From Ambridge baby to Birmingham Conservative Leader: Alden calls on BBC to keep The Archers in its home city
His first contribution to The Archers was as a baby. Now Birmingham Conservative Group Leader Cllr Robert Alden wants his voice heard again, calling on the BBC to keep the programme in Birmingham and honour its investment commitments to the city.
As a baby in the early 1980s, Robert’s cries were recorded by a production team visiting the local hospital and then used for the first year of William “Will” Grundy’s life in the fictional town that has been entertaining the nation for 75 years.
Decades later, Cllr Alden has written to the BBC condemning the reported scaling back of investment plans for Birmingham and decision to move The Archers’ production out of the city and demanding they both are reversed.
Cllr Robert Alden, Leader of the Birmingham Conservative Group, said:
“My first appearance in The Archers involved rather more crying than dialogue. I hope the BBC will give Birmingham something to cheer about this time by keeping the programme here. It is a lovely personal connection to a programme that means so much to so many people. But the reason I am speaking out today is much bigger than my brief contribution as baby Will Grundy.
“As Leader of Birmingham’s Conservative Group, I want our city’s talent to have the opportunities it deserves. BBC investment should support skilled jobs, local businesses, and routes into broadcasting for young people. Scaling back those ambitions and taking an established production away would be a serious blow.
“Birmingham and West Midlands residents pay the licence fee too. They deserve a proper share of the investment it supports, and they deserve the BBC to honour its commitments to their city. This is even more so, given the significant support provided for the new headquarters from both the City Council and the Combined Authority which will leave many thinking the BBCs latest decision is a betrayal.”
Published plans for the BBC’s new headquarters at the Tea Factory in Digbeth explicitly included The Archers. Cllr Alden’s letter challenges the BBC to explain the reported changes, set out their consequences for jobs and production, and publish the financial case for moving the programme, including relocation and replacement studio costs, as well as the scaling back of other investment.
He is also calling for a meeting with BBC leadership and a renewed commitment to investment in Birmingham’s creative industries.
Cllr Alden added:
“The Archers is part of Birmingham’s broadcasting heritage, but keeping it here is also about our future. Established productions help sustain the skills and opportunities that allow a creative sector to. The new Digbeth headquarters should signal confidence in Birmingham, it should not become the backdrop to another BBC retreat. The BBC should keep The Archers here and deliver the further investment our city was promised.”
