Sunday, 4 May 2025

The Archers: Victory at Ambridge

Catherine Miller 

SEVENTY-FOUR years ago the BBC broadcast the first nationwide episode of a radio drama which was billed as ‘an everyday story of country folk.’

Little did they know that The Archers was destined to become the world’s longest-running drama, an icon of British popular culture with millions of listeners tuning in to every episode, and listed by a panel of broadcasting industry experts in 2019 as the second-greatest radio programme of all time.

Partly established with the aim of educating farmers following the Second World War, The Archers quickly captured the hearts and minds of the population at large with its warm and cosy stories about the lives of families in the fictional rural village of Ambridge. 

To mark the programme’s landmark seventieth anniversary in 2021, novelist Catherine Miller (pictured below) launched an enthralling and revealing Ambridge Chronicles prequel series following the lives, loves and dramas of the families of Ambridge starting in 1940... 11 years before it all began.

In the third book of the series, it’s 1943 and the war continues on in Ambridge but the minds of the villagers are focused a little closer to home. For many centuries, a local tradition has told of Mother Molly, a mystic living in a hermit’s cave just outside the village. Her visions are legendary and local lore says she has hidden her prophecies around the area, although none have ever been found.

When a visiting academic arrives in Ambridge in 1944 to do war work, he is intrigued by the prophecies and becomes determined to find out more and put Mother Molly on the historical map. As the prophesies are uncovered, it appears the mystic knows more than anyone could have predicted – and when they become personal and foretell the death of a local Ambridgian, the village is united in surprise and dread.

Meanwhile, the war will end and some will come home… but some never will. And those who do will find that life in Ambridge has been changed. Archers fans will adore meeting some of the programme’s most familiar and best-loved characters in the years before they became household names. From Walter Gabriel and Jack Archer to the Pargetters, this is a fascinating portrait of Ambridge at war.

With a mystic, an ancient prophecy, a village looking for just a little bit of luck, and lots of rich period detail to bring to life the challenges, dangers and privations of the war years, Miller does an excellent job of telling a compelling story while remaining faithful to the spirit and eternal charm of Ambridge.

Well plotted, sympathetically written, and with plenty of humour and drama to keep the home fires burning, this is ideal for both Archers aficionados and lovers of wartime sagas.
(Simon & Schuster, paperback, £9.99)

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