The BBC needs to look at The Archers – it is like the audience has lost an old friend

The new format doesn’t work – there is nowhere near enough drama, writes Janet Street-Porter

Conduit for social issues: The Archers is a staple BBC drama (BBC)

Since coronavirus arrived on our shores there’s been a huge gap in my life, but I am gradually coming to terms with it.

Every weekday for the last decade, I’ve listened to The Archers, the world’s most popular and long running radio drama. Now, that relationship – longer than my marriages – has come to an abrupt end. Put starkly, I have dumped Peggy, Lynda Snell, Lillian and co. I never want to hear from Freddie and Elizabeth again. Cheerio and good riddance!

The Archers sums up what’s gone wrong with our national broadcaster – last week, their best radio presenter, Ken Bruce, said there must be a “cull” of BBC managers. The first ones that I’d show the door would be the hapless fools in charge of The Archers.

Since May, when they ran out of pre-recorded scripts, we have been subjected to a series of dreary monologues, not a patch on Alan Bennett or Harold Pinter. Minutes of interminable wittering about cricket practice and fly tipping. No sex, no gossip, no fiery arguments.

The life has gone out of the enterprise and it should be put out of its misery, or given to an inspired programme editor.

You’d think that the momentous events of the last six months would have provided ample material for the inhabitants of Borsetshire, and that technical difficulties caused by social distancing could have been overcome. Other emblematic elements of the BBC’s output – the News at Ten, Question Time, Have I Got News for You and the Today programme – have continued much as before.

There are many annoying things about The Archers – the cast are too white, too straight, too elderly, but that reflects most rural areas and you can’t easily impose townie values and woke culture on a bunch of farmers, although the kids in the show do a pretty good job.

Sean O’Connor, who edited The Archers from 2013-15 when it attracted thousands of new fans because of the gripping storyline about Helen and her controlling husband Rob – which ended in her stabbing him and going to jail – says he no longer listens.

Technical difficulties are no excuse; stories and relationships are the reason people love The Archers, and Helen’s story made gripping listening and brought the subject of domestic abuse into the homes of people who had never thought it could happen to them. As a result, thousands of women contacted helplines and eventually the law was changed.

Radio 4’s Feedback programme says “the overwhelming majority” of listeners hate the new format, and critics have been scathing. When he was appointed culture secretary, Oliver Dowden said that the BBC “must reflect the whole country” not just the metropolitan elite.

That doesn’t mean just box-ticking by including black and minority ethnic and trans characters (who they should introduce), but accepting that for ordinary listeners (many of whom are alone and elderly) The Archers was like a close, reliable friend and was an excellent vehicle for addressing important social issues in a non-threatening way.

Archers fans have every reason to feel very aggrieved.