Archers opens eyes of the middle-class abused wives

Controlling partner storyline prompts huge rise in calls to helpline for domestic violence victims

A HARROWING plot in The Archers has been credited with helping thousands of women “abused in quiet, middleclass, deceitful marriages” after a dramatic rise in calls to a domestic violence helpline. Fans have listened in growing horror to the slowly unfolding abuse of Helen Titchener by Rob, her controlling husband.

But some, it seems, have found the story is all too close to home.

The national domestic violence helpline received 6,774 calls last month, up nearly a fifth from a year earlier.

Polly Neate, chief executive of the charity Women’s Aid, which runs the helpline with Refuge, said the “Archers effect” had helped people to realise that domestic abuse was not always im- mediately obvious. She said the portrayal of a gradual escalation of abuse had helped some women understand what was really happening to them.

“The experience on The Archers is very typical,” she said.

“A lot of the time women don’t realise they are being controlled until they are hit by the fear.

“Suddenly they get a glimpse into what might happen to them if they break that person’s control, and suddenly it becomes very real and it is really obvious then that they are in grave danger. But they might not have necessarily seen themselves as being in an abusive relationship until that point.”

The effect on listeners to the Radio 4 soap became apparent last month with the launch of an online appeal, which states that “for every fictional Helen, there are real ones” and has raised more than £68,000 for Refuge.

The plotline began several months ago with the arrival in Ambridge of Rob, a former farm manager, who charmed Helen, a single mother.

One episode suggested that he had sexually abused or even raped her after getting her intoxicated, with the result that she fell pregnant with his child.

His control has become increasingly evident and she has started seeing a psychiatrist after he hit her when she lashed out in desperation.

Many listeners with similar experiences have praised the writers for their accuracy.

A mother-of-one, identified only as Rachael, said yesterday that she had been an independent woman working at a multinational corporation, before getting embroiled in a coercive relationship. “There will be an awful lot of ladies listening to [ The Archers] who are abused in quiet, middle-class, deceitful marriages and relationships,” she said.

The storyline has coincided with the introduction of a new offence that criminalises extreme psychological and emotional abuse falling short of physical violence. Sean O’Connor, the editor of The

Archers, said that both charities had helped writers create a realistic understanding of the issues involved.