Early days of The Archers

1. After pilot episodes aired in May 1950 on the BBC Midlands Home service, The Archers’ first national episode was broadcast on 1 January 1951 on the Light Programme.

2. The opening line in 1951 was from the character Dan Archer, who said, “And a happy New Year to all”.

3. June Spencer, who continues to play Peggy Woolley today, featured in the first episode.

4. The Archers was created by Godfrey Baseley.

5. Originally devised as a way to help educate farmers in modern production methods when Britain was still in the grip of food rationing, The Archers collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Although the educational remit of the programme ended in the early 1970s, farming is central to the programme and a key figure in the production team is the Agricultural Storyline Advisor.

The Archers in numbers

1. By the 70th anniversary on 1 January there will have been 19,343 episodes.

2. There have been over 1,400 named characters in The Archers.

3. Almost five million people listen to the Archers every week.

4. The Archers consistently tops the chart of on-demand programmes on BBC Sounds.

Births, Deaths and Marriages

1. The first birth in The Archers was on 16 February 1951, when Peggy gave birth to her son Anthony. Tony Archer, who runs Bridge Farm with his family, is now a proud grandfather.

2. Phil Archer became a household name on 22 September 1955 when Grace, his wife of only five months, died in his arms after trying to save her horses from a stable fire. The BBC switchboard was jammed for 48 hours after the landmark episode, which reached an audience of 20 million.

3. Ambridge’s first gay wedding took place on 14 December 2006, when Adam and Ian were joined in a civil ceremony.

4. The newest character is Xander, born to Adam and Ian by surrogacy with Lexi on 23 September 2019.

5. After vicar Alan Franks proposed to lawyer Usha Gupta in March 2008, they had two weddings - their Hindu wedding on 27 Aug 2008 and then their Christian wedding two days later at St Stephens.

Storylines

1. Because each episode is set on the day of transmission The Archers keeps up with events in the real world. Whole storylines were devised to track the development of Foot and Mouth in 2001, but the show also uses topical drop-ins recorded at short notice – from marking the deaths of royals like Princess Diana, to remarking on England’s performance in World Cups.

2. As well as the cycle of the agricultural calendar The Archers has turned its attention to social issues including addiction, suicide, anorexia and, most recently, modern slavery.

3. In 2015, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline experienced a 17 percent increase in call volume, which they dubbed the ‘Archers effect’ - fuelled by the storyline exploring the domestic abuse Helen experienced at the hands of Rob.

4. The stories are generally plotted three months ahead of transmission, but some storylines are worked out years in advance.

5. The Archers broke away from its usual convention in March 2015, when the Am burst its banks and flooded Ambridge. The drama aired 20 hours in the life of Ambridge residents across a week’s worth of broadcasts.

6. Glastonbury Festival has featured in The Archers on more than one occasion. In 1998 Kate Aldridge gave birth to her daughter Phoebe inside a tepee at the festival, and in 2003 two episodes were recorded on location at the festival.

7. The Bull was briefly rebranded ‘The B @ Ambridge’ in 2020 but quickly returned to its original name following a protest led by Lynda Snell, who chained herself to the new pub sign.

8. ‘The Ambridge One’, otherwise known as Susan Carter, was jailed for six months on 23 December 1993 for harbouring her brother after an armed robbery. A ‘Free the Ambridge One’ group was set up, and even the then Home Secretary Michael Howard was involved in the debate.

9. Emma Carter discovered she was pregnant in 2004 but she didn’t know which Grundy brother was the father. Will or Ed?

10. In Sept 2019, Phoebe, Pip and Rex won the bid for Peggy’s Ambridge Conservation Trust money, with their Rewilding Ambridge project. As a result, hundreds of acres of Ambridge farmland are being allowed to return to nature, with the help of free roaming cattle (once Pip, Phoebe and Rex stop bickering for long enough to buy some!)

Characters and Cast

1. Real-life husband and wife Charles Collingwood and Judy Bennett play characters Brian Aldridge and Shula Hebden-Lloyd.

2. Late Archers’ actor Norman Painting played Phil Archer but also wrote 1,198 Archers scripts between 1966 and 1982 under the pen name Bruno Milna.

3. Listeners may have seen or heard Archers cast members in other roles, such as James Cartwright (Harrison Burns) as plumber Tony Sellick in the Downton Abbey Film.

4. Angus Imrie (Josh Archer) played Jake in the BBC’s Fleabag and portrayed the Queen’s youngest son, the Earl of Wessex in season four of The Crown.

5. Andy Hockley (Philip Moss), until recently played the Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the musical Wicked.

6. Tamsin Greig (Debbie Aldridge) has appeared in Friday Night Dinner, Black Books, Green Wing, Love Soup and Episodes.

7. Carole Boyd (Lynda Snell) has voiced many of the characters in the Postman Pat TV series, including Mrs Goggins.

8. Tim Bentinck (David Archer) was the voice of all station announcements on the Piccadilly Line between King's Cross and Earl's Court in the early 1990s and 2000s, including the famous Mind The Gap at Holborn.

9. Gareth Pierce (Gavin Moss) also plays Todd Grimshaw in Coronation Street.

10. Richard Attlee, who plays Kenton Archer, is the grandson of Clement Attlee, the Labour Prime Minister from 1945 to 1951.

11. Barry Farrimond (Ed Grundy) has invented his own knot called The Farrimond Friction Hitch. It has been officially recognised by the International Guild of Knot Tyers and now appears in scout manuals

12. Over the years The Archers has had many ‘silent’ characters - Richard and Sabrina Thwaite, Eddie Grundy’s friends Baggy and Fat Paul, bell-ringer Neville Booth and his nephew, Nathan, and the Button family. They are never seen or heard but the audience know them well. Though silent they are very much part of Ambridge life and many a tear was shed when Bert Fry’s wife, silent character Freda Fry, died from pneumonia as a result of the floods.

13. Resident thespian Lynda Snell has produced many shows for - and starring - the residents of Ambridge; including Aladdin (1991), The Mikado (2000) and most recently, The Canterbury Tales (2019).

14. Think of farming and most people picture sheep, cows or pigs, but in 2003 Lynda Snell became the proud owner of two llamas which she named Wolfgang and Constanza (after Mozart and his wife).

15. Peggy dotes on her beloved feline companion. However to strangers this cat is a force to be reckoned with - move over you guard dogs, Hilda Odgen is eyeing you up.

Food and Produce

1. Helen Archer produces a cheese called Borsetshire Blue; it was crowned Best Artisan Product at the Borchester Food And Drink Awards for the second time in 2017.

2. Toby Fairbrother produces a craft spirit in Ambridge, Scruff Gin.

3. In Ambridge the local ale served at The Bull is called Shires.

4. The Borchester Beauty is a variety of apple used to make cider.

5. A sure sign from The Archers that Christmas is coming is Stir Up Sunday. Every year in late November Jill Archer can be found observing tradition and preparing her homemade Christmas pudding.

6. Ambridge’s Flower and Produce show isn’t without controversy. In 1977 Doris Archer’s prize-winning lemon curd came under suspicion, and more recently Jim Lloyd was disqualified for using the wrong kind of twine to tie his onions together.

Behind the Scenes

1. The programme is recorded at the BBC’s Birmingham studios in The Mailbox. Prior to that The Archers’ home for many years had been Pebble Mill.

2. The theme tune Barwick Green is a maypole dance from the suite My Native Heath written in 1924 by Yorkshire composer Arthur Wood.

3. The Editor is Jeremy Howe. He has worked on the programme since 2018 and is the eighth editor of The Archers.

4. The Spot Effects Studio Manager uses many surprising objects to recreate the sounds heard on The Archers, for example a vintage ironing board as the sound of a farm gate.

5. A waxed raincoat is used to create the sound of the entrance to Kate’s yurts at Spiritual Home.

6. The sound of crunching through undergrowth is recreated by placing scrunched up recycled magnetic recording tape on the ground, which actors walk on.

7. Special attention is paid to effects such as the sounds of cattle and bird song. These are carefully chosen to reflect the specific breed of cow mentioned in the script or the season during which the episode occurs.

Locations

1. The local church in Ambridge is St Stephens. Established in 1281 it dates back to Norman times.

2. For over 35 years there has been an organic farm in Ambridge.

3. The village shop is a community shop run by volunteers.

4. The village pub, a 15th century black and white building, is run by Jolene Archer and her husband Kenton Archer.

5. David and Ruth recently expanded the business at Brookfield Farm by converting a barn into a wedding venue.

6. In July 1997, Brian was approached by a consortium of city men looking for a rural investment with tax advantages. Together they formed Borchester Land. ‘BL’ was responsible for the eviction of the Grundys from Grange Farm in 2000.

7. Ambridge has its own cricket club. In 2020 Tracy Horrobin replaced Harrison Burns as team captain.

8. The main farms in The Archers are Brookfied Farm, Bridge Farm, Home Farm and Grange Farm.

9. The programme has its own fictional department store, Underwoods, located in Borchester.

10. Ambridge is in the fictional county of Borsetshire, whose county town is Borchester. The nearest big city is the cathedral city of Felpersham which has a university. Ambridge is surrounded by other villages including Penny Hassett, Loxley Barratt, Darrington, Hollerton, Edgeley, Waterley Cross and Lakey Green.

11. One of the newest additions to Ambridge is Beechwood, a small housing development on Bridge Farm land, home to Kirsty Miller, Philip Moss and relative newcomer Joy Horville.

Guests and Celebrities

1. Terry Wogan, Britt Ekland, Alan Titchmarsh, Griff Rhys Jones, Antony Gormley and Colin Dexter have all made cameo appearances.

2. Stephen Fry appeared (as himself) in a 2005 Comic Relief spoof written by the late Victoria Wood.

3. The Archers has featured Royal guest appearances from the late Princess Margaret (1984) and Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall (2011).

4. For the 10,000 episode the usually silent character Pru Forrest was voiced by Dame Judi Dench.

5. The opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012 featured a short clip of The Archers theme tune as part of a celebration of British culture.

6. Pop icons the Pet Shop Boys recorded a special guest appearance for The Archers at Maida Vale studios in 2014. The duo stepped in to fill a headlining slot at Loxfest, Lower Loxley’s Music festival.

7. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and The Archers has not escaped parody. John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme, Dead Ringers, and Adam and Joe have all taken friendly swipes at the programme.