Production
The series was created by Peter Bazalgette and was first broadcast on 19 September 1997 on BBC Two. In each episode, a team of gardeners make over the garden of an individual who has been nominated by a member of their family or a friend. Whilst that individual is away, the team, assisted by friends and family, make over the garden over two days, and surprise the individual on their return. The team was led by Alan Titchmarsh, presenter of Pebble Mill at One and Gardeners' World, gardener Charlie Dimmock, builder Tommy Walsh and his assistant Will Shanahan. Dimmock met the producer–director of the series five years previously when she built a pond for the Meridian series Grass Roots, and she became known for not wearing a bra. Walsh was invited to take part after completing work on the executive producer's garden.
The series moved to BBC One for the second series. Titchmarsh left in 2002, saying that he felt the series was becoming repetitive and because he wasn't able to work with materials like stainless steel and do intricate brickwork patterns due to time and money constraints. Kirsty King joined the team after Titchmarsh left.
A number of new five-minute segments were filmed for Ground Force Revisited and appended onto repeats of earlier episodes, where Dimmock and Walsh revisited the garden concerned to surprise the owners and see how the gardens had developed.
The series was credited with helping the increase in sales of garden decking in the late 1990s and early 2000s due to its use during the series. Retailer B&Q had sales rise from £5,000 in 1997 to £16 million in 2001. In an interview in the Daily Mail, Titchmarsh said: "I am partly to blame for the decking boom, and I am sorry, I know it's everywhere these days."
The series was cancelled in 2005. Describing its cancellation, BBC Director-General Mark Thompson said that the series was "reaching the end of its natural life" and that "the public do get very cross when they see the BBC flogging a dead horse".
At its peak, the series attracted 12 million viewers. Repeats of Ground Force are currently shown on Home.
Read more about this topic: Ground Force
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