Not many stage actors would enjoy performing at The Archers: Live at 75, the touring show that aims to bring a little slice of Ambridge (and a little slice of lemon drizzle) to a theatre near you soon.
Every audience member was on their mobile phone, responding to polls as to which character, past or present, they’d like to be [spoiler alert: at the Brighton show I attended, good-time girl Lilian was the clear winner ahead of that ol’ beauty Walter Gabriel], asking questions of the cast on stage, and taking part in “The Bull Pub Quiz”. In short, this was a production big on audience interaction.
The general idea is that we’re all being invited to Ambridge’s fabled, and hard-fought, Flower & Produce show, with a cast of four Archers stars appearing on stage each night – either the Flower cast, as it was in Brighton, of Tim Bentinck (David Archer), Ben Norris (Ben Archer), Annabelle Dowler (Susan Carter) and Charlotte Martin (Kirsty Miller); or a Produce cast of Charles Collingwood (Brian Aldridge), Sunny Ormonde (Lilian Bellamy), Ryan Kelly (Jazzer McCreary) and Susie Riddell (Tracy Horrobin).
Many devoted fans have bought two tickets, to see the different casts in separate locations – Brighton fans who can wait until September can see the Produce cast in Bexhill-on-Sea.
In reality, it’s so much more than that. The night is hosted by comedian Angela Barnes, who you may be more familiar with seated on a TV comedy show than running through a two-minute soliloquy on the events of 75 years in Borsetshire, but she proves to be a true Ambridge addict with her frequent asides about the characters we love to hate and a knowing joke about the audience having the highest proportion of Le Creuset owners in any theatre.
Yet what is striking is the diversity among the audience. Yes, there are many sprightly ladies who have travelled in from the Weald and Downland of Sussex, clutching G&Ts and talking about what Johnny and Phoebe will do after their exams and the health of their beloved lab Monty, but there is also a fair number of millennials with flashes of pink and blue hair lighting up the stalls, and even some young children in with their families.
Though perhaps they are part of the five per cent of the audience who admitted in one phone poll to never having had listened to The Archers – a statistic that’s balanced by the six per cent who have been listening since the very start in 1951.
The show is tightly formatted, starting with Angela Barnes interviewing the four cast members about anything and everything Archers-related; and what comes over most is the camaraderie and warm repartee among the actors, and the fact that the show will have pantomime-levels of audience participation, such as the appreciative “ooh” after Tim Bentinck said he’s been on The Archers for 44 years.
It feels like too much of a spoiler to repeat too many of the backstage secrets divulged on the night – as I’m sure they’re well rehearsed and repeated each night – but we do get to learn how to kiss in Ambridge and what happens if you dare take other work instead of The Archers.
Next up was was arguably the highlight of the show, when “spot” effects artist Vanessa Nuttall took to the stage to demonstrate how she makes the sounds of Ambridge come to life at the same time as the actors are saying their lines in the studio.
We’re not talking two halves of a coconut shell for horses’ hooves – there’s a real genius in the level of detail required to ape the sound of Eddie Grundy shaving and even the metallic creak of every farm gate opening and closing.
This was all in preparation for the main conceit, a staging of scenes based around the Flower & Produce show which start naturally enough in the kitchen at Brookfield – complete with cake mixing sound effects – and build to a climax of sheepdog trials with added effects provided by the enthusiastic audience.
It’s a brilliant evening for any Archers devotee, which walks a fine line between enthusiasm, reverence and self-deprecation over the goings-on in Ambridge that have been entertaining (and occasionally infuriating) us for 75 years.
You can listen to The Archers on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
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