With five million people tuning in to the world's longest running radio drama, the Archers has been bridging the gap between rural life and the general public for 75 years.
Originally set up as a way of conveying messages about farming techniques in a post-World War Two context, the show has evolved into a well-loved drama which attracts five million listeners today.
The Archers was first broadcast nationwide on January 1, 1951.
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Through the years, the programme has not shied away from dealing with some of the biggest issues farmers and rural communities have faced, from foot and mouth to domestic abuse to inheritance and succession.
Timothy Bentinck, who has played David Archer since the 1980s, said he was always conscious that whatever they were doing was being listened to, not only by those who have nothing to do with farming, but also by people 鈥榳ho really know what they are talking about.
The Archers
He said: "Here you are the Farmers Guardian and obviously dealing with the real thing and we are the pretend thing.
"And what we have is responsibility of representing farming in a way that sounds realistic to a farmer."
"So we are very concerned in the way that it is written and the way that it is performed, that it sounds like we know what we are talking about and what we are saying is relevant to farmers."
And the show was still having an impact and providing people with information, with Timothy highlighting letters he had received in the past telling him they had saved their harvest, because of an issue highlighted in the show which the farmer had then been able to tackle.
"The whole reason for the program in the first place was to get farmers to be more efficient after the Second World War and Britain was, you know, on its knees and was not being able to feed itself."
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He added back at the start the drama part was maybe 50% of the show, but now it is more like 90%.
"It still has a role to be informative and to be educational."
Ben Norris, who plays Timothy's in-show son, Ben Archer, said: "It still does really wonderful work in bringing issues to the light and encouraging conversations about things that might otherwise go unspoken about, you know, be it the very famous Helen and Rob coercive control storyline and Ben's mental health and Jim's historic abuse."
Ben's character had a psychotic episode in 2022, highlighting the real world issues with mental health across the agricultural sector.
A key part of the show's charm is its ability not only to create a believable farming storyline, but a farming family dynamic.
Farming families often working and living in closer proximity to each other than those in other walks of life moulds unique relationships, which have to be recreated for radio.
"We get on each other's nerves beautifully," Ben said.
"Timothy and I developed a quite nice ribbing dynamic, shall we say, in the live show. I think the father son atmosphere is being very accurately portrayed and people find that very relatable."
Whilst some sounds such as the cows have to be piped in, as much of the sound effects as possible are done live.
"You have got ironing boards as every different farm gate in the town. You have got little metal steps doubling as tractor steps," Ben said.
Timothy also emphasised the need to 鈥榮ort of look out and see the green fields' from the studio.
"It is not just talking heads and somebody doing sound effects in the background. If you are, you know, hitting a fence post with a sledgehammer. You need to involve yourself with the hitting of it."
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He added he had been teased that he was 鈥榓lways out of breath'.
"It is tiring and [farmers] are out working," he said.
"I have heard other people make that mistake of going, oh, I am hitting a fence post.听 And then in the background, thunk, thunk, thunk. But the voice is not involved in it. You have got to sell that."
Ambridge
Timothy has some farming credentials, having done work as a farm labourer and helping on his father's smallholding.
But for Ben, the Archers was his first foray into farming life.
"I had a very urban upbringing. I thought farmers were things that did not happen anymore, like a historical kind of curiosity," he said.
"Obviously food had to come from somewhere, but I could not comprehend that there were still farmers farming."
He added joining the show had been a real invitation to learn.
"For Ben Archer in particular, it is interesting because obviously he is in a farming family, but he is not himself a farmer. He has chosen to pursue a different profession with nursing."
However, the character still does sheepdog trials with Bess and has the background in agriculture so Ben had learned lots about competitions as well as having to learn diseases which can affect livestock and crop names.
"It has been a really interesting technical challenge in that regard and also just for me, like a really mind-expanding thing.
"It has been very apparent just how up against it people are, how hard things are economically and in terms of the lifestyle, how lonely it is."
As part of the celebrations, , which includes discussions with the cast and a specially written episode performed live on stage.
Fans of the show have no doubt built an image in their mind of the characters, which may not always marry up with the reality when seeing their actors out and about.
But Ben added that when they get to the scene they perform, people still go into their 鈥榤ind's eye anyway because they are so used to the auditory world of the show', not watching as though it is a play or film.
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"And it is especially delicious when Susan Carter first starts speaking to them because she has such a distinctive voice, which is quite different from Charlotte, the actor's voice.
"So when she has her first lines, there is a kind of ripple of delight throughout the auditorium."
Timothy said sometimes in a studio it was easy to forget 5 million people were listening, but the tour was humbling and helped them connect with that audience.
"The love of the program is so evident. It is kind of overpowering and it is sort of humbling and it is a joy. The audience is very much part of the show."
Ben said it was amazing to think about the sheer longevity of the show, how many characters there have been, how many lives it has touched.
"How many things can we say, have endured that much social, political, economic change? It is a real testament to the people who make the program and also to the listeners, generations of people, you know, passing it from one generation to the next."
The way people listen to the radio has also changed, with few families now gathering around the kitchen table to tune in and more likely to listen on the go through earphones.
"So there is an intimacy, even though you are a bit busier, there is an intimacy about it being like right in your ears and, and, and how rich the sound because of, I guess, how much more high fidelity we can get in our in our audio equipment these days as well."
Looking to the future, both were convinced the Archers would still be around telling farmers' stories in another 75 years.
"There is a huge, huge demand and love and the number of listeners are not going to go away," Timothy adds.
"And to keep it relevant in the future, I just think we need to keep on top of everything that is happening in the country, but without becoming political, which is very difficult.
"The Archers tries hard not to be political, but it still addresses some of the problems. For instance, recently the whole inheritance thing took a while to do, but it has addressed that."
He adds it was also about community and keeping that connection alive, despite less people involved in agriculture.
"It very cleverly it fills a gap. It creates a community that has in so many ways has been lost to people. And I think that is really important, this feeling of community. So I think there will always be a demand for that."
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