Archers Cast Urge BBC to Keep Show in Birmingham

More than 100 current and previous cast members of The Archers have written to BBC director general Matt Brittin urging him to keep recording the Radio 4 drama in Birmingham. The Guardian

The letter was also signed by current and former editors, scriptwriters, sound effects workers and programme advisers, as well as the trade unions Equity and WGGB. Actors Judi Dench and Adjoa Andoh are among those who signed.

Dench played Pru Forrest in a cameo for the 10,000th episode in May 1989. Terry Wogan appeared as himself in the same episode.

The BBC had planned to stop recording The Archers in Birmingham for the first time in the show's 75-year history after scrapping plans for a radio drama studio. Cast members expressed anger over the decision to scrap the planned studio. The Guardian

The bespoke studio had been planned for the Tea Factory in Digbeth, the BBC's new Birmingham headquarters. The plan was dropped as part of a £500m cost-cutting drive.

Production staff for The Archers will still move to the Tea Factory while the BBC looks for an existing studio to record the show. That search includes the West Midlands and other parts of the UK, with no guarantee the programme will continue to be recorded in the region.

The signatories said moving recording out of Birmingham would be "a great betrayal of the people of Birmingham, its creative industries and its local businesses". Irish News They said: "A flagship show deserves flagship facilities, from which both the BBC and the city of Birmingham would benefit for decades." Equity

The Archers is set in the fictional village of Ambridge in the West Midlands. It marked its 75th anniversary at its recording studio in Birmingham in 2026.

Brittin has defended the decision not to record the programme at the new Birmingham headquarters. BBC