The residents of Ambridge take us on a journey back in time, acting as our guides in this sparkling new adaptation of Flora Thompson’s classic novels about a rural childhood in the late nineteenth century.

Born in Lark Rise, an Oxfordshire hamlet some thirty miles from Ambridge, Laura Timmins is an earnest, bookish girl with a vivid imagination, who struggles to fit in with the local children. They have little money but Laura’s parents have big aspirations for Laura and her brother, Edmund, and they are determined to move their family away from the remote hamlet as soon as they have the opportunity. Somehow the opportunity never arises, and Laura's father dies in the same tiny house fifty years later.

Even though the community of Lark Rise may offer warmth and friendship, Laura begins to realise that it can also be stifling and claustrophobic. Laura’s parents may have failed to make the break with the past, but Laura herself must take charge of her own destiny and seek pastures new.

Steeped in a world where small things matter, the cast of The Archers tells the story of Laura's epic, life-changing passage from Lark Rise to Candleford.

Written by Flora Thompson
Adapted by Katie Hims

Producer & Director: Kim Greengrass
Executive Editor: Jeremy Howe

Technical Producers: Andy Partington & Vanessa Nuttall
Musical Director: Rosemary Watts
Production Coordinators: Sally Lloyd & Julie Sadler

Ambridge narrators:
Tracy Horrobin … Susie Riddell
Chelsea Horrobin … Madeleine Leslay
Jazzer McCreary … Ryan Kelly
Neil Carter … Brian Hewlett

Lark Rise residents:
Laura … Molly Pipe
Young Laura … Beatrice White
Mother … Emerald O’Hanrahan
Father … Barry Farrimond
Edmund … Blayke Darby
Dorcas and Queenie … Louiza Patikas
Twister and Algy … Wilf Scolding
Nellie … Charlotte Martin
Other roles played by members of the company.

A BBC Audio Drama Birmingham production. Show less