programme analysis - the archers

 

The Archers are a British radio soap opera. It is broadcasting on BBC 4 radio. It is for entertainment purposes. It has been broadcasting since 1951. They have aired over 20000 episodes and has become the world’s longest running present day drama by number of episodes. The archers are set in a fictional village of Ambridge in the fictional county of Borsetshire. There are many different themes in this show including many serious, contemporary social issues, drug addiction, rape, inter-racial relationships and more. The archers have been broadcasted in countries other than the UK as they had also been introduced to New Zealand in 1982. They have been going on for 65 years.

 

Each episode of the archers are around thirteen minutes long and they broadcast on BBC Radio 4 everyday between Sunday and Friday at 7pm. They are also repeated on the following day at 2pm expect on Saturdays.

 

The archers were originally established to inform and educate farmers. They have been running for 65 years and they are known for being the world’s longest running soap opera. The archers happens in real-time and will reflect events taking place in the real world. It is set in the fictional community of Ambridge in Midlands. Some scenes of the archers were re-written and re-recorded. The archers use ‘Barwick Green’ for their theme music, and it’s been the longest running BBC radio 4 opera. The theme music is about 15 seconds long.

 

The archers was originally made to educate farmers hoping that this would increase food production after the Second World War. It was thought that the show could be used as a way for the ministry of agriculture to communicate different type important information to farmers. Another reason why the archers were created was to show was to increase productivity in the post war era of rationing and food shortages.

 

There are many different scenes in the archers that show different meanings such as the death of grace archer. This episode was about how Phil archer had been married to his first wife before she got locked up and trapped in blazing barn, trying to help save a horse. Grace had then passed away in Phil’s arms not being able to make it to the hospital on time. This episode lured a lot of audience away from BBC radio 4. The archer portrays events taking place on the date of the broadcast.

 

The archers have been made by bringing lots of different people together. The writers of the radio show all get together to discuss different storylines and characters and are also helped by a technical group to help record. They also have a small production team that gets it all out to BBC radio 4. During covid the BBC radio show did still go on but instead of recording in the studio the characters all did it from their homes. This also led to the archers’ making episodes about covid while it was going on. They would reflect the pandemic while it was going on.

 

The radio show did end up doing very well as it also taught listeners about farming. This made the archers start airing in different regions such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada. This then got the archers into making more changes so all listeners would stay listening to their show. This made different developments including different acting and writing to bring in more listeners. The archers are also a favourite by people as they then made it available as a podcast so people who missed out and episode could go back and catch up with what they had missed. This means that any episode can be listened to at any time.

The archers were originally made to educate farmers which would help increase food production after the war. The archers became very popular in its early stages attracting a lot of people by 1953. They also show everyday life which also made it very popular. Also, the archers happens in real time. This means that it shows different events that have been taking place on the date of broadcasting. Recording for the archers takes place every four weeks and the actors receive their scripts a few days before. The actors are only employed for about 6 days while they record for 24 episodes. Episodes are then released 3-6 weeks later. They are a big business for the BBC as it’s the most listened to BBC programme online. There are now 18740 episodes of the archers.

BBC radio four is on ninety-two to ninety-five FM one nine eight long wave an on digital radio and television. You can also listen online or get the programme sent to your computer in a podcast.

On the 30th anniversary of the archers they came out with an episode for this occasion. it starts off with their theme music which is around 30 seconds to introduce the show. it then goes onto dialogue between the characters. the dialogue in the radio show sounds realistic.  it also includes background sound of people talking. this also makes the radio more realistic as it seems like they are having a normal everyday conversation. you also can hear glass sounds in this episode to indicate the characters pouring a drink. the background talking continues for quite a while through the radio show. this episode ends with outro music to indicate that this episode is over. in conclusion i feel like the sound effects made this episode sound very realistic.