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''The Archers'' is a long-running British radio soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. Originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", it is now described as "contemporary drama in a rural setting". With over 17,800 episodes, it is the world's longest-running radio soap opera production. ''The Archers'', which debuted on 1 January 1951 (with the pilot premiering in 1950), is the most listened to Radio 4 non-news programme, with over five million listeners, and, with over one million listeners via the Internet, the programme holds that BBC Radio record. ==Programme synopsis == ''The Archers'' is set in the fictional village of Ambridge in the fictional county of Borsetshire, in the English Midlands. Borsetshire is situated between, in reality, the contiguous counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire, south of Birmingham in the West Midlands. Various villages claim to be the inspiration for Ambridge: Ambridge's public house, The Bull, is modelled on The Old Bull in Inkberrow,〔Compare Ambridge's (The Bull ) with Inkberrow's (The Old Bull ).〕 whereas Hanbury's St Mary the Virgin is often used as a stand-in for Ambridge's parish church, St Stephen's.〔Compare Ambridge's (St Stephen's ) with Hanbury's (St Mary the Virgin ).〕 Other fictional villages include Penny Hassett, Loxley Barrett,〔(Loxley Barrett Primary School ); goodschoolsguide.co.uk〕 Darrington, Hollerton, Edgeley, Waterley Cross and Lakey Green. The county town of Borsetshire is Borchester, and the nearest big city is the cathedral city of Felpersham. Felpersham also has a university. Anywhere further from Ambridge may be referred to humorously with comments such as 'that's on the other side of Felpersham!', but characters do occasionally venture further: several attended the Countryside Alliance march in London, there have been references to the gay scene in Manchester's Canal Street, and a number of scenes have taken place abroad or in other places around the country, with some characters resident overseas in South Africa and Hungary, and other characters have visited Norfolk. Birmingham is a favourite destination for shopping. Since Easter Sunday 1998, there have been six episodes a week from Sunday to Friday, after the news summary at around 19:02. All except the Friday evening episode are repeated the following day at 14:02. The six episodes are re-run unabridged in the Sunday morning omnibus at 10:00. On Remembrance Sunday, the Omnibus edition begins at the earlier time of 09:15. This information is available in the press and the BBC on-line. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Archers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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