Making The Archers during the coronavirus pandemic

For 70 years The Archers has been made by bringing people together.

Writers meet to discuss storylines and characters, actors and technical crew gather to record in a studio, and a small production team works meticulously to turn all of these comings and goings into the episodes we all hear.

So, how do you make The Archers during a global pandemic?

It’s a question the team behind The Archers have been grappling with in recent days. Here’s how we’re planning to do it.

From Monday 25 May there will be four episodes of The Archers per week. These will be broadcast Monday to Thursday at the usual time of 7:02pm on BBC Radio 4 along with the podcast publishing at its usual time on those days. The Sunday Omnibus will consequently be a little shorter.

From this date, The Archers will be temporarily changing. Storylines will continue and you will still hear about the comings and goings in Ambridge, but you will hear its residents as you have never heard them before. Instead of multiple characters interacting each episode will have fewer characters and you will have an insight into more of their private thoughts.

The safety of our cast and crew is paramount which means we will not be recording The Archers in the way it has always been done, in a studio in Birmingham. Instead, actors will be directed and recorded down the line from their homes.

Reconfiguring the programme in a matter of weeks has been an enormous creative and organisational challenge. Our first priority is to keep the show on the road and to keep taking you to Ambridge no matter how much life in the UK is temporarily affected by coronavirus.

Archive episodes

From 3 to 24 May a special selection of classic episodes of The Archers will be re-broadcast. Read more about these episodes.

Coronavirus in The Archers

Whereas topical subjects – for example the latest Cabinet reshuffle or England’s fortunes in the World Cup – have previously been added to scripts, this has not been possible with coronavirus. From May, The Archers will reflect the pandemic, but in a way that the programme’s many loyal listeners might expect.

Jeremy Howe, Editor of The Archers, said, "For nearly 70 years Ambridge has been a haven for our audience, and so it continues to be. Whilst coronavirus might be coming to Borsetshire, listeners can still expect The Archers to be an escape, and the residents to be bickering and as playful and witty as ever.

"We want this new approach to The Archers to still be the picture of the way we live now in rural England that it has always been. However, these are unprecedented times and the team has worked tirelessly to make sure we can continue to visit Ambridge. I am enormously grateful to the production team, the cast and the crew for all their magnificent efforts and creativity."