The Radio 4 soap's editor promises that 'Ambridge will never be the same again' after 60th anniversary edition
- The Observer,
Fans of The Archers are braced for what is coming; others remain only dimly aware. But after the first episode of the new year, Ambridge will never be the same again.
That is the judgment of the show's veteran editor, Vanessa Whitburn, as she prepares for a double-length 60th anniversary edition of the Radio 4 soap opera.
The rumours of imminent apocalypse have set off a flurry of speculation, especially on the internet, where the impending radio event has been dubbed "SATTC" for short, following a BBC press statement promising that the programme will "shake Ambridge to the core". Now Whitburn has offered a few additional clues; the upheaval will involve two storylines, "one running and one new surprise".
After 20 years at the programme's helm, Whitburn is well acquainted with controversy, but she admits that this time she is apprehensive about audience reaction. The revelatory plot development planned for the evening of Sunday 2 January was put together several months ago by a team of 10 writers, but it is Whitburn who will carry the can. "The buck stops with me when it comes to storylines," she said this weekend. "If there is an impasse, then I decide."
Should the episode go down badly, five million fans will be calling Whitburn to account. "We have said it will rock Ambridge to the core, and it is true it is going to be very exciting and very dramatic," she told the Observer, explaining she has imposed a strict anti-leak policy on the Archers team, each member of which understands the need for secrecy. "They are very good about things like this," she said.
A favourite fan theory is that the two rival brothers Ed and Will Grundy, the Cain and Abel of Ambridge, will be involved in a violent showdown that could draw others in. Others have suggested that Lilian Bellamy's dormant feelings for Matt Crawford's brother, Paul, may be reignited. Lots of devotees are fearful about the safety of the bereaved landlady, Jolene Perks, while others are concerned about pregnant Helen and her baby. One of Whitburn's favourite storylines from the past saw Susan Carter jailed over Christmas in 1994 for attempting to pervert the course of justice. "It led to uproar about the idea of the mother of young children being imprisoned for this sort of crime. That was a story that went on from the confines of Ambridge to spark a debate about real things," said Whitburn. She received the most flak from fans, however, when she presided over the brief affair between Ruth Archer and her herdsman, Sam Batton.
"All hell broke loose around me," she recalled. "A lot of people were angry and said Ruth would never do that. But that was the point, I said. She was tempted, but she didn't do it."
Archers message boards have recently been jammed with political comment about teenager Pip Archer's further education dilemma and about whether the Pargetter twins should go to a state school. "We write the storylines three months in advance, so we didn't realise this was going to be quite as big a subject as it has proved," said Whitburn. Plot decisions are taken with reference to the drama's extensive historical database so that characterisations do not veer wildly and significant dates are marked.
"People I meet do give me good story ideas sometimes that I take to the writers. But if I want to relax at a party then I don't mention my job," Whitburn said. Change, she believes, should be embraced. "We don't jettison characters at the rate of some TV soaps, but the day our show becomes all nostalgia it should end," she explained.
Whitburn does not watch television soaps because she "can join the dots too clearly". "It is like a busman's holiday," she said, although she confessed to curiosity about the recent dramatic crash in the anniversary episode of Coronation Street. She would not say whether a similar accident is involved in the upcoming Archers spectacular. Perhaps there is a clue in what she has already said, though. As one desperate wordplay fan suggests on an Archers message board: "If you take 'Ambridge Core Shaker' you can derive: Deb Remarriage Shock."
A special half-hour episode to celebrate The Archers' 60th anniversary will be broadcast on Sunday 2 January at 7pm.
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