Press & Media

We have been written about, broadcast about, and occasionally gently teased in the national press. Members of the group have appeared on BBC Radio 4, on BBC local radio, and on The Archers podcast itself. Here is a selection.

On the BBC

  • The Archers podcast

    14 August 2026. Emma Freud is joined by Toby Laurence, who plays Freddie Pargetter, to discuss nepo babies in Ambridge. Listen

  • The Archers podcast

    19 June 2026. Emma Freud is joined by Perdita Avery, Farmer Rob Atkinson and Dr Cara Courage. Listen

  • The Archers podcast

    6 February 2026. Emma Freud is joined by Lucy Speed, who plays Stella, Dr Cara Courage, and Rev Alix Taylor. Listen

  • Woman's Hour

    1 January 2026. Celebrates the women of The Archers, with Dr Cara Courage. Listen

  • The Archers podcast

    4 April 2025. Emma Freud is joined by Buffy Davis, who plays Jolene Archer, and Dr Cara Courage, discussing that year's conference. Listen

  • Feedback

    13 March 2025. Andrea Catherwood hears listeners' views on the Ramadan storyline in The Archers, with Dr Cara Courage. Listen

  • The Archers podcast

    7 February 2025. 'The Sound of Silents', with Jan Ravens, Hannah Riley and Academic Archers. Listen

  • Woman's Hour.

    1 January 2021. Women and The Archers: how farming has changed, female scriptwriters, the role of gossip, and what happens next. Listen

  • Feedback

    16 August 2019. How realistic are the storylines in The Archers? Roger Bolton asks an Archers academic, who analyses the heartbreaking tale of Ed and Emma and their lost home. Listen

  • Woman's Hour

    8 April 2019. Feature and podcast with Dr Cara Courage and Dr Nicola Headlam. Listen

  • BBC Radio Sheffield

    6 April 2019. Interview with Dr Cara Courage and Dr Nicola Headlam. Listen

  • BBC Radio Scotland

    5 April 2019. Good Morning Scotland. Interview with Dr Sarah Kate Merry. Listen

  • Broadcasting House

    3 April 2019. Mention in the newspaper review. Listen

  • The World This Weekend

    19 February 2018. Feature at around 24 minutes. Listen

  • BBC Radio Oxford

    17 February 2018. Dr Nicola Headlam on the Kat Orman show.

  • BBC Radio 3, Free Thinking

    15 February 2018. Dr Rob Drummond on the 'Reflecting Rural Life' panel discussion. Listen

  • Today

    26 December 2017. Interview with Debi Ashenden on rural broadband, or the lack of it, in Ambridge.

  • BBC Radio Leeds

    23 October 2017. The Andrew Edwards show. Interview with Jessica Meyer, contributor to 'Custard, Culverts and Cake'. Listen

  • Sunday, Radio 4

    22 October 2017. Interview with Rev Jonathan Hustler. Listen

  • Farming Today

    17 February 2017. Interview with Christine Michael. Listen

  • 5 Live Daily

    17 February 2017. With a follow-up interview the same evening.

  • Today

    16 February 2017. Interview alongside The Archers actor Charles Collingwood, with a further feature on the eight o'clock news. Listen

  • Feedback

    14 February 2017. Conference feature, with a longer version on the Feedback podcast. Listen

A huge thank you too, to fellow Archers podcasts, DumTeeDum and All About The Archers, who have both co-hosted and hosted conferences with us, and to Lucy V Freeman from Ambridge on the Couch for coming to after-dinner-speak with us when we met in Reading.

Our unofficial media partner

One Stiletto in the Grave has been a friend to Academic Archers for years, and has twice given over an episode to us, which by our reckoning makes them our unofficial conference media partner. No contract has been signed and no money has changed hands, but there has been a good deal of enthusiasm on both sides.

Elsewhere across press and media

Elsewhere across press and media

Academic Archers and its Ambridge Research Fellows have also featured in a number of broadsheets, magazines, and podcasts, and, inevitably, the (much-missed) Ambridge Observer. Fellows who have taken to the airwaves over the years include Dr Cara Courage, Dr Nicola Headlam, Dr Sarah Kate Merry, Dr Rob Drummond, Dr Jessica Meyer, Professor Debi Ashenden and the Rev Jonathan Hustler, on subjects ranging from rural broadband to the theology of Ambridge.

Not every piece has survived the internet's habit of quietly rearranging itself, but we are grateful to all of them.

We are also, we are pleased to report, alumni of Private Eye's Pseuds Corner, which we regard as a formal accreditation and intend to defend vigorously.

  • The Economist

    25 April 2024. When academics meet The Archers. Read

  • The Guardian

    6 February 2024. Charlotte Higgins on The Archers: it's Evil Rob, the zombie sequel. Read

  • Times Literary Supplement

    30 July 2021. Engels and Archers: academics return to Britain's most surveilled and studied community. Brian Morton reviews 'Flapjacks and Feudalism'. Read

  • i newspaper

    22 February 2021. Archers musical and theme park almost took off.

  • The Guardian

    12 February 2021. Ambridge via Zoom: academic Archers conference returns virtually. Read

  • i newspaper

    5 February 2021. The Archers: academic conference to debate class war and 'neoliberal necropolitics' in Ambridge. Read

  • The Guardian

    15 December 2020. The Long Read: a peculiarly English epic, the weird genius of The Archers, by Charlotte Higgins. Read

  • The Telegraph

    17 August 2019. Archers matriarchs use their money to control their children, says Oxford academic. Read

  • No Such Thing As A Fish

    24 May 2019. Episode 270. Listen

  • The Telegraph

    11 April 2019. Analysing The Archers: my weekend at the University of Ambridge. Read

  • London Review of Books

    10 April 2019. Review of 'Gender, Sex and Gossip in Ambridge'.

  • The Telegraph

    2 April 2019. The truth about the sex lives of The Archers. Read

  • The Guardian

    1 April 2019. It's true: The Archers is far more sexist than James Bond. Read

  • The Telegraph

    31 March 2019. The Archers is sexist, author claims in new book. Read

  • The Spectator podcast

    21 March 2019. Conversation with Fraser Nelson on The Archers, from around 33 minutes. Listen

  • Times Literary Supplement

    1 August 2018. Brian Morton reviews 'Custard, Culverts and Cake'. Read

  • Church Times

    2 March 2018. Review of 'Custard, Culverts and Cake'. Read

  • Waitrose Weekend

    1 March 2018. Borsetshire Believers, conference feature.

  • The Guardian

    13 February 2018. The Archers academic conference: hot ticket for Radio 4 fans and insurgency experts. Read

  • Country Living

    13 February 2018. Calling all Archers fans: here's your chance to help shape the soap's upcoming storylines. Read

  • The Telegraph

    13 February 2018. Women in The Archers avoid getting skin cancer thanks to 'the wellie protection factor'. Read

  • Waitrose Weekend

    3 February 2018. If troops were called to Ambridge.

  • Country Living

    February 2018. 'A Book to Read', book review.

  • Sheffield Telegraph

    28 December 2017. An everyday story of birdwatching. Read

  • The Telegraph

    26 December 2017. The Archers, the everyday story of country folk, ignores the problem of rural broadband speeds, academics conclude. Read

  • Waitrose Weekend

    20 October 2017. Archers storyline is no twist of fete.

  • The Times

    5 October 2017. The Archers, an everyday story of terrorist folk. Read

  • Times Higher Education

    28 September 2017. Books editor's blog: Ambridge provides fertile ground for academic analysis. Read

  • The Telegraph

    19 July 2017. The Archers: an everyday tale of folk in a village with very low crime statistics. Read

  • Waitrose Weekend

    2 March 2017. How does Ambridge dodge diabetes?

  • Times Higher Education

    23 February 2017. The week in higher education. Read

  • The Independent

    18 February 2017. BBC's Robinson falls victim of fake news.

  • Sky News

    18 February 2017. Mention in the newspaper review.

  • The Times

    18 February 2017. Naughty but nice: treat-guzzling Ambridge dodges diabetes. Read And an everyday story of cake-eaters (but where's the diabetes?).

  • The Telegraph

    17 February 2017. The Archers paradox: with all those cakes and pork pies, why don't Ambridge residents get fat? Read And Archers conference to hear giant vegetable competitions are fertile ground for skulduggery. Read

  • The Independent

    6 March 2016. Why The Archers needs more disabled characters. Read

  • New Statesman

    28 March 2016. What we learned from the first academic Archers conference, by Hannah Rosefield. Read

  • The Guardian

    16 February 2016. How social media made The Archers cool. Read

  • The Telegraph

    14 February 2016. Ooh aar Sire! The Archers' Ambridge is more medieval village than 21st century community. Read

  • The Telegraph

    10 February 2016. Older people abandon Received Pronunciation in favour of flatter vowels, according to Archers study. Read

  • The Independent

    16 October 2015. The Archers: academics to delve into the secrets of a BBC Radio 4 soap at a university conference. Read

On Stage

Academic Archers travels. We have played to thousand-seat audiences at the Hay Festival and at Cheltenham Literature Festivals, and appeared at literature festivals up and down the country, on the reliable principle that a room full of people who want to talk about Ambridge for an hour is never hard to find.