Man Of The Lakes

As Gardeners’ Question Time reaches its 70th anniversary, its chair Eric Robson discusses his admiration for Alfred Wainwright and his passion for the Lake District fells.

- Rachael Oakden

When you live in the most spectacular part of the Lake District, weekly commutes to distant corners of Britain to discuss pest-control and potting compost could be rather burdensome.

But the perks of chairing Gardeners’ Question Time far outweigh the time consuming travel, says Eric Robson. “Having the most expert horticultural panel in the country sitting on my left hand side means I get marvellous oneon-one advice about my fruit trees,” says the veteran broadcaster, who has planted three orchards full of apple, quince and damson trees on his farm in the Wasdale valley. “Ribston Pippin really shouldn’t do well for us because we’re so far north, but I grow it up against a sheltered southwest-facing wall and it crops really well.”

To close one’s eyes and hear Eric enthusing about heritage fruit trees is to be transported instantly to Sunday afternoon. His sing-song vowels and northern wit are as much a part of the weekend as country walks and Yorkshire puddings; they’ve been reassuring green-fingered Radio 4 listeners for 23 years. “I see my job as stopping the panel straying into the more impenetrable thickets of horticultural Latin,” he says. And if they do? “That’s where the bad jokes come in.”

Even if you’re not a gardener, you will know Eric Robson’s voice. Now 70, he began his career at Border Television in Carlisle, and has been a current a airs reporter and presenter on television and radio for more than four decades. The face of state occasions, such as Trooping the Colour and Remembrance Sunday, he was on air during both the wedding of Diana, Princess of Wales and her funeral. He is also the broadcaster who persuaded the notoriously shy fell walker Alfred Wainwright to accompany him on camera for four series of walking programmes.