Long-lost scripts for radio show The Archers, pencilled with suggestions, alterations and footnotes have been discovered by a Birmingham collector.

And they’re expected to sell for thousands of pounds on eBay.

Tim Beddow, from Quinton, highlighted an amendment, made in pencil, on the script for the first ever episode by the actor who spoke the lines.

“And a happy new year to all” was the phrase which opened the first episode of The Archers, the world’s longest running soap, on May 29, 1950.

Harry Oakes, who played Dan Archer, had scribbled ‘you’ above the ‘to all’,

It’s Harry’s amendments that make the slice of Archers memorabilia unearthed by Tim priceless.

The 53-year-old has original scripts – all checked by Harry – for the first five episodes of the Ambridge adventures.

They are possibly the only such personalised ones in existence.

Tim, who has kept the sheets of paper buried in a drawer for 20 years, plans to sell the gems on the internet auction site.

The bundle includes a signed photo of Harry – and could prove a very nice little earner.

Last July a single, unadorned script from the first episode sold for £6,875.

Five million listeners tune into Radio 4’s top programme, which is produced at the BBC's Mailbox headquarters in Birmingham, six days a week.

Tim, who deals in sporting memorabilia, purchased the scripts out of curiosity from a man who lived next to Harry Oakes in Kings Heath, and who had been given them by the radio legend.