Judi Dench Signs The Archers Birmingham Letter Urging BBC to Keep Recording in the City
More than 100 current and former cast and crew of The Archers, joined by Judi Dench, have written to BBC director general Matt Brittin arguing that the show's recording must stay in Birmingham, after the BBC moved to stop recording in the city for the first time in its 75-year history.
Judi Dench Signs The Archers Birmingham Letter Urging BBC to Keep Recording in the City
The signatories argue that moving the programme out of the Midlands would strip the show of the regional identity that has defined it since it began, and they warn that recording elsewhere would damage the drama's quality and its prospects of survival. Their letter sets out the case in its sharpest form: that The Archers leaving the Midlands would be as incongruous as Coronation Street leaving the north-west or EastEnders leaving the south-east.
Dench adds her name to a 100-strong letter
The letter went to Matt Brittin, the BBC's director general, and carries the names of more than 100 current and former cast and crew members. Among them is Judi Dench, whose connection to the show dates back to May 1989, when she played the character Pru Forrest in a cameo for the programme's 10,000th episode - an episode that also featured Terry Wogan, who played himself.
Alongside the actors, the letter was signed by current and former editors, scriptwriters, sound effects workers and programme advisers, as well as the unions Equity and WGGB.
'Akin to Corrie leaving the north-west'
The core of the letter is an argument about place. Its signatories say the soap's identity belongs to the Midlands, and that removing recording from the region would be, in their phrasing, like Coronation Street leaving the north-west. They go further on the consequences: removing recording from the Midlands, they write, represents an existential threat to the programme's future.
- The show's regional identity is inseparable from where it is made, the letter argues.
- Recording elsewhere would harm the programme's quality and threaten its future.
- A flagship show deserves flagship facilities, benefiting both the BBC and Birmingham for decades.
- The letter closes with a pledge to stand in solidarity with colleagues and the region to safeguard the programme for future generations of listeners and artists.
A flagship show deserves flagship facilities
That line captures the letter's practical demand: that the BBC keep investing in purpose-built recording in the city rather than relocating the show's sound work.
Why recording could leave Birmingham
The dispute stems from a BBC decision to scrap plans to build a bespoke radio drama studio at the Tea Factory in Digbeth, the corporation's new Birmingham headquarters. The plan was dropped as part of a £500m cost-cutting drive. If no studio is found in the region, it would mean the rural community soap opera - set in the fictional village of Ambridge in the West Midlands - stops being recorded in the city for the first time in the show's 75-year history.
Staff learned of the decision last week, in an email from a BBC executive.
What the BBC says
The BBC has not confirmed that recording will leave the region. In the email to staff, an executive said the priority is the most cost-effective solution that maintains the show's production standards while delivering significant savings, adding that no decision has yet been reached. The same email described the programme as a jewel in the BBC's crown, noting its 75 years and its connection with the West Midlands.
- The production team remains in the Mailbox and will move, as planned, to the Tea Factory in Digbeth in early 2028.
- The BBC is assessing its existing studio facilities around the UK and external options in the West Midlands for a more cost-effective solution.
- The West Midlands is included in the search, but there is no guarantee the show stays in the region.
No decision has yet been reached: the production team moves to the Tea Factory in Digbeth as planned in early 2028, while the search for a recording studio - including options in the West Midlands - continues.
