Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Gardener who masterminded Harlow Carr Gardens and became a stalwart of Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time and a popular TV presenter.
On the island
Eight records
It reminds me of my grandmother, who liked to have a Rowan tree and an elder, because she used to say, What is it? The Rowan, the Elder, and Red Thread, they hold the witches all in red.
The Dawn ChorusFavourite
It's the only tune you never get tired of. Listen to this, switch it on, first thing in the morning on the desert island, wake to blackbird song, if that doesn't bring a tear to your eye, nothing will.
Harry James and His Music Makers
I needed the expression that the the blues music gives, because that is haunting. Even when it's played at its jazziest, it's expressing a lust for freedom that no other music does.
This is just Sue when the the the last dance of the evening at the village dance, and the girl in question had said yes, you could take her home, and they put moonlight serenade on. If that didn't make your eyes shine, nothing would.
The Royal Regiment of Scotland
One of my favourite walks is from Barnard Castle, Lartington, Cuddherston ... and I was about a mile and a half out of Barney, and I heard the bagpipes ... and he was playing the distant hills, and the river tees in the foreground, the great vista of Teesdale in the in the distant view, and the bagpipes, ya.
We did a lot of hard work. We had to lift big stones on a block and tackle. And the Ukrainians thought the vulgar boatman was just right when you're heaving on a train, you know on a chain rather. The rhythm is just right.
That was the signature tune for the Mr. Smith programme. And ah, the memories that that conjures up.
Psalm 23 (The Lord is My Shepherd)
I wish I could sing. I remember going to listen to the triochi in the in the royal hall in Harrogate, and they sang and they sang, and then the caretakers wanted to shut the shop up and go home, and the master of ceremonies came to the front of the stage and he said, We've got to go now. But he said, If you all come to the pub across the road, he said, We'll go on singing there.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30What does [the flower] do for you, Geoffrey, in that moment?
I think it makes you realize that that we live in an artificial world. And uh the real world is the natural world, the world of nature. And you just need to look at a primrose and and it puts everything in perspective.
Presenter asks
9:44Why was [boarding school] so awful for you?
And longing to be out [there].
Presenter asks
11:24Was that when you decided gardening is what I want to do?
At fourteen. Now I decided that I would be a a forester, a farmer, or a gardener. And I went into forestry immediately I left. I was asked at fourteen by the my housemaster, Bentley Beatham, what I wanted to be, and I said, As long as I never have to work inside, that will do.
Presenter asks
16:30What did your dad have to say about [you passing out of college with flying colours]?
The keepsakes
The book
I want the history of viticulture, of vine growing, with instructions on how to make the wine.
The luxury
A bundle of vine prunings from a vineyard
I would spend the years learning a whole new skill. ... I know how to prune grapes, harvesting the grapes, making the wine, and then in the evening, so I would sit on the beach on a comfortable chair made by myself, and I'd watch the sun go down, and I'd sip a glass of my own wine, and uh I would think of all the people rushing around in the world, sucking in traffic fumes, busied to death, stressed out of the mind.
Oh, his face lit up. He walked on clouds for about a fortnight. My mother used to keep saying to him, You can come down now, Fred.
Presenter asks
19:05How did you keep those pests at bay, then [at Harlow Carr and Barningham]?
We'd had no problems. Harlow Carr was the same way ... the natural predators came, you see. You've got l if you start spraying, then you're going to kill the predators. You're going to kill the ladybirds, you're going to kill the lacewings, you're going to kill the hoverflies. In an organic world, there's a balance.
“I don't need paradise, the Yorkshire Dales'll do for me.”
“Unless the garden is his, Sue, then don't put the man in charge.”
“And suddenly gardening became not just a a pursuit, but a thing that was an ever expanding horizon. And I have never been bored. So not with my job ever.”