Gardener of the Year – What Was Pebble Mill?

Gardening of the Year

This photograph is from Gardener of the Year; I think the location is the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Included left to right are: Joe Swift, Rachel de Thame, Adam Pasco and Diarmuid Gavin.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Kate Hillman: ‘Yes, I was on this one! The contestants did their show gardens around a central decking. I think there was an art theme for the inspiration of the garden designs.’

Adam Pasco: ‘Yes, that’s me. I helped develop the concept for BBC Gardener of the Year, and judged it for a few years. Great fun, and worked with some wonderful people.’

Adam Trotman: ‘Yep I edited 2 of the years one directed by Dennis Javis and the other Patty Kraus.’

Patty Kraus: ‘I remember it well! Yes it was the Botanical gardens in Brum.’

Steve Bricknell: ‘This was the first show i ever worked on!! Not sure if this was my year though!’

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List of Pebble Mill programmes

Photo by Ben Peissel, no reproduction without permission

This a list of factual television programmes, described as ‘current’, was produced before the closure of Pebble Mill, around 2004. The list is included in a document housed in the BBC Archives in Caversham.

BBC One:

Points of View, Animal Sanctuary

BBC Two:

Gardeners’ World, Gardeners’ World Specials, Gardeners’ World Live, RHS Tatton, Gardener of the Year, Small Town Gardens, Rachel’s Country Garden [I don’t think this series was actually made], Million Pound Property Challenge, SAS Survival Secrets, Big Dreams – The Secrets of Asian Success, How I made My Property Millions

BBC Three:

The Brief: India and Pakistan, Greatest Eunuch Show, Black Beauty

BBC One Daytime:

Countryfile, Call My Bluff, To Buy or Not to Buy, Trading Up, Big Strong Boys, Sunday Garden, Trading Up in the Sun

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Caroline Feldon Parsons: ‘I worked on 10 of those programmes! And don’t forget all the Radio programmes that were also being currently made …’

Simon Vaughan: ‘Pebble Mill was an amazing production centre – why on earth decommission it and pull it down, such an absolute waste. Just like TVC, their like will never be seen again.’

Carole Lowe: ‘Miss Pebble Mill a great building I worked on Anne and Nick and other programmes. Sad loss to BIRMINGHAM.’

Stuart Gandy: ‘Proper broadcasting centre.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘..and of course all the Radio…Live music , recorded music, Radio 2, Radio 3, amazing amount of Radio 4 ….drama, features, documentaries, the Archers and all the Local Radio as well!’

Judith Markall: ‘A sin to knock the building down!’

Gardener of the Year 2007

Photos by Joanne Kenyon, no reproduction without permission.

The photos are from the 2007 Gardener of the Year show, which was transmitted on BBC2, 14th December. It was recorded at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Wisley garden. The programme began in 1999, and was a competition to find the best amateur gardener in the country.

The top photo shows producer Andy Vernon briefing the contestants, with series producer, Rosemary Edwards in black T-shirt, in the centre. It looks like Gavin Barclay on camera.

The second photo shows the jib camera recording one of the challenges facing the contestants.

The final photo shows an identification round set in the herbaceous border. Floor manager Marco Di Giorgio, far left, presenter Joe Swift (next but one), Len Kerswill (stripey top), next to producer Andy Vernon, Ben Harris, next to Andy.

Here is the link to the Radio Times entry for the show, from the BBC Genome project: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/e238e3ecf3c4479ba4f2310ef9a0ff69.

Small Town Gardens article

Garden Design Journal, Feb 2005

Copryright resides with the original holders, no reproduction without permission.

This article appeared in the Garden Design Journal in February 2005, and considers the question of whether television gardening has trivialised garden design. Bella D’Arcy argues ‘yes’, I argue ‘no’, and Matt James sits on the fence, with a ‘maybe’.

There was a spate of garden design related programmes in the late 1990s and early 2000s, led by Ground Force and HomeFront in the Garden. I was lucky enough to be the series producer of two series of Small Town Gardens, a design show which was a delight to work on!

Gardener of the Year Final 1999

Photos probably taken by Mark Kershaw, no reproduction without permission.

The photos are from the first ‘Gardener of the Year’ final in 1999. We recorded the show at the Earth Centre in Doncaster in early September 1999, with the programme being transmitted just before Christmas on 21 Dec, and achieving some very good audience figures. The show ran for around 10 years.

For the final the contestants had to design and build a show garden which was about 5m square. They had a budget which they had to stick to rigorously, and they were allowed one helper each. Each regional winner from the heats had 5 days to build their garden. I remember a fair amount of tears and tantrums. The finale was an OB in a fantastic marquee presented by Alan Titchmarsh. Charlie Dimmock reported on how the contestants had got on during the build. The format worked really well, and was finessed over the subsequent years, although the preliminary heats were dropped.

The series was produced by me (Vanessa Jackson), executive produced by Roger Casstles, directed by Mark Scott, with assistant producers Kate Hillman and Beverleigh Wildman (now Thompson). The judges were garden designer Ali Ward, Gardeners’ World Magazine editor Adam Pascoe, and presenter and gardening expert Nigel Colborn. Alan Titchmarsh was the presenter, with Charlie Dimmock reporting.

The photos include: Charlie Dimmock (jeans), Roger Casstles (navy jacket), me (Vanessa Jackson, centre, blue floral dress – and 6 months pregnant), John Moorcroft (camera, yellow T-shirt, shorts). Ali Ward and Adam Pascoe (judges) in the penultimate photo, and Dave Brazier (floor manager) and me in the last photo.