Part One: Lark Rise

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.