First female host to take root on Gardeners’ Question Time
ERIC ROBSON is to retire from Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time after 25 years, to be replaced by the show’s first ever female host.
Kathy Clugston, better known to listeners as the Northern Irish voice of the Shipping Forecast, is a keen amateur gardener and will be taking the helm in May. But she does face an unusual challenge.
She suffers from anosmia, meaning that she has no sense of smell.
Describing the condition, she once said: “Try to imagine waking up one day and not being able to smell your children’s heads, the roses in your garden, the coffee brewing in your kitchen, the freshly cut grass in your garden.
“That extra layer of experience is missing from a garden, from a house. I don’t feel sad about it but, obviously, there are certain times I wish I had it.”
Gardeners’ Question Time began in 1947 and Robson has been the chairman of the panel since 1994.
“Having travelled the length and breadth of the UK with Gardeners’ Question Time for 25 years, it feels an appropriate time to be moving on,” he said. “I’ve loved every minute of it, but I’m also delighted to be handing the trowel on to Kathy, someone I know will fit right into the GQT family.”
Yesterday, en route to a recording of the show in Hampshire, Robson told The Daily Telegraph that the weekly commute from his farm in Cumbria was one of the deciding factors in leaving the show.
“I’ve been doing it for pushing 30 years and that’s a fairly decent shift.
“To be honest, I loved doing the programme but the travel has become increasingly wearing,” said the 72-year-old.
Robson plans to write and make documentaries for Radio 4, but said he would miss the show and its devoted listeners. “It has been a great honour and an absolute delight,” he said. “I wish Kathy well and I’m sure she’ll do a good job. She has a great sense of humour.”
Clugston, 49, is one of Radio 4’s continuity announcers and a regular reader of news bulletins in addition to the Shipping Forecast. She has staged a musical and showed a flair for comedy when she impersonated Anne Robinson and Victo- ria Beckham on Radio Ulster’s sketch show, The Folks on the Hill.
The BBC said she will bring “her huge broadcasting experience and a thirst for horticultural knowledge” to the role.
Her first programme is on May 3. Robson’s departure will be marked by a special programme broadcast from Manchester on April 26.
She said: “I have had a few pinch-me moments since I started at Radio 4 – my first shipping forecast, reading the news on the Today programme – but this beats them all.
“I’m most looking forward to visiting the gardens, and meeting Radio 4 listeners, in parts of the country that I might otherwise never have gone to.
“One of my jobs as host will be to make new listeners feel welcome. I’m a novice and won’t be shy about asking the panellists to spell things out if they get too technical.”
The show’s cochair, Peter Gibbs, will continue in his current role.