MUMBAI: The world's longest-running serial drama, BBC Radio 4's The Archers, will celebrate 60 years on air on 2 January.

The UK pubcaster says that the drama, set in the fictional village of Ambridge, attracts an audience of over five million in the UK and has a worldwide following.

First broadcast to the nation in 1951, daily life in Britain's favourite village continues to enthral audiences as much today as it did when it was first heard.

Over the years, the drama has featured many famous names playing themselves, everyone from royalty – the late Princess Margaret and the Duke of Westminster – to DJs Sir Terry Wogan and John Peel and even artists and writers including Morse creator Colin Dexter and Sir Anthony Gormley. Dame Judi Dench and Richard Griffiths are among the famous actors who have appeared in the drama in character.

Since the very first episode, introduced with the words "An everyday tale of country folk," The Archers has been associated with its theme tune, Barwick Green from the suite My Native Heath, written in 1924 by the Yorkshire composer Arthur Wood.

In 2007, The Archers made history once again when it became the first BBC audio drama to be available as a podcast. Hugely successful, the podcast has received 16.7m UK downloads (24.2m from the entire world including the UK) since launch, with an average of 500k UK downloads (732k entire world) per month this year to October.

The anniversary will be marked by a special 30-minute episode instead of the usual 15 minutes on 2 January. And, on the same day, BBC Radio 7 will broadcast some archive Omnibus editions featuring favourite moments from The Archers over the years.