The Archers

BBC Radio 4

3.9 (7.8K)
DRAMA
UPDATED DAILY

Contemporary drama in a rural setting.

6 HR AGO

11/12/2024

David struggles to keep his emotions in check, and Robert has a confession to make.

13 min
1 DAY AGO

10/12/2024

Ruth and David drive along a country lane and chat about Rewilding Ambridge’s plans to introduce beavers. David’s concerned because he’s seen lots of stories about beaver damage. They spot Leonard who’s cycling towards them and give him a friendly honk. But when they look back to check if he saw them, see that he’s crashed. Alan drives Lynda along the same country lane where Alan worries about upsetting Robert yesterday. He checks that Lynda’s sure she doesn’t want Robert to know that they’re going to see Gavin. But she’s very clear; Robert would only try to stop her if he knew. They’re stopped in their tracks when they spot Ruth and David helping shell-shocked Leonard out of a ditch. After checking everything's ok with Leonard, Lynda and Alan head on to a café where Gavin explains how sorry he is about the explosion at Grey Gables. He hopes that if Lynda hears how his life’s been destroyed by it too, it might help her. But Lynda says his suffering can’t give back what was taken from her and lists the physical and mental impact on her. She doesn’t want Gavin to punish himself, but she can’t forgive him either. He needs to forgive himself. Although they can’t change what happened, they can accept it and try to move on. Ruth and David take Leonard to A and E where they discover that he’s fractured his wrist. As Ruth and David debate whether they could cope with Leonard staying with them while he recovers, Leonard informs them that Jill’s insisting he stays at Brookfield.

13 min
2 DAYS AGO

09/12/2024

Natasha and Tom chat about plans for Pat and Tony’s 50th wedding anniversary on Thursday. Tom confirms that Pat just wants a quiet family celebration along with their weekend break. Natasha then brings up the subject of buying Kirsty’s house. She’s been looking at some mortgage deals and reckons they could afford to buy it. Tom agrees it would be nice to have somewhere bigger, but he’s in no rush to move. Later Natasha catches up with Kirsty, who tells her about Gavin turning up yesterday. He’d seen her house was for sale and Kirsty wonders if he feels he’s entitled to something from it. When Natasha is dismissive of this, Kirsty explains that both she and Gavin were taken in by Philip. Gavin’s his son – maybe he should have some of the proceeds from the sale. But Natasha’s clear Kirsty doesn’t owe Gavin anything. Robert’s in a tense mood and Lynda correctly guesses it’s because she bumped into Gavin last night. Robert can’t believe that Gavin would dare show his face in Ambridge, he should still be in jail. Alan visits to check how Lynda is after the shock of seeing Gavin out of the blue. Alan points out that Gavin’s remorseful and wants to meet Lynda to tell her how sorry he is. Robert is completely against this and is amazed Alan even asked. When Alan goes, Robert’s furious but Lynda’s pensive, wondering if it might be healing for her. Robert’s having none of it and heads off with Monty for a walk.

13 min
3 DAYS AGO

08/12/2024

Kirsty’s shocked when Gavin shows up at her Beechwood house. He’s been released from prison and saw that Kirsty’s house was for sale. Presuming she was moving away, Gavin wanted to catch Kirsty before she left. He confesses he didn’t know how he agreed to using a slave workforce with his dad. He knew it was wrong, but Philip convinced him that they were doing the slaves a favour. When Kirsty asserts Gavin could’ve stopped it sooner, Gavin says he did eventually, even though it meant going to jail. Kirsty suddenly realises she can’t cope with the conversation and asks him to leave. Joy waits with nervous Mick wait as he’s about to go on as Santa in The Bull’s ‘Creepy Christmas’ event. He didn’t get much sleep last night in his van in The Bull car park. Afterwards Alan tells Lynda if she can put Mick’s performance together at such notice, it’s still possible to put on a village panto. But Lynda thinks that’s a tall order. Joy says there’s a panto in Felpersham this year, perhaps they could put on a trip to that instead. Mick appears, exhausted by his performance and ready to head back to his van for some sleep. Joy suggests he stays at hers instead for a trial run over Christmas. Mick agrees, as long as it isn’t because she feels sorry for him. Later Alan finds Gavin in the bus shelter waiting to hitch a lift. Lynda’s shocked when she passes by and sees him. She hurries off and Alan offers Gavin a lift back to his hostel.

13 min
5 DAYS AGO

06/12/2024

As Fallon’s trying to change her car’s flat tyre just outside Ambridge, Ed pulls up and offers to help. When Fallon asks how Emma is, Ed says she was in bits after Mick’s comments in the pub yesterday. They chat about how George is getting on in prison, and Ed admits they’re really worried about him. George is refusing to see them and has made friends with some really hard cases. Fallon reckons George is probably just doing what he can to get by. But Ed wonders who George is going to be by the time he leaves prison. Fallon’s really glad her friendship with Ed and Emma’s getting back on track, telling Ed she’s around if he ever needs a chat and they hug. Joy visits Emma to let her know that she doesn’t support Mick’s complaint against her. She thinks Mick’s upset and angry about the crash and he’s taking it out on Emma. Joy understands how difficult things have been for Emma, but George saved Joy’s life, when he could have run off and left everyone to drown. And that Emma’s a good mum, despite everything that’s happened. Joy has a complicated relationship with her daughter Rochelle and explains it’s easy to feel you’ve failed your child because of things that were out of your control. But Emma did her best in difficult circumstances and it would be a big loss to the community if Emma resigned from the Parish Council. Emma needs to get back on her feet to stand her ground. And when she does, Joy will be cheering her on.

13 min
6 DAYS AGO

05/12/2024

Robert tidies up the garden at Ambridge Hall in preparation for some tricky regular guests. When Lynda surveys the garden later she thinks they should rewild it, upsetting Robert. He’s spent all morning getting it into shape and thinks if Lynda wants to rewild it, she can do it herself. Later when Lynda apologises for being thoughtless, Robert just wishes she’d had her rewilding epiphany earlier! Emma nervously asks Fallon whether she or Harrison made a complaint about her to the Parish Council. Shocked Fallon confirms they didn’t, but is interrupted by Mick piping up to say that he was the one who complained. Emma’s son caused the car crash and she covered it up. Joy and Fallon could’ve died in it. Emma points out that she handed her own son in to the police, and hopes Mick never finds himself in an impossible situation, damned whichever way he turns. Because Mick might be surprised by what he finds himself doing. Later Mick tells Fallon that he feels terrible about upsetting Emma. He wonders if he was wrong to complain about her, but just wanted to do something. He’s felt useless since the crash. Fallon says it’s complicated and Emma only did what she did because she was desperate. They both admit they still have nightmares about the crash and Fallon suggests telling Joy how he feels. Joy’s sympathetic when Mick opens up later, but says that in order to truly come to terms with the crash, he’s got to find forgiveness, otherwise how will any of them move on?

13 min
4 DEC

04/12/2024

Ben’s working at the GP surgery where he bumps into Azra, who’s concerned about Zainab. Azra thinks Zainab thinks should be putting in applications for university. Otherwise her gap year could end up being permanent. Zainab arrives and Azra seizes her opportunity to turn the conversation back to university, encouraging Ben to say he’s enjoying his course. In fact she’ll pay for Ben and Azra to discuss it over a hot chocolate. Zainab’s not keen until Azra throws in a take-away later. Zainab explains to Ben that she’s not sure she wants to go to university, but her mum shouldn’t worry - she just needs a bit of time to work things out. Lynda notices that Mick’s looking a bit below par. He explains that ticket sales for the Christmas Brunch at The Bull are very slow. He talked Jolene and Kenton into doing it, because he was really keen to be Father Christmas. But it’s back-fired on him now. Meanwhile Jolene tells Kenton that she bumped into Helen in the shop. Apparently Jack’s really excited about ‘Creepy Christmas’. When Kenton’s incredulous that Helen actually think’s it’s on, Jolene confirms that Helen was hoping to buy some tickets. And there’s some other parents who want to book too. Kenton wonders if Creepy Christmas has got legs after all. Later he tells Lynda and Mick that it’s actually a really good idea. The Bull will do it as well as the Santa Brunch. Kenton’s happy that Lynda and Mick are going to rehearse, but less so when Lynda wants to sort the financial terms first.

13 min
3 DEC

03/12/2024

As Ruth and David mend a fence someone whizzes past them in the lane. David reckons it was Leonard on his electric bike, as the person was wearing the same high viz gear. The roads are icy and David worries that Leonard might come off his bike, so he jumps into his car to catch up with him. But when David returns, he sheepishly admits that he mistakenly followed a scooter. Then Zainab appears demanding to know what David was doing. When David explains why, she calms down. Zainab reckons that she saw Leonard driving erratically near the village. Later Leonard’s upset when David and Ruth have a word with him. He wonders if they think he’s past it and likely to wobble off his bike into a ditch. Leonard may be less mobile than he was, but there’s plenty of adventure left in him yet. Ed visits Emma at the Tearoom on his way to sort a tree job with Brian. Emma admits that every time a customer comes in, she wonders if they’re the one who complained about her being on the Parish Council. Ed suggests that she resigns as it might not be worth the the hassle. But Emma’s defensive; she’s good at it and she enjoys it. Later Emma wonders if it was Brian who made the complaint and Ed reluctantly agrees to see what he can find out. Later Brian explains that he can’t countenance the way Emma covered up a crime. And that does call into question her judgement justifying a complaint to the Parish Council. But it wasn’t him.

13 min

See All (30)

3.9

out of 5

7,787 Ratings

Love it. Nice and easy listening.

2 Dec

Kaffy-h

Even the difficult story lines don’t stress me out too much, good to have an easy story to listen too.
Engaging to a youngish generation

3 Dec

K!17

I’ve been listening on and off since I qualified as a nurse some 10 years ago, listening between my patient visits. More recently (since covid) have been listening almost exclusively. Now preferring to listen to the daily episodes rather than the omnibus keeps the interest peaked. I have to say some of the characters get my goat (cough *Justin* cough) like any good show. Some storylines hit really well the rewilding drama and the hotel explosion, went on just long enough but not too long so to get a bit ‘blurgh’ I found the George storyline a tad OTT and on the cusp of dragging on … esp since him being in prison not far fetched at times. But on the whole it’s been ok. Have to say would love a community nurse to join the cast and work alongside the new GP widening the scope from just farmers and publicans. Overall a thoroughly keen 34 year old listener!
Sack the script writers

2 Dec

Bowchall

Utter rubbish
The End

30 Nov

meecedes8029

Have been listening to this on and off for over 70 years…….alas I can do it no more. It is just complete twaddle with storylines for the “modern age” of more twaddle. Will never forgive you BBC