Gardeners' Question Time

Last updated

Gardeners' Question Time
Gardeners' Question Time Live Recording.jpg
Eric Robson chairs a live recording of Gardeners' Question Time at the Wellcome Collection in 2017. On the panel are Matt Biggs, Anne Swithinbank and Chris Beardshaw.
GenreFactual/panel show
Running time45 minutes
Country of origin United Kingdom
Language(s) English
Home station BBC Radio 4
Original release9 April 1947
Audio format Stereo
Website Gardeners' Question Time at BBC Radio 4

Gardeners' Question Time is a long-running BBC Radio 4 programme in which amateur gardeners can put questions to a panel of experts.

Contents

History

The first programme was broadcast in the North and Northern Ireland Home Service of the BBC at 22.15 on 9 April 1947, and came from the "singing room" at the Broadoak Hotel, Ashton-under-Lyne. Originally entitled How Does Your Garden Grow?, it was inspired by the wartime Dig for Victory campaign. On the first panel were Bill Sowerbutts, [1] Fred Loads, Tom Clark and Dr E.W. Sansome.

Professor Alan Gemmell joined Loads and Sowerbutts in 1950 when their contrasting styles (Professor, Traditional Head gardener and Commercial Grower) added an entertainment element. The success of the format led to the programme's being broadcast nationally on Saturday mornings at 11.00 from 27 April to 13 July 1957 in the BBC Light Programme (under the title Down the Garden Path). In September 1957 the programme was transferred to the Home Service and gained its present title of Gardeners' Question Time as well as the time slot of 14.00 on Sundays which it has retained to this day. [2] The programme marked its 1,000th edition in 1972, though the occasion was overshadowed by the death of long-serving chairman Franklin Engelmann just days earlier.

The format and panel remained largely unchanged for many years. In 1994, production moved to outside company Taylor Made Broadcast; the complete panel was discarded by the BBC and moved to the new Classic FM station on a short-term contract to present Classic Gardening Forum, sponsored by The Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society. In 2009, the production of the show was taken over by the UK's largest independent radio production company Somethin' Else. The programme's audience figures continue to perform strongly as confirmed by the official audience measurement body, RAJAR.

Format

The programme typically comes from a village hall or other public venue somewhere in Britain, or occasionally further afield, such as in the Republic of Ireland or northern France. GQT often records at special locations throughout the UK including on a moving train, on top of Snowdon, [3] from inside the Tower of London [4] and in December 2016 from the state dining room at 10 Downing Street. [5] [6]

There are also regular editions in which the panel answer questions sent in by post or email, known as postbag editions. These editions are recorded in a specially adapted potting shed at Sparsholt College near Sparsholt, Winchester; however, in recent years postbag programmes have been recorded at various gardens around the UK, including at Highgrove with Prince Charles, [7] Kew Gardens, RHS Wisley, Ness Botanic Gardens and East Ruston Old Vicarage.

Each year the programme visits a botanic garden to stage its annual GQT Summer Garden Party. The event includes seminars and talks given by the GQT panel, a chance to receive first hand advice from a panelist inside the GQT Potting Shed plus two programme recordings. A highlight of the horticultural calendar, the event attracts a large audience of keen amateur gardeners. Most recently the Summer Garden Party has been hosted by Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, [8] National Botanic Garden of Wales [9] and Ness Botanic Gardens. [10]

Since 2001, Gardeners' Question Time factsheets have been made available after each episode covering all questions and their given answers. The factsheets can be found by searching for a particular episode and scrolling down the page.

In 2009, the programme launched a podcast edition and a Twitter account, [11] the latter designed to be a place where listeners can share gardening ideas and tips and comment on the radio programme's topics and panelist answers.

The programme regularly attracts an audience in excess of two million and has answered over 35,000 questions in its long run. [12]

Panellists

Panellists include Matthew Wilson, Chris Beardshaw, Matthew Biggs, Bob Flowerdew, Pippa Greenwood, Bunny Guinness, Anne Swithinbank, James Wong and Christine Walkden.

Past participants have included John Cushnie, Dr Stefan Buczacki, David Burges, Fred Downham, Professor Alan Gemmell, Walter Gilmore, Jill Hicking, Clay Jones, Nigel Colborn, Daphne Ledward, Fred Loads, Bridget Moody, Martin Fish, David Jones, Sue Phillipps, Geoffrey Smith, [13] Sid Robertson, and Bill Sowerbutts.

Past chairmen were Bob Stead, Franklin Engelmann, Michael Barratt, Steve Race, Ken Ford, Les Cottington, Clay Jones, and Stefan Buczacki. On 26 April 2019 Eric Robson, host for 25 years, chaired his last programme. His replacement as chair was BBC radio newsreader Kathy Clugston. [14]

Related Research Articles

<i>Match Game</i> American television game show

Match Game is an American television panel game show that premiered on NBC in 1962 and has been revived several times over the course of the last six decades. The game features contestants trying to match answers given by celebrity panelists to fill-in-the-blank questions. Beginning with the CBS run of the 1970s, the questions are often formed as humorous double entendres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highgrove House</span> Royal residence in Gloucestershire, England

Highgrove House is the family residence of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. It lies southwest of Tetbury in Gloucestershire, England. Built in the late 18th century, Highgrove and its estate were owned by various families until it was purchased in 1980 by the Duchy of Cornwall from Maurice Macmillan. Charles III remodelled the Georgian house with neo-classical additions in 1987. The duchy manages the estate and the nearby Duchy Home Farm.

<i>Question Time</i> (TV programme) British topical debate TV programme

Question Time is a topical debate programme, typically broadcast on BBC One at 10:45 pm on Thursdays. It is usually repeated on BBC Two and on BBC Parliament later in the week. If there is a Leaders special, it would be broadcast simultaneously on BBC News. Question Time is also available on BBC iPlayer. Fiona Bruce currently chairs the show having succeeded David Dimbleby as presenter in January 2019.

<i>Figure It Out</i> American childrens panel game show

Figure It Out is an American children's panel game show that aired on Nickelodeon. The original series, hosted by Summer Sanders, ran for four seasons from July 7, 1997, to December 12, 1999. The show was revived in 2012, with Jeff Sutphen as host, with the revival airing from June 11, 2012, to July 16, 2013. The series was originally recorded at Nickelodeon Studios at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. The revival episodes were filmed on stage 19 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

<i>Any Questions?</i> British topical discussion programme

Any Questions? is a British topical discussion programme "in which a panel of personalities from the worlds of politics, media, and elsewhere are posed questions by the audience".

Information Please is an American radio quiz show, created by Dan Golenpaul, which aired on NBC from May 17, 1938, to April 22, 1951. The title was the contemporary phrase used to request from telephone operators what was then called "information" and later called "directory assistance".

<i>Gardeners World</i> BBC television series

Gardeners' World is a long-running British gardening programme, first broadcast on 5 January 1968. The 2024 series is the 55th. Its first series was presented by Ken Burras and came from Oxford Botanical Gardens. Up until 2020 most of its episodes have been 30 minutes in duration; however, this changed in spring 2020 when the format was extended to an hour. All episodes in the 2021 series onwards follow this 60-minute format. Gardeners' World currently airs between mid-March and late October on BBC Two every Friday. The programme usually takes a three-month winter break from November to February.

Any Answers? is a radio phone-in broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It's the companion programme to Any Questions?, in which a panel of notable figures drawn from politics, media or business are asked for their views on current affairs by members of an invited audience assembled in a public venue.

Frances Mary Perry MBE VMH was an English gardener, administrator, writer and broadcaster.

Down You Go is an American television game show originally broadcast on the DuMont Television Network. The Emmy Award-nominated series ran from 1951 to 1956 as a prime time series primarily hosted by Dr. Bergen Evans. The program aired in eleven different timeslots during its five-year run.

Stefan T. Buczacki is a British horticulturist, botanist, biographer, novelist and broadcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toby Buckland</span> English gardener and TV presenter

Toby Neale Buckland is an English gardener, TV presenter and author, best known for being the main presenter from 2008 to 2010 of BBC's long running flagship gardening programme Gardeners' World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pippa Greenwood</span> British botanist

Pippa Greenwood is an English plant pathologist. She appears frequently on the BBC's long-running Gardeners' World television programme and has been a regular panellist on Gardeners' Question Time on BBC Radio 4 since 1994. She also was the gardening consultant on the ITV series Rosemary and Thyme in 2003–2006.

William Edmund Sowerbutts was an English gardener and panellist on the long-running BBC Radio 4 programme Gardeners Question Time.

Nigel Colborn VMH is a British TV presenter and gardening expert/writer. He is a former presenter of the long running BBC Gardeners World. He is often a panelist on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners Question Time and is a regular presenter of Granada TV's Gorgeous Gardens.

Daphne Ledward, known as Daffers when she appeared on Sir Jimmy Young's show on BBC Radio 2, is an English garden designer and author and former gardening presenter for the BBC.

Alan Robertson Gemmell FRSE OBE JP was Professor of Biology at Keele University and a regular member of the panel on the BBC Radio Home Service programme Gardeners' Question Time from 1950 for some 30 years. Disagreements on the programme between Gemmell and fellow panel member Bill Sowerbutts became legendary.

<i>So Wrong Its Right</i>

So Wrong It's Right is a British radio programme presented by Charlie Brooker in which panelists aim to give the "most wrong" answer to a question. They describe stories from their lives, conceive of new ideas on a theme and criticise aspects of the modern world. It aired three series in May–June 2010, March–April 2011 and May–June 2012 on BBC Radio 4. The first series of five episodes played at 11 p.m. while the last two had six episodes premiering at 6:30 p.m.

Gerald "Gerry" Daly is an Irish Horticulturist, garden designer and media personality and editor of The Irish Garden magazine. He has featured, over a period of nearly 40 years, on multiple radio and television programmes on RTÉ and BBC Northern Ireland channels, and has contributed, as he still does, regular columns for Irish newspapers and magazines, over more than 30 years, including the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and the Farmers Journal.

References

  1. ↑ "Blue Plaque - Bill Sowerbutts". Archived from the original on 29 August 2006. Retrieved 10 September 2006.
  2. ↑ From little acorns: the origins of gardening programmes on the BBC
  3. ↑ "Gardeners' Question Time Snowdon Show, 18/09/16".
  4. ↑ "Gardeners' Question Time Tower of London, 27/11/16".
  5. ↑ "Gardeners' Question Time Downing Street, 25/12/16".
  6. ↑ Robertson, Debora (21 December 2016). "Telegraph Article - GQT at Number Ten". The Telegraph.
  7. ↑ "Gardeners' Question Time Highgrove, 01/04/16".
  8. ↑ "Summer Garden Party - 2016" (PDF).
  9. ↑ "Summer Garden Party - 2015". 2 June 2014.
  10. ↑ "Summer Garden Party - 2013".
  11. ↑ "@BBCGQT".
  12. ↑ "Gardeners' Question Time Christmas Show, 03/12/14 - Garden Museum". Archived from the original on 25 April 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  13. ↑ "BBC NEWS - UK - BBC gardening expert Smith dies". 28 February 2009.
  14. ↑ Joe Shute (23 April 2019). "'It was my decision': Eric Robson on leaving Gardeners' Question Time after 25 years". The Telegraph.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.