The Answer Lies in the Soil

Contents

Host

Ruth Langsford

Co-hosts

Plant expert: Andy Sturgeon, Diarmuid Gavin (alternating)

Broadcast

Action Time/Carlton for ITV, 1999

Synopsis

Truly awful gardening panel program which arguably marked the beginning of the end for the Action Time brand. Punter plus celeb pairings traipse through round after round of tedious question about plants, the worst of which was 'Name that Seed' (we're not making this up). The only round that saved it from complete trudgery was a moderately entertaining video clip where you had to buzz when you saw a mistake in a piece of video tape (e.g. a plant had been buried upside-down or somesuch.)

Other than that, this show is only notable for the early appearance of Diarmuid "Home Front" Gavin.

Trivia

Where does the bizarre title come from? Kenneth Williams played a gardener called Arthur Fallowfield in the BBC radio comedy series Beyond Our Ken. His reply to any question was (in West Country accent) "The answer lies in the soil". I guess you had to be there.

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