Oh my goodness, Roshanarose! The Archers is a serial that has been on BBC Radio 4 every day except Saturdays since before I was born. It centres on the Archer family, who are farmers in the fictional village of Ambridge in "Borsetshire". There is a huge cast of other characters. The series was originally conceived to pass agricultural information on to farmers after the war ("an everyday story of country folk") - last week, on the 60th anniversary, there was a whole day of particularly iconic episodes on BBC7, together with interviews with some of the longest standing members of the cast, and it was interesting to note how much less didactic the programmes have become. Some of the old episodes are famous - most especially the one in which Grace Died - Grace was the new and lovely young wife of Phil Archer, and she died going back into a burning stables to rescue her horses (who escaped). It is widely believed that this episode was written to coincide with the first night of ITV (the first UK commercial TV station) in the 1950s.
The Archers has a huge following, several fan clubs, a section on the BBC website, etc etc. One of my earliest memories is of sitting in the Belfast sink in our old kitchen listening to the theme tune - tum tee tum tee tum tee tum - whilst being bathed by my mother; I must have been about 2. The evening episode still starts at 7pm, with a repeat at 2pm the next day, and a weekly omnibus on Sunday mornings - these days of course you can also catch up via the website.
And yes, to change the subject, our weather is dire - no snow at the moment, tg, but sheet ice everywhere, roads and pavements lethal. Thankfully i do not have to go anywhere apart from John Lewis's tomorrow - no driving for me.
Best wishes
Rosemary
