 "The Archers" originally centred on the lives of three farmers; Dan Archer, farming efficiently with little cash, Walter Gabriel, farming inefficiently with little cash, and George Fairbrother, a wealthy businessman farming at a loss for tax purposes (which one could do in those days).The programme was hugely successful, winning the National Radio Awards' 'Most entertaining programme of the Year' award jointly with "Take It from Here" in 1954, and winning the award outright in 1955, in which year the audience was reported to have peaked at 20 million.At the late 1950s, despite the growth of television and radio's consequent decline, the programme was still claiming eleven million listeners and was also being transmitted in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.