Archers fails to address an everyday story of slow rural broadband speeds, says professor

‘Younger people are moving to towns and cities because poor connectivity makes it impossible to run a business’

AS EVERY fan of The Archers knows, the radio serial is billed as an everyday story of country folk.

But if that was really the case, wouldn’t the residents of Ambridge be grumbling about their broadband?

That is the conclusion of two academics, whose research into the Radio 4 drama has found that the issue of slow rural broadband speeds has been mysteriously overlooked. Debi Ashenden, Professor of Cyber Security at the University of Portsmouth, and Lizzie Coles-kemp, Professor of Information Security at Royal Holloway, University of London, produced a report into internet usage in the Borsetshire village.

“The Archers has always had a social policy emphasis, initially focused on post-war agricultural community issues. One social topic that fits this is the issue of internet access and connection speeds in Ambridge. This is an everyday social issue as well as a technology issue that affects many rural communities in the UK.”

Yet, they say, there is no mention of the importance of connectivity or the problems of rural broadband, despite the fact that in the real world, “rural communities are coming together to solve these problems themselves”.

A report issued last month by The National Housing Federation found that poor broadband is contributing to the decline of rural societies. Younger people are moving to towns and cities because poor connectivity makes it impossible to run successful businesses in rural areas.

Last year the National Farmers’ Union warned that just 4 per cent of farmers have access to superfast broadband. “But Ruth Archer never has trouble,” said Prof Ashenden.

She pointed to a real-life story of a farmer in Lancashire who became so frustrated by lack of a decent internet connection that she bought some fibreoptic cable, dug a trench with her tractor and laid it herself.

“The Archers could do a nice storyline where the community comes together, digging trenches to create their own solution. Of course, it would be led by Linda Snell,” Prof Ashenden said, a reference to Ambridge’s most domineering resident.

She also looked at other mentions of internet use and social media, and found that they are always portrayed in a positive light.

A spokesman for The Archers said: “While rural broadband may be an issue in the real world, in the fictional world of Borsetshire the residents of Ambridge are fortunate enough to have good internet connection.”