The Allotment with Charlie Dimmock

In a light-hearted but nevertheless educational look at the fashion and passion of ‘growing your own’, Charlie Dimmock takes an inspirational journey with two groups of allotment plot holders through their challenges and achievements during an English summer.

Each of Charlie’s rising gardening co-presenters, Carina Birrell and Jonny Lee Kemp, champion one group of ‘allotmenteers’ and work with them to produce the best produce in totally contrasting conditions of landscape and soil, trying to win Charlie’s ‘Best Produce Awards’.

They also develop a strong rivalry as they overcome personal challenges set by Charlie and each other. The series covers the period from May to October during which ground preparation, seed sowing, crop tending, the excitement of witnessing growth and the progress of the produce is recorded alongside the background of the human stories of the diverse range of allotment holders.

This adds significant human interest to a series, which is light-hearted in its presentation but contains the humour of friendly rivalry between the plot holders, and between Jonny and Carina.

Charlie Dimmock openly shares her own valuable knowledge – and at times learns from the allotmenteers whose ‘local tips’ ensure that the sharing of information and skills is not always one-sided!

The viewer is therefore taken through a TV series that brings out the quality of country life, rediscovers forgotten values and yet supplies an exciting and vibrant set of entertaining programmes, which provide a positive example in ‘back to basic lifestyle’ to both individuals and communities.