A SMALL corner of Britain will forever be in bloom while a perennial listeners' favourite remains on the airwaves.

BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time is still going strong in its 56th year, and is believed to be one of the longest-running shows in history.

It remains as, or even more popular than ever, with two million listeners tuning in during recent years.

The Gardeners' Question Time roadshow, a regular visitor to the North-East over the years, arrived back in the region to record two shows this week.

Durham County Cricket Club's Riverside ground, at Chester-le-Street, provided the setting for the programmes.

An audience of 300 eager gardeners packed into the members' lounge for the programmes, to be broadcast in half-hour slots.

Earlier in the day, some of the panel's members visited three local gardens to answer listeners' questions.

The rest of the questions were selected from those submitted by the audience.

Producer Trevor Taylor and the panel's chairman, North-East broadcaster Eric Robson, both veterans of more than 500 programmes, picked the questions.

The programme has a pool of seven experts, but only three appear on each edition.

For the Chester-le-Street recordings, the trio were John Cushnie, Bob Flowerdew and Roy Lancaster.

Mr Taylor said the major change during his time in charge came with the decision to pose the questions unseen.

He said: "Previously, the panel was given the questions beforehand to help them come up with their answers in advance, but we decided to add an extra touch of spontaneity by putting them to the panel for the first time when we record the programme.

"Otherwise, there are only small changes here and there, which would not be evident from week to week.

"If anyone was to suggest tinkering with it, the BBC would be picketed and I would be lynched, but that is not going to happen.

"I was listening to some of the old 1940s recordings and the questions do not change a great deal, except some of the chemical controls then suggested have long since been banned."

Mr Taylor said the long-running radio show has benefited from interest created by the increasing number of television gardening shows.

He said: "I think the real keen gardeners probably do not watch Ground Force, but I do not knock these programmes because they have been terrific in adding to the gardening audience."

* The Chester-le-Street recordings can be heard on Sunday, July 13, and Sunday, August 17, both at 2pm, repeated on Wednesday, July 16, and Wednesday, August 20, at 3pm, on Radio Four.