The Archers opera. Under the pseudonym "Bruno Milna", Painting also wrote around 1,200 complete episodes, which culminated in the 10,000th episode. June Spencer has played Peggy Archer/Woolley from the pilot episode onwards, though not for all of the period since. According to "Who's Who in The Archers 2008", episode 15,360 was to be broadcast on 1 January 2008. Episode 15,000 was broadcast on 7 November 2006. The Archers reached its 60th anniversary on 1 January 2011 and to mark this achievement, a special half-hour episode was broadcast on Sunday, 2 January, on BBC Radio 4 from 7pm. The episode had been advertised
The Archers Green" involving trombones, cymbals and the closing bars of the signature tune - known as the "doom music" to some fan groups. However, this tradition has been dropped more recently, such as the death of Nigel Pargetter when the normal closing music was played despite the gravity of the incident - to the irritation of some followers, who consider the jollity of the normal segment inappropriate in such circumstances. A brief extract from "The Dream of Gerontius" was played following the death of Phil Archer. When John Archer died no music was played. There was a nod to "The Archers"