![\"Archers-10\"](\"http:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Archers-10.jpg\")
<\/a>Charles and Judy’s farmhouse-style kitchen<\/p><\/div>\n
In real life Charles is married to Judy Bennett who plays Shula in the series, and with whom he shares a delightful cottage \u2013 a downsizer\u2019s dream \u2013 near Petersfield in Hampshire.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to keep a caravan down in West Wittering where we would have holidays with the children,\u201d Charles explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’d been brought up in Hampshire but Judy had never lived in the countryside \u2013 and she wanted to live beneath a big sky. So when the kids fled the nest we sold our home in Muswell Hill in North London and came down here.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a>Charles and Judy in their back garden<\/p><\/div>\n
Here, is a flint and stone cottage in a\u00a0charming village surrounded by rolling fields.<\/p>\n
Their cottage adjoins another which belongs to Amanda, a teacher, who puts flowers on\u00a0their kitchen table and fills their fridge with food, when they return home from holidays.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so lucky,\u201d Charles enthuses.<\/p>\n
In a separate building\u00a0is Judy\u2019s den and at the end of a grassy glade a charming summer house they built a couple of years ago. \u201cWe have our own little areas and two Sky dishes so Judy can watch her soaps and I can watch the cricket,\u201d smiles Charles.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Judy in her cosy den<\/p><\/div>\n
There are about seven televisions dotted around the house, numerous radios but not a single laptop or computer. \u201cWe are not online,\u201d Charles declares. \u201cWe are not on email.\u201d Charles\u2019s only concession to modern technology is a mobile phone.<\/p>\n
His cubby hole of an office is crammed with cricketing memorabilia; he\u2019s been a member of MCC for 50 years and has decorated the walls with cricket caps and filled the bookshelves with copies of Wisden, the annual Bible of cricket.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The Radio Times cover when Brian had his affair with Siobhan<\/p><\/div>\n
However there is also\u00a0a framed original of the Radio Times cover when Brian Aldridge had his big affair with Siobhan in 2002 and an old school photo from Charles\u2019s days at Sherborne. But no computer.<\/p>\n
They don\u2019t need one they argue. All the Archers\u2019s scripts come through the post. As Charles explains, \u201cThey don\u2019t email them because of security, in case any of the storylines get out.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Charles cricketing corner<\/p><\/div>\n
Once a member of the cast brought his script to rehearsal on an Ipad and it was banned. And at the end of each day’s recording we have to post the scripts in a box on the way out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The programme, originally billed as \u2018an everyday story of country folk\u2019 but now rebranded as \u2018essential drama from the heart of the country\u2019, has been broadcast for 64 years. Yet\u00a0a month\u2019s worth of episodes are recorded over just six days.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The Rectory red dining room decorated with antiques from Charles’s family<\/p><\/div>\n
The entire 60-strong cast troops up to Birmingham, which for Charles and Judy means a seven-hour round trip by car and an overnight in the Hyatt Regency, to record four episodes a day which can mean they are in the studio from 9.15 in the morning to 7 at night.<\/p>\n
Yet\u00a0while they\u00a0have no wish to retire from Ambridge (unless they are ‘killed off’)\u00a0they love returning to their Hampshire bolthole; to the well in the garden which they discovered under manhole cover, to the gorgeous gnarled old apple tree and the damson tree; Judy makes damson vodka and damson gin from the fruit.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The view from Charles and Judy’s summerhouse<\/p><\/div>\n
Their sleepy, rural village, which I imagine to be a smarter version of Ambridge, is straight out of Midsomer Murders (Charles did star in an episode years ago) \u2013 there is even a church, and the back garden overlooks a rural landscape that rolls all the way down to the sea six miles away.<\/p>\n
Canadian-born Charles, 72, who trained at RADA, also loves the garden but now employs a gardener and a nurseryman. \u201cI do less gardening now but I love directing,\u201d he discloses, unlike Judy who throws herself into the heavy staff and gets her hands dirty. \u201cI like pulling things out and chopping things down,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n