Joanna Toye on writing Dead Girls Tell No Tales

With more than 30 years experience writing for The Archers, and with it a wealth of knowledge about Ambridge, Joanna Toye has scripted Dead Girls Tell No Tales - a 60-minute drama which delves behind the scenes of one of The Archers' most controversial storylines...

Dead Girls Tell No Tales is broadcast on BBC Radio 4, on Saturday 19th Sept at 2:30pm. It will also be available to download as Radio 4's Drama of The Week.

How did the idea for ‘Dead Girls…’ come about?

Sean (O'Connor, Archers Editor) and I had talked for a long time about doing something to mark the 60th anniversary of the death of Grace Archer. We thought at first it might be a book, and then it occurred that the idea would be much better done as a play, because there were such fascinating characters to bring out.

How involved were you in the casting and production process?

Sean did an amazing job in bringing the cast together - I can’t claim any credit in suggesting people for roles. I was just responding to emails with ‘amazing’, ‘wonderful’ when I saw the names involved.

I went to the first day of recording and sat in on the read-through and some of the recording. I was fortunate enough to be there for some of the scenes which recreate the 1955 episode, and they were just as moving to hear re-made as it is when you hear the original.

You must have worked with a lot of archive material during the writing process…

I’m used to doing a lot of research for the several books I’ve written about The Archers, so a lot of the story was very familiar to me: I’ve novelised the Phil and Grace romance and her death, and I’ve worked with BBC Archives in Caversham.

How did you cope with the challenge of dramatizing real events and people?

It’s always quite difficult when you’re dealing with things that have really happened but you weren’t there for. So some of what is in the play is known to have happened and in other cases I have had to imagine. So in a sense it’s a drama based on fact.

For me, it was particularly interesting to find out about BBC Management and the Archers production office. I had great sympathy for the writers, as you can imagine. There were only two of them then and they were working under even more pressure than the current writing team does in terms of deadlines.

The programme wasn’t ‘pre-recorded’ at that time but done, as it were, ‘live’. It had to be done at a run and if the cast made any mistakes they had to go back to the beginning. They had endless rehearsal but when they did a take that was for real. Similarly with the writing, they only really got one shot at it. The particular week of Grace’s death was exceptional anyway because Godfrey Baseley - the quite extraordinary and inspirational editor at the time – had told the cast, and indeed the Press, that the Archers was going to be made in London that week , to show that it was relevant and because, of course, he knew that something was going to happen. The writers were writing the scripts on the day – the point of that week was that it featured topical references – and that was the excuse for doing it in London.

What did the Archers team look like in 1955?

It was enormous fun to imagine the script meeting at which Grace’s death was planned – I’ve attended hundreds of script meetings in my time, but this was a much smaller affair. The team then was tiny: it consisted of Godfrey Baseley the Editor; Tony Shryane the Producer; Valerie Hodgetts who was a production assistant/ continuity girl (she had the brilliant idea of starting the Archers archive); and the two writers. The bosses (the ’hierarchy’, as Godfrey called them) would join the meeting for lunch and rubber-stamp the stories. Fascinating.

Was it a mistake to kill off Grace Archer?

I think that for Phil, Jill has been the better wife. Grace, the character, was very headstrong, and quite spoilt. Whether she would have made an adequate farmer’s wife for Phil, down the years, I think is a very moot point…

What are your thoughts on the original Archers Editor, Godfrey Baseley?

Godfrey Baseley was an extraordinary man. I sadly didn’t ever meet him. He was a very big man, I understand, both in terms of personality and stature. The Archers got on-air entirely, really, through Godfrey’s sheer force of personality, and his determination that The Archers had a story to tell. The Archers owes everything to Godfrey Baseley.

What was it like to meet and work with Ysanne Churchman (the actor who played Grace Archer and who can be heard as herself in 'Dead Girls Tell No Tales')?

I think Ysanne was delighted to be involved in the programme. It’s her story that we’re telling. She saw the script before it went into studio and she’s heard the programme as recorded, and I’m happy to say is thrilled with it. When we took the microphone to her flat she absolutely rose to the occasion. It’ll be really amazing to hear her speak again, I think…

Listen to a clip: Joanna Toye shares her thoughts on Godfrey Baseley, Ysanne Churchman and the repercussions of Grace’s death for the nation…