The Archers (Radio 4) | iPlayer
There is really only one audio story this week: the trial of Helen Titchener. Sit down, dear listener, for there will be wobbling. Even sporadic Ambridge visitors, like me, have been gripped, flipped and twisted. Rollercoastered. The culmination of the slow-burn story of Rob’s domestic abuse of Helen – the kind that “doesn’t leave any bruises”, as Kirsty, Helen’s best friend, shouted out during her testimony – has lifted The Archers out of the old-fashioned minutiae of country life and into contemporary problems that can affect anyone, anywhere. Weirdly, The Archers is now.
Helen is facing a charge of attempted murder. She stabbed her husband Rob during an argument that blew up when she tried to leave him. The ins and outs (sorry) of the stabbing are not what the trial is truly about, however. It’s about everything around the knife, the lives that led up to that horrible domestic scene. Yet how can the full story be told when even Helen is unsure about what happened? How can anyone feel sane when they’ve been convinced that they’re mad for so long?
The stage is set. But despite the emotion, the drama, The Archers still manages to irritate. Pat and Tony – Helen’s parents – flap and stage-whisper during the trial. They make everything about them. Shutting up and listening would have served their daughter better, then and now. Still, they’re better than Rob’s parents. Domineering, hateful Bruce; snobby, wheedling Ursula: a family therapist’s golden ticket. You sense that Ursula and Rob’s lives were not lived with much joy, back when they shared a house with Bruce.
And the main characters? On day one, Rob (boo, hiss) gave a bravura performance, his recollection of the stabbing culminating in “seeing my own eye reflected back at me in the side of the saucepan”. Odd detail, I thought: like a Cluedo clue. (Can someone check on the shininess of the Titchener saucepans? If they’re dull, he’s a liar!) On day two, Kirsty, a prosecution witness, shouted out everything she wanted to say: “He’s the worst kind of abuser!” Go Kirsty! Pat, though, felt she’d failed Helen, as did old friend Ian on day five. Our adversarial court system is inappropriate in such cases. Words and facts can be twisted every which way.
On day three, Helen took the stand and revealed, for the first time, that Rob had raped her repeatedly. Shame is such a humiliating emotion. It keeps people in the wrong relationships for years. Day four: Rob’s counsel used Helen’s words against her. Day five: Rob’s ex-wife testified, in support of Helen. Bruce started shouting, the courtroom was cleared. Up and down… and then the trial nearly ended because a juror tweeted about what was going on. This led to much frenzied real-life tweeting: surely the BBC couldn’t put us all through a retrial? Luckily, no: day six gave us Rob back in the stand, smoothing his way through all the “defamatory allegations” made by his two wives. Maybe there’s something about him that’s attractive to needy, unstable women, he said. Maybe there is, too.
The Archers is far from perfect. As ever, many of the actors sounded as though they were performing instead of speaking naturally, and on Thursday, with the tweeting juror twist, I did consider chucking the radio at the wall. But really, this week has been a triumph. Plus, tonight there will be a one-hour special at 7pm where we meet the jury (members include Catherine Tate, Eileen Atkins, Nigel Havers, even Graham Seed, ie the ghost of Nigel Pargetter; the BBC is really milking this). We will hear their deliberations, plus, oh blimey, THE VERDICT. Today, in the UK, 18.6% of CPS cases are domestic abuse and sex offences. The Just Giving page set up by listener Paul Trueman has raised almost £150,000 for Refuge, the charity that supports real-life Helens. If The Archers only achieves that, it has achieved the most amazing thing.
