This week on BBC Radio 4 Extra, there’s a rare chance to hear how The Archers coped with the 1960s. In two 30-minute programmes, Ambridge in the Decade of Love presents some gems from a stash of 2,670 episodes of The Archers which had remained forgotten for over 20 years.
Presented by Richard Stilgoe, Ambridge in the Decade of Love was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2003. At the time, producer Simon Elmes wrote a fascinating article for The Guardian about the find, how it plugged a huge gap in our archive, and what he learned about this period of Archers history:
“...Ambridge slowly embraces change: coffee bars and jukeboxes, cellar youth clubs, motor scooters, overspill housing, comprehensive schools and the burgeoning leisure industry all feature, not to mention innumerable new farming methods...”
Keri Davies is an Archers scriptwriter and web producer
Ambridge in the Decade of Love is available on BBC iPlayer for seven days, and on BBC Radio 4 Extra as follows:
Episode 1: Today (Monday 30 June) 13:30, 20:30. (Tuesday
1 July) 02:30
Episode 2: Tomorrow (Tuesday 1 July) 06:30, 13:30, 20:30
