I feel that the current crop of gardening programmes about the past few years have been poor. I would like to produce a new gardening programme that looks at the allotment/garden from January 1 until the end of December.
Yay! it's about time - I had given up hope of ever seeing a good gardening programme. The one that Simon Mayonnaise did last year with all of the allotment holders was good, but concentrated more on the people and not enough on the plants they were growing or the problems they encountered.
I have been speaking with all the leading commissioning editor (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five) for the past few years but I'm getting feedback that the traditional gardening programme is dead and not what audiences want.
The problem with people who think they know what people want is that they don't
ask the people what they want - they just assume they already know!
My view is that a gardening programme should be about the allotment/garden and not about the flashy camera work and to focus on the plants not the presenters. Also, to give the view enough time to look at the plant and write down its name.
I still feel there is a need for a programme such as this. The other strand would be how to garden on the cheap. You don't have to spend hundred on a bench or a piece of trellis (as one gardening show did last Summer, "this piece of trellis only cost £130 so we bought five"!!!!)
I was starting to belive the commissioning editor that the traditional gardening programme was dead but after reading your comments it does look like I was taking the programme down the correct avenue.
The programme would be split into two sections vegetables/herbs/fruit and flowers spending 15 minutes on each section.
Totally agree, how long would the show be? if it's just half an hour then I'd probably not watch beyond the veggie bit - there's enough programmes on that do flowers and not enough for veggies.... could it please be biased more towards fruit and veg but not too much on the flowers?
Also, would it be possible to do regular features on self sufficient living things such as keeping chooks, bees, making homemade wine etc? This would deffinately set your programme apart from the run-of-the-mill type programmes...
fingers crossed!