The Archers is a British radio soap opera broadcast on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word station. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural setting". Having aired more than 20,000 episodes, it is the world's longest-running drama, by both number of episodes and duration.
The first of five pilot episodes was aired on Whit Monday, 29 May 1950, on the BBC Midlands Home Service, and the first episode broadcast nationally went out on New Year's Day 1951. A significant show in British popular culture, and with more than five million listeners, it is Radio 4's most listened-to non-news programme, and with more than one million listeners via the internet, the programme holds the record for BBC Radio online listening figures. In February 2019, a panel of 46 broadcasting industry experts, of whom 42 had a professional connection to the BBC, listed The Archers as the second-greatest radio programme of all time. Established partly with the aim of educating farmers following World War II, The Archers soon became a popular source of entertainment for the population at large, attracting nine million listeners by 1953.
Setting The Archers is set in the fictional village of Ambridge in the fictional county of Borsetshire, in England. Borsetshire is situated between what are in reality the contiguous counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire, south of Birmingham in The Midlands of England. Ambridge is possibly based on the village of Cutnall Green, though various other villages claim to be the inspiration for Ambridge; The Bull, Ambridge's pub, is modelled on The Old Bull in Inkberrow,Compare Ambridge's The Bull with Inkberrow's The Old Bull . and Hanbury's St Mary the Virgin is often used as a stand-in for Ambridge's parish church, St Stephen's.Compare Ambridge's St Stephen's with Hanbury's St Mary the Virgin .
Other fictional villages include Penny Hassett, Loxley Barrett,Loxley Barrett Primary School ; goodschoolsguide.co.uk Darrington, Hollerton, Edgeley, Waterley Cross and Lakey Green. The county town of Borsetshire is Borchester, and the nearest big city is the cathedral city of Felpersham. Felpersham also has a university. Anywhere further from Ambridge may be referred to humorously with comments such as "That's on the other side of Felpersham!", but characters do occasionally venture further: several attended the Countryside Alliance march in London, and there have been references to the gay scene in Manchester's Canal Street. There have been scenes set in other places in the United Kingdom and abroad, and characters have moved overseas to countries including South Africa and Hungary.
Ambridge locations
Ambridge has a village shop and post office, which survived thanks to the philanthropy of Jack Woolley (d. 2014). The business subsequently became a community shop managed by Susan and staffed by a team of volunteers. The Bull, the village's only pub, is perhaps the most recognisable structure in Ambridge along with St Stephen's Church. The church has undergone many changes over the years, and has had a number of vicars. The eight bells are rung by a group led by Neil Carter. Bridge Farm is a farm previously on the Berrow Estate, but now owned by Pat and Tony Archer. The farm became wholly dedicated to organic farming in 1984, in a storyline inspired by a scriptwriter's visit to Brynllys farm in Ceredigion, the home of Rachel's Organic. In 2003, Tom Archer began producing his Bridge Farm pork sausages. In early 2013, the family decided to sell their dairy herd and buy organic milk instead, and the following year Tony bought a small Aberdeen Angus herd. Some years later it was decided to acquire a herd of Montbéliardes, and the farm recommenced producing organic milk to ensure the quality of cheese, ice cream and yoghurts. More recently they have added goats to the farm, initially as a hobby, but, having acquired a buck, they are now also looking to sell the meat. Brookfield Farm is a mixed farm which was managed, and subsequently purchased, by Dan Archer, and then run by his son Phil. After Phil's retirement in 2001, his son David took over. Grange Farm was a working farm run by the Grundys as tenants until their eviction in 2000. The farmhouse, along with of land, was sold to Oliver Sterling. Home Farm is a farm, by far the largest in Ambridge, owned by the Aldridge family. Brian and Jennifer Aldridge had to sell the farmhouse, however, and move elsewhere in the village. Over the years Home Farm has expanded into soft fruit and deer farming. Willow Farm was owned by Roy and Betty Tucker. Following Betty's death in 2005, the house was divided to accommodate their son Roy and his family. Now, Brian Aldridge lives in part of it. The farmland is home to Neil Carter's pigs. Arkwright Hall is a large Victorian mansion with a 17th-century atmosphere. The building served as a community centre for many years, containing a soundproofed room and a field studies centre. Later it fell into disrepair, but was renovated when Jack Woolley leased the mansion to the Landmark Trust; architect Lewis Carmichael, who married Nigel Pargetter's mother Julia, led the restoration of the building to its Victorian splendour. Grey Gables, once a country club, is now a luxurious hotel. The late Caroline Sterling bought it with her husband Oliver. The hotel boasts a pool, a spa, a health club and a golf course. The hotel was sold in 2022 and was closed while undergoing extensive refurbishment. Lower Loxley Hall is a large 300-year-old country house located just outside Ambridge. It serves as a conference centre and wedding venue, and is open to the public.
Characters
The central family, the Archers, live at the family farm, Brookfield, which combines arable, dairy, beef and sheep. It is a typical example of mixed farming which has been passed down the generations from Dan, the original farmer, to his son Phil, and now to Phil and Jill's four children, who co-own it: David, who manages it with his wife Ruth; Shula Hebden-Lloyd, owner of the riding stables, who was married first to Mark Hebden, a solicitor, and then to Alistair Lloyd, a vet; her twin Kenton, who runs the village's pub with his wife Jolene; and the widowed Elizabeth Pargetter. Jill lives at Brookfield with David and Ruth, their children Pip, Josh and Ben, and Pip's daughter Rosie. The Aldridges lived at Home Farm for many years. Brian is portrayed as a money-driven agribusinessman. He and his late wife Jennifer have five children. Jennifer already had two when they married: Adam, a farmer married to chef Ian Craig, and Debbie, a farmer based in Hungary. Two were born into the marriage: Kate, with a family abandoned in South Africa, and Alice, divorced from farrier Chris Carter. Brian had a son, Ruairi, from one of his affairs. The family also includes Kate's daughter with Roy Tucker, Phoebe, and Jennifer's sister Lilian, who is in a relationship with Justin Elliott. The Bridge Farm Archers, Tony (brother of Lilian and the late Jennifer) and Pat, practise organic farming. Their operations include a farm shop, a farm café, a vegetable box scheme, and a dairy. The whole family is involved – Tony and Pat, their children Helen and Tom, and Tom's wife Natasha. Tony and Pat have five grandchildren: Johnny, the son of their deceased son John, Helen's sons Henry and Jack, and Tom's twin girls Nova and Seren. The Pargetters are landed gentry who run their stately home, Lower Loxley Hall, as a business. The family comprises Nigel Pargetter's widow Elizabeth (daughter of Phil and Jill Archer), and her twin children – a son, Freddie, and a daughter, Lily. The Grundys, formerly struggling tenant farmers, were brought to prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Introduced as comic characters, they are now seen as doggedly battling adversity. The family includes Eddie, his wife Clarrie, their sons Will and Ed, and the sons' children. The Carters, Neil and Susan. Their son Chris was married to Alice Aldridge; their daughter Emma has successively married brothers Will and Ed Grundy. The Snells; Lynda, married to the long-suffering Robert, is the butt of many jokes, but a stalwart of village life.
History A five-episode pilot series started on Whit Monday, 29 May 1950, and continued throughout that week. It was created by Godfrey Baseley and was broadcast to the English Midlands in the Regional Home Service, as 'a farming Dick Barton'. Recordings were sent to London, and the BBC decided to commission the series for a longer national run. In the pilot the Archers owned Wimberton Farm, rather than Brookfield. Baseley subsequently edited The Archers for 22 years.
From 1 January 1951, five 15-minute episodes were transmitted each week, from Monday to Friday, at first on the BBC Light ProgrammeDonovan, Paul (1991), The Radio Companion. London: Grafton; p. 8. and subsequently on the BBC Home Service (Radio 4 from 1 October 1967). In 1998 this changed to six 12½-minute episodes, from Sunday to Friday. Early afternoon repeats of the previous evening's episode began on 14 December 1964. The original scriptwriters were Geoffrey Webb and Edward J. Mason, who were also working on the nightly thriller series about the special agent Dick Barton. The popularity of his adventures partly inspired The Archers, which eventually took over Barton's evening slot. At first, however, the national launch placed the serial at the "terrible"Smethurst, William (1996), The Archers: The True Story. London: Michael O'Mara Books; p.24. time of 11.45 am, but it moved to Dick Barton's former slot of 6.45 pm from 2 April 1951. An omnibus edition of the week's episodes began on 5 January 1952.
Originally produced with collaborative input from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, The Archers was conceived as a means of disseminating information to farmers and smallholders to help increase productivity in the Postwar era of rationing and food shortages.
The Archers originally centred on the lives of three farmers: Dan Archer, farming efficiently with little cash, Walter Gabriel, farming inefficiently with little cash, and George Fairbrother, a wealthy businessman farming at a loss for tax purposes (which one could do in those days).Norman Painting, Forever Ambridge (1975) The programme was hugely successful, winning the National Radio Awards' 'Most entertaining programme of the Year' award jointly with Take It from Here in 1954, and winning the award outright in 1955, in which year the audience was reported to have peaked at 20 million.The Listener, 29 August 1985.
In the late 1950s, despite the growth of television and radio's consequent decline, the programme was still claiming 11 million listeners and was being transmitted in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.Smethurst, William (1996), The Archers: The True Story. London: Michael O'Mara Books; pp. 75–76. By the mid-1970s, however, the audience for the two daily broadcasts and the weekend omnibus combined was less than three millionSmethurst (1996) The Archers, p. 144. and in 1976 the BBC Radio Four Review Board twice considered axing the programme.Hendy, David (2007), Life On Air, A history of Radio Four Oxford University Press, p. 205. The serial's woes at this time were seen to mirror the poor standing of radio drama in general, described as "a failure to fully shake off the conventions of non-realism which had prevailed in the 1940s and 1950s."Hendy, David (2007) Life On Air, p. 204.