The Beechgrove Garden has been a perennial fixture on the mantelpiece of Scottish life since 1978.
To celebrate, we’ve dusted off old tapes and unearthed treasures from the past 40 years to create a one-hour special programme that takes us down the garden path of Beechgrove’s growth.
In this special programme, we return to Beechgrove’s humble beginnings in the back yard of BBC Aberdeen, when the garden was a small, difficult to manage patch of land.
We discover how the down to earth knowledge, use of language and banter of Beechgrove’s first presenters, Jim McColl and George Barron helped take the programme to unprecedented success.
We’ll also look at how Carole Baxter broke ground, becoming the first woman to co-present a TV gardening show in the UK, as well as revisiting the hilarious antics but expert makeovers of the Hit Squad.
There’ll be embarrassing auditions tapes and stories of presenters past and present. All mixed with a dose of Beechgrove’s gentle, good natured humour.
To top it all off, this special programme is introduced and narrated by Elaine C. Smith who also visits the garden at Beechgrove and meets today’s presenters.
