‘An everyday story of country folk’ they called it, once.  But does everyone mess up their children to the extent that the characters do in ‘The Archers’?  Having ruminated recently on the sad situation of young Jamie Perks, I was led to consider the other children born into a life of strife in that long-running saga.  You can see what the editorial team are up to:  a supply of new babies has to be born (oh joy!) in order to provide the tug-of-love kids, the troubled teenagers and indeed the future generations of parents who will pair up and start the whole thing all over again.   How else can an endless saga survive?

Nobody really believes that Jamie is revising for the exams with his pal.  The truth will out and there is a time-bomb waiting to explode when the results are announced later in the summer, if not sooner.   Meanwhile, Daniel Hebden went through a bad patch last year but now is studying hard and intends to follow in Dad’s footsteps and become a lawyer.  Will he succeed?  If the editorial team have anything to do with it, it will not be easy and there may be a spectacular failure at some future date.

The script-writers don’t stop at teenagers.  They really have it in for a generation of younger children:  George, Phoebe, Freddy and Roraigh.   It is all to do with abandonment and separation, which any amateur psychologist will tell you can scar a person for life.   More on this will follow.

Dum de dum de dum de dum ..