Big Red Book
Celebrating television's This Is Your Life
Percy THROWER (1913-1988)
THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Percy Thrower, gardener and broadcaster, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the Ideal Home Exhibition in London's Earl's Court, having been led to believe he was there for a photo shoot for Amateur Gardening magazine.
Percy was born at Horwood House in Buckinghamshire, where his father was head gardener. After leaving school, he worked under his father for four years before securing his first gardening job at the Royal Gardens at Windsor Castle in 1931. He later worked for the Parks Department in Leeds until having passed the Royal Horticultural Society's General Exam in 1937, he moved to Derby, where he worked his way up to Assistant Parks Superintendent.
Following a move to Shrewsbury in 1946, where he became the youngest ever Parks Superintendent at the age of 32, Percy began sharing his knowledge of gardening on regional radio and later became a household name through his appearances on various television programmes, initially on the BBC's Gardening Club in 1957, and later on the BBC's Gardeners' World from 1968.
"Oh Eamonn, very nice to see you! You've planted a very big surprise! I thought someone had fallen in the water!"
programme details...
- Edition No: 435
- Subject No: 432
- Broadcast date: Wed 31 Mar 1976
- Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
- Recorded: Wed 10 Mar 1976
- Venue: Euston Road Studios
- Series: 16
- Edition: 21
- Code name: Root
on the guest list...
- Lesley Judd
- Peter Purves
- Shep - dog
- Bob Musk
- Connie - wife
- Margaret - daughter
- Susan - daughter
- Ann - daughter
- Mabel - sister-in-law
- Maurice - brother
- Harry - brother
- Maud - sister
- Joan - sister
- Ken Hodgkinson
- Arthur Billitt
- Mai Zetterling
- Harry Wheatcroft
- Jim Smith
- Leonard Dando
- Ted Sturgiss
- Tom Holt
- Fred Newman
- Ursula Steier Filmed tributes:
- Isobel Barnett
- Simon Williams
- Vince Hill
- Tina Lunny
- students of the Royal Normal College for the Blind, Rowton Castle
production team...
- Researcher: Lavinia Warner
- Writer: John Sandilands
- Director: Mike Dormer
- Executive Producer: Jack Andrews
- Producer: Jack Crawshaw
- names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life
Margaret, Susan and Ann, daughters of Percy Thrower, recall this edition of This Is Your Life in an exclusive interview recorded in August 2017
Screenshots of Percy Thrower This Is Your Life - and a photograph of Percy Thrower's big red book
At Clack's Farm there is a five-barred gate upon which Percy and Arthur sometimes rested or posed during a recording of Gardener's World. Lady visitors to Clack's Farm on open days would make for this gate and if necessary form a queue to file past, touching the top rail rather as if it were an icon in an Orthodox church.
Equally exotically, Percy's ways with plants attracted the admiration of the Swedish actress Mai Zetterling whose husband, possibly bored by having Percy quoted all the time, induced him to write to his wife about her lilies.
He duly did so and the letter was much appreciated; so much so that when in 1976 Percy was given the bizarre accolade of popular approval, an edition of This Is Your Life, Mai Zetterling was specially flown in to meet her hero for the first time.
It was manifest from the programme that the actuality of Percy did not disappoint her. Such gestures of appreciation were a small part of Percy's reward which lay, as it had always done, in making a living out of what was coincidentally his hobby.
Series 16 subjects
Ronnie Dukes | Ray Milland | Mike Hailwood | Frank Windsor | Magnus Pyke | Bill Tidy | Gladys Mills | Andy StewartWindsor Davies | Ray Reardon | Patrick Mower | Alberto Remedios | Susan Masham | Betty Driver | Henry Davies
Gwen Berryman | Vince Hill | Arnold Ridley | Beryl Reid | Alan Mullery | Percy Thrower | Gareth Edwards
June Whitfield | Terry Fincher | Richard Dunn | Norman Croucher