Episode 14000
28 Aug 2003

Few who heard the first episode of The Archers on 1 January 1951 could have imagined that it would still be thriving into the next century, but Thursday 28 August brought Archers episode 14,000 to the listening public - not just in Britain, but around the world.

It’s been traditional for every thousandth episode to be marked with a special happening, or significant plot moment. We looked back over the last thirteen "thousandth" episodes:

Episode 1000 - 22 Nov 1954
John Tregorran asks Carol Grey to marry him, but she gently rebuffs him. This romance entertained listeners for many years. They were both to marry and be widowed to others (he to district nurse Janet Sheldon and she to landowner Charles Grenville) before finally marrying in 1967.

Episode 2000 - 26 Sep 1958
Tom Forrest, local gamekeeper and brother to Doris Archer, marries The Bull’s barmaid Prudence (Pru) Harris. Tom is remembered as the character who for decades introduced the Sunday omnibus edition. Pru is often thought of by listeners who joined the programme in later years as its most celebrated silent character, but the part was played until the 1970s by Mary Dalley.

Episode 3000 - 27 July 1962
Actor Richard Todd opens Ambridge village fete. This was not the first celebrity appearance in the programme - Humphrey Lyttleton (then known as a jazz trumpeter and band leader, rather than radio presenter and master of double entendre) had opened the fete in 1958.

Episode 4000 - 27 May 1966
This is the one "thousandth" episode in which nothing special appears to have happened in Ambridge. Perhaps they were saving their powder for the most sensational story of the 1960s - Jennifer’s illegitimate pregnancy the following year.

Episode 5000 - 27 Mar 1970
The passing of the generations is marked by a house warming for Dan and Doris Archer at Glebe Cottage. Phil and Jill, now the masters at Brookfield, are destined to make Glebe Cottage their retirement home 21 years later.

Episode 6000 - 25 Jan 1974
Tony Archer and Mary Weston are late for their own engagement party. Mary was a travelling farm secretary who had come to Ambridge to help Tony with the paperwork at Willow Farm, where he was in partnership with Haydn Evans. The relationship was doomed, though, as they drifted apart. Mary broke off the engagement by post from a holiday in Majorca and by the end of the year Tony had married Haydn’s niece Pat.

Episode 7000 - 25 Nov 1977
Kate Aldridge is christened. While Jennifer was pregnant with their first child together (Adam and Debbie have other fathers, of course) Brian joked that if the child was a boy it should have a family name - supposedly Ebenezer. He couldn’t quite hide an underlying disappointment when the baby was a girl, which made Ruairi’s birth 25 years later even more poignant.

Episode 8000 -25 Sep 1981
Eddie Grundy is in desperate need of money to repay Baggy the £500 he borrowed to make a Country and Western demo tape with Jolene Rogers. He proposes to Clarrie Larkin - who has just received £500 from her mother’s insurance. Pure coincidence, of course…

Episode 9000 - 26 Jul 1985
While Shula and Mark celebrate their engagement, a freak storm floods Nigel's "Mr Snowy" ice cream van and batters the Grundys' wheat crop.

Episode 10000 - 26 May 1989
Archers fan Terry Wogan arrives in Ambridge to play in a charity golf tournament at Grey Gables. He is greeted by Pru Forrest, who is heard on-air for the first time in many years. In this episode only, Dame Judi Dench appeared as Pru.

Episode 11000 - 26 Mar 1993
The village hall refurbishment project was floundering in internecine conflict. Robert Snell manages to enlist the aid of Anneka Rice - then at the height of her "Challenge Anneka" fame - to unite the village for one last push.

Episode 12000 - 24 Jan 1997
Ruth has a happy announcement, as she tells David she’s pregnant with their second child, Josh. The baby makes a poorly-timed arrival eight months later, as David is on the cricket field, on his way to the innings of a lifetime. But he manages to get to the hospital in time for the birth.

Episode 13000 - 18 Jun 2000
Again the focus is on Ruth, who tells Phil and Jill that she has an announcement to make. Eager Jill thinks she knows already: Ruth’s pregnant, isn’t she? This makes Ruth’s news even harder to announce - and to receive. She has breast cancer.

Episode 14000 - 28 Aug 2003
The cast stone of Siobhan announces that she is to visit the still pool of Ambridge. The likely result: well, a few ripples, surely.

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