a Special Constable on fire-watching duties after twice being turned down for active service after volunteering. A football pools win of £52 enabled him to buy his first car, a Morris Eight. His final career move was to Shrewsbury where on 1 January 1946, he was appointed Parks Superintendent, becoming the youngest parks superintendent. He had a staff of about 35. He had reached the top of his profession at just 32 years of age and it was his sole ambition in life. He remained in post until 1974 though he expected to stay only four or five years. Thrower from his first year in Shrewsbury helped the post-war revival of the Shrewsbury Flower Show in a role as horticultural advisor and eventually chairman of the Shropshire Horticultural Society. After the show made severe losses due to bad weather in 1970, Thrower and Doug Whittingham both stood as financial guarantors to enable the show, which made a profit in better conditions in 1971, to continue. In 1951, Thrower was asked to design a garden in the Tiergarten area of Berlin on the lines of an English garden on behalf of the Shropshire Horticultural Society. He did this with the Berlin Superintendent of Parks, Herr Witte. British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden opened the garden in May 1952. Thrower made his first TV appearance in 1951 in a programme about this garden. Broadcasting and business ventures For many years Percy Thrower was the leading face and voice of British gardening on television and radio. He was credited by Alan Titchmarsh with inspiring him to take up gardening. Godfrey Baseley, the presenter of a Midland regional BBC radio programme, Beyond the Back Door, spotted his enthusiasm and talents and he was offered a regular slot. The first TV series with which he was associated was Country Calendar, followed by Out and About. When colour television came along, this programme was renamed Gardeners' World. He became nationally known through presenting these programmes and regularly presented Gardeners' World from 1969 until 1976. He was also the gardener on the children's programme Blue Peter from 1974 until 1987, appearing in over a hundred broadcasts and establishing the Blue Peter garden at BBC TV Centre. In 1983, the Italianate garden was destroyed by vandals, ruining all of Thrower's work and leaving him desolate. The footballer Les Ferdinand had grown up in the area, and on one occasion,