The Archers

mimeograph typescripts, acting copies used by Harry Oakes ("Dan Archer"), with his lines marked in red crayon and pencil revisions throughout, each episode titled, numbered and paginated in typescript and initialled or signed by Oakes in red crayon ("G.H. Oakes", "G.H.O."), each episode individually fastened with a staple and a split pin, 142 pages, foolscap, 1950-1951, with an original manilla envelope addressed to Oakes from the BBC, also with a black and white photocard signed by eleven members of the cast, c.1953-55, minor wear and tear including nicks, tears, and light soiling

The earliest scripts of the world's longest-running radio drama once belonging to Harry Oakes, who played Dan Archer, the original Archer family patriarch. The Archers has been running continuously since 1 January 1951, but there was a short pilot season of five episodes that appeared on BBC Midland Home Service in the week beginning 29 May 1950. The first episode of "The Archers, of Wimberton Farm, on the fringes of the village of Ambridge" opens with Dan's anxiously overseeing a calving, and includes Walter Gabriel complaining about bureaucrats, Doris wondering how the family should spend £200, and a young and frustrated Phil wishing he could drive a tractor more often.