Following the BBC announcement this week that the broadcaster has shelved its plans to build a new bespoke studio for The Archers in Birmingham, WGGB issued the following statement:
The Archers is the longest-running continuing drama in the UK, beloved by a loyal audience of over 4 million listeners a week, the most listened to on-demand show on BBC Sounds, and driven by a talented workforce of writers and other creatives in the West Midlands. WGGB is deeply concerned that the BBC’s announcement to shelve plans to build a new bespoke studio at the Tea Factory in Birmingham will result in the production of the show being moved out of the region altogether, with a resulting loss of job opportunities for our members. We call on the BBC to pledge that this will not happen and that The Archers will stay in the Midlands, where it was born and belongs. We are talking to the broadcaster as a matter or urgency, alongside our members in the region.
Tim Stimpson and David Broster, WGGB Midlands Co-Chairs, said:
“The first writer of The Archers, Ted Mason, was a Brummie and worked at the Cadbury factory in Bournville before starting his career. In the 75 years since, The Archers has provided opportunities for many more West Midlands writers, but with the loss of other Birmingham-based shows like Doctors, Home Front, and Silver Street, these opportunities have been systematically stripped away. To move the world’s most successful audio drama away from the place it was born, makes a travesty of the BBC’s claims to want to spread production across the country and would be an act of enormous self-harm. The Archers is rooted in the voices of the West Midlands, and it must continue to be recorded here.”
Nicola Baldwin and Lucy Gough, Co-Chairs of the WGGB Audio Committee, said:
“The Audio Committee is shocked at the very suggestion that The Archers could move away from its home in the Midlands, especially given the BBC’s obligation to support the creative economy across the UK. The Archers is not only a national treasure, but also a significant cultural asset, which should remain in the region that has nurtured it for so long.”
Background
The BBC announced this week (13 October 2026) that it has shelved its plans to build a new bespoke studio for The Archers in Birmingham as part of a wider drive to cut costs.
The BBC had initially pledged to build the show a new studio in the Tea Factory, the corporation’s new hub in Digbeth, Birmingham. But the broadcaster said this week it was “currently assessing the BBC’s existing studio facilities around the UK as well as other external studio options in the West Midlands”.
The Archers is the world’s longest running drama and has always been recorded and produced in Birmingham and the West Midlands, where it is set. The news opens up the possibility that the Radio 4 series, which garners 4-5 million listeners a week, could be recorded outside the city for the first time in its 75-year history.
Photo (top) shows the view from Hanbury Church, Worcestershire, the setting for the fictional village of Ambridge in The Archers. Photo: Shutterstock.com/David Hughes