Roger Fieldhouse and John Morrison (Letters, 6 October) may well be right that Ted and Nora Drake had the original idea for The Archers, and my Dad would have been the first to acknowledge that. How lovely that they are still remembered for their work with adult education. Dad never stopped talking about the couple.
They were the inspiration for his second book, Time and Motion on the Farm. Chapter Six is entitled “T&M on Ted Drake’s Farm”. This was Bagley Farm in the North Riding of Yorkshire. There’s a quote from Ted Drake on page 88: “It’s my opinion, Brian, that flush closets have been the ruination of farmin’!” Could this is be the beginning, or indeed the end, of an episode?
Peter Branston
Brentford, Middlesex
