Monty Don Remembers... Geoff Hamilton

Described as ‘the nation’s head gardener', Geoff Hamilton combined vast horticultural knowledge with an ease at TV presenting that made everything he did look natural. He led Gardeners’ World for 16 years, until his untimely death in 1996, as well as numerous other series, each displaying both his enthusiasm and his continual will to learn.

Monty Don is the perfect person to detail Geoff’s remarkable career, he inherited the Gardeners’ World mantle in 2003 and has since forged a similar path with his own specialist series alongside. He tells us of Geoff’s early career, how his famous Barnsdale garden became not only the centrepiece of the series, but also why it’s so important for the presenter to own the space he works from. He describes what made Geoff so different from his predecessors, people like Percy Thrower and Peter Seabrook.

We find out what it was about Geoff that made him stand out: his preparedness to show his failures as well as successes; his constant reminders that gardens can be created on any budget, big or small; and his powerful advocacy for organic gardening, despite the scepticism he faced from the greater horticultural world. But most of all, Monty shares his respect for someone who blazed a trail that he and others followed, a reminder of why Geoff Hamilton was revered by the millions of viewers who loved him.