Daisy Dunn

The Archers is a masterclass in how not to write a monologue

Agatha Christie’s gripping Absent in Spring, broadcast on Radio 4, shows how it should be done

Carole Boyd plays the strident Lynda Snell in Radio 4's The Archers. Image: BBC / Gary Moyes 
issue 12 September 2020

If you’ve been listening to The Archers lately, you’ll know how tedious monologues can be. The BBC has received so many complaints about the stream of soliloquys that has dominated the episodes since lockdown, that Mohit Bakaya, controller of Radio 4, has been compelled to issue an apology.

The new format — introduced so that the cast and crew could follow social-distancing rules — has proven especially unpopular because, as some listeners have pointed out, the producers might easily have stitched recordings together to keep the drama going.

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