LITERARY FESTIVAL REVIEW: BEING directly involved with the production of The Archers must be a strange way of life.

You are able to walk down the street unmolested and yet greeted like something between a celebr-ity and a family member by aficionados.

That is precisely what it is like, if the evidence of the first lunchtime event of the 10th Swindon Festival of Literature is anything to go by.

Joanna Toye and Graham Harvey, both of whom have written or helped to create hundreds of episodes of the 52-year-old radio soap, were joined in conversation at the Arts Centre by local enthusiast Gill Powell.

The small but expert audience hung on their every word.

Archers devotees are drawn from every walk of life, from students listening in an allegedly post-modern tongue in cheek way to senior citizens who have grown up and matured with the characters.

Even for non-listeners people for whom Joe, Linda, the Grundys, Nigel, Sid, Linda and Robert are a closed book, or rather a closed frequency the experience was an interesting one.

We learned, for example, that part of Graham's duties included poring over farming journals for rural storylines to be worked into the plot.

And Joanna explained how, although scripts were written well in advance, special segments referring to current events were cleverly inserted to give episodes a contemporary feel.

She also told the story of an episode almost two decades ago which featured a special addition to the cast the late Princess Margaret, playing herself.

Once again, but more than ever before, festival director Matt Holland seems to have excelled himself in his mission to provide festival-goers with something to suit every taste.

By Barrie Hudson