It’s not every day that a Barrow resident finds herself broadcasting to the nation, flanked by leading lights of the national arts and culture scene. However, earlier this year, Helen Burrows had a moment (well 45 minutes) in the media spotlight, appearing, suitably flanked, on BBC Sounds' weekly 'The Archers Podcast' hosted by Emma Freud. If you’re not an Archers fan then all you need to know is that The Archers is the world’s longest- running radio soap, set in a fictional Midlands farming village and centred on a family of the same name.

Invitations to appear on national media don’t normally come out of the blue and nor did this. Helen has been an avid listener since the 1960s and grew up thinking of the Archers as her second family. In later years, Helen became a lecturer in social work at Nottingham Trent University and needed to teach students about domestic abuse, among many other things. As it happened, a long domestic abuse story line was playing itself out on The Archers. It was ready and waiting as a teaching aid and Helen used it to illustrate the subject matter with much success. All well and good but one day in 2015 an email popped into the inbox advertising the first ever academic conference on The Archers the following year and calling for ideas for items. Helen proposed something based on what she had done with her students. The proposal was accepted and off she went to present it to the conference.

So successful was the conference - not least due to Helen’s contribution - that the conference became annual and Helen (now one of the conference organisers) has presented other areas since. The Archers and fandom were a particular highlight - how people take something they’re a fan of and turn it into something creative. You can hardly present on this kind of thing unless you’ve got something impressive that you’ve done yourself and those who know Helen as a star knitter from the library’s craft and chat group will not be surprised at the extraordinary Archers cardigan that she had knitted for herself. If you look carefully in the picture, you’ll see Archers references all over it, even the theme tune runs around the bottom.

But even that wasn’t the summit. How about actually influencing a story line? The setting for The Archers is a typical English village but there had never been any Morris dancing in it. Helen doesn’t just lecture in social work and knit. She was also a Morris dancer and musician (is there anything she doesn’t do?). So, one year she didn’t just present on Morris dancing, but took a team of Morris dancers to the conference and had them perform to the Archers theme tune. It went down a storm and low and behold, a few years later, Morris dancing appears in a story line. Helen has never been accused of lacking enterprise and sent a note to the Podcast with a link to a video of her talk. A week later, an email arrived inviting her to take part. So off down to Broadcasting House on Portland Place in London she went.

And if you’ve never listened to The Archers but you’ve made it this far, it’s on every weekday on BBC Radio 4 from just after 7pm until 7.15. Go on, give it a try - you know you want to.

Guy Silk