The first of eight hour-long Gardeners' World TV programmes on BBC2 on 2 September pulled in 2.42 million viewers – marginally fewer than the previous week’s standard 30-minute show.

The programme’s latest revamp under former Great British Bake Off producer Paulo Proto is designed to widen the programme’s appeal by introducing new presenters (including designer Adam Frost, pictured) and a new format, although there was little radically different in the first episode. Bake Off regularly attracted an audience of 15 million.

The new format has received a mixed reaction from critics and gardeners to date. The forum on the BBC Gardeners World website suggests that the hardest to please will be the programme’s traditional demographic.

For the time being, the one-hour series appears to be an experiment, with no clues from the BBC about whether it will be retained.

GTN Xtra welcomes its readers’ views on the subject…