After nearly four- years with 'The Archers' the Producer of the popular Light Programme serial, which reaches its thousandth episode on Monday, has come to know every inch of the village and every detail of the characters' lives. Here he tells how the ' story of country folk ' is brought to the air.
An old Persian saying has it that a man may count his wealth by the number of his friends. All that is still true today the Archers are multi-millionaire, for never has any ordinary British family had so many loyal friends both at home and overseas. There will be nothing special about 'Monday's broadcast. The people of Ambridge will go about their everyday business, all unaware that they have achieved 'a landmark in their history.
It will he just another episode in a serial which has taken a grip on the imagination of millions. What is the secret of its appeal? There is no question of suspense keeping the listeners on tender- hooks from one episode to another. Dan Archer isn't bothered by rustlers or gunmen from Borchester.
Life runs smoothly in Ambridge, the crises being an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease or a quarrel between Phil and Grace. Of course there are the usual entanglements, the inter-play of character, but little more than one would expect in any village community. Perhaps, after all, that is the answer. We enjoy The Archers because the lives of Dan and his family are, in many ways, a reflection of our own -fairly uneventful, beset with minor problems, romantic, social, and financial. Added to that is the fact that we are all interested in the lives of other people. Dan Archer is everybody's next-door-neighbour, and each week-day evening we learn everything worth knowing about his life and activities. We also know more than he does about what his friends are doing and thinking. For nearly four years I have exercised a guiding hand in Birmingham studios over the activities of the Ambridge community. By now I know every inch of the village, how many cows Dan has in his meadows! , the size of the squire's bank account, even how the woodworm is flourishing in Walter Gabriel's decrepit outbuildings. It is, perhaps, a tribute to the scriptwriters that I come fresh each Sunday to the mechanics of production, eager to supply a backcloth of reality to the scripts.
Whether you listen regularly to The Archers or are merely bored by hearing other people talking about them, you cannot escape them. Neither can I. On the bus, in the local, sitting at home, people want to know when Philip is going to marry Grace Fairbrother or what has happened to Nelson Walter Gabriel's son. For four days I am in the studio rehearsing and recording five daily episodes for listeners in Great Britain a week in advance. Then there is the half-hour programme for overseas listeners and an edited version in omnibus form for Saturday nights. That done, there, are the problems of next week's episodes to be anticipated.
The countryside is always changing. Those country sounds an important ingredient of the programme vary from month to month: in some cases from week to week. Dan's turkeys like any other farmer's, grow as they eat their heads off, and sound effects must help to register that fact.
For the countryman-and the townsman, too is not an uncritical listener. He is quick to notice any discrepancies in sound and phraseology. Early in the serial's history when shoals of letters poured in. One listener 'Went so far as to suggest that we should rename the programme 'Educating Archer'!
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are the days when Studio Two at the Studio Centre in Birmingham becomes Brookfield Farm, Ambridge. Studio managers assemble with their recorded sound effects and begin to test them out. The air is filled with birdsong roaring tractors, the clatter of milk churns and grunting pigs until the place sounds like a farmyard
Every speech is carefully rehearsed and the sound effects superimposed at the right moment. Some times what appears to be a simple effect on paper can be a producer's headache. Take the case of Walter Gabriel's trombone....
Have you ever tried borrowing a trombone? Most people haven't got one, and those who have are reluctant to part with it. As the recording date drew near I became more and more concerned. In desperation, I rang Gilbert Vinter, conductor of the BBC Midland Orchestra, and he was prepared to go to great lengths to oblige me. Not only would he lend me a trombone, but a trombonist as well. He saved the day.
My job is made easier by the fact that the cast are absolutely sincere in their portrayal of the Ambridge characters. They believe in them, and they give all they've got to make them creatures of flesh and blood. That, together with their devotion to the programme as a whole, results in a team- work that has played no small part in making The Archers a success.
The same spirit is to be found among the 'back- room boys'---studio managers and engineers--on whom the success of any programme so largely depends. Then there is the editor, Godfrey Baseley, who first dreamed up this fabulous family and who remains a tower of strength; the scriptwriters, Edward J. Mason and Geoffrey Webb. All three go to great lengths to ensure the authenticity of the programme. At a moment's notice they are ready to prepare one of those 'topical inserts' which keep Dan and his family abreast of events.
Ambridge is an exciting and busy world for these who work behind the scenes.