The Sunday omnibus was correspondingly reduced in length. ĭue to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, weekly programming reduced to four episodes, omitting episodes on Sunday and Friday. On Remembrance Sunday, the omnibus edition begins at the earlier time of 09:15. The six episodes are re-run unabridged in the Sunday morning omnibus at 10:00.
All except the Friday evening episode are repeated the following day at 14:02. Since Easter Sunday 1998, there have been six episodes a week, from Sunday to Friday, broadcast at around 19:03 following the news summary. There have been scenes set in other places in the United Kingdom and abroad, with some characters residing overseas such as in South Africa and Hungary. Anywhere further from Ambridge may be referred to humorously with comments such as "that's on the other side of Felpersham!", but characters do occasionally venture further: several attended the Countryside Alliance march in London, there have been references to the gay scene in Manchester's Canal Street. The county town of Borsetshire is Borchester, and the nearest big city is the cathedral city of Felpersham. Other fictional villages include Penny Hassett, Loxley Barrett, Darrington, Hollerton, Edgeley, Waterley Cross and Lakey Green. Ambridge is possibly based on the village of Cutnall Green, though various other villages claim to be the inspiration for Ambridge The Bull, Ambridge's pub, is modelled on The Old Bull in Inkberrow, whereas Hanbury's St Mary the Virgin is often used as a stand-in for Ambridge's parish church, St Stephen's. Borsetshire is situated between what are, in reality, the contiguous counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire, south of Birmingham in The Midlands of England. The Archers is set in the fictional village of Ambridge in the fictional county of Borsetshire, in England. Partly established with the aim towards educating farmers following World War II, The Archers soon became a popular source of entertainment for the population at large, attracting nine million listeners by 1953.
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In February 2019, a panel of 46 broadcasting industry experts, of which 42 had a professional connection to the BBC, listed The Archers as the second-greatest radio programme of all time. A significant show in British popular culture, and with over five million listeners, it is Radio 4's most listened-to non-news programme, and with over one million listeners via the internet, the programme holds the record for BBC Radio online listening figures. įive pilot episodes were aired in 1950 and the first episode was broadcast nationally on New Year's Day 1951. Having aired over 19,500 episodes, it is the world's longest-running drama by number of episodes. Broadcast since 1951, it was initially billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural setting". The Archers is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, their main spoken-word channel. For other uses, see The Archers (disambiguation).