The Archers: the official inside story: the changing face of radio’s longest running drama

196 Pages·1996·71.3 MB·English

by  Vanessa Whitburn

THE OFFICIAL I N SI DE STORY
THE
RCHERS
The Changing Face of Radio’s
Longest Running Drama
In 1996 ‘The Archers’ celebrates its
45th anniversary.
When the first episode was broadcast in
January 1951, ‘The Archers’ was a simple
tale of country folk and farming life in
and around the village of Ambridge.
Nearly half a century later, Ambridge is
still the setting, but other features of the
show have changed.
Complex and controversial issues are
now integral to the stories which grip
the nation. The unique charm of
‘The Archers’ is as captivating as ever,
but the serial’s new style of drama and
realism has revitalised it and won it an
even greater audience.
In demonstrating how the show has
developed, Vanessa Whitburn explains
how the world’s longest running drama
serial is put together, with a host of
stories, facts, fun, reminiscences and
revelations from inside ‘The Archers’.
THE
RCHERS
m*. t* ■*'
THE OFFICIAL INSIDE STORY
RCHERS
VANES SA WHITBURN
The Archers
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Acknowledgements
My thanks particularly to Fiona Martin, Joanna Toye, Sue Ward, Camilla Fisher,
Hedli Niklaus, Norman Painting, Liz Rigbey, Keri Davies, Brendan Martin, Sally
Wainwright, Owen Bentley, Donald Steele, Justin Kelly, the cast, writers and production
team of The Archers for their invaluable help, in so many ways, with this book.
I am also especially grateful to Mary Cutler, Louise Page, Graham Harvey,
Mick Martin, Simon Frith, Caroline Harrington, Sam Boardman-Jacobs, Sally Wainwright
and the estates of Edward J. Mason and Geoffrey Webb for giving me their kind
permission to use extracts from their Archers’ scripts.
First published in 1996 by
Virgin Books
an imprint of Virgin Publishing Ltd
332 Ladbroke Grove
London W10 5AH
Text copyright © Vanessa Whitburn 1996
The right of Vanessa Whitburn to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Picture Credits
Photograph behind all “Who’s Who” © Romilly Lockyer c/o Image Bank
pp2-3 © Romilly Lockyer c/o Image Bank
p6 © Simon Wilkinson c/o Image Bank
All other photographs copyright © BBC
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise
be circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or
cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being
imposed upon the subsequent purchaser.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 1 85227 660 6
Designed by Blackjacks Limited
Reproduction by Scanners
Printed in England by Jarrold, Thetford, Norfolk
ontents
(Chapter One: cCoohin^ (Sach 7
(Chapter Jwo: Jhe $3icj, Stories 18
Chapter Jhree: Comic Creations 72
Chapter Jour: Jarmincj, hpatters 115
Chapter Jive: jCife 144
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Chapter S ix: Sehind the Scenes 160
She ^4chers *¥Ylap 192
i l l t i l
J t all started on the evening of Whit Monday 1950 when 50,000
BBC Midlands Home Service listeners tuned into the strains of
the now famous ‘Barwick Green’, which was to be the enduring
signature tune of the The Archers of Ambridge and the world’s
Dan (Harry Oakes) and
longest running radio drama serial was born - although to be strictly
Doris Archer (Given
accurate, it wasn’t The Archers of Ambridge, because the announcer at the
Berryman) at the gate of
time introduced the programme as ‘The Archers of Wimberton Farm, on Brookfield Farm.
the fringe of the village of Ambridge’.
Somewhere between the first five pilot
episodes, which were transmitted only in
the Midlands region, and the trial three-
month run on the national network light
programme the following year,
Wimberton Farm became Brookfield
Farm and the focus became not only the
Archer Family, with Dan and Doris at the
head, but the village of Ambridge itself.
All part, of course, of the creation and
refining of detail which goes on as soon
as any programme idea is bought by the
commissioning powers that be.
From that moment onwards,
Archers', continuing through 45 years to
the present time, editors and production
teams have striven, in their different
ways, to guide the programme through
the ups and downs of production
fortunes, the highs and lows of audience
appreciation, the vagaries of fashion and
the pressures of real life events, to
7
provide a drama that is entertaining, enduring, informative, popular
and, of course, thought provoking.
Looking back on the history of how the programme started,
there is no doubt that BBC bosses approached the project with
considerable caution. The idea for The Archers had come two years
before it was first transmitted at a meeting between farming
representatives and the BBC in Birmingham’s Council Chamber. The
War had just ended and to help get the country back on its feet, the
representatives were talking about giving out essential, up-to-date,
farming information in a popular way. A well-known Lincolnshire
farmer, Henry Burtt of Dowsby, stood up and said ‘What we need is
a farming Dick Barton.’ Dick Barton was, at the time, a hugely
successful adventure serial based on an intrepid special agent who got Godfrey Baseley, The
Archers’ first editor.
himself in some exciting, if sometimes improbable, scrapes.
It is now a part of radio history that Godfrey Baseley, then a producer of
gardening and agricultural programmes and later to become The Archers first
editor, laughed with the rest of the people there at the silliness of the idea.
But, unlike the rest of them, he didn’t forget it. In fact, the idea kept popping
into his head again and again until he felt impelled to follow it up. He knew, Dick Barton scriptwriters,
Geoffrey Webb and Edward ].
from his own experience, of the gentle excitement and interest which could
Mason, recruited by Godfrey
be created around the everyday happenings on a farm or in a small country for The Archers.
village, and he had a notion that a skilful
blending of such goings on with the more
adventurous side of life might provide the
ingredients for a new hit. Realising that he
would need some skilled help with the drama
side of things, he contacted the two Dick
Barton scriptwriters, Geoffrey Webb and
Edward J. Mason. He persuaded them to come
on board. He then went on to secure approval
for the five trial episodes from the then head
of Midlands programmes, Denis Morris. Next
he recruited a splendid young sound engineer
in Tony Shryane, who was later to produce
the programme for 28 years, under three
successive editors, and the small team set
to work.