Fandom and The Archers audio book Chapter 4, Helen Burrows

Cult and Culture: Transformative Fandom-de dum de dum de dum

Helen Burrows

The Archers fits a definition of ‘cult media’ in that it draws a niche audience, has nostalgia appeal and represents a subculture. Like other cult media, it has multiple active communities of people who identify as fans. However, it is also part of wider British culture, recognisable to and even referenced by many who would not count themselves as fans. In other fan groups, a myriad of artefacts, fanfiction and cosplay (character costumes) can be seen online and at conventions (think Harry Potter or Dr Who). With an audio-drama such as The Archers, everyone’s mental images are different so while physical fan artefacts exist, they are relatively few, and though there is much fan-writing, limited actual fanfiction appears to exist. Yet the creativity that can be seen around The Archers is huge. This chapter looks at Archers-related behaviour and creativity, through the lens of ‘transformative fandom’, which effectively works with source material to reflect the fans’ desires and interests. The second part of the chapter explores some broader effects of transformative fandom, considering informal education as a transformative process

Experienced as a senior lecturer in social work, Helen M Burrows worked in the East Midlands both as an independent practice educator and as an Outreach domestic abuse support worker until retirement in 2018. Her professional practice background is in Child Protection and working with adults with complex needs. Helen’s research interests have included social work education, gender and sexuality in social care, digital engagement, and more recently the role of popular and social media in informal and public education. This has led her to look at fandom, and how fan forums can support learning in a variety of disciplines. She is also a keen knitter, and her Ambridge cardigan was chosen by the BBC to be part of the 70 items for 70 years of The Archers collection in 2021. Helen has been listening to The Archers since around 1964, is the same age as Shula, and shares her birthday with Tracy Horrobin. A long-term member of the Archers Anarchists (‘The Archers is real, there is no cast’), she has been involved with Academic Archers since the first conference in 2016 and has presented papers at four of the five conferences to date: on using The Archers in social work education, mapping family dysfunction, Morris Dancing, and transformative fandom. Her chapter in this book is a development of her transformative fandom paper presented at Reading in 2019.