The Archers Could Be Recorded Outside Birmingham for the First Time Since 1951. Its Cast Says the Savings Won’t Last Five Years
The BBC has dropped plans for a purpose-built studio for The Archers at its new Birmingham home, and the world’s longest-running radio soap could be recorded outside the city for the first time since 1951. More than 100 past and present cast members, writers and editors, Equity and the Writers’ Guild say the move puts the show at risk. One of its actors says the travel bill would wipe out the saving within about five years.
It’s a row about a building, but for the actors it’s really about a way of working. The Archers isn’t recorded the way most audio drama is. Ben Norris, who plays Ben Archer, says the show “is recorded in a very specific way that is unlike almost all other audio drama”, and that there are “very few other studios that have those facilities, and none that are up to the same specifications as our current setup”.
What the BBC has decided
The BBC’s Midlands teams are leaving the Mailbox for the Tea Factory, the former Typhoo tea works in Digbeth that’s being rebuilt as a broadcast centre. The Archers’ production team still moves there as planned in early 2028. The studio it was meant to record in doesn’t.
The former Typhoo tea factory in Digbeth, pictured in 2006, is being rebuilt as the BBC's Tea Factory. Photo: Erebus555, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
“However, after careful consideration, as part of the BBC’s wider drive to reduce costs, we are no longer building a new recording studio for The Archers in the Tea Factory,” a BBC spokesperson said. The corporation says it’s “assessing the BBC’s existing studio facilities around the UK as well as other external studio options in the West Midlands to find a more cost-effective solution which will deliver significant savings whilst also maintaining The Archers’ high production standards.”
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Director general Matt Brittin told BBC News the show is “going strong and… going nowhere”. “So what we’ve said is, we’re not going to build a £1.5m bespoke studio for that production, which is something we might have afforded previously,” he said. “But what we are going to do is make sure The Archers continues to exist here.”
The cast does the sums
Susie Riddell, who plays Tracy Horrobin, took the argument to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “People are either going to have to be transported to another studio, probably London, from Birmingham. That is going to cost a lot of money,” she said. “We believe that within about five years, the cost of transporting everybody to make the programme in a different city is going to outweigh that £1.5m.”
She explained what has to travel with them. “We have special sets that need to be put up. We have to have different acoustic flooring to be in different places. A dead room, which deadens the sound, so we can sound like we’re outside.”
A radio drama studio set for spot effects: a practice door, stairs, a gravel tray and dry leaves. Picture: Voice Over Herald
Norris made the same point to The Guardian, as reported by The Independent. The current setup “would need transporting, building and striking with any new space we travel to, placing an extraordinary burden on the technical team and incurring extra financial drain,” he said. He called the decision “classic short-termism”.
He was careful to say the actors aren’t simply digging in. “This isn’t us actors being averse to change,” he said. “It’s very much us wanting to stand in solidarity with our colleagues in production, us wanting to ensure the continued highest quality of the programme for the listeners, the continued heritage of the show, its connection to Birmingham, and also for the BBC not to go back on many promises it made to the region.”
Find a cheaper room
No new studio at the Tea Factory. Existing BBC studios around the UK and private studios in the West Midlands are being assessed. The production team still moves to Digbeth in 2028.
The room is the show
The Archers is recorded in a way unlike almost any other audio drama, they say, and travel costs would pass the £1.5 million saving within about five years.
Judi Dench signs the letter
On Friday 16 October a letter to Brittin landed with more than 100 signatures from current and former cast, writers and editors, backed by Equity and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. Dame Judi Dench, who played Pru Forrest, signed it. So did Adjoa Andoh, Felicity Jones, Mark Bonnar, Hugh Dennis, Lucy Davis, Claire Skinner and Kellie Bright.
“Removing the recording of The Archers from the Midlands and divorcing the production team from the cast will have a tangible impact on the quality of the programme and represents an existential threat to its future,” the letter says. It warns of “ripping out the heart of Ambridge” and makes a comparison any British soap fan will get: “The Archers leaving the Midlands is akin to Corrie leaving the North West, or EastEnders leaving the South East.”
Kirsty Miller, who plays Annabelle Dowler, in a cast video for the stage show The Archers: Live at 75. Image: Fane, via Hall for Cornwall
Equity got there first. General secretary Paul W Fleming called it an “outrageous move” in a statement reported by PA in The Irish News, and tied it to the end of the BBC drama Doctors in 2024, “another show that was filmed in the West Midlands and provided valuable work for Equity members and was an entry point for many actors to scripted productions.” He added: “If dialogue cannot produce a satisfactory outcome, all industrial tools remain on the table.” And, in case anyone missed the tone: “Eddie Grundy’s schemes have more integrity than these proposals.”
Why voice actors outside Ambridge should care
For a voice actor outside London, a long-running radio drama is about as steady as credited work gets, and it doesn’t happen in a home booth. It needs a room built for it, a spot effects team who know where the gravel tray goes, and a cast who can get there. When a show like this loses its own studio, the people who feel it first are rarely the famous names on the letter. It’s the jobbing actors, the effects crew and the studio managers whose week is built around a recording block in their own city.
Fleming’s line about Doctors makes the same point from the other side: when a regional production shuts or moves, the entry-level work goes with it. West Midlands mayor Richard Parker said there’s “no good reason why we should lose a programme that has called Birmingham home for decades” and said he was meeting Brittin to discuss it.
What’s next
The BBC hasn’t named a studio yet. The show’s lease at the Mailbox is ending, the production team’s move date is early 2028, and the cast’s letter is sitting with the director general. The Archers has aired more than 20,000 episodes. Where the next ones get recorded is now the most talked-about storyline it has.
Sources: Evening Standard via AOL (19 October 2026); The Independent via Yahoo News UK (15 October 2026); PA Media via The Irish News (13 and 16 October 2026); Digital Spy via Yahoo News UK (16 October 2026). Photo: The Mailbox, Birmingham, by The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Lee este artículo en español: The Archers podría grabarse fuera de Birmingham por primera vez desde 1951. Su elenco dice que el ahorro no durará cinco años
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