Tag: Joe Swift

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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Move to the Mailbox

Mailbox move SG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

The article from the Birmingham Post circa 2002, explains how the move from Pebble Mill to the Mailbox was going to be a positive one, enabling technology and the studios to be improved. The move from the ‘leafy suburb’ of Edgbaston would apparently make BBC Birmingham more in touch with its audience!

Unfortunately these aims were not realised, and the move proved to be symptomatic of the decline of BBC Birmingham.

Thanks to Stuart Gandy to sharing this cutting.

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

Andy Marriott: ‘Unfortunately pretty much every move is a downsizing event, and it’s not just the BBC. I’ve been helping a friend out with a project at the old Granada site in Manchester and it’s depressing to see the facilities that existed there that they simply don’t have at their new site.’

Jean Palmer: ‘I’m sure that those who worked there could have told them it wouldn’t work. Shame we lost Pebble Mill’

Carolyn Davies: ‘All very sad….BBC Wales about to relocate….hope the same doesn’t happen…..’

Sue Farr: ‘I always suspected that London was jealous of Brimingham’s success and that was what was behind the decisions that were made. None of us believed any of it was going to benefit the Midlands, did we?’

Andrew Langstone: ‘Seems The Mailbox is the BBC’S dumping ground for things it doesn’t know where to put them.’

 

Gardener of the Year 2007

Gardener of the Year 2007 6 JK Gardener of the Year 2007 1 JK Gardener of the Year 2007 2 JK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Garden Design Journal, Feb 2005

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!

Sunday Gardener

Joe Swift

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo copyright remains with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

‘Sunday Gardener’ was a compilation show, with new links and additional inserts, presented by Joe Swift.  It was produced at Pebble Mill in 2002.  We themed episodes and sourced clips from other BBC gardening shows, recording new material (mostly practical gardening tips) and scripted links with Joe Swift at different locations around the midlands.  I think the location in the still is Ryton organic garden, near Coventry.  I remember that we recorded several of the shows there – it was perfect as they had lots of different types of garden all at the same location.  The show was shown on BBC 1 on a Sunday morning.  We had a tiny budget, because most of the show was repeats, but it was quite fun to make, and we had a really strong production team.

Vanessa Jackson