Do not adjust your set – it really is The Archers
Exhibition celebrating 70th anniversary warns fans it may shatter their illusions of radio favourites
WHEN museums post a warning at an exhibition, it usually relates to content that may be upsetting. And so it will be in a new show dedicated to The Archers.
But the message at Palace House, Newmarket, will not concern violent or shocking imagery.
It will warn visitors the show contains photographs of The Archers cast members that may not at all resemble the images of the characters BBC Radio 4 listeners hold in their minds.
The exhibition will trace the history and development of the world’s longest-running drama series over the past seven decades.
Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the show and featuring rare and previously unseen exhibits, it will tour nationally after showing at Palace House.
“There will be photographs of the actors, and people do get exercised about these things,” said Steven Parissien, the museum’s chief executive.
“It is a radio programme, so we won’t be doing too many photos. But we will have a jokey warning that says: ‘Beware, these people may not look as you imagined them to look.’ ”
The Archers began with a pilot episode in 1950 and its first episode proper followed on Jan 1 1951.
Exhibits in the show will include the first script, a map of Ambridge created by Ordnance Survey, and examples of the old card system – now replaced by a digital version – on which writers kept track of characters, plot lines and family trees.
There will also be a showing of Supper with the Archers, a 1963 film made for the National Dairy Council and featuring the cast cooking with milk, including Carol Grenville making a banana trifle and Peggy Archer whipping up a milkshake.
Themes explored include how the show has influenced the nation’s views on the countryside, and how it has tackled serious issues over the years.
“The Archers has always looked both backwards and forwards. It is not just about the past, but about the way we live now,” Prof Parissien said.
“We are the first industrialised nation in the world and we have a smaller proportion of people working on the land than anyone else in Europe.
“But often, if you ask English people, ‘What is England?’, the countryside is cited even though most of us aren’t in it. Around one per cent of us work on the land, yet The Archers’ share on radio is 10 per cent. The Archers has influenced our view of Englishness and the countryside.”
Palace House has put together the exhibition in association with the BBC History Unit.
In addition to celebrating some of the soap’s most beloved characters, it will show how listeners’ lives have been changed by some of its storylines.
One recent example is the Rob Titchener domestic abuse plot, which aired in 2016.
The charity Women’s Aid reported that calls to its helpline rose by 20 per cent in the year that the storyline was broadcast, which they attributed in part to the show.
A final section of the exhibition will remind visitors of some of the celebrities who have appeared in The Archers over the years.
They include Princess Margaret, who played herself as a guest at an Ambridge fundraiser in 1984, and Dame Edna Everage, whom Lynda Snell went to see on stage in a 1988 episode.
‘Often if you ask ‘what is England?’ the countryside is cited even though most of us are not in it’