Gardeners Question Time

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

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, 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 January 1958 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. The programme marked its 1000th 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 the complete panel left 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 (BBC?) show was taken over by the UK's largest independent radio production company Somethin' Else. In December 2009 panellist John Cushnie died suddenly. The programme's audience figures continue to perform strongly as confirmed by the official audience measurement body, RAJAR.

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