The Archers star brands BBC bosses 'disingenuous' over decision to move recording studio out of Birmingham

She is a veteran of The Archers having played the mother-of-two Tracy Horrobin for 15 years.

But Susie Riddell has slammed her ‘disingenuous’ employer, the BBC, over its decision to move the recording of the long-running Radio 4 drama away from Birmingham for the first time in its 75-year history.

Earlier this month staff were informed that plans to build a £1.5million specialist studio at the Tea Factory in Digbeth, the corporation's new Birmingham headquarters, had been scrapped.

Production will still relocate to the new headquarters but bosses are looking to move recording of the show to an existing studio, most likely in London, as part of its £500million cost-cutting drive.

Ms Riddell, 48, told the Today Programme: ‘For your listeners who know The Archers know how realistic it sounds, we have to have acoustic flooring and there is a cost that comes with a specialist studio.

‘But we feel that £1.5million to be spent on a flagship BBC programme and an iconic British institution that is The Archers, listened to by five million people, is well worth the money and hardly makes a dent in that £500million that the BBC have got to find.’

The actress is one of more than 100 cast and crew members, including one-time guest star Dame Judi Dench, who signed a letter last week to the director general, Matt Brittin, protesting the move.

Ms Riddell continued: ‘We think that it's really important the team stays together. We think it was a bit disingenuous of the BBC.

‘For the past two years we've been led to believe we would be moving to this new studio but the likelihood is, the only other studio that is equipped for The Archers is in London.'

She added: 'Birmingham has been consistently left at the bottom of the heap by the BBC.

‘The Archers is the last of the homegrown programmes that's left in the region.

‘If you cut The Archers production from Birmingham, you are going to be losing jobs.

‘People are either going to have to be transported to another studio, probably London, and we believe the cost of that is going to outweigh the £1.5million to build the new studio.'

The letter to Matt Brittin said: ‘The Archers leaving the Midlands is akin to Corrie leaving the north-west, or EastEnders the south-east. It is born of the very fabric of the place, and deserves to stay at home.’