THE ARCHERS

The Archers is the longest running radio drama with 16000 episodes to it's name. It was created post World War One to get across the message of farming as a good way of life. It has a very big fan base and has various fansites set up in it's honour. It's made in a similar way to television soaps in the way that it has lots of characters and various story lines are running in the drama at the same time. The focus of each episode switches between the characters. It's official website has a fictisous map of the town where it takes place and an extensive time line of all the key story lines in it's history. It sticks to basic convetions of radio drama and doesn't try to go against or disrupt these conventions in any way. There is noticeably hardly any background noise and the dialogue between characters takes centre stage. Some voices are louder than others depending on the situation and location to give the impression of depth and scale. Silence follows dialogue to represent passing of time. I didn't find it very entertaining personally but I can see why it might appeal to others.