Plans for a new theatre for world’s longest-running soap in Digbeth scrapped as part of cost-cutting measures

The BBC is set to stop recording The Archers in Birmingham for the first time in the show’s 75-year history, after scrapping plans for a radio drama theatre that was to be the new home of the world’s longest-running soap opera.

A pledge to move recordings to the so-called Tea Factory, the BBC’s new Birmingham hub in Digbeth, has become the latest victim of the corporation’s £500m cuts plan.