Q&A with The Archers' Tim Bentinck 31 March

Leticia

You will find feedback and suggestions all over the Internet. I particularly like commenting on Twitter, as it happens. I would love to know if it is read.

I did when it started but unfortunately it seems to have been rather taken over by trolls, so I don’t any more. It’s difficult isn’t it. The RAJAR figures probably give a more accurate figure, and the huge increase in the listenership seems to be saying that people love the programme, even if they find themselves shouting at the radio sometimes! Interestingly, if you analyse the Twitter API, there are far more instances of a search for “thearchers” and “love” than there are “thearchers” and “hate”, also the number of posts to hashtag “thearchers” and “bbcthearchers” are in the low thousands, which is a very small percentage of the 5 million listeners.

chloe1984

Do you ever find yourself thinking " what would David do?" Over situations in your own life? By the way if you get the chance could you have a quiet word with Helen over her unsuitable partner .

Hi Chloe1984

Sorry, no not really, because he’s a farmer and I’m an actor and we really are very different people. If you want David to have a quiet word with Helen, you’ll need to persuade a scriptwriter to engineer it. Otherwise Louisa Patikas will think I’ve gone a bit bonkers!

GrannyRose

Melodramatic storylines occasionally disrupt our own humdrum lives - and sometimes the impact on survivors is very profound. I just happened to listen while washing up as Tony was paralysed by sudden Spinal Cord Injury - which has affected our family. I was stunned. I anticipated an announcement "if affected by these issues" at the end pf the episode, but I don't think there was one. Please plug the support available from the Spinal Injuries Association, the inspired work of Spinal Research, and the need for continued physio after the NHS has done it's great patch-up work. Spinal Cord injury is relatively rare - and the effects need further publicity. Melanie Reid writes very evocatively in her articles in Saturday Times magazine. They can be hard to read - but we need her insight.

Thank you Grannyrose, I will certainly pass that on.

GrannyLondon

North London! How ever do you get to Ambridge in time for the early morning milking?

I love the Archers & think the present story lines are great. I'm often heard bellowing at the radio while I'm doing the evening washing up.

I'm afraid David drives me nuts, in fact they nearly all do, but that's families for you. I'm sure you are lovely.

Thanks GrannyLondon, I’m sure you are too! Great – see above! Bellowing at the radio is precisely what we want you to do. Wouldn’t it be dull if you didn’t!

Candelle

I, too, am a long-term listener but have been dismayed by the recent silly story-lines, sorry! Particularly galling was the 'flood'. I thought the Archers tried to be true to seasons/happenings etc., but Borsetshire seems to have been flooded in a very special way! Not your fault, obviously but perhaps you can relate my ire to the producers!

It was obvious that David would not leave Brookfield, thank goodness! Ruth, however, is a different matter. Are you sure she wouldn't be better employed looking after her mother.....?! Just a thought.

Please tell the scriptwriters to concentrate on intense characterisation: we want to know/love/hate Ambridge folk. Silly superfluous story lines just don't do it for some of us.

Oh, when is Rob going to have his comeuppance?! We can't wait!

Many thanks for a mostly enjoyable part of our day.

Regards

Oh Candelle, it’s not silly, it’s utterly character-based and I don’t think it’s superfluous at all, quite the opposite. My wife Judy never normally listens to the programme, but we sat down on the sofa after supper that Sunday, in font of a roaring log fire, glass of wine in our hand, and listened to the flood story omnibus from start to finish in stereo on good speakers, a thing we have never done in the 33 years I’ve been doing it. Technically it was a masterpiece of radio drama. Andy Partington, our brilliant engineer, told me they spent two hours in post production on Eddie in the drain. Poor old Trevor Harrison (Eddie) has got a bad back, and he was doubled up on a chair with his head between his knees, with water being thrown on his face, and every groan was for real! He sounded like he was in a drain, and David and Pip were clearly above him – radio drama is 3D, not 2D and the whole picture was there, in colour. At the end we both had tears in our eyes. I admit that listening to the flood episodically may have been a bit difficult, but as an hour and a quarter radio play it was superb.

For your other point, please see above but let me add that of course you knew in your heart that D&R wouldn’t leave Brookfield, you were meant to, these things don’t happen by accident! The question was WHY wouldn’t they. The whole point was that Sean, our erudite, thoughtful, traditionalist, old-fashioned value, Archers-adoring new producer was selflessly prepared to take four months of flak and be hugely unjustly accused of turning it into trite soap, in order to make the point that The Archers is about families, about the land, about being a custodian of the land, about community and responsibility, loyalty and friendship. All things that I’m sure you all agree should be what the programme is about. It is only when you threaten those things, that you understand better their value.

Frustrated as you are, I'm so glad you enjoy it. Rob? My lips are sealed. (Actually I’ve no idea!).

Leticia

Rob's comeuppance is one story that I actually like.
Why did they come out from linking the story to seasons/happenings? I was irritated that when swathes of the country were underwater the winter before this one Ambridge went happily on as normal and then , after a very dry winter, it starts to rain one day and they have a catastrophic flood!

Good point Leticia, let me explain. We went to a farm during last year’s catastrophic floods and heard and saw first hand what the devastation meant. If we’d done it then we’d have been rightly accused of jumping on the bandwagon. Borsetshire has its own completely unique weather system which very seldom syncs with the rest of the country, so a flood was entirely plausible. The story was written having learned lessons from last year, and acting as a public health message about preparing for the next real ones, which will come. Better that we didn't fictionalise it when people were going through the real thing.

ScouseEm

Hi Tim, well done on the book! What made you decide to write it? why a childrens one rather than an adults? what was the inspiration behind it?
Also, what age group would it be suitable for?
thank you.

Oh ScouseEm, thank you! I’ve just spent ages justifying something that I just act in, I don’t write it!

Finally I can talk about my book, which is why I’m here! Of course I’m now knackered and it’s bedtime, but here’s your answer:

‘Colin the Campervan’ was written 20 years ago when my boys were 10 and 6. We had an old, unreliable, left hand drive campervan that we took on family holidays and that I would sleep in parked in a field when recording the Archers to save on hotel bills. The heater didn’t work and we’d sometimes scrape ice off the inside of the windscreen. So I wrote a wish-fulfillment story about turning it into a supervan and told it to my boys. It then lay dormant on my computer until Kindle books came along. I’m a bit of a computer geek, programmer and that, so I turned it into Kindle format and put it on Amazon. It sat there for years, until a publisher found it, and asked if I’d like to publish an illustrated version of it. No brainer. Next thing I knew I was getting pencil sketches from the wonderful Owen Claxton in Edinburgh. A few months later, Colin was born. It’s a sweet story, and I’m writing the sequel now. Age? A friend bought it to read to a 2 year old, but I’d say any age really. Officially 6-14.

Marmight

I see (having Googled you!) that you were born in Tasmania. Have you ever returned to your roots? I am in NSW on a prolonged visit and have visited Tassie in the past and just love it.

Marmight, I have, once. It’s really beautiful, and moving for me as we came back when I was two, so all I ever had were black and white photos of my Pa working on a sheep-station, my mum who died when I was thirteen, and me as a baby. I went back with Judy to write an article for the Mail on Sunday - it’s here:

www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/holidaytypeshub/article-608173/Return-laddie-Tazzie.html

eGJ

Why, oh WHY has Hazel (a new voiced one) returned??? No one's favourite EVER?

Sorry eGJ no idea, but Annette Badland is a brilliant actress, this looks like it will be fun!

papaowen

Well done on the new career! If it was writing or The Archers, which would you choose? Do you have any other hidden talents hidden up your sleeve that we may see emerging in future?

Papaowen I earn a living from the Archers and haven’t yet made a single penny from writing, so I’m glad I don’t have to make that choice, I’d miss writing dreadfully! As for other things I do, see here: www.bentinck.net.

Esmeralda

Hi Tim,
Congratulations on the new book. I read that you made up the story for your children when they were small, what do they think of seeing their story in print? Maybe we will see you at some VW festivals in the summer, that would be fun ...

Esmeralda, that is precisely the plan. Summer festivals here I come! Will is now 30 and Jasper 26 – they love it!