The Archers

The sixth episode of the third series, broadcast on 16 December 1952, featured a parody of what is now the longest running radio serial in the world: The Archers.

Yes, that’s right folks, The Archers is so old that the Goons mocked it in 1952. See page 26 of the Radio Times for evidence.

For those unfamiliar with it, The Archers tells the story of the residents of the fictional village of Ambridge in the fictional county of Borsetshire, and is quite possibly the most quintessentially English thing ever invented.

The series actually began less than five months before the Goons, with the first ever episode airing on 1 January 1951. As of 29 July 2021, there have been 19,465 episodes broadcast. That’s a bloody long story.

June Spencer, who has played Peggy Woolley since the very beginning, talks about her memories of the early days of the show here.

This way, Eccles.

Photo by John Foehner from Pexels