Speaking about scripting an innocent verdict for Helen, O’Connor said: “We wanted to end the story on a high note when [the audience] were still really behind Helen rather than just really bored of her so it was the obvious thing to do really”.
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“It can take a long time to begin to recover from these experiences but with specialist support from a charity like Refuge, women like Helen can rebuild their lives, free from fear”.
Producers said the plot was inspired by a new law against “coercive and controlling behaviour” in relationships, and writers talked to lawyers, charities and abuse survivors during their research.
With more than £150,000 raised so far, Sandra Horley, chief executive of Refuge, said: “Never before in my 33-year career at Refuge have I seen such fantastic public support for our work”.
“It’s your choice, but it’s the only way I am ever letting you go”, Rob said, goading Helen to kill herself after she told him she was leaving him.
He has continued to oversee the Helen and Rob storyline until the end of the trial.
Millions of listeners to “The Archers” have been horrified and transfixed by the relationship, which culminated in Helen’s trial for attempted murder. “Well, you might have fooled everyone else, but we both know the truth”.
But Rob’s menacing last words to his wife as she left court were: “You haven’t got rid of me and as long as we have a child together you never will”.
The storyline will continue on Wednesday with a family court hearing. “Because my mum was Helen and I couldn’t do anything”, another wrote.
An estimated 1.3 million women and 600,000 men in England and Wales reported experiencing domestic abuse in the year ending March 2015, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
About two-thirds of the residents living in domestic violence refuges are children, according to the charity Refuge. The Archers was still trending on Twitter this morning, while a fundraising page, set up to support victims of domestic abuse and named after Helen, reached £160,000. I would think that Women’s Aid are grateful for any media coverage of this issue.
“Hopefully it will make more people understand what domestic abuse is”. “When I thought of domestic abuse and violence, I thought about physical and sexual abuse – but never the mental side to it”, he said. “It sends out a positive message of awareness and understanding”.
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Former Archers actor Graham Seed returned to do “jury duty” five years after his character Nigel Pargetter was killed off in 2011.
