The Archers As An Interactive Narrative
On the face of it, The Archers may not be an obvious example to look at when thinking about interactivity. In its original broadcast setting, it isn’t interactive, it is a conventional episode with a story, that follows a normal, linear narrative in the form that uses Freytag’s Pyramid, which is the best way to tell the story in an episode, because you need that setting up of background information, setting and characters in the Exposition because each episode, while part of the wider continuing narratives that continue each episode and week, each episode also has to be able to stand alone. If you get someone listening for the first time, they need to be able to make sense of what is happening then or they may not listen again.
The episode I looked at was broadcast on the 11th October 2018 at 7pm. There was a multi-stranded narrative, typical of soap opera, including 2 sub plots and the main narrative, which focused on a character who had previously had a drugs overdose. When that narrative started, we had the Exposition where through conversation between two characters, Brian and Jennifer they set up the background of that story, the characters involved, the setting where it had taken place, although in the narrative of this episode the location that this narrative starts off, is in Jennifer’s house. We get this, through Brian, opening a door and exclaiming “Jim, I didn’t know you were here” and Jim saying it is the “post parish council meeting meeting” and that “he expects you’ll want to start cooking super soon.” As this is radio, there are also other sound effects to allow us to visualise the scene, the sound of paper being pushed together at the end of the meeting, the sound of a chair being moved, the door being opened as a character, Jim, gets up and Jim, who is not involved in the main plot, walking off microphone as he is saying goodbye. We also find out the Temporality of the piece when Jim says “good evening Brian”. We now know that the narrative arc for this episode, at least starts in the evening and as the events are unfolding as the characters speak it is in the present tense.
So it is through the speech and crucially the sound effects that you get a full on picture of the scene and it is almost like you as a listener are sitting in the room with the characters and are observing.
There is movement in the story, both in time and physically, when Brian mentions “thank god this place has lost its licence”, we know they have moved from Jennifer and Brian’s house to a closed pub, or premises of some type. As we know the Archers is set in a small village we assume that they must have walked there, but that it is still the evening where this narrative, which is the prior event of a drugs overdose, is unfolding, as there is no speech or audio references that the day or time has changed.
This closed premises is where the Initial Incident happens where Jennifer, Brian and Elizabeth have an argument about what happened, and there and then it turns into Rising Action, where Brian, Jennifer and Elizabeth have the 3 major elements, which is the argument about who’s fault it is, Elizabeth accuses Brian and Jennifer of being hypocrites, and Brian and Jenny say that Elizabeth, the protagonist of this narrative and her family deserve what they get.
The Climax is where Elizabeth has an outburst at another character, Josh, and breaks down in tears. The Falling Action comes after we move to the second narrative or sub plot of the episode. We know time has moved on, slightly, because Josh is brings what we presume is a drink, again done through speech “I’ll put it down here” and sound effects of something solid being put down on something solid. The Falling Action comes through Elizabeth and David discussing the argument that has happened, discussing that Brian and Jennifer were probably upset and overreacted, that everyone’s feelings are “high” and Elizabeth explains that she over reacted with David, so the resolution is reached that everyone is emotional and over reacted.
After the resolution is reached the Denouement when David asks Elizabeth “is there anything else I can do to help’. Elizabeth does mention something, but it is not related to the drugs overdose, it is related to Elizabeth trying to get a character out of jail, Freddie, and her approaching no win no fee solicitors and asking for David’s help. So we have an Exposition unfolding there with background plot information, about Elizabeth dealing with solicitors needing David’s help to get Freddie out of jail, and the setting of the place is the village.
The story of course would not be great if it was not a universal story, and it is universal, not about drugs but, ‘what would you do if a family member was in trouble?’ How would you react? How would you go about helping them? The listener, no matter who they are will be able to see themselves in one of the characters who was there or mentioned as part of the wider story, someone may sympathise with Brian and Jennifer that Freddie deserves to be in jail given that he has given out drugs to their grand daughter, someone else maybe compassionate to Elizabeth and think, ‘if that was me I would help and do everything I could to help a family member’. This would do something which Andrew Stanton talks about good stories doing in the Ted Radio Podcast Framing the Story, “confirm some truth that deepens our understanding of who we are as human being.”
Elizabeth as the protagonist of the story goes on a journey, something that novelist Tracey Chevalier says in the Ted Radio Podcast Framing The Story, a character needs to do. She is irate when confronted by Brian and Jennifer about the actions of her son, but calms down later realising she also reacted during the events of the narrative and that Brian and Elizabeth are also feeling emotional.
Having a little sub plot was a clever way to progress the time from the main plot, as in between the main narrative about drugs you have the sub plots, which involved characters from the main plot, but at different points of the evening. So the episode starts off with, Jim, who is not involved in the narrative about drugs, having a meeting with Jennifer, this meeting is wrapped up because the narrative about the drugs come in. Later on during the episode we have a scene where, Jim, who we have already heard from, is in a kitchen, with another character, Alistair who is cooking, in that story we hear background information about characters in that household, and background to the stories in their house, the setting is Jims house, so again we have an Exposition. Again all of this is done through sound effects and speech.
The first sub plot that we go to is on a farm ‘cows sound effect’ speech about being injured by ‘ewes’ while trying to feed them. We have an Exposition here where we a have conversation between the two characters who, are a father and son and it later in the episode turns out to be Josh and David, who are involved in the drugs narrative. There is the setting introduced, characters mentioned, a conflict in this sub plot that comes in here about ‘not having enough silage’ and ‘not knowing where they’re going to get it from.’ This is not taken any further, but just sets up this narrative arc which is not resolved but presumably will be continued in another episode.
As well as the sub plots which move the main narrative along, there is often a second of silence, as we move from location to location throughout the episode, and between the various narratives.
The way in which The Archers in interactive, is not in the initial broadcast but what happens after the broadcast. After the broadcast, it is then available to listen back to on BBC I Player. This is part of Time Flexibility which is one of the ‘six dimensions’ that Downes and McMillan (2000) use define interactivity. You can listen back to The Archers, online whenever you want, for 30 days. There is a Level Of Control, as a listener, you could also skip through parts of the episode online, if you wanted to, you could listen to the episodes in a different order to that intended, you would be unlikely to, but you could and it would change the narrative somewhat. Another of the six dimensions is the Direction of Communication.
Direction of Communication, with The Archers comes from the Facebook and Twitter. With the Facebook page they will post a link to the episode and have a little post and in the below post it is a post written to one person, which on the Medium Post if Don Draper Tweeter, highlights as being part of one of the 27 best Copywriting Formula for Telling a Captivating Story Online. Although it does say “Calling all crossword addicts” the first thing it is says is Jim Needs You!”. It could be in the fictional world of the Archers that it is someone else in the Archers is asking you to help Jim by solving the crossword puzzle. The story from that episode has ended but there is communication between the audience about the crossword and then possibly the episode.
On Twitter there was an example highlighted in the Guardian in 2012 by Lyn Thomas, where “Archers listeners have raised more than £50,000 for the national domestic violence charity Refuge.” So this was as a result of a storyline and fans online discussing the storyline and starting a campaign and raising money which means through the story line and social media interaction The Archers “ certainly fulfils the programme’s original mission to educate and inform by raising awareness of the plight of “real-life Helens”.
The Perceived Purpose of Communication is another element of The Interactivity, Through the Facebook page many of the posts are about getting the listener to click on the link and listen back to the show, with often a small bit of detail from the plot, which does not give what happens away, where as mentioned users interact with the posts between each other, On Twitter, it can be about educating the listener further, taking you to parts of the BBC Archers website where they have extra information, relating something that happened in the soap, such as a scam, and relating that to the real world, it is also promotes the actors in the show, if they are doing something related to the archers, and again users can comment through this and It is clear from how direct the tweets are what is being communicated.
The Archers in its original form is not interactive, and is a linear narrative, but once online, it is a very interactive show, which is helping the show to further ‘inform, educate and entertain’ the listener which by giving the listener control in when they listen, how they listen, on the various platforms, online, on mobile devices, how long they can listen and generating the user to user or listener to listener conversation, it is shaping the narrative beyond the 13 minutes it is on air, such as in the example of the listener’s raising money for charity.
