Are The Archers heading canal-side ?

Broadcast says that the BBC's Delivering Quality First Proposals are recommending "consolidation of the English Regions". This could be taken in a number of ways.

For management purposes, there are 12 English Regions, each boasting a Head of Regional and Local Programmes - which mean they look after the regional tv news and current affairs teams, and a cluster of local radio stations. And with each head comes a coterie of staff.  So making fewer managers cover a wider patch is a possibility that will have some people twitching this morning.

The other form of consolidation is around buildings - and last week Broadcast reported that staff in Birmingham are expecting an announcement in September that network production will be moved from the Mailbox. This, if true, is a huge story with great hoo-ha potential. Whilst it may be o.k. to move Holby City from Bristol to Cardiff, and Waterloo Road from Rochdale to Scotland, and few people would care where Doctors and Land Girls are made, how on earth can you move the Archers from Borsetshire ?

They have a purpose-built radio drama studio in the Mailbox; there isn't one in MediaCityUK, but there's space...  Could Bridge Farm relocate to Cheshire to give Tony and Pat a fresh, e-coli-free start ?   Can someone cook up a storyline that takes Jolene Perks to the Prestbury pubs beloved of Manchester United players ?  Surely a creative team could play around with the opportunities of moving from the Felpersham Canal to the Manchester Ship Canal - anything's possible under ruthless Thommo.