Home
/
Fiction
/
The Archers: Vintage Highlights
The Archers: Vintage Highlights
Jul 8, 2025 9:42 PM

Author:Various,Full Cast,Ysanne Churchman,Norman Painting,Patricia Greene,Alan Devereux,Charles Collingwood,Angela Piper,Patricia Gallimore,Dennis Folwell,Colin Skipp

The Archers: Vintage Highlights

Classic vintage highlights from the much-loved radio soap

The world's longest-running drama, The Archers has delighted audiences ever since its launch on 1 January 1951. Today, over five million fans across generations and across the world tune in, hooked on the epic saga of everyday life in the rural village of Ambridge.

This collection takes a look back at the early years of the iconic show, from the 1950s to the 1970s, and follows the fortunes of some of its pivotal characters, including Jack and Peggy Archer, Walter Gabriel, Sid Perks, and Brian and Jennifer Aldridge. Here are some of the most memorable moments from Ambridge's history: Grace Archer's tragic death in a stable fire; Tom Forrest's arrest for manslaughter; the wedding of Tony and Pat; the birth of Phil and Jill's daughter, Elizabeth - and their subsequent worries about her heart; and the shock of Jennifer's illegitimate baby.

Also featured is a compilation of farming catastrophes that shaped the lives of the residents, including Dan Archer's devastating discovery of fowl pest in his poultry, plus a selection of Christmas celebrations throughout the years, where we hear tidings of the births of Debbie Aldridge and John Archer and drop in on shows in the village hall.

Covering all the major Archers milestones over the first three decades, this compendium of classic highlights offers lifelong listeners an ideal opportunity to relive their favourite storylines, while giving newer fans the perfect chance to catch up with key events from Ambridge's past.

Due to the vintage nature of these recordings, the sound quality may vary.

Track listing

1. Introduction

2. Grace and Phil

3. George and Nora

4. Walter Gabriel

5. Tom Forrest

6. Phil and Jill (Part 1)

7. Phil and Jill (Part 2)

8. Farming Catastrophes

9. Sid and Polly

10. Jack and Peggy

11. Pat and Tony

12. Brian and Jennifer

13. Christmas in Ambridge

Production credits

Written by Brian Hayles, Edward J Mason, Keith Miles, Bruno Milna, William Smethurst, David Turner and Geoffrey Webb

Produced by Tony Shryane

Editor: Godfrey Baseley

Cast includes:

Peggy Archer - Thelma Rogers/June Spencer

Jack Archer - Dennis Folwell

Doris Archer - Gwen Berryman

Grace Fairbrother/Archer - Ysanne Churchman

Tom Forrest - Bob Arnold

Walter Gabriel - Chris Gittins

Nelson Gabriel - Jack May

Dan Archer - Harry Oakes/Monte Crick/Edgar Harrison

Phil Archer - Norman Painting

Jill Archer - Patricia Greene

Sid Perks - Alan Devereux

Polly Mead/Perks - Hilary Newcombe

George Barford - Graham Roberts

Christine Archer - Lesley Saweard

Nora McAuley - Julia Mark

Brian Aldridge - Charles Collingwood

Jennifer Archer/Aldridge - Angela Piper

Carol Grey - Anne Cullen

Pat Lewis/Archer - Patricia Gallimore

Tony Archer - Colin Skipp

Lilian Archer - Margaret Lane/Elizabeth Marlowe

First broadcast March 1952-December 1982 on the BBC Home Service, BBC Light Programme and BBC Radio 4

© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Reviews

With gentle humour, and surprising twists and turns, this is just the book we need in these difficult times. I didn't want it to end.

—— Katie Fforde

Charming, witty and warm, Small Miracles is a gentle gem of a novel, a cheery balm in troubling times

—— AJ Pearce, bestselling author of Dear Mrs Bird

Heart-warming and quirky, with a cast of lovable characters...Just wonderful. I loved it.

—— Jill Mansell

Charming, witty and intricately plotted...celebrates the uplifting power of love

—— The Tablet

What a joy! Small Miracles is warm, compassionate, and sees the good in everyone. I loved it, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to be reminded of what a kind place the world can be.

—— Stephanie Butland

I want to be in the kitchen with Sister Bridget cooking up a storm! We should all learn to follow our hearts and find what we love, and be thankful for those we love. This book is a joyful celebration of love.

—— Jo Thomas

A warm hug of a book: gently funny, compassionate and kind. Exactly what we're all craving right now.

—— Shelley Harris

I didn't want this book to end. Full of small everyday miracles and big love.

—— Jenny Bayliss

With her sun-bleached Hollywood setting, Kaplan transports us to another world - one which is achingly familiar. A novel which makes us examine our own complicity, while also weaving in threads of tenderness, drive and office-based humour which at times feels delightfully absurd . . . I inhaled this book - and came up for air still reeling

—— Katie Hale, author of My Name is Monster

Ambition bites back in Isabel Kaplan's Not Safe For Work, a novel that hits close to a few recent news events . . . So visceral is the narrator's voice that every time I opened the book felt like sliding into uncomfortable heels. Brave

—— New York Times

An intoxicating exploration of male-dominated workplaces . . . NSFW is gripping, with a lot to unpack, making it excellent book-club fodder

—— TIME, Best Books of July 2022

An energetic page-turner with plenty of delicious insights into Hollywood . . . and countless witty, wry passages

—— Jewish Chronicle

Frank, funny and unputdownable, Isabel Kaplan's NSFW takes you on an ambitious young woman's wild ride through Hollywood. Her mother's a famous feminist lawyer, and she's a rising executive star, mistress of her destiny. But behind the glitter and the justice, everyone is tarnished and compromised - including even our narrator. Kaplan, with her sharp and nuanced eye, sees it all, and tells it brilliantly.

—— Claire Messud , -

A frank account of the inherent filthiness of leaning in. A study of the psychological, and at times literal, gymnastics that are required of striving women.

—— Raven Leilaini , -

I read this steely investigation of workplace ambition and patriarchal complicity in one sitting, my alliances shifting with every page. Funny, insightful, and enraging in all the best ways, NSFW is a fiercely smart debut that turns its gaze back on the reader, forcing you to ask just how far you'd go - and who you'd throw under the bus - for a seat at the table.

—— Julie Buntin , -

A stunning portrayal of intergenerational family love and the complications of the human condition. I was swept up in the world of the Aylward women: in their power and pain and mostly, in their fierce resilience. A novel full of compassion and honesty, where love triumphs. The prose is pitch perfect.

—— ELAINE FEENEY

Hymn to the warp and woof of life; celebration of the flip-flop way of family; soaring testimony to the endurance of the human spirit. And all delivered with his trademark compassion, empathy, humour and brio. A gift of a book.

—— ALAN McMONAGLE

A compelling read

—— SAINSBURY'S MAGAZINE

Big-hearted, generous and brimful of emotion, this is a gorgeous, life-enhancing novel.

—— Mail on Sunday

Ryan's writing is like poetry and he has a real gift for creating characters who live in full technicolour. Highly recommend

—— Good Housekeeping

In Ryan's hands the mundane and the everyday is transformed into a thing of beauty, thrumming with significance.

—— REFINERY 29

Tender with comic observation ... a topsy-turvy emotional rollercoaster

—— DAILY MAIL

Magical

—— OBSERVER

Exquisitely rendered. It reads like musical sounds, full of light and lilting melody...it's funny and sad, and sparks with the most tremendous, tart, wit.

—— INews

The characters are compelling and vividly drawn, the dialogue is profane and frequently hilarious; the prose drips like honey off a spoon.

—— SUNDAY TIMES

A jewel of a novel that will surely become a classic... enthralling and unmissable

—— DAILY EXPRESS, 'Fiction Highlights of 2022'

A celebration of love and loyalty among women.

—— IRISH INDEPENDENT

Big-hearted, generous and brimful of emotion, this a gorgeous, life-enhancing read

—— IRISH MAIL ON SUNDAY

It is a beaut. It's a celebration of women and of womanhood. I see my mother in this, I see my sister ... This book is a joy.

—— RYAN TUBRIDY

If language - lyric, lovely and funny, steeped in County Tipperary - and women (men come and go, rarely center a chapter and are often useless, sometimes cruel) are of no interest to you, The Queen of Dirt Island is not your next read. Ryan's book is a celebration, in an embroidered, unrestrained, joyful, aphoristic and sometimes profane style, of both ... The Queen of Dirt Island gives the women their due, and the reader is rewarded.

—— NEW YORK TIMES

Donal Ryan's The Queen of Dirt Island is a little Irish miracle ... there's as much implicit wisdom in these pages about how to live as how to write ... Ryan has his own emotional range and a way of capturing the largeness of what look like tiny lives but aren't

—— WASHINGTON POST

Ambitious, unsettling and funny, this book is full of desire and mischief with surprising results.

—— Platinum, *Summer Reads of 2022*
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved