Four of The Archers’ best-known voices are coming to Swansea next month, as the programme the BBC bills as the world’s longest-running radio drama takes its 75th birthday on the road.
The Archers: Live at 75 plays Swansea Building Society Arena on Wednesday 4 November at 7.30pm. It is the only Welsh date on the 30-stop tour.
The nights either side, at Exeter’s Great Hall on 3 November and Bath’s Forum on 5 November, have sold out and are running waiting lists, according to the tour’s ticket site. Bath had already had an extra night added in October.
Swansea tickets are still on sale, from £37 to £64.50.
Brian Aldridge, Lilian Bellamy, Jazzer and Tracy Horrobin on the Swansea stage
Charles Collingwood, who has played Brian Aldridge since 1975, leads the cast.
Collingwood said his character would not have approved of the trip. “My character Brian would never want to go on tour; he would find it a distraction from the ongoing problems at Home Farm,” he said.
He, on the other hand, is “longing to celebrate the Archers 75th anniversary with enthusiastic vigour”.
He added: “May The Produce Show produce the goods in every way, a show full of fun, laughter and surprises! Roll up, roll up!”
He is joined by Sunny Ormonde, the voice of Lilian Bellamy for more than 25 years, and Ryan Kelly, who has been Jazzer McCreary since 2000.
Kelly is a lifelong listener himself, having followed the programme since the age of eleven, the tour says.
Susie Riddell completes the line-up as Tracy Horrobin, a part she took on in 2011. She first joined the programme as a child, playing Kate Aldridge from 1989 to 1994.
The tour runs with two casts of four, according to Fane Productions, which produces it. Swansea gets the Produce cast, while the Flower cast, led by Timothy Bentinck’s David Archer, plays the Midlands and south-east dates.
Cast appearances are subject to availability, Fane adds.
A flower and produce show, a pub quiz from The Bull and a sing-along to the theme
The show is set at the Ambridge Flower & Produce Show, hosted by comedian Angela Barnes, a regular on Radio 4‘s The News Quiz.
Barnes said: “I am not just an Archers superfan, I am obsessed with all things Ambridge.”
Hosting the show, she said, “is like winning a prize at the Flower and Produce Show and being cast as the lead in a Lynda Snell production, all rolled into one”.
She added: “I can’t wait to hang out with all of my favourite characters and really immerse myself in Borsetshire life.”
The cast perform scenes written specially for the tour, with Vanessa Nuttall, who has been on the show’s technical team for ten years, making the sound effects live on stage from what the producers call “surprisingly unlikely props”.
There are clips from the BBC archive, behind-the-scenes stories, a pub quiz in the style of The Bull and an audience Q&A.
The night ends with the audience singing Barwick Green, the theme that has opened the programme since 1951.
The show is recommended for ages 14 and over.
75 years, 20,000 episodes and six nights a week on Radio 4
The Archers was first broadcast on 1 January 1951 and has passed 20,000 episodes, going out six nights a week on BBC Radio 4.
It is currently the most-listened-to on-demand programme on BBC Sounds across all ages, according to the BBC.
Alison Hindell, BBC Radio 4’s drama and fiction commissioner, said the corporation was “tremendously proud” of the programme as it reaches its 75th year.
She added: “We hope that the live show will give fans even more of what they love, joining in the celebrations with an extra slice of Ambridge life.”
The tour is a commercial production licensed by the BBC. It has been on the road since June, and the last date on the tour list is Wolverhampton on 26 November.
Tickets for The Archers: Live at 75 at Swansea Arena on 4 November
Tickets are on sale through fane.co.uk/the-archers. A souvenir programme and an Ambridge tea towel can be pre-ordered at the checkout for collection on the night.
Fane is the company behind Harry Enfield’s first solo tour, which played the arena on Monday.
It is the latest touring show to pick Swansea as its Welsh stop. Love Actually Live in Concert has its only Welsh date at the arena on 6 December.
Earlier this month, five former Strictly professionals brought Vegas: After Hours to the arena.
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