Religion and Ethics Forum

General Category => Literature, Music, Art & Entertainment => Topic started by: Samuel on March 05, 2016, 06:39:18 PM

Title: The archers
Post by: Samuel on March 05, 2016, 06:39:18 PM
Anyone a listener?

I would guess like many people I am finding the Helen and rob story close to unbearable now. He makes me want to literally scream out loud, he is such a fucking ares hole monster! ARRRRRRRRGHGHGHGHGG!

Sorry, I've just been catching up so its all a bit fresh just this minute. I can't understand how it's going to end, it's almost gone too far. Helen is going to need some serious recovery time to get over this level of abuse.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: floo on March 06, 2016, 08:21:53 AM
I listened to the very first episode of the The Archers as a one year old sitting in my pram! I had been listening to the programme ever since until last week when I gave it up forever. Like you the Helen and Rob story drove me CRAZY. We are not the only ones who are fed up, they have lost a lot of listeners due to that unpleasant storyline!  :o

I even e-mailed the BBC complaining about it, and suggesting they got new script writers.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Rhiannon on March 06, 2016, 03:40:45 PM
Floo, this is an upsetting aspect of real life. It's good to see awareness of emotional abuse being raised and the length of time it's taking to resolve as a storyline is nothing like as long as it takes in reality.

And it's important to note that it is even harder for the popular media to address the equally upsetting issue of the emotional, mental and physical abuse of men by women, which is still seen as a suitable topic for humour.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Samuel on March 06, 2016, 06:58:56 PM
I actually think it's brilliant, and I totally agree with your ponts Rhiannon... it's just really tough to listen to. But then it should be.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: jeremyp on March 06, 2016, 08:00:31 PM
Anyone a listener?

I would guess like many people I am finding the Helen and rob story close to unbearable now. He makes me want to literally scream out loud, he is such a fucking ares hole monster! ARRRRRRRRGHGHGHGHGG!

Sorry, I've just been catching up so its all a bit fresh just this minute. I can't understand how it's going to end, it's almost gone too far. Helen is going to need some serious recovery time to get over this level of abuse.

Can somebody precis the story line please. I stopped listening to The Archers two or three years ago. I think Rob was planning to marry Helen at the time.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: jeremyp on March 06, 2016, 08:03:01 PM
Floo, this is an upsetting aspect of real life. It's good to see awareness of emotional abuse being raised and the length of time it's taking to resolve as a storyline is nothing like as long as it takes in reality.
The Archers was always a piece of escapist fluff in the past and that's why people liked to listen to it. If I wanted misery, I'd watch East Enders.

Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Rhiannon on March 06, 2016, 08:17:54 PM
The Archers was always a piece of escapist fluff in the past and that's why people liked to listen to it. If I wanted misery, I'd watch East Enders.

Didn't that all change with Foot and Mouth?
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Samuel on March 06, 2016, 08:22:42 PM
Can somebody precis the story line please. I stopped listening to The Archers two or three years ago. I think Rob was planning to marry Helen at the time.

Rob is a controll freak who has subjected Helen to subtle and manipulative mental and emotional abuse over the last year or so, which has only become worse since she became pregnant in the past few months. Her family remain ignorant of the abuse and think Rob is a stand up guy. Helen has been reduced to a quivering, helpless and insecure wreck, on the verge of becoming anorexic again and yet utterly dependant on her husband who has done this all to her. She also thinks he has her best interests at heart.

In short Rob is the most vile cunt you will ever encounter in a soap and his slow chipping away of Helen's personhood has been excruciating, absorbing and horrifying to listen too.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: jeremyp on March 06, 2016, 08:32:16 PM
Didn't that all change with Foot and Mouth?
No it all changed when the new editor was appointed.

Ambridge was remarkably unaffected by foot and mouth. IIRC David and Ruth declared their farm an independent state and barricaded themselves in but that was about the worst of it.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Rhiannon on March 06, 2016, 08:42:05 PM
No it all changed when the new editor was appointed.

Ambridge was remarkably unaffected by foot and mouth. IIRC David and Ruth declared their farm an independent state and barricaded themselves in but that was about the worst of it.

Ok. But they've had other storylines on things like dementia and rural poverty, haven't they?

EastEnders is miserable; it's also utter crap. From what I understand the Archers storyline is all too realistic. Doesn't that mean it serves a purpose?
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: floo on March 07, 2016, 11:58:03 AM
Floo, this is an upsetting aspect of real life. It's good to see awareness of emotional abuse being raised and the length of time it's taking to resolve as a storyline is nothing like as long as it takes in reality.

And it's important to note that it is even harder for the popular media to address the equally upsetting issue of the emotional, mental and physical abuse of men by women, which is still seen as a suitable topic for humour.

Whatever, but it is better suited to Eastenders than The Archers, imo.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Rhiannon on March 07, 2016, 12:07:19 PM
Whatever, but it is better suited to Eastenders than The Archers, imo.

It's reaching a different audience.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: floo on March 07, 2016, 12:18:58 PM
It's reaching a different audience.

It isn't a suitable storyline for The Archers, imo. I am just one more listener of the many they have lost because of the unpleasant Helen and Rob endless storyline. It wouldn't surprise me if the series ended because if it!
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Rhiannon on March 07, 2016, 12:27:28 PM
It isn't a suitable storyline for The Archers, imo. I am just one more listener of the many they have lost because of the unpleasant Helen and Rob endless storyline. It wouldn't surprise me if the series ended because if it!

It's a programme aimed primarily at adults. Why isn't it suitable?
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Shaker on March 07, 2016, 12:31:14 PM
It's been going so long now that I think a lot of people still think of The Archers and want to continue thinking of it as a safe, cosy little oasis of pure escapism about cowshit country where serious and difficult issues about society should never impinge.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Rhiannon on March 07, 2016, 12:46:09 PM
I still think that horse bolted a while back. A quick google brings up storylines involving dementia, anorexia, poverty and death by Massey Ferguson.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Samuel on March 07, 2016, 06:09:11 PM
Don't forget Christmas death by gravity. NIIIGEEEEELLLLLLL!!!
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: jeremyp on March 07, 2016, 08:43:57 PM
Ok. But they've had other storylines on things like dementia and rural poverty, haven't they?

Yes, but they all worked out fine in the end. Jack Wooley was shunted off to a home and the Grudys are now doing fine.

Quote
From what I understand the Archers storyline is all too realistic. Doesn't that mean it serves a purpose?
People don't want "all too realistic", they want to escape from their own miserable lives. The Archers doesn't have to be our social conscience, it is meant to be entertainment.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Samuel on March 17, 2016, 06:21:07 PM
And now, physical abuse aaaaaaaaand.... rape. Hooray!  :( :( :( :( :(

Please BBC, make it stop
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: jeremyp on March 17, 2016, 06:30:20 PM
And now, physical abuse aaaaaaaaand.... rape. Hooray!  :( :( :( :( :(
Is this still Rob and Helen?
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Roses on January 01, 2021, 01:28:50 PM
It is the 70th anniversary of The Archers today. I have been listening to the programme since I was nearly a year old. 
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Anchorman on January 01, 2021, 02:46:35 PM
I think I may have inadvertantly wastted space once listening to the thing once four decades ago when the test card on the telly wasn't available.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Harrowby Hall on January 01, 2021, 03:55:20 PM
Bring back Dick Barton.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Steve H on January 01, 2021, 04:58:33 PM
When I used to listen to Radio 4, if I heard the theme-tune start, I'd sing along to the first few bars "What a load of bloody shite, what a load of bollocks", then switch it off. The first line also works with 'Eastenders'.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: jeremyp on January 01, 2021, 05:06:11 PM
It is the 70th anniversary of The Archers today. I have been listening to the programme since I was nearly a year old.
I used to be a regular listener but I think it lost its way at around the time Nigel Pargitter fell off the roof.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Nearly Sane on January 01, 2021, 05:11:56 PM
I cannot stand it but am unsure why I have such a severe reaction to it.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Harrowby Hall on January 01, 2021, 11:01:13 PM
I was once asked why the Dordogne department in France was so popular with British ex-pats. My considered reply was that it was as far south in France as it was possible to go and still get The Archers clearly on long wave.
Title: Re: The archers
Post by: Owlswing on January 02, 2021, 04:49:42 AM

I was once asked why the Dordogne department in France was so popular with British ex-pats. My considered reply was that it was as far south in France as it was possible to go and still get The Archers clearly on longwave.


This is NOT intended as a de-rail, but if the Mods decide that it is, then so be it!

Is it possible that those who emigrate to the Dordogne department are those who want to leave the UK but not to such a distance that if everything goes tits up they are close enough to get back without the most serious mental and physical negatives?

They can still get the BBC and most groceries to keep their UKness alive should they change their minds and want to return.

Owlswing

)O(