The Archers Celebrating 60 years of The Archers

The world's longest running serial drama, Radio 4's The Archers, celebrated 60 years on air on Sunday 2nd January 2011.

First broadcast in 1951, the drama attracts an audience of over five million in the UK and has a worldwide following. For the 60th anniversary, pay tribute to six decades of 'a contemporary drama in a rural setting'.

Share your memories of The Archers

What's your favourite moment - the infamous shower scene, maybe the Grundy's eviction? And when did you start listening? At your grandmother's knee, or when events in your own life mirrored those in the drama? Share your memories with the hundreds already posted:

• Add your memories on the My Archers page.
• Jog your memory in the new Timeline.

Events on 2 January 2011

On Radio 4, the anniversary was marked by a special 30 minute episode, broadcast at 7.00pm on 2 January 2011, with events that were set to 'shake Ambridge to the core'.

• The Archers blog

The Archers Blog ran a live event throughout the day from 10.00am to 7.30pm

• The Archers Tweetalong

To commemorate the special double episode we built a graphic that showed what people were saying during the special double episode. See an animation of the Tweetalong on the 2nd January or a (rather speeded-up) version on YouTube

• BBC 7 Omnibus and commentary

BBC Radio 7 broadcast a number of Archive Omnibus from the last six decades.

The Archers blog - anniversary features

In the lead up to the anniversary, Keri Davies, scriptwriter on The Archers, led you through six decades of storylines from the drama. On 2 January, The Archers Blog hosted a live event, from 10.00am to 7.30pm, where we posted a stream of images, clips, memories and Archers facts

• The Archers blog - Live Event
• Six diamond decades - events from the last 60 years
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