the bbc faced a deluge of complaints from listeners over its bizarre online coverage of a fictional flood disaster in the archers the radio 4 drama's village of ambridge, based in the fictional west midlands county of borsetshire, was flooded in the latest sensational storyline accompanying the show were live minute by minute updates of the floods on the bbc website, including weather forecasts and 'breaking news' headlines   but listeners said the graphics were 'insulting' the bbc faced a deluge of complaints from listeners over its bizarre online coverage of a fictional flood disaster in the archers, which included maps and graphics on the corporation's website  a fake bbc weather forecast showed rain falling on the fictional village of ambridge, near birmingham  this week's episodes of the archers have followed events taking place over one day of severe rainfall in ambridge, with the drama building throughout the day as the river am burst its banks the bbc put out fake tweets and warnings from the environment agency, as farmland around the fictional village became inundated with water   mirroring the flooding of the somerset levels this time last year the rolling coverage included maps and graphics to help listeners understand what was happening, but some listeners said visual aids 'insulted their intelligence' some listeners added that they could not understand what was going on because of the loud background noise of rainfall and heavy winds echoing the floods in somerset last year, the bbc live coverage reported farmers rapidly trying to protect their land and even linked to a real life account of floods in worcester under a 'breaking news' headline, the online update said a character on the programme was given cpr a realistic weather forecast also appeared on the minute by minute internet coverage, but listeners said it insulted their intelligence  the bbc put out fake tweets and warnings from the environment agency, as farmland around ambridge became inundated with water  in other developments on the radio 4 drama, 16 year old character phoebe aldridge went missing but was later found, and rob titchener was injured as he saved three people from flooded stables the rolling updates on the bbc website included a video  forecast by midlands today weather presenter rebecca wood, who warned people to be wary of floodwater and severe winds many listeners were unimpressed by the programme's online coverage, with some taking to forums to brand it 'insulting' and confusing one fan wrote: 'it would 'help' me to feel i was regarded as an adult who knows this is all fantasy, that the residents of ambridge do not exist, that they are not actually glugging about in the am's excess water, rather than be told at the end of the episode that tweets and blogs about the flood from ambridge residents can be read/heard 'cannot stand this cross over between fiction and reality, the fiction should be strong enough to stand in its own right and not need these add on insults to intelligence' the programme's storyline mirrored the reality of the flooding of the somerset levels (pictured) last year  echoing the floods in somerset last year, the bbc live coverage reported farmers rapidly trying to protect their land and even linked to a real life account of floods in worcester  another wrote: 'a friend of mine, a loyal and forgiving listener, told me that when she saw on the archers home page a 'weather forecast' for ambridge that looks exactly like the real ones that appear on the bbc news pages, she felt really cross, felt that her intelligence was being insulted 'she loves the fictional programme but knows its not real life and is angry that the programme makers think she is stupid enough to want this sort of nonsense' other complaints focused on the storyline being too confusing and background noise being too loud 'you can't do this on the radio just shouting into the mic does not make it a dramatic and gripping storyline no idea where anyone was half the time, whether they were driving, wading or climbing up the wall,' one listener wrote a spokesman for the archers said: 'the flood storyline has been building for some time 'the archers has a long tradition of reflecting the agricultural world and the current storyline, which fans will know has been building for over a year, mirrors what farmers across the country experienced in recent floods 'when developing the script, the writers spoke to real life farmers and it is their experiences that inspired this week’s events in ambridge 'this is the first time we have done live blogging and it has been amazing to see audiences engage with us and experience this week’s events as if they too were residents of ambridge'
last year bbc the somerset levels ambridge farmers
listeners complain over bbc's online coverage of floods in the archers  bbc website showed fake weather forecasts for fictional midlands village  fans said online maps and graphics of floods 'insulted their intelligence' others said they know show is fantasy and do not want 'this nonsense' floods in ambridge village echoed those on the somerset levels last year  farmers fought to protect their land as authorities reacted slowly to danger 