Aural satisfaction: Rachel Johnson talks to The Archers' Brian Aldridge, whose sexual exploits make television look tame.(Brief Article)

Publication: Spectator

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2002 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

AT 7.02 p.m., women all over the country lock themselves into bathrooms. They pull over on to hard shoulders. And, if you're at home during the next 13 minutes and the telephone rings, your caller is no longer offended if you say, `I'm terribly sorry, it's The Archers. Can I call you back?'

Why are we gripped? Simple. This is all about sex, lies and radio. Not videotape.

Radio is in risorgimento (overall listening hours overtook television viewing hours about a year ago), the weekly audience of The Archers (the serial which drives the Radio Four network) is edging towards 4.8 million, and I am trying to fix an interview with the man lifting the ratings, The Archers' resident actor-adulterer, Charles Collingwood/Brian Aldridge. This is the man whom Wendy Richards of EastEnders cuddled at a recent luvvie dinner and whispered, `You're the sexiest bastard in showbusiness,' even though very few of us have the faintest idea what he looks like.

Collingwood, a 59-year-old cricket fanatic and raconteur, has done...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.