"The Archers" is still running (October 2017) and is the world's longest-running soap opera with a total of over 18,400 episodes.There had been some earlier serialized drama including, the six episode "The Shadow of the Swastika" (1939), Dorothy L. Sayers's "The Man Born To Be King", in twelve episodes (1941), and "Front Line Family" (1941–48), which was broadcast to America as part of the effort to encourage the US to enter the war.