It is not real as you say, waiting 3 or 4 years would spoil the story.
I pointed out that in East Enders the café exploded, burnt to the ground totally destroyed only to be up and running again 10 days later and still with the same tables, menu board and till !!
Ask yourself would a tiny hamlet out in the Yorkshire dales really have a factory making underwear that employed all the female characters yet allowed them to spend all day chatting and arguing but not doing any actual work?