Kate Chisholm

Leading ladies

I suspect Obama would have much more sympathy with Peggy or even Jolene, than with the joyless Hannah

issue 24 November 2018

I wonder what Michelle Obama, the former First Lady who remade that role in her own image, would make of Hannah’s attempts on The Archers to embody the 2018 version of an empowered, liberated woman? Does Obama secretly listen in to Ambridge each night? Has she been impressed by the soap’s attempt, via Hannah, to address the #MeToo movement? Does that explain why she blessed Radio 4 (rather than an online audio provider) with the great coup of reading herself from her new autobiography, Becoming?

But first (for those unfamiliar with Hannah’s antics) let’s go back to Ambridge. She arrived on the scene as the new pig woman; Jazzer’s antithesis (Jazzer being a stereotypical Glaswegian, addicted to booze and having a good time). She’s not afraid to suggest a night of pleasure to a member of the opposite sex, or to say that she’s not feeling like it, thank you very much.

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