Biography
How the series began, how it's made, and the composer behind that catchy theme tune...
The Basics
The longest-running radio drama serial in the world began its continuous run on New Year's Day 1951 as "an everyday story of country folk". It was first transmitted to a nation still in the grip of postwar rationing, and its primary audience was intended to be farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture acted as script consultants.
From 1950 to today
The longest-running radio serial in the world began life as a five-part pilot series in the spring of 1950. It started its more-or-less daily run the following year, and has never looked back. Streamed over the BBC website to fans all over the globe, it can lay claim to being one of British broadcasting’s enduring institutions, having survived the massive expansion of TV and the digital age. As one of our nominators so evocatively puts it, “The pictures are so much better on the radio.”
