NFR: The Archers

[Berserker]

Sometimes when I am driving home from work I catch the radio programme the Archers. I must say I really can't stand the programme, I think it is awful.
The thing is it is such a popular radio programme, even Bradley Wiggins said he was a fan of it.

Can people explain to me why it is so popular, am I missing a trick, or am I not posh enough to appreciate it?

[King_Crud]

when I hear The Archers I just think of Alan Partridge

And, also, archers. I hate archers, "The Archers" and Jeffrey Archer. You're all deceitful cowards. I just realized then, that only applies to archers and Jeffrey Archer. But not "The Archers",  who... to be fair, are a mixed bag.

[Delboy]

I'm with you Berserker, the misses wouldn't miss it, all it sounds like to me as a lot of ooooo arrrrs. :005:

[Peabody]

My thing about The Archers is that it replaced Dick Barton. Special Agent. Now, that was a real boys programme

[RaySmith]

My thing about The Archers is that it replaced Dick Barton. Special Agent. Now, that was a real boys programme

I remember both those programmes from childhood- we didn't have a TV and the radio was on all the time. Dick Barton was the one I used to listen to, while the Archers washed over me, I just remember Walter Gabriel's voice, but the theme tune always evokes poignant memories.

A confession - after all these years I have just started getting into the Archers. Listening to Radio 4, as a break from Talksport or 5Live, I used to mentally,  or literally, switch off when I heard The Archers theme tune, but in the past year or so I have started, somehow, following the story, and I'm definitely not posh.

But some of the stories are  quite good. EG the man who loses his job, and becomes ostracised, and descends into homelessness, drinking and mental-illness. Though, unrealistically perhaps, some members of the community eventually rally round to help him.

Or the current story lines about an independently minded woman who becomes infatuated with a man who seems a real sexist b********, who also happens to be a manager of the agri-business corporation which taking over the area. Is she deluded, and the man has a hidden agenda, or has she found happiness, and the relationship works for her, whatever we  might think as listeners? Or the son of a middle class, liberal/lefty mother, who  joins the army, when she expected him to go to university.

But I agree that causal listening to The Archers does make it seem  off -puttingly posh, and cosy - though you could say that about Radio4 generally - and I'm often appalled by it's middle-classness - but it does have many interesting programmes, and is the best speech radio station in this country, though I also listen to 5Live and Talksport a lot.

[Lighthouse]

Never understood why The Archers were popular. I used to listen to Radio 4 but turned off when The Archers came on. Although to be honest, I never got over the loss of Mrs Dale's Diary.


Radio 4 Extra on digital is the only radio along with 5 live I listen to much now. Great shame.

[epsomraver]

Never understood why The Archers were popular. I used to listen to Radio 4 but turned off when The Archers came on. Although to be honest, I never got over the loss of Mrs Dale's Diary.


Radio 4 Extra on digital is the only radio along with 5 live I listen to much now. Great shame.

Not so good since they stopped round the Horne on a Monday morning at 8 am, was a great start to the week or in your case, just another day :005:

[Delboy]

der dee der dee der dee der der .... Yes you know it, Music while you work. I'll get my coat.  :Get Coat gif:

[jarv]

Wasn't there a program called "journey into space"? I remember listening to that. Desert island discs. Really, imagine the thought of having to listen to the same 10 records for the rest of your life.  However, best radio of that era was the comedy...
Hancock's half hour.
the goons
round the horn
I'm sorry I'll read that again (came later, monty python crew).

Happy days.

[Lighthouse]

Plus The Navy Lark and The Clitheroe Kid (which always seemed a bit odd)


Radio 4 I think had a radio adaptation of The Exorcist on a few months ago.

[Burt]

I could never get in to the Archers, I have tried to listen a few times but never make it through an episode. Likewise Coronation St and East Enders. Not a particularly soapy kind of guy, I guess...

[NogoodBoyo]

I could never get in to the Archers, I have tried to listen a few times but never make it through an episode. Likewise Coronation St and East Enders. Not a particularly soapy kind of guy, I guess...

Nogood "seeing Burt come clean, isit" Boyo

[HatterDon]

The Archers theme music and the whole "every day story of country folk" always means England to me. I never actually listened to the show, just the opening.

I was addicted to Coronation Street almost as soon as I got to England the first time -- summer 1966 -- but never got into East Enders or that horrible soap with the Australians in it.

I much preferred the quirky stuff I couldn't see in the states like Adam Adament Lives, Quatermass, Dr. Who [it's everywhere in the states now], Til Death Us Do Part, and the best television series ever: The Lotus Eaters.

[Peabody]

Wasn't there a program called "journey into space"? I remember listening to that. Desert island discs. Really, imagine the thought of having to listen to the same 10 records for the rest of your life.  However, best radio of that era was the comedy...
Hancock's half hour.
the goons
round the horn
I'm sorry I'll read that again (came later, monty python crew).

Happy days.

Journey into Space was a half hour serial and the hero was Jet Morgan with his mates Lemmy (played by the great David Kossof) Doc played by Guy Kingsly Porter  and Mitch, who I think was played by Bill Kerr. Jet Morgan was played by Andrew Faulds, who went on to become a long serving Labour MP

[RidgeRider]

I feel like I just woke up and it's the early 1950's  :005:

[WhiteJC]

Wasn't there a program called "journey into space"? I remember listening to that. Desert island discs. Really, imagine the thought of having to listen to the same 10 records for the rest of your life.  However, best radio of that era was the comedy...
Hancock's half hour.
the goons
round the horn
I'm sorry I'll read that again (came later, monty python crew).

Happy days.

Journey into Space was a half hour serial and the hero was Jet Morgan with his mates Lemmy (played by the great David Kossof) Doc played by Guy Kingsly Porter  and Mitch, who I think was played by Bill Kerr. Jet Morgan was played by Andrew Faulds, who went on to become a long serving Labour MP

the first series Lemmy was played by Alfie Bass, David Kossof played him in the 2nd and 3rd? series. they've recently been repeated on Radio 4 Extra, wonderful stuff

[WhiteJC]

in the early 1980's I bought a car that ha a radio with a broken tuning dial so all I could listen to was Radio 4. At first I hated it, then I got hooked, the best 'talk' radio station by far

[Holders]

I expect we've all heard the Archers from time to time. For me, when I catch it now, it's just not the same without Walter Gabriel.

I think it tries to portray a larger-than-life modern village with its typical "oil and water" mix of country people overlaid by the well-to-do, incomers and yuppies and all the latest fads and exaggerated topical issues. I find it mostly a rather irritating caricature.

[Berserker]

, Til Death Us Do Part, and the best television series ever: The Lotus Eaters.

Oh definitely loved all the above when I was young. Strangely enough had a thing about Ian Hendry when I was about 13, even sneaked into Get Carter and The Southern Star at the cinema although way under age.

[Shredhead]

The Archers has some accurate stories about what happens in agriculture and the countryside. Sometimes its roots as Government propaganda show. In the last few years, some of the storylines have got more dramatic - like TV soap operas. You can have a holiday from the Archers for a few years, start listening again and pick up the storyline pretty quickly.