Dear reader, I've recently been persuaded to dip my toes into the Great Floods of Ambridge. Ambridge is a fictional town on a radio show that has been broadcast since 1951. The Archers is a great British institution. It provided the backdrop to my childhood kitchen, entertaining my mother as she did mother things. She, tells me she listened to this programme of rural suspense herself when she was a teenager. So what led me to this long standing radio show last Sunday? It was that the twitterverse and the blogosphere was agog with the Ambridge floods.
Not one to pass an agog by I had to find out for myself to see if I would be agogged also. To do the experience justice I downloaded a full omnibus edition, not a daily 13 minute episode. On listening I found that with the rising of the tide and the concerns over the ruin of Coalport dolls and turkish carpets, and even great aunts hiding in haylofts, my agogginess grew. This is not your everyday soap . This soap includes some characters too posh to say please. I envisioned cows rowed to safety in row boats and saw, in my head, the high tide drama of Eddie being used to block a drain. This episode saw the action of great aunty being coaxed from the hayloft into a boat that 'keeps moving' and the drama of a resident sleeping in the rescue centre, church, without their nightie.
When I then looked up the Archers on the internet I found a BBC industry around not only the programme but also its floods. There was even a BBC weather forecast website for the fictional county of Borsetshire and the make believe town of Ambridge along with flood warnings.
Will I listen this week? I have set my iTunes for automatic daily downloads. That should keep me entertained in the kitchen as I do mother things.
What soaps do you watch or listen to? Do you listen to the Archers, dear reader?
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