The Archers

The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting". With over 16,700 episodes, it is both the world's longest running radio soap and, since the cancellation of the American soap opera Guiding Light in September 2009, the world's longest running soap opera in any format.

The Archers is the most listened to Radio 4 non-news programme, with over five million listeners, and it holds the BBC Radio programme record for the number of times listened to over the Internet, with over one million listeners.

BBC Radio 4 Extra has also broadcast, in 2011, two series (26 episodes each) of a twice-weekly spin-off show Ambridge Extra. These were advertised as a trial, and it is not currently known if more will be made.

The Archers is set in the fictional village of Ambridge in the fictional county of Borsetshire, in the English Midlands. Borsetshire is situated between the (in reality contiguous) counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire, south of Birmingham in the West Midlands, although it has been occasionally misinterpreted as Dorsetshire in South West England. Various villages claim to be the inspiration for Ambridge: Ambridge's public house, The Bull, 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.

Saudi Arabia may be in for a nasty shock when Obama steps down

Edit The Independent 22 Apr 2016

Foreign leaders visiting King Salman of Saudi Arabia have noticed that there is a large flower display just in front of the 80-year-old monarch ... Of course, King Salman is not the only world leader past or present whose inability to cope has been artfully concealed by aides and courtiers....

photo: Creative Commons / Jimieye

File - Prince performing during his Nude Tour in Ireland, 1990.

Prince: postmortem to be held after death of singer

Edit The Guardian 22 Apr 2016

A postmortem examination will take place on Friday on the body of Prince, who died at his Paisley Park home aged 57, leaving behind him a gaping hole in musical genres as diverse as R&B, rock, funk and pop. Prince was found collapsed in a lift at the premises outside Minneapolis, which doubled as his music studio ... “Yes, it’s Prince” when asked if he was with the person. Prince was pronounced dead at the scene at 10.07am on Thursday....

photo: AP / Carolyn Kaster

From left, Oman's Deputy Prime Minister Fahd bin Mahmoud al-Said, Saudi Arabia's King Salman, U.S. President Barack Obama and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa participate in the Leaders Photo with these and other Gulf Cooperation Council leaders at the Diriyah Palace during the Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, April 21, 2016.

Arc Of Moral Universe Doesn’t Bend Towards Riyadh, Let Alone Washington D.C.

Edit WorldNews.com 22 Apr 2016

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling President Barack Obama’s conciliatory pilgrimage to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, doesn’t necessarily mean “the arc of the moral universe that is long and bends towards justice” curves towards Riyadh, let alone Washington DC ... Washington is also remaking the Middle East, having started with Iraq and continuing with Libya, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Somalia....

photo: Creative Commons / Antti Havukainen

MS Gabriella in Kustaamiekka strait, Helsinki.MS Gabriella is a cruise ferry sailing on a route connecting Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden for Viking Line.

Cuba reversal appears to clear way for Carnival cruise

Edit CNN 22 Apr 2016

Havana, Cuba (CNN)The Cuban government said it would scrap a long-standing ban on letting people born in Cuba come to the island by cruise ship, the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported Friday. The change in policy appears to remove barriers to the first visit by a U.S. cruise ship to the island scheduled for next month. The Carnival Cruise Corp....

photo: AP

This undated file photo shows al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Journalist Says Saudis Paid Pakistan To Hide Bin Laden From Americans

Edit WorldNews.com 21 Apr 2016

because the Saudis didn’t want the Americans to interrogate him.“The money was from the government … what the Saudis were doing, so I’ve been told, by reasonable people (I haven’t written this) is that they were also passing along tankers of oil for the Pakistanis to resell ... They were very unhappy about the attention paid to that because they went in and it was just a hit,” Hersh said ... That was the plan,” Hersh said....

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The Archers editor on how domestic abuse storyline was influenced by Thomas Hardy's Tess of ...

Edit The Independent 18 Apr 2016

The latest Archers storyline has been widely ... The Archers has come up with the most important storyline in British culture What The Archers didn't show is that austerity makes it harder for women like Helen to leave an abusive partner The Archers....

Keep the Archers harrowing – the domestic abuse storyline has me hooked

Edit The Guardian 11 Apr 2016

I’ve never listened to the dreary old Archers before, but now that it’s not so dreary, listening is mandatory ... And now we have to cram in the Archers ... But what wets some Archers fans are, shrinking from the horror, wanting the scriptwriters to stick to moo-cows, baa-lambs, Grundies and general rural slop ... And Rob’s abuse is easier to hide, but hopefully, the Archers is shining a big, bright spotlight on it....

The week in radio: The Archers; The Documentary: Where Are You Going?; Iain Lee

Edit The Guardian 10 Apr 2016

The Archers pulls no punches with its riveting story of domestic violence. Meanwhile, on the streets of New York ... The Archers (Radio 4) ... The Documentary ... I don’t know, you go away for one week… Catching up on The Archers palavers in one fell swoop made me realise that I am not a genuine fan. Is it very wrong to say that the only part of the programme I’ve been enjoying is the domestic violence story? Yes ... But it’s the truth....

How playwright Patrick Hamilton hit bullseye with The Archers

Edit The Guardian 08 Apr 2016

Hamilton’s name is back in the headlines as The Archers draws on Gaslight for its latest sensational storyline ... But it has taken a posthumous stint as secret scriptwriter for The Archers to put him back in the headlines ... How The Archers became a Shakespearean saga of fate, betrayal and family ambition ... The Archers, in contrast, reverted at this point from Hamilton to its more customary covert scriptwriter, Thomas Hardy....

The Archers review – the world catches up with its quiet brilliance

Edit The Guardian 07 Apr 2016

Even if you wouldn’t usually touch it with a cattle prod, The Archers (Radio 4) has dished up a week of episodes to whet the appetite for a binge of its back catalogue. One tuna bake and one plot twist sees the nation hit peak opinion-giving over whether Helen should have stabbed Rob or not ... It has been a week that challenges all the things you think you know about the gentle, rural drama – that it’s gentle, for a start....

X Factor star Jahmene Douglas's mum has been helping The Archers with domestic abuse plot

Edit Digital Spy 07 Apr 2016

The mother of X Factor star Jahmene Douglas has been helping The Archers with research for its hard-hitting domestic abuse plot ... "This is what we have been hearing on The Archers - the slow, insidious mental torture that Rob has been inflicting on Helen ... "It is vital that domestic abuse is portrayed clearly, in all its ugliness - and The Archers has not shied away from that....

Jahmene Douglas' mother Mandy discusses 18-year domestic abuse ordeal which inspired The Archers storyline

Edit The Daily Mail 06 Apr 2016

She wrote. 'I suffered every kind of abuse imaginable at the hands of my ex, including horrific physical attacks. My eldest son saw his father take a blow torch to me,' in the Mumsnet blog post ... ....

The Archers' take on domestic abuse was truly powerful

Edit Belfast Telegraph 06 Apr 2016

The Rob-Helen saga on The Archers has been as compelling a story as anything on radio or television in ages ... In The Archers story it was only last weekend, on the day before she stuck the knife in him, that Helen got to talk to Rob's ex Jess and realised he had been a monster from the outset ... I imagine there will be significantly higher level of response as a result of The Archers, which justifies everything about the programme....

What effect has The Archers domestic abuse story had?

Edit BBC News 05 Apr 2016

What effect has The Archers domestic abuse story had? ... ....

What The Archers didn't show is that austerity makes it harder for women like Helen ...

Edit The Independent 05 Apr 2016

This weekend's dramatic episode of The Archers was edge-of-your-seat stuff. For those listeners who had heard Rob’s abuse of Helen unfold over months and years, with each episode more chilling than the last, Helen’s fight back may have come as a relief....

The Archers' abuse storyline has year to run, BBC's Tony Hall reveals

Edit The Guardian 05 Apr 2016

The long-running storyline involving domestic abuse in the Archers has at least another year to run, having proved to be a powerful hit with listeners to the Radio 4 series ... Nancy Banks-Smith on The Archers ... “The much talked-about Archers storyline has brought about an unprecedented public focus on domestic violence in the UK ... The programme is cited ......

The Archers fans demand 'proper justice' as villain Rob Titchener is revealed to still be alive

Edit Digital Spy 05 Apr 2016

Fans of The Archers  have demanded that Rob Titchener gets proper justice now that it's been revealed he's actually alive. Listeners have expressed their feelings on the plot via Twitter, with many claiming that the villain should still face legal repercussions for abusing his long-suffering wife Helen....

The Archers' domestic violence storyline has sacrificed realism for ratings

Edit New Statesman 05 Apr 2016

The Archers was originally conceived as a means of disseminating information to farmers and rural smallholdings to increase productivity after the second-world war ... In choosing to conclude the storyline with Rob dead (or at least, grievously injured) at the hands of ... In the Archers, Helen is married to Rob and he has taken control of her finances....

Archers, The Filmography

Archer Filmography

Archer, Don Filmography