PICK OF THE DAY

MONTY DON’S PARADISE GARDENS, 9PM, BBC2

THIS vibrant, sun-dappled two-part series sees Monty Don touring the Islamic world in search of the paradise gardens described in the Koran — magical spaces filled with greenery, fruit and

flowers, where shade and water provide fragrant oases from the baking hot sun. He begins in Spain, which has a ‘long and rich Islamic history’, before moving on to Morocco and a 1,000-year-old garden in Marrakesh. Finally, Monty (pictured) reaches the gardens of ancient Persia in the Iranian desert, where he learns the secrets of creating a garden of Eden that ‘mirrors paradise’.