The newspaper for retired BBC Pension Scheme members • April 2021 • Issue 2 PROSPERO PENSION GARDENING ON THE BBC SCHEME PAGE 2 | BACK AT THE BBC GARDENING ON THE BBC 9 May 1931 was arguably the date on which the BBC discovered how to talk to its audience. From the BBC’s inception in the 1920s, the idea of the ‘talk’ was one of the Corporation’s regular features. An expert would address the audience, reading formally from a script, but few ‘real’ people ever got behind the microphone. hen, the mould was broken, with the arrival of CH Middleton. Selected from a list of potential Tgardening broadcasters, supplied to the BBC by the Royal Horticultural Society, this gently spoken son of a Northamptonshire gardener threw out broadcasting convention, and dared to speak from notes alone. ‘Mr Middleton’, as he was known on air, got the full support of BBC management, although in the early years he did provide a script as backup. Ultimately, this was seen as unnecessary, when it became clear that Mr Middleton was a broadcasting natural. A memo at the time from Mr Fielden of the BBC General Talks Department is revealing: ‘There really is no need for you to submit a manuscript every time you talk, so long as you have sufficient notes and can extemporize – I would be happy if you would ‘Mr Middleton’ with Elizabeth Cowell. endeavour to tell and not read your garden talks.’ This he did with relish. His first talk set the tone that would become familiar for the next 15 years: This down-to-earth approach lent itself to open approach with his Gardening Club series. Rarely did the ‘Good afternoon. Well, it’s not much of a day for communication with the audience. For example, the programme stretch to outside locations. Instead, an gardening, is it?’ question of when Mr Middleton’s In Your Garden improvised studio set, complete with a greenhouse was programme was to be heard was of great to concern preferred, constructed in a decaying cinema converted to him in the early days. Was it to be Fridays at 19.10 or for television at Gosta Green in Birmingham. Sundays at 14.00? Mr Middleton himself broadcast a The Blue Peter garden message to his listeners asking which time they preferred: By the end of the 1960s, Thrower moved over to the ‘There does not seem a better way of finding out what newly established Gardeners’ World, a BBC stalwart your wishes are, whether you regard me as a stimulation that remains remarkably unchanged in its aim to for the weekend’s gardening, or to send you off to sleep this day. But it’s his role as the children’s gardener after Sunday lunch. The BBC want to please you and in Blue Peter that extended the appeal of gardening I am quite prepared to do what I’m told as far as I can to another generation. and to give you what you want.’ In 1974 he established the Blue Peter garden, complete Over 7,000 listeners wrote in to say they preferred with a greenhouse and simple plan of flowerbeds for Sunday, 2,950 Friday, and 66 liked Mr Middleton so straightforward cultivation. It survived two bouts of much they answered ‘for either or any time’. vandalism, in 1978 and 1983, but always sprang back. WW2 and gardening The Italian sunken garden brought a new lease of life By the outbreak of war in 1939, Mr Middleton was a following the first attack, and from the 1990s the garden Percy Thrower at the studio in Gosta Green. household name and was approached by the Ministry has featured as a regular summer backdrop on the of Food to front their Dig for Victory campaign. BBC’s children’s channels. The Blue Peter garden now The appeal of gardening suddenly widened as listeners, exists at MediaCity UK along with the statue of Petra, Early gardening programmes even without their own gardens, were encouraged the Blue Peter dog. The early years of radio broadcasting were very much a to ‘grow their own’ in allotments, waste ground and learning experience for all concerned. In the case of even parks. gardening in the pre-Middleton era, much had been Dig for Victory. It was a question of national survival, but the advice still learned about what worked on air, and what did not, came in the familiar accessible form. What did change from a series of talks given at varying intervals and was the setting of the gardening talks. Mr Middleton different times of day, by the likes of Vita Sackville West, moved from the studio to a vegetable garden near and Marion Cran. Their limited success seemed to stem The Langham Hotel in Cavendish Place, central London, as much from their alienating tone and delivery than where his advice was to be heard live on location. simply irregular scheduling. There was one other change. The weather report was With the opening of more regional output, from stations strangely absent for the duration of the war, essential across the country, listeners began to demand more. information for gardeners of course, but also very useful Mr Middleton offered a more varied gardening diet. for enemy aircraft planning a raid. What was coming into bloom, the likely weather conditions, practical tips on controlling pests – these TV gardening were typical fare in his weekly broadcasts. All were Television and gardening seemed to be natural partners, presented in a seemingly effortless fashion. and Mr Middleton realised this within the first year of the new medium starting in the UK. On 15 May 1937, Mr Middleton began to lay out a special plot for TV in the grounds of Alexandra Palace in north London. Television transmission ceased during the war, but bounced back when another gardening legend was born. Percy Thrower continued the Middleton legacy, The Blue Peter garden at MediaCity UK. taking very much the same practical and friendly 2 Later trends Since the early days of radio and television, gardening has been the platform for the launch of many successful broadcasting careers, and new programme formats have emerged through the medium. Alan Titchmarsh made PROSPERO his debut on the long-running Nationwide, clearing greenfly from a garden in Margate in 1979, and Ground Prospero is provided free of charge to retired Scheme Force triggered a swathe of lifestyle garden and design members or to their spouses and dependants. shows from the early 1990s. Prospero provides a source of news on former colleagues, developments at the BBC and pension issues, plus classified adverts. It is available online at bbc.com/mypension To advertise in Prospero, please enclose a cheque made payable to: BBC Central Directorate. Rate £6 for 20 words. Please include your pension number in a covering letter. Please send your editorial contributions, comments or feedback to: Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Central Square, Cardiff CF10 1FT Email: [email protected] The Ground Force team. Please make sure that any digital pictures you send are scanned at 300dpi. Please also note that the Always adapting, always changing, gardening maximum word count for obituaries is 350 words. programmes on the BBC have enjoyed an ongoing appeal for countless generations. Perhaps the early realisation that real people, talking about what they Contents really believe in, has sustained gardening on the Monty Don. BBC for the past 90 years. Back at the BBC 2-3 Gardening on the BBC 2021 pension increase 2021 pension increase Sudoku From 1 April 2021, pensions will increase as follows: You can log in to myPension online to view your combined April payslip and P60 document • Old and New Benefits members’ pensions from 13 April 2021. in payment and deferred pensions: 1.2%. Old Benefits members who elected to receive If you have not registered for the service, you Letters 4-5 the Pension Increase Exchange will receive a will need to contact the pension service line on lower increase, and in some cases, no increase. 029 2032 2811 to obtain your personal security • Career Average Benefits (‘CAB’) 2006 members’ number to complete the registration process. pensions in payment: 1.2%. Paper copies will be posted on 13 April 2021, Memories 6-8 • CAB 2011 members’ pensions in payment: 0.6%. so should arrive with you by Friday of that week. BBC School Radio No discretionary increase over and above those Weather forecasts on BBC1 detailed above has been agreed. Ceefax in Switzerland A radio romance Grace Wyndham Goldie (BBC) Trust Fund: Application window now open Obituaries 9-11 Applications are invited for grants for educational and hardship purposes and should be returned by 31 July 2021. Odds & ends 12 The Trust Fund exists to help those engaged in broadcasting or an associated activity, now or in the past, as well as their children and dependants. Open University – 50th anniversary Caption competition You can request an application form from the BBC Pension and Benefits Centre or download one here: bbc.co.uk/charityappeals/appeals/grants/grace-wyndham-goldie Classifieds WIN £10 Sudoku A O E G Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains the letters ACDEGHOTW in some C G order. One row or column contains a 5 or more letter word, name or programme title with a BBC T G H W connection. Solve the sudoku to discover what or who it is and send send your entry to Prospero by G E Friday, 30 April 2021. Or, you can email your entry Prospero April 2021 to [email protected], with ‘Sudoku competition 2’ T H A E The next issue of Prospero will appear in the subject line.