The Archers: Live at 75 plays Chichester Festival Theatre on Saturday 31 October at 7.30pm, with Tim Bentinck and three co-stars. Tickets from £15.
The Archers is coming off the radio and onto the Chichester Festival Theatre stage for one night. The Archers: Live at 75, the touring show marking the BBC Radio 4 drama’s 75th year, plays the Festival Theatre on Saturday 31 October at 7.30pm, with tickets from £15.
Four of the programme’s actors will be on stage: Tim Bentinck, who plays David Archer; Annabelle Dowler, who plays Kirsty Miller; Charlotte Martin, who plays Susan Carter; and Ben Norris, who plays Ben Archer. With them is Vanessa Nuttall, the programme’s live sound effects specialist, and the evening is hosted by the comedian Angela Barnes.
The details come from the tour’s press release, sent to us by its publicists, The GingerBread Agency, and from the theatre’s own event page, checked on 30 September 2026.
What happens on the night
The show is set at a stage version of the Ambridge Flower & Produce Show. The press release lists what the evening includes: on-stage interviews, “insider stories and gossip”, specially written scenes performed live with live foley sound effects, archive recordings from the BBC vaults spanning seven decades, demonstrations of how the sound effects are made, audience questions, “an interactive pub quiz straight out of The Bull” and a sing-along to the theme tune.
The theatre’s page adds that audiences will be able to “test your knowledge in The Bull Pub Quiz, sing along to the famous theme tune, put your own questions to the cast”, and that the evening should end with “a little Flower & Produce Show chaos”. It also carries a five-star verdict from the Radio Times: “A brilliant evening for any Archers devotee”.
The release describes the show as offering “newcomers an accessible introduction to the drama’s world”, while giving long-time listeners “a rare look into how Ambridge is created”, from the character work and storylines to the sound of the series.
The sound effects
Vanessa Nuttall creates the programme’s real-time sound effects as part of a three-person technical team, according to the release. It says she spent 16 years at the BBC, starting as a production assistant in religious broadcasting before retraining as a sound assistant, and has been a regular part of The Archers technical team for ten years. It describes her as “passionate about painting pictures through listeners’ ears” with “creative and sometimes surprisingly unlikely props”.
Tim Bentinck gave away one of them:
“I’m so excited to be part of the upcoming The Archers national tour of the UK. We’ll be on stage but the show will be very interactive, and Archers listeners and fans will be just as much a part of it as us. So come and join us at the Flower and Produce Show, and as an added treat get to see how the clever sound effects are achieved. Hint, it’s all done with yoghurt and ironing boards!”
Who is in the Chichester cast
The tour has two casts of four. Chichester gets the one the tour calls the “Flower Cast”. The biographies below are from the press release.
Tim Bentinck joined The Archers as David Archer in 1982. He trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and won the Carleton Hobbs Radio Award. His television work includes The Crown, Ted Lasso, Gentleman Jack, Andor and Bergerac, and he was made an MBE for services to drama in 2018.
Charlotte Martin has played Susan Carter (née Horrobin) since the early 1980s, including the 1993 imprisonment storyline that set off the “Free the Ambridge One” campaign. The release says she also holds a PhD in psychology from the University of Birmingham and has worked as an assistant professor in youth mental health. She said:
“I’m so thrilled to be part of The Archers tour - bringing 75 magical years of Ambridge to the stage is an absolute dream come true! Can’t wait to share the laughter, tears and heart of Ambridge with fans everywhere!”
Annabelle Dowler is best known as Kirsty Miller. A former member of the BBC Radio Drama Company, her television credits include Doctor Who, Silent Witness and Lewis, and her stage work includes the National Theatre and Birmingham Rep. She also voices May in the video game It Takes Two.
Ben Norris is an actor, poet and filmmaker. He co-created and starred in the Olivier-nominated The Choir of Man and plays Rogier in the video game Elden Ring. His short film Toad in the Hole was shown at the 2025 BFI London Film Festival.
The host
Angela Barnes, described in the release as an award-winning comedian and “Archers devotee”, said:
“I am not just an Archers superfan, I am obsessed with all things Ambridge. So to be asked to host The Archers: Live at 75 is like winning a prize at the Flower and Produce Show and being cast as the lead in a Lynda Snell production, all rolled into one. I can’t wait to hang out with all of my favourite characters and really immerse myself in Borsetshire life.”
Why now
The Archers was first broadcast on 1 January 1951, and the release calls it the world’s longest-running radio drama, with more than 20,000 episodes. It goes out six times a week and, the publicists say, reaches five million listeners. The release also says it is currently the top on-demand show on BBC Sounds for listeners of all ages and regularly tops the list for listeners under 35.
Alison Hindell, drama and fiction commissioner at BBC Radio 4, said:
“The Archers is one of the BBC’s most-loved programmes and we are tremendously proud of it as it reaches its 75th year. We hope that the live show will give fans even more of what they love, joining in the celebrations with an extra slice of Ambridge life.”
The theatre notes that it is a commercial production licensed by the BBC, and that cast appearances are subject to availability.
Tickets and times
- When: Saturday 31 October 2026, 7.30pm
- Where: Chichester Festival Theatre, Oaklands Park, Chichester PO19 6AP
- Running time: about 1 hour 50 minutes including the interval
- Age guidance: 14+
- Prices: five bands, from £15, then £22, £40, £54 and £69. The theatre says listed prices “are subject to change in response to demand”.
- Cheaper seats: £5 Prologue tickets may be available for 16 to 30 year olds, and access tickets for the theatre’s Access Members.
- Book: cft.org.uk or the tour site, fane.co.uk/the-archers
The theatre says Chichester station is a 20-minute walk or a five-minute taxi ride away. If you are driving in, our Chichester parking guide has the car parks and charges.
Other dates on the tour
Chichester is the last date for the Flower Cast until late November, when it plays Aylesbury (24 November), Warwick (25 November) and Wolverhampton (26 November). The other four actors, the “Produce Cast” of Charles Collingwood (Brian Aldridge), Ryan Kelly (Jazzer McCreary), Susie Riddell (Tracy Horrobin) and Sunny Ormonde (Lilian Bellamy), play Exeter, Swansea and Bath in early November and Bournemouth’s BIC on 19 November.
For more on what is on in and around the city, see our monthly What’s On guide. The Festival Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs until 17 October.
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