Programme one
Castle Howard
Location for: Brideshead Revisited (starring Jeremy Irons and Laurence Olivier).
The lowdown: Castle Howard, North Yorkshire, is a house, garden and estate on a grand scale. It survives today, still owned by the Howard family, and pays its way by opening its doors to the public and film crews.
Most famous as the location for Brideshead Revisited, we will go behind the scenes not of the production, but of the garden itself, visiting the famous Atlas Fountain, Ray Wood, the demolished Temple of Venus, the kitchen gardens and the vast waterway system that threads its way through the entire estate and garden. Along the way we meet the gardeners and custodians responsible for maintaining the past and building for its future.
Programme two
Arley Hall
Location for: Sherlock Holmes (starring Jeremy Brett), The Forsyte Saga (starring Damian Lewis and Rupert Graves).
The lowdown: A small but perfectly formed country house in Cheshire with a stunning estate and garden. This is a family-run place where a love of gardening runs through the veins of generations of the Ashbrook family who still own it.
We focus on a number of unusual and stunning aspects of the garden – the Ilex Avenue, the Shrub Rose Garden and the Furlong Walk. All have fascinating stories behind them that unlock the secret history of this garden and the people who have cherished it through the centuries.
Programme three
Kent
Location for: The Darling Buds of May (starring David Jason and Catherine Zeta Jones).
The lowdown: Known since Tudor times as “the garden of England” and immortalised in the TV drama The Darling Buds of May, Kent is an extraordinary county. Often dismissed simply as “the place you drive through to get to France”, it still has a wealth of horticultural riches and wonderful stories to tell, from its famous hop fields to the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale.
Programme four
Waddesdon Manor
Location for: The Queen (starring Helen Mirren), He Knew He Was Right (starring Bill Nighy)
Lowdown: A French-style chateau that wouldn’t look out of place on the banks of the Loire but is in fact in Buckinghamshire. Waddesdon Manor was built in the 19th century by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild as a country pleasure palace to entertain the great and the good of the day, from Queen Victoria to the Prince of Wales and later Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair.
Ferdinand wanted an instant garden on a grand scale and got one by cutting off the top of a hill, employing an army of gardeners to maintain his stunning array of flowering plants and transplanting, among other things, huge, mature oak trees to create the famous North Walk.
Programme five
Oxford University Botanic Garden
Location for: Inspector Morse (starring John Thaw), Lewis (starring Kevin Whately).
The lowdown: Small but full of treasures, the Oxford University Botanic Garden was the first of its kind in Britain. Set in the heart of Oxford, the original garden here was founded in 1621. It has always been full of medicinal plants but now holds up to 7,000 species - some endangered, some essential for scientific research.
We uncover tales of the intrepid plant-hunters past and present, who risked their necks in foreign countries to bring back unique horticultural specimens that would bring them fame and fortune and benefit gardeners everywhere.
Programme six
Portmeirion
Location for: The Prisoner (starring Patrick McGoohan).
The lowdown: Portmeirion sits in a unique location of outstanding beauty and is a curious amalgamation of managed wild woodland, native Welsh beauty and carefully constructed, Italian-style garden design. Created by the eccentric architect, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, it remains a holiday favourite. We start first in the garden of Plas Brondanw, Williams-Ellis’ ancestral home where he first put his ideas into practice.
Programme seven
Cornwall
Location for: Coming Home (starring Joanna Lumley, Peter O’Toole), Robin of Sherwood (starring Michael Praed).
The lowdown: The romantic county of Cornwall is filled with extraordinary gardens, many created from the wealth accumulated by owners of the now-derelict tin mines that once operated on the Cornish coast. We visit two, both dealing with unique climates and horticultural issues; St Michael’s Mount, on the sub-tropical south coast, with its rich history dating back to medieval times and Prideaux Place, an Elizabethan house whose garden is currently being restored.
Programme eight
Ashridge House and Estate
Location for: Henry VIII (starring Ray Winstone and Helena Bonham-Carter).
The lowdown: Ashridge House and Estate began its life in medieval times and was once a working monastery until Henry VIII, needing cash and a divorce, changed faith and dissolved the monasteries. Little is left of the monks’ presence in the gardens and landscape, but it’s possible to piece together their story and influence. Easier to see is the influence of two of the world’s greatest garden designers: Capability Brown and Humphrey Repton, both of whom left their mark on the gardens here.
Re-live the classic drama starring legend Jeremy Irons
Sir Derek
Jacobi is in the hotseat as the crime-busting mediaeval monk
See Helen Mirren's brilliant, Oscar-winning turn as the Queen
