London Times, 4 November 1999
Tommy Archer wins GM trial
By Alan Hamilton
DEVOTEES of the BBC's
venerable radio story of every-
day countryfolk gasped with
relief last night when a court
cleared young Tommy Arch-
er of destroying a genetically
modified crop on his uncle's
farm.
In one of the strongest
storylines since Grace Archer
was sacrificed in a fire in 1955
to counter that night's birth of
independent television. The
Archers tackled the issue of
GM farming and concluded
that the perpetrator should
be found not guilty because
he had "lawful excuse".
Tommy pleaded that the
GM crop could have adverse-
ly affected his family's acres
at Bridge Farm, which, like
the Prince of Wales at High-
grove, has gone organic.
The fictional case mirrors
an impending real-life one in
which Lord Melchett, the
head of the British arm of
Greenpeace, faces similar
charges. But the outline of
The Archers script had been
decided well before Lord Mel-
chett was arrested in July.
The programme's editor and
producer decided on the ver-
dict after reading of a real
case in which a man was
cleared of vandalising a mili-
tary aircraft.
Vanessa Whitburn, editor
of The Archers, said last
night: "Our research estab-
lished that there were legal
grounds for an acquittal.
Whichever way the verdict
went, we knew it would be
controversial, particularly as
a similar real-life verdict is
pending.
"Obviously Tommy's ver-
dict sets no precedent, being
fictional. But we hope we
have aired some important ar-
guments on both sides of the
GM issue, as it is of such in-
terest to the British public."