Happy 75th birthday to The Archers, the longest running radio drama in the world. Its famous theme tune is one of my earliest memories. When I was very young, it used to come on the radio every week day afternoon, and Mum would listen to it.
Then I got hooked, and started listening to the Omnibus edition on Radio New Zealand’s National Programme when I was five or six.
I did that without fail, every Thursday night, until 1982, when Radio New Zealand announced that due to the increased cost of the programme imposed on it by the BBC Transcription Service, Radio New Zealand wasn’t going to carry it anymore. This resulted in my first governmental advocacy effort. As a 13-year-old, I wrote for the first time to a Government Minister, pleading with him to do something about this travesty. It was pretty exciting in my working class family to come home one day and find a letter from the Minister of Broadcasting, Ian Shearer, waiting for me in the mailbox. But it was only to thank me for writing and to tell me that he didn’t have the power to interfere with Radio New Zealand’s operational matters. It was the first time, but far from the last time, that I witnessed governmental buck passing up close. My teenage self thought that he could surely just pass a law to stop this or something. I got to know him in my later work, and you can be sure I reminded him of this moment.
Finally the big day came, I still remember the date, 30 September, 1982. Rather than a typical cliffhanger, the episode ended with a special ending for New Zealand listeners, who were never to be invited to Ambridge again.
Eventually, I was let into a fanatical little club of blind people that were receiving The Archers on cassette from a very kind woman in the UK who recorded it every week. It was like being reunited with family I hadn’t seen for a while.
Finally, the Internet made it easy for me to visit Ambridge every day except Saturdays, and that’s still the case.
The Archers is a brilliant show. The fact that it has run so long allows stories to develop in real time, sometimes they can take decades to run their course.
Some people ask me how on earth you start listening to a show that has run so long, and I tell them that the best approach is to treat it like you are moving to Ambridge yourself, the village in which the characters live. When you move somewhere new, it takes a while to get to know everyone, but you eventually start to work out who’s who.
You can subscribe to The Archers via two podcasts. One gives you the 12 minute episode every day other than Saturdays, the other one gives it to you in one big weekly episode each Sunday, that’s called the Omnibus version.
If you would like to catch up, here’s a quick summary, somewhat tongue in cheek, of the story so far.
theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2…
#TheArchers
Then I got hooked, and started listening to the Omnibus edition on Radio New Zealand’s National Programme when I was five or six.
I did that without fail, every Thursday night, until 1982, when Radio New Zealand announced that due to the increased cost of the programme imposed on it by the BBC Transcription Service, Radio New Zealand wasn’t going to carry it anymore. This resulted in my first governmental advocacy effort. As a 13-year-old, I wrote for the first time to a Government Minister, pleading with him to do something about this travesty. It was pretty exciting in my working class family to come home one day and find a letter from the Minister of Broadcasting, Ian Shearer, waiting for me in the mailbox. But it was only to thank me for writing and to tell me that he didn’t have the power to interfere with Radio New Zealand’s operational matters. It was the first time, but far from the last time, that I witnessed governmental buck passing up close. My teenage self thought that he could surely just pass a law to stop this or something. I got to know him in my later work, and you can be sure I reminded him of this moment.
Finally the big day came, I still remember the date, 30 September, 1982. Rather than a typical cliffhanger, the episode ended with a special ending for New Zealand listeners, who were never to be invited to Ambridge again.
Eventually, I was let into a fanatical little club of blind people that were receiving The Archers on cassette from a very kind woman in the UK who recorded it every week. It was like being reunited with family I hadn’t seen for a while.
Finally, the Internet made it easy for me to visit Ambridge every day except Saturdays, and that’s still the case.
The Archers is a brilliant show. The fact that it has run so long allows stories to develop in real time, sometimes they can take decades to run their course.
Some people ask me how on earth you start listening to a show that has run so long, and I tell them that the best approach is to treat it like you are moving to Ambridge yourself, the village in which the characters live. When you move somewhere new, it takes a while to get to know everyone, but you eventually start to work out who’s who.
You can subscribe to The Archers via two podcasts. One gives you the 12 minute episode every day other than Saturdays, the other one gives it to you in one big weekly episode each Sunday, that’s called the Omnibus version.
If you would like to catch up, here’s a quick summary, somewhat tongue in cheek, of the story so far.
theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2…
#TheArchers
Brawls, blackmail and Judi Dench: 75 staggering moments from 75 years of The Archers
From Jill’s flung flapjack to Nigel’s tragic fall, the Great Flood, Helen’s acquittal and a priceless cameo from Dame Judi, here’s an anniversary feast of epic Ambridge momentsFelicity Cloake (The Guardian)