Researchers from a Hampshire university are taking part in a unique conference on iconic BBC Radio 4 soap, The Archers.

‘The Archers in fact and fiction: Academic analyses of life in rural Borsetshire’ takes an academic perspective on life in Ambridge and Borsetshire, but also on wider social issues.

Professor Debi Ashenden and Anna-Marie O’Connor, from the University of Portsmouth will join 32 academics from all fields and around the world at the two-day conference, at the University of Lincoln on February 17 and 18, 2017.

Professor Ashenden said: “While The Archers is fictional it reaches out into the real-world and its storylines impact on real lives.  As our use of technology evolves, we think The Archers hints at an important aspect of community resilience to online danger.”

The event also sees a field trip to one of the places considered to be an Ambridge birth place, Rippingale, for a film, talk and meal at The Bull Inn, which features in the programme.

The symposium is organised on a voluntary basis by long-time fans of the programme, Dr Cara Courage, and Dr Nicola Headlam from the University of Oxford, and is assisted this year by Professor Carenza Lewis, University of Lincoln, who are hosting the conference.