Jonathan: Omnibus edition of the Archers on the radio. Of course we know already what’s going to happen – Helen stabbing Rob, I mean – the outcome of his controlling-abusive behaviour. I can’t bare to sit and listen, I’ve retreated upstairs to the office but can’t completely escape it. How can anyone listen to this without giving way to tears? This is a very important storyline, but if I step back a moment I have to say it’s a pity that it serves to reinforce the politically-current prejudice that men are intrinsically bad and not to be trusted, and women are inherently victims. I refuse to accept this: I must stress I do not write this from personal experience, but careful observation of other couples’ relationships over a lifetime leads me to the view that women, too, are capable of controlling behaviour, though by other means. For previous generations it was the stuff of vaudeville or comic-book humour: the indomitable housewife – arms akimbo and armed with rolling pin, and the diminutive hen-pecked husband taking refuge at the pub or playing golf or on his allotment. Seen through modern-day lens of inter-gender respect this kind of thing is no longer seen as funny : but is it seen at all? Would anyone think to alert Social Services or other authority to the plight of the abused husband? If not, why not? It’s good, it’s right, and it’s not before time that this piece of ‘Archer Drama’ is applauded, but if it’s important at all to bring hidden problems into the light, then let us do so with balance. Please, let’s have drama in which both men and women are more realistically portrayed in all the diversity of character found in real life, and no longer pander to the expectations and norms of previous generations or present-day political correctness.