{"id":804866,"date":"2026-10-16T21:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T21:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/804866\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T21:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T21:06:09","slug":"dame-judi-dench-joins-call-to-keep-archers-in-birmingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/804866\/","title":{"rendered":"Dame Judi Dench joins call to keep Archers in Birmingham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speaking earlier this week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c9gkvgkgzlmdo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brittin defended the decision<\/a>, saying the BBC needed to make savings but remained committed to the programme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We&#8217;re going to explore how we can best house The Archers where they need to be,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He added there was &#8220;other studio space around the country&#8221; which could accommodate the programme, while alternatives in the West Midlands would also be considered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker also called for the show to remain in Birmingham, describing it as a key part of the region&#8217;s broadcasting heritage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Equity general secretary Paul Fleming said cast members were &#8220;angry&#8221; at the proposals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s beyond offensive, I think, for any Midlander, the idea that you would record something that is so iconic and so ironically about the Midlands, anywhere other than in the region where it&#8217;s set,&#8221; he told BBC Radio 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking earlier this week, Brittin defended the decision, saying the BBC needed to make savings but remained committed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-804866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}