It is often said that fiction often resembles fact, and fact has a major role in determining how the story holds together and this is certainly a feature in the film world when a film says 'based on fact or actual events' and one is under the impression that this situation actually happened somewhere, but without using the actual names and persons.
It is a complex situation in which the author must grapple with delicately where possible, but not at the detriment of the story, because a good story needs intrigue and attraction if it is to succeed in being followed, especially on a week to week or monthly basis.
And with this being a 'radio' feature, The Large Acres Triangle' had to have self-supporting episodes that dealt with the subject involving one or more characters, especially the leading characters. Unlike a soap which often relies on a 'cliff-hanger' moment at the end of each episode, the Triangle spoof had to be connected by its area and each character examined closely to see what they might do, and that had to be dealt with in one fifteen minute piece making sure there was some point to it, and if one dare say, a moral tale with a message even if as I did, add humour, even if it was critical cum satirical.
Indeed, without Selsey as the real inspiration behind the spoof, I would have been very 'hard-pressed' to imagine anywhere else that could fit the bill so well and provide the wealth of story lines and characters to support such a project.
Of course, it had to be entertaining, and that had to be left with the two characters Ernie and Maureen, who in actual fact, are the narrators of a tale, a tale that should be as real as possible and that is achieved by their conversations with each other.
I would like to say it's entirely fictional in every aspect, but this would not be correct or honest. So when I say 'It reveals more than you'd expect' at the closing of each episode, one could say it certainly does, and I don't deny it.
Selsey has not been a good experience for myself, nor my elderly relative. In fact, in all the house moves he's ever done, he rates this as one of the worst and in recent months he's told me of his desire to go elsewhere as he's no longer happy to reside in this area. For me too, this has been a dire house purchase, but I've got my London Mews House to go to as an escape from a place that almost earned a place in the book CRAP TOWNS, but didn't because it was considered insignificant.
It was to be our shangrila, a place to hang one's hat, but the people here put paid to that. We'd landed in a place that had already formed its own little federation, and there was no room for outsiders, unless, you conformed to the standards they set!
The best thing to come out of it is this Spoof, and for that reason it will continue.
DENNIS COWAN