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Charlotte Higgins on The Archers: is Darrington an evil parallel realm?

Alice is brought low by post-natal depression and alcoholism – while Ambridge’s neighbours put on a rival play production

A thought experiment: you are giving birth, six weeks early, on the back seat of a clapped-out Nissan Note outside a branch of Toys R Us on the Borchester bypass. (The BBC draws a veil over certain brand details, but you know I’m right.) By which of the inhabitants of Ambridge would you least like to be assisted? Leaving aside Bert and Clive Horrobin, obvs, the correct answer is clearly feckless Jazzer McCreary and Jim “the prof” Lloyd. And yet ... when Alice pushed out young Martha, to be caught in the surprised and actually rather tender arms of Jazzer himself, it was not just the wee wain who was greeting but – iron-hearted journalist that I am - I may myself just possibly have shed a tear.

But poor Alice. The Furies have long been circling around her. Too posh, too entitled and too happily married to Ambridge’s sexiest man (a farrier, I rest my case) she was bound to be brought low sooner or later. She’s not bonding with the baby, she’s riven by guilt, and the dreadful – and increasingly leaked – secret of her alcoholism is bearing down on her. Mark my words, she would have been better off taking that job in aeronautical engineering in Canada, the one she got in 2013, instead of remaining trapped inside Ambridge’s malign invisible forcefield.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3cxGUhi
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