The Archers

[eddie1]

The Archers
What's it all about ?
Broadcast twice a day then a Sunday compilation
Goes on year after year
But what's it all about ?
Who's who?
What do they do?
What happens ?

Perplexed (From outside Ambridge)

[aldfort]

You are joking right.

The programme was started by the BBC just after world war 2. It was a public information braodcast aimed at farmers to help them understand how to be more productive.

It's a soap now but the agricultural content is still correct and reflect modern thinking. It's call the Archers becaue, you guessed it, the main family it revolves around are the Archer family. It's set in the fictional county of Borsetshire which is identified by many to be somewhere in the mid west of England.

Not that I listen to it. :D

[simoscribbler]

Grew up with it, but haven't listened in years. Drama used to centre around flaming barns, poorly cows etc, but it's all a bit racier now I understand.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that there are message boards where people just hang about and chat endlessly about fictional people living in a fictional village. How sad is that? No, wait....

[justin44]

Tune in to radio 4 the Archers is like a GMT time check, if you turn the radio on you will have always justed missed it so you know it's either 14.15 or 17.15 hours. It's good I now download the podcast to iTunes so never miss an episode. My dad bought me a who's who in the archers book for Christmas. I once went out with a farmers daughter and could hold an hours conversation with the dad just because I listens to the Archers!

[hopak]

There is a website...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/the-archers/
Sad, but true.

[gasgasbones]

Mum and step dad used to listen to this back in the day. I can still hum the theme tune !! No idea what it's all about though, a radio version of Emerdale Farm maybe ??

[mijyou]

I started downloading podcasts to listen to in the car and saw the Archers and thought Ill give it a go.

That was a couple of years ago and I'm still listening. :shock:

[dkpw]

The Archers
What's it all about ?
Broadcast twice a day then a Sunday compilation
Goes on year after year
But what's it all about ?
Who's who?
What do they do?
What happens ?

Perplexed (From outside Ambridge)

The Archers - "an everyday story of country folk" - I thought everybody knew that.

For some, not myself I hasten to add, The Archers has morphed from a radio drama to an entire universe. For a flavour of the fanaticism and the depth of interest it evokes, have a look here: http://www.thearchers.co.uk/ and the discussion pages on the link hopak mentioned.

I'm just waiting for Brian Aldridge to get his comeuppance - one day it will happen. One day...

[Moose]

My (slight) claim to fame is my great-granddad was Chris Gittins who played Walter Gabriel for about 40 odd years from the 1950s to the 1980s. I actually starred in his edition of "This is your life" on the BBC back in 1984 as a young farmer during the interludes 8)

[jools]

My (slight) claim to fame is my great-granddad was Chris Gittins who played Walter Gabriel for about 40 odd years from the 1950s to the 1980s. I actually starred in his edition of "This is your life" on the BBC back in 1984 as a young farmer during the interludes 8)

Fancy that, Walter Gabriel was mentioned just the other day/episode. Did your GGD sound like Walter in real life or was that gravely voice just for the character? Respect by the way, you're practically royalty.

[hopak]

I'm just waiting for Brian Aldridge to get his comeuppance - one day it will happen. One day...

Didn't he used to be a decent bloke until he was kicked in the head by a cow in the milking parlour ?

[Bristolian]

The theme tune gives me just enough time to cross the room to hit the off button.

As a keen follower of bucolic matters, I find the Islington interpretation of the countryside to be unbearably jarring. Our own village provides me with all the entertainment I can handle, minus the improbable storyline.

I was appalled to discover that the characters might be fictional too : I took some professional exams the same year as Shula Archer was supposed to be sitting them and didn't see her on any of the courses...

[Moose]

Fancy that, Walter Gabriel was mentioned just the other day/episode. Did your GGD sound like Walter in real life or was that gravely voice just for the character? Respect by the way, you're practically royalty.

He certainly had a gravely voice but I don't recall him sounding like a West Country farmer, so I guess the accent was put on for the show.

[gibbon]

Grew up with it, lost touch with it a few years back, but im back with it now, just very nice a calming in the background on a sunday, reminds me of childhood. Its an institution, and long may it continue.

[VoleBoy]

My girlfriend likes it, and over the years, by osmosis I kind of know what's going on. Not all the time as I don't listen to it enough, but I can dip in and out. I can understand why people don't like it. Anything I used to associate with a Sunday (Songs Of Praise, Antiques Roadshow etc.) used to depress the hell out of me.

[notnowkato]

Fancy that, Walter Gabriel was mentioned just the other day/episode. Did your GGD sound like Walter in real life or was that gravely voice just for the character? Respect by the way, you're practically royalty.

He certainly had a gravely voice but I don't recall him sounding like a West Country farmer, so I guess the accent was put on for the show.

"Now then , me old pal, me old beauty" .......... I recall his catchphrase well. I was brought up on a farm in the early sixties and couldn't fathom why my folks wanted to daily listen to "An Everyday Tale of Country Folk" as they clearly despised the salt of the earth upon whose earnest toil the agricultural system was based and had been for millennia.

[sestrel]

Its for people who have too much time on their hands and no paint to watch drying :lol:

[notnowkato]

Its for people who have too much time on their hands and no paint to watch drying :lol:

Try watching crops grow, it takes AAAAAAAAAAAGES......