him with the
breadknife," Pizzey wrote in Tuesday's Daily Mail newspaper.
With the British media full of the news from Ambridge, reporters
sought reaction from Prime Minister David Cameron, whose spokesman
said the government should be doing all it can to help support
victims of domestic abuse.
Criminal lawyer Nigel Pascoe, who has worked on numerous real-life
murder cases, offered Helen his services on Twitter.
"I know we are not allowed to tout, but I am more than prepared to
represent Helen," he wrote, before giving an interview to a BBC
radio news program to outline her possible defense strategies.
With the drama still making front-page headlines on Tuesday, Daily
Telegraph cartoonist Matt jokingly linked the story to another
prominent news topic, the debate about whether Britain should vote
to leave the European Union in a June 23 referendum.
His Tuesday cartoon featured two men looking anxiously at the latest
EU opinion poll, with one of them commenting: "I'm worried that
leaving the EU would make the Archers more violent."
(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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