Garden Rescue
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Banged Up: Teens Behind Bars
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Curtail Question Time, cancel Newsnight or chop 20 minutes off The Andrew Marr Show, and the majority of viewers in the real world, beyond the Westminster Bubble, would hardly notice the difference.
But start messing about with gardening programmes and people would rise up in revolt, brandishing their spades like pitchforks.
BBC bosses know this all too well. They found out the hard way, a few years ago, when they tried to 'update' Gardeners' World to make it 'trendy'. It was a disaster: everyone likes Monty Don just the way he is, thank you very much.
Charlie Dimmock is a natural broadcaster and a talented garden designer, so her reappearance on our screens is welcome
But not all gardening telly has to be traditional and respectful. Given the popularity of all kinds of home improvement shows and makeover formats, there's plainly an appetite for programmes packed with ideas for making our backyards better. Alan Titchmarsh has been doing it on ITV for ages with Love Your Garden, and the Beeb's belated answer is Garden Rescue (BBC1).
When the series launched on daytime TV last year, it was notable for the return of Charlie Dimmock. Once famous for bringing a bit of bounce to the nation's flowerbeds, she almost disappeared from our screens for more than a decade, following the end of the instant landscaping show, Ground Force. She's a natural broadcaster, and a talented garden designer, so her reappearance is welcome.
Her co-stars are Chelsea Flower Show veterans Harry and David Rich, brothers with an arty approach to gardening: they are constantly thinking about how the light falls, which might sound pretentious but turns out to be highly practical.
In contrast to Charlie's ad-libbing and impromptu style, Harry has an earnest
