Village stands in as set for The Archers

A Midland village will become radio soap's best-loved village Ambridge for the day during a special anniversary edition of Gardeners' Question Time.

Cutnall Green, between Stourport and Droitwich, was chosen to stand in for the village for the recording of a special version of Gardeners' Question Time.

The show, to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Easter Sunday, features characters from The Archers asking experts for advice on how to make their gardens grow.

Devotees of the "everyday story of country folk" have debated the exact location of the fictional village of Ambridge, where the soap is set, for years. And it seems Cutnall Green may be the closest thing to the radio favourite there is.

Although the special gardening show has been billed as being broadcast from Ambridge, the taping actually took place at Cutnall Green Memorial Hall, in Addis Lane, on March 22.

Producers chose the location because it was the closest match to the Borsetshire community with a village post office and pub in exactly the right spots. It is part of the 60th anniversary celebrations for the programme which started in 1951 after a pilot in 1950 proved successful.

But the recording came as a major surprise to residents who thought they were attending a normal taping of Gardeners' Question Time.

The first half of the taping was for a normal edition of the long-running gardening show with questions taken from members of Hartlebury Gardening Club and other members of the community.

But they were told the second half would be "a surprise" and were delighted when chairman of the panel Eric Robson read out the names of characters from the soap.

The actors then entered the hall and took their seats on the front row.

Among the actors taking part was Charles Collingwood as Brian Aldridge, Eric Allan, as Bert Fry, and June Spencer as Peggy Archer.

Hall bookings secretary Jane Bache, aged 58, said: "All we were told was that there would be a surprise in the second half after the first show had been taped. When the names were read out there was a ripple of recognition and a lot of laughter. It was a real surprise."

The show will be broadcast on Sunday at 2pm.