IF you are old enough to remember the tragic death of Grace Archer in a fire in the stables at Brookfield (in 1955), you have been a fan of the world’s longest running soap for most of its existence. This year marks the 75th anniversary of The Archers, and there are two ways you can join the celebrations.
Graham Harvey, the long-standing agricultural story editor, and a leading agricultural and environmental journalist, has written a memoir that combines the show and his life – Underneath the Archers, out in paperback this autumn – and a stage show, The Archers at 75.
Fans of the Archers come in all ages and backgrounds – there are Archers addicts and there are those who just dip in. The subtitle used to be “an everyday story of country folk” and that is probably the secret of its success. It’s not a show where every episode has to end on a cliff-hanger. In some of the daily episodes, nothing much happens, while in others – as in Nigel Pargeter’s death – something totally unexpected and shocking has the audience gasping (and often writing to complain to Radio 4’s Feedback programme).
Graham Harvey, who lives on Exmoor, was not born a countryman, as he recounts in his very entertaining memoir, Underneath The Archers. In it, he looks back over his life, from a far from idyllic and definitely not rural childhood, through school to journalism on farming magazines. In time, he found himself in the writers room for The Archers.
“Never having written a word of fiction, I somehow landed a job as script-writer on the iconic show. For this I must thank the girl I once fell in love with as a teenager. Though she never knew it, she was the inspiration for a new Archers character who’s still on the show today. I find it hard to believe sometimes, but I managed to stay in the job for the next 33 years.”
Graham explores what this vintage radio drama has to tell us about managing the countryside today – and he has some very strong views, which will chime with many who are alarmed at successive government’s mismanagement of farm and food policy and failure to understand the role of farming in caring for the natural environment and feeding the population.
He says: “When The Archers started, back in 1951, Britain was still a land of mostly small, sustainable, mixed farms. The show’s original farming characters were all small tenant farmers. But a series of post-war governments believed small farms to be backward and inefficient. They introduced policies to get rid of them, encouraging large-scale, mechanised, chemical farming instead. The programme’s early producers backed government policy, undermining the very farms it had created.
“Today the large, chemically-dependent farms that dominate agriculture are mostly unsuited to the overheated world we’ve created. In fact, had the world’s farmers retained the sustainable methods of the past it’s unlikely the planet would be warming, or at least at anything like its present rate.
“Our challenge now is to help farmers transition to the nature-friendly methods the politicians so carelessly abandoned. We know they work. They’ll work again today to the benefit of all of us, not least our farmers.”
Looking at the bone dry, bleached fields across the country, you can only despair and hope someone is listening.
Among the Archers’ fans who have also enjoyed Graham’s book, which was originally published by the now defunct Unbound publishers, are the writer, actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry, who calls it “as hilarious, charming, eccentric, informative, addictive and delightful as the show itself. But there’s a truly fascinating social and agricultural history behind Graham Harvey’s masterly story-telling too. The changes that have come to Ambridge are changes that have transformed our world. It turns out that this little village makes a wonderful lens through which to look at the whole story of Britain.”
There is a short national tour of The Archers at 75, featuring several of the regular cast members, performing in two rotating casts of four. Hosted by comedian and superfan Angela Barnes and set at the beloved Ambridge Flower & Produce Show, the show includes live performances, on-the-spot sound effects from Vanessa Nuttall and unforgettable moments from the BBC archives. You get a chance to test your knowledge in The Bull Pub Quiz, sing along to the theme tune, put your own questions to the cast and enjoy behind-the-scenes revelations that Lynda Snell herself would be proud to draw out. And, in true Ambridge fashion, expect a little Flower & Produce Show chaos before the night is through.
The Flower cast brings together Timothy Bentinck (David Archer), Charlotte Martin (Susan Carter), Ben Norris (Ben Archer) and Annabelle Dowler (Kirsty Miller), while the Produce cast features Charles Collingwood (Brian Aldridge), Ryan Kelly (Jazzer McCreary), Susie Riddell (Tracy Horrobin) and Sunny Ormonde (Lilian Bellamy).
The West Country dates and venues are: Thursday 8th October, Bath Forum (Flower cast); Tuesday 3rd November, Exeter Great Hall (Produce cast); Thursday 5th November, Bath Forum (Produce cast); and Thursday 19th November, BIC, Bournemouth (Produce cast).