 Unlike television soaps, "The Archers" actors are not held on retainers and work on the series usually for a few days a month.By the nature of the storylines concentrating on particular groups of characters, in any one week out of a cast of about 60, the episodes include approximately 2030 speaking-characters.Most of the cast do acting work on other projects and can disappear for long periods if they are working on commitments such as films or television series.