UK Edition
Another Archers editor quits, swapping Radio 4 for ITV soaps
He was drafted into The Archers as a pair of “safe hands”, steering it away from accusations of soap opera melodrama and keeping true to its country roots.
But Huw Kennair-Jones is to leave the Radio 4 show after little more than a year - to work on Coronation Street and Emmerdale.
In a plot twist fit for the airwaves, Kennair-Jones will abandon Ambridge for ITV, seeking more than an everyday story of country folk on the small screen.
His departure led listeners to wonder whether the job was a “poisoned chalice”.
Announcing his decision, he said: "I'm delighted to be joining the ITV drama team at such an exciting time.
"ITV has always been at the forefront of TV drama and I'm thrilled to be getting the chance to work on Coronation Street and Emmerdale, two of the UK's most iconic programmes.
"And though I'll be away from Borsetshire, the fantastic cast and crew of The Archers in Birmingham will always have a special place in my heart and I'll be listening as avidly as I ever have. I've loved being part of such a brilliant programme."
Gwyneth Williams, Radio 4 controller, praised the “great job” he has done on the Archers. When she announced his appointment last year, she had promised: “Ambridge will continue to be in safe hands.”
The decision has caused disquiet on the show, with one scriptwriter empathising with a listener lamenting the abrupt change to say: “How do you think it is for the writers!”
Kennair-Jones’ departure comes swiftly after the resignation of Sean O’Connor, the controversial editor accused of turning the show into “Eastenders in a field”.
O'Connor departed after two and a half years to join the BBC soap itself, only to resign a year later to move into film.
The era of Kennair-Jones, in contrast, has been free of public controversy, with no major storylines hitting the headlines to the same extent as the Helen and Rob domestic abuse plot under O’Connor, and Nigel Pargetter plummeting from the roof under previous editor Vanessa Whitburn.
Listening figures have remained stable at just under 5million, the BBC said.
He joined the Archers with no high-level radio experience in September 2016 and will leave at the end of November.
One fan, writing to the BBC online, said: “Will the BBC manage to find an editor who realises that The Archers is different to the TV soaps and does not need angst, arguments and 'fallings-out' constantly?
“Under the control of Mr Kennair Jones we have had some ups and downs when he has reverted to typical TV soap situations but he did occasionally acknowledge the unique picture of rural life from time to time.
“I wonder now if the long term situations set up over the past couple of years have made this programme a 'poisoned chalice?”
Another said: “Be fair, he had a difficult job trying to untangle the mess, time lapses, errors and dismissals of perfectly adequate actors and importing of new, lesser actors, left by the previous editor.”
Gillian Reynolds, the Telegraph's radio critic, said the short form of the drama required particular skills, and experience in radio.
Asked if the editor role had become a poisoned chalice, she said it was on the contrary "a vineyard that grows particularly fine grapes if only one knows how to turn them into good wine."
Kennair-Jones, who has produced dramas including Medici: Masters of Florence, New Tricks and Waterloo Road, will join the ITV commissioning team in December.
He worked in drama commissioning at Sky for six years, on the likes of Strike Back, Mad Dogs, The Last Witch, Fleming, Falcon, The Runaway and Going Postal.
Radio 4 controller Gwyneth Williams said: "Huw Kennair-Jones has done a great job in Ambridge. "It has been an eventful year in the village - Rob Titchener left for Minnesota, the cricket team admitted women for the first time, Jill Archer celebrated 60 years in Ambridge and Matt Crawford has returned to upset the apple cart.
"I would like to thank Huw and wish him well in his new role at ITV."
Radio 4 said the recruitment process for a new editor would begin shortly.