The Archers

The Archers

The Archers, having aired over 18,800 episodes, is the world's longest-running radio serial. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4—the BBC's main spoken-word channel—this soap opera was initially billed, an everyday story of country folk and now, a contemporary drama in a rural setting.

Five pilot episodes were aired in 1950 and the first episode was broadcast nationally on 1 January 1951. it was established to educate farmers which, it was hoped, would increase food production after the second world war.

The Archers is set in the fictional village of Ambridge in the fictional county of Borsetshire, in England. Borsetshire is situated between, in reality, the contiguous counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire, south of Birmingham in The Midlands. Possibly based on the village of Cutnall Green, various other villages claim to be the inspiration for Ambridge; The Bull, Ambridge's pub, is modeled 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.

Wherever possible, The Archers happens in real time i.e. it portrays events taking place on the date of broadcast. If a real-life event can be predicted, it is often written into the script. even unforeseen events have been weaved into the script with scenes being re-written.

The 10 Archers storylines that have made you cry the most

1. When John Archer died
2. When Nick Grundy died without warning
3. When Nigel fell to his death
4. Scruff!
5. Helen and Rob
6. When Joe killed his ferrets
7. When Mark Hebden died in a car crash
8. Peggy and Jack
9. Phil's death
10. Kristy's miscarriage

Content analysis - what is on the site? 

On the site of the archers, the first thing we can see is a picture under which there is a sentence telling us what the archers is about "Contemporary drama in a rural setting". what we also see is the most recent episode, telling us the date of release so we know if we have missed an episode. right next to that it tells us when the next episode is coming out so we don't miss it. If we scroll down we can see news related to The Archers. these stories provide us with a better understanding of the archers and can be very good for people who are just now starting to listen to it and are searching for information.

What opportunities are there for audiences to interact?

on the website, there are a few quizzes made to entertain the fans with challenging them on their knowledge of the archers, but also reward them at the end if they've paid close attention. there are also other quizzes like "which silent character are you?" where there are no challenges, but just rewards as you are not asked to answer any questions on the actual episodes.

What pleasures does it offer audiences?

People may listen to The Archers for the storyline as well as the characters as listeners can become invested in the characters becoming interested in their storyline and leading them to want to know what will happen in the feature. The Archers is an educational program that has some very serious topics that have been touched on which makes the listeners even more interested especially if they themselves have experienced similar problems.

Domestic violence Twitter hashtag raises awareness of non-physical abuse.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/domestic-violence-hashtag-encouraging-users-to-think-of-other-forms-of-abuse-goes-viral-a7022091.html