The Archers: must we throw this filth at our livestock?

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Actor who plays Archers villain in shock at social media onslaught

The Grauniad is claiming that the burghers of Mustardland have been mean to Archers actors, rather than Sean O'Connor, the man who has been pulling down the programme since replacing Vanessa Whitburn. One commenter, Blueywest1, seems to have a pretty good insight into what has been getting listeners' collective goat...

As for the 'plane crash' solution, Archers Listeners would suggest so many different ways in which the show has already become O'Connor's personal vanity project, has already been systematically dismantled, with characters' long-archived back histories re-invented, a series of story lines that among other things involve the river through the core village being made to flow in BOTH directions simultaneously to effect a silly 'flood' story, the implanting of supposedly teasing but utterly predictable massive U-turns, or story lines of bizarre unlikelihood that have both wearied and angered. Every single major family in the soap has one after the other been torn apart by feuds, rancour, tensions, misery and resentment exactly like EastEnders. There is widespread annoyance at the import of new actors whose voices ON RADIO (where voices tend to matter, don't they?) are pretty well indistinguishable, or new actors sounding like partying, flirty Sloanes, utterly out of their depth in what is in essence a rural soap with story lines that are progressively undermining any sense of that rural environment. What is driving many Archers listeners to despair is that no-one at the BBC seems concerned by the rising tide of real rage on ALL the social media and fansites at what the new Editor is doing. Of course it is all make-believe, but there is a point at which someone has to notice that an Editor playing God with a flagship BBC Radio 4 programme in which apparently none can / dare call his power to account will destroy the product. Gwyneth Willilams, are you listening?

And

Few if any are disputing the validity of the Rob / Helen storyline. It's working well. Such a story is O'connor's long time comfort zone, one he seems to relish if not wallow in. BUT It is in most of the OTHER areas of the soap that he has lost the plot and rendered the context for the same story virtually incredible. This same Rob has assaulted someon in public and thus broken the law, is currently being investigated for apparently dodgy practice at his former employer's, is thought to be instrumental in threatening an employee / whistleblower, YET not a single person in a tiny village has talked about any of these, or gossiped, or speculated. Total crap. Anyone living in such a tiny village knows that the slightest incident can be round the place in days. No-one in Ambridge does twitter, emails etc?? Not in The Archers, apparently. And thus if you render the village context this utterly incredible, where is your basic material?

Still, what a great way to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Grace Archer's death...

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And from neverhopeful:

[in reply to 'why are people attacking the actor, !!!!!']

They aren't.

a) Several people who were there have stated the boos were part of the show, pantomime-style, and were taken as such by those present

b) I've seen many facebook and Mustardland comments on this story. Rob (the character) is almost universally loathed, as, presumably, the writers intend. Tim Watson (the actor) is almost universally praised. I haven't seen any evidence that listeners posting in those places confuse the two. I don't see Twitter so can't comment on that

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I've sent this to the Archers' Facebook page:

Is the programme going to admit that the 'barrage of boos and hisses' were in fun, as was perfectly understood by the audience and those on stage, and the problem with The Archers is not the actors, but the nonsense scripts they now have to work with?

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And also:

I should just like to point out that *if* Timothy Watson is experiencing grief over listeners' reaction to his character, Rob Titchener, a distinction should be drawn between those who might confuse him with the role he plays (sadly, there will always be a tiny minority who do this), and those who are reacting to the sheer inanity of the character as scripted, which most people will recognise is not the fault of the actor.

That being said, TW is not acting in a vaccuum, and must have the support of his fellow actors, who must also surely realise that something has begun to smell in the state of Ambridge, and I don't mean the flotsam from the improbable flood. Rob Titchener has led a charmed life, when his comeuppance seemed inevitable on several occasions. Is he supposed to be modelled on Sean O'Connor, who appears to be 'gaslighting' the entire listenership?

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Just posted this to the article's comments section:

It's accurate if you can buy the notion that the closeknit family of Tony, Pat and Tom could completely miss what Rob is doing to Helen and now, apparently, Johnny. This is the one aspect few listeners will wear, however dazzling Sean O'Connor's raiments might appear to him, because no who has his ear has also got the nerve to tell him he's in the buff.