Allotments 4 All
General => News => Topic started by: Colin_Bellamy-Wood on September 24, 2003, 21:53:44
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Several of you will recall that I emailed the BBC "commissioning" to ask for a repeat of the programme of 15th August and for a short series on allotments. I have had their reply :
Thank you for your email re:allotments and your suggestion of a series about allotments.
We're grateful for your thoughts though must admit that currently it is unlikely a series would be dedicated to allotments. We have to ensure that all our programmes are relevant to a "universal" British audience and I'm afraid a series about allotments - though of public service - may be a little niche.
Thanks again for your interest and we're very glad you enjoyed the programme you saw.
Nicky Colton
Development Executive
Factual Commissioning
0208 752 7610
nicky.colton@bbc.co.uk
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Can't they make GW another 15 minutes long and have a more extensive section on veggies/fruits? I really have enjoyed the (if a little short) sections on growing your own on GW this last series - even if I was madly jealous of the greenhouse, potting house, multiple compost heaps and huge beds devoted to it!!
Palefire
xxx
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We should make our own!
Sell it to the other side!! :o
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You tried Colin
they are concerned with ratings rather than content. Most garden programs are go garden centre buy plants and put them in. >:(
I stood behind a young couple in a DIY store they were looking at a seed stand and one says to the other how do you grow it. ::)
Says it all not all can afford to go garden centres I wish the program makers would realise this. >:(
A while ago I watched a program where a cook, and vedge retailer went around lotties and talked to the people about the plants and growing them and at the end of the program they cooked a meal from the goods out of the lottie I did enjoy that but cannot remember the programs name. :)
Teresa
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They're worried they may have unearthed yet another underbelly of anti-government insurgency.
We need a proper programme on veg - is Discovery could do it with the guys from Veg Talk (a Radio 4 show) maybe Channel 5 can be convinced it's radical enough for them!
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They're worried they may have unearthed yet another underbelly of anti-government insurgency.
We need a proper programme on veg - is Discovery could do it with the guys from Veg Talk (a Radio 4 show) maybe Channel 5 can be convinced it's radical enough for them!
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If they did the programme well, and did not confine it too narrowly to allotments but to veg growing systems in general I reckon they would get the ratings - none of my neighbours are big veg growers but they all grow something - peas, beans, rhubarb, herbs in their gardens. Weren't Monty's Fork to Fork, River Cottage (not just veg I grant you, but a fair whack of it), The Victorian Kitchen Garden all popular and based around growing food to eat. The upsurge in interest in all forms of gardening certainly includes veg. The beeb has responded to only part of the interest - the gardens to look at bit, and not the productive bit. Monty et al can come and help me plan by plot any day!
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Let me think now....
SOS allotments... rapid makeover
Dream allotments... pink glitter paths
Allotment survivor... grow food or die
Video allotment... amature video shorts
Plot swap... different countries different climates
Allotment X... crop circles and aliens
Down the lottie... sitcom
Ed^
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Having watched that daft Rosemary & Thyme the other night, perhaps the request best not go to ITV - this programme was based on an allotment where the blind murdered victim grew flowers, another holder used his lottie to store drugs and drug money, another one was a reclusive ex-stock broker who lived on his, and another one introduced weedkiller to the water system. And we worry about vandals!!
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Hi Cerig, I know what you mean by the story line, but I watch it because I'm in love with Felicity Kendal, and have been for years.
Did you know that the "technical" person behind the plants etc is Pippa Greenwood from the BBC?
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If our site is anything to go by, there's certainly plenty of comic potential in allotments - organics versus chemicals, all the various people who hate each other's guts, and of course our site sec, who now the cukes are over, has taken to handing out books to keep us sweet ::)
All we want is our quota of four skips a year.
And considering both Eastenders and Corrie have had stories relating to lotties, there is awareness. Now give us the airwaves!
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Hi all, The BBC Radio 2s Jeremy Vine show has adopted an allotment - its in Wales,and they are having a special feature on it on tomorrows programme. Intend to e-mail and ask about lack of TV gardening programmes on Veggie growing, as surely lots of people grow veggies, and enough would be interested in their own programme. The BBC have four TV channels you would think there would be space on one of them. I agree about the silly "Rosemary and Thyme", what a waste of two good actresses - it is farcical! Busy_ lizzie.
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I to heard on the radio about adopt and allotment.
I did wonder if I had heard it right ? how can you adopt a lottie?.
Pity Monty Don does not adopt one, watching him in Fork to Fork he was good but GW waste of time. His enegy in FTF was exciting but GW its gone.
But if we all think about it we all adopt our lotties,they are our children, we feed-water-clean-sow-harvest and worry just like we do with children.
Teresa
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I can just imagine it. The Beeb proudly announces a new Friday evening programme, with GW, Groundforce and How To Be A Gardener all joining forces to "Do Allotments".
Scene opens with Tommy busy cutting the planks for the decking over the onion bed (to stop us getting our shoes muddy) while Charley is busy constructing a water feature among the brassicas - there will also be a small stream meandering between the potato rows (for irrigation purposes).
Meanwhile AT is busy explaining to us that we can easily tell whether our soil is acid or alkaline by whether our Hydrangeas are pink or blue (goodness knows what we are to think if we have Freudenstein or Seringa, which are pink whatever the pH)
And to top it off, there is old heartthob in person, MD, all engaging smiles and curly locks, carefully showing us how to put leaves in a wire cage and water them with the hosepipe - `cos we have to be shown how to do things like that.
Roll on; I just can`t wait. It`ll be the best laugh since Monty Python
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Hey guys :)
Don't knock it Hugh. There is quite a movement toward the Allotment Garden as a creditable concept. We are using "Green Prescriptions" to get doctors to give 1/4 plots, no insistance on the % of veg to flowers, the incorporation of small wildlife habitats eg, sunken baths for frogs and the whole idea of giving yourself space for chairs and decorative stuff for relaxation in the Health for All format.
Easy Allotments are also being pushed. eg, why dig a trench for potatoes or runner beans when they can be planted with a trowel? For 2 years I had a NO DIG plot..it went well. What I mean by no dig was, that I just covered the whole plot with lots of muck and then only dug/planted the little bit or row required for the plants
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Merv, I really despair. It`s not allotments I`m knocking; why on earth would I want to do that?. No, its those prats on the compulsory licence fee channel who think that:-
(a) Gardens have to be covered with carpentry and patios and `features`, or
(b) They can show us a vista of 5 acres of Capability Brown`s or Gertude Jekyll`s finest and then tell us that our humble garden will look like that, or
(c) Try to tempt us to go and spend a fortune at the garden centre, (usually goes with (b)), or
(d) Think that we can`t rake up a few leaves and put them in a bin unless a bloke with an engaging smile and curly hair demonstrates it to us on tele, or
(e) Oversimplifies something to the point where it becomes nonsense, or
(f) Introduce `experts` who just talk nonsense anyway, (if you wish I can list several instances of this)
They never talk about useful or important things, such as how we are supposed to deal with the pernicious bugs, fungi and weeds now that the European Soviet Union has made everything that worked illegal, or the respective n.p.k. analyses of compost, horse manure, farmyard manure etc, or the effects on pH levels of the various organic or inorganic fertilizers, all of which would be of far more benefit to the average lottie than the stuff which they usually come up with, however engaging the smile that delivers it.
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Ah ha, I see.
Like ifn I see another house/room/patio/decking makeover by peeps with shirt sleeves that reach to the ground, I will puke. Whilst the real issues of the destruction of our open spaces, are shunted to the back because it is not sexy.
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hi folks what about contacting the company that made the allotment series and asking for a copy for us all
what do ya think ??? ??? ???
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of course we're catered for - they are always having re-runs of the good life on UK gold!
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:)I'm new to this forum and I'm just trying to get the feel of things and find my way around. Not found out how to post a photo yet though. Speaking of lack of allotment programmes, I've just got hold of a copy of a series run by ITV West called the Allotment. They've published it on DVD available by mail order and I think it's good - especially for a novice allotmenteer like me. I like it because you can keep dipping back in to it and don't have to watch it all at once. Someone on another forum (I think) said that's "it's not very dynamic "but I think that's why I like it. The people on it aren't actors or experts but real people with allotments. I think the DVD's (3 of them) are £16.99 inc p and p. My copy was ordered off the internet from ITV West
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Found the link:
http://www.itvregions.com/viewer_services.php?region=West&content=5031
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Ahhh that brought back memories. Two good 'ol boys on that thread - Merv and Hugh. Has anyone got any up to date info on them ?
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On 'The Allotment Movement ' board there is a thread called 'Bowing Out' which I think is a very sad one but probably explains why Merv doesn't post any more. I feel really sad having just read it again.
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Think Hugh has gone off in a huff. Which is a shame cos he was a real character and had lots of good advice and a sense of humour too.
Come back Hugh if you are spying on us.
Sarah.
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The BBC might not think allotments have a wide appeal but ITV produced a 15 half hour series on allotments which followed a new plot holder through her first year, helped by an experienced neighbour and it visited lots of experienced allotmenteers for their wisdom. Loads of info, many interesting characters and insight into sheds. Maybe the BBC missed a trick? I got it on DVD through www.allotment.info
I think it is great to watch!
Watson
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Hello Watson
I've got that DVD and I really enjoy putting my feet up to watch it. It's very relaxing but helpful to new allotmenteers. I like the fact that you can watch short snippets when you feel like it. I'm doing that carboard, manure, potato thing which they featured. I'll report back on the results later in the year.
Wardy :)
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I sometimes wonder if this is a class issue. Most people who call the shots in the media have little appreciation for working class culture, hence country houses get millions of lottery money spent on them and adoring TV programmes made on them, allotments have been struggling for years and are only now at the 11th hour getting a bit of attention.
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This is probably way too imaginary to make sense, but something to think about any how; People with allotments/gardens and video cameras might like to capture their own efforts and practical demo's of their methods, put them on CD and eventually lump them all together. If there's enough good stuff on them maybe the BBC would like to buy it...!
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Good idea Kenkew!!
That way it would have more than a touch of reality.
Debs ;)