Monty Don’s Paradise Gardens
BBC TWO, 9.00PM
For this new two-part documentary, Monty Don takes a break from tilling his Herefordshire patch to wonder at paradise gardens in Spain and further afield.
He begins in Andalucia, where he marvels at the gardens of the Alhambra and Alcázar palaces. Anyone who has visited those magnificent grounds may already be aware of their Moorish origins. But what they may not know is that these ancient oases are Islamic paradise gardens, the design of which is based on strictures set out in the Koran, as Don discovers as he learns of their design principles.
From there, he heads to Morocco to wander around the sprawling 1,000-year-old Agdal Garden, before finishing up in Iran, where he is awestruck by the mighty avenues of elms, which are rarely seen in the UK since disease wiped them out 40 years ago. Don also tells of his personal, if tenuous, link to paradise gardens – the Moors imported orange trees for their European gardens, from which Don’s ancestors created the Keiller’s Marmalade.
The show is a feast for the eyes, and is as much a travelogue and history show as a gardening one in his crumpled linens and full of wonder at the spectacles, is the perfect guide. Vicki Power