Gerry Hughes has the Guinness World Record for longest-running one-person radio drama. You might think of him as the Garrison Keillor (of US fame) for England.
For four decades, a radio drama called "Acrebury" has been telling the story of a fictional village in the English county of Wiltshire. You might consider it "A Prairie Home Companion" for Brits. And it has only ever had a staff of one.
All the characters, male and female, old and young, have been written, produced and acted by Gerry Hughes. He holds the Guinness World Record for longest-running one-person radio drama.
Over the years, Hughes has built "Acrebury" into his own alternate universe, with more than 2,000 episodes completed and over 80 characters. It has a cult following across England. This year, to mark the 40th anniversary, a final episode of "Acrebury" was recorded and broadcast.
For Hughes, maintaining a large number of different voices and personalities has never been a challenge. He compares it to mixing colors — "just as you mix red and blue to get green, so you can get the voice for a new character by combining elements from others," he says.
Much of the appeal of "Acrebury" comes from its ability to conjure a disappearing world of old fashioned village life — a place filled with squires, retired major-colonels, adultery, and village fetes. There have also been moments of high drama, including a possible murder, a car crash and even an explicit sex scene (although this last was almost censored for listeners to Radio Cornwall.)
Hughes himself has been taken aback by the enthusiasm people still have for the program.
“I suppose it is a sort of phenomenon,” he says, with some surprise. “Before people thought I was this eccentric Wiltshire lad who had this whole community in his head — although I’m not actually that eccentric.” Recently, with fans appearing on social media, the popularity of the show has grown even further.
Hughes feels he is unlikely to revisit "Acrebury" again after the last episode. He has plans for a new drama, centered around a female vicar living in the suburbs of a big city.
There’s little debate about who will be cast to play the lead. Or the supporting characters. Or operate the sound effects. Or edit the scripts.