Find out what ironing boards and yoghurt have to do with The Archers when the radio drama'live show hits Harrogate Convention Centre
BBC Radio 4’s The Archers will mark its 75th anniversary with a national stage tour, including a date at Harrogate Convention Centre.
Hosted by comedian and The Archers devotee Angela Barnes, each performance will feature a cast of four actors along with the soap opera’s live sound-effects specialist Vanessa Nuttall.
The tour will celebrate 75 years of the world’s longest-running drama with a live evening of “storytelling, nostalgia and behind-the-scenes insight into how the show is made”.
It will feature eight characters who will perform in two rotating casts of four, with Timothy Bentinck, David Archer; Charlotte Martin, Susan CarterBen Norris, Ben Archer and Annabelle Dowler,Kirsty Miller, all appearing together.
The second cast is made up of Charles Collingwood Brian Aldridge; Ryan Kelly, Jazzer McCreary, Susie Riddell, Tracy Horrobin and Sunny Ormonde, Lilian Bellamy.
Bentinck, who has played the role of David Archer since 1982, said: “I’m so excited to be part of the upcoming The Archers national tour of the UK.
“We’ll be on stage but the show will be very interactive, and Archers listeners and fans will be just as much a part of it as us.
“So come and join us at the Flower and Produce Show, and as an added treat, get to see how the clever sound effects are achieved.
“Hint, it’s all done with yoghurt and ironing boards.”
The Archers: Live at 75 will include a specially written episode performed live on stage with archive material from the BBC vaults, an audience question-and-answer session and a pub quiz inspired by the village pub The Bull.
Broadcast for the first time on January 1 1951, The Archers was originally conceived to educate both farmers and the public on modern agricultural methods and has evolved over the years to reflect the changes in rural life in England.
It has tackled topical issues such as climate change, the economic challenges faced by farmers, domestic abuse, alcoholism and modern slavery, all while continuing to entertain listeners.
Today, it remains one of the BBC’s most popular programmes and regularly tops the list of most popular on-demand programmes for listeners under 35 on BBC Sounds.
With more than 20,000 episodes broadcast, it reaches millions of fans who tune in to the dramas of the residents of the fictional village of Ambridge every week.
The live show will be set at a reimagining of the Ambridge Flower and Produce Show and hits Harrogate Convention Cnetre on Sunday September 7 at 2pm.