The Great British Bake Off started the trend and The Great British Sewing Bee – recently commissioned for a second series – built on the formula: take a retirement-age-friendly pastime, celebrate its traditional values while making it appealing for a young audience, then present it on TV for a reappraisal by the nation's under-40s. Home improvements could be the next topic revived by TV executives, but there is the potential for damage and death should DIY fever sweep the nation, so the most likely candidate for a semi-hipsteresque new lease of life therefore has to be gardening, and not just because of mounting excitement for this year's Chelsea flower show coverage.
But as the old saying goes, there's more than one way to creosote a fence, so here are six different ways it could burst back on to UK screens.
Pimp My Rhododendron
Channel: MTV
Starring: Gemma Cairney or anyone left jobless following closure of T4
Pitch: While Mum and Dad are on holiday, teenagers invite MTV's horticultural glam squad to make over their parents' beloved gardens. To be youth-friendly, these makeovers will involve things such as graffiti, skate ramps and things made out of plastic. The crucial element of jeopardy here hinges on whether the teen is chucked out of the house after Dad's prized rose bush is replaced by a 40ft steel and LED sculpture of Nicki Minaj.
The Great British Rake Off
Channel: BBC2
Starring: Myleene Klass and Jamie East (hosts); Bob Flowerdew and Kim Wilde (experts)
Pitch: While Pimp My Rhododendron would actively pursue a young audience, Rake Off would take a more relaxed, traditional approach to green-fingered endeavours. It takes place on a large allotment-style set of fenced-off areas, with each episode posing a different challenge. Week one: water features. Week two: crazy paving. Week three: growing a carrot. At the end of the series the whole bloody lot is bulldozered.
Barbecue The Music!
Channel: Channel 4
Starring: Nick Grimshaw hosts, Jameela Jamil roasts
Pitch: It's no secret that TV executives are desperate for a new music format that makes sense for a generation with no memory of Top of the Pops, and this exciting new al fresco idea could really build on the popularity of music and food – and those fearless artists who effortlessly excel in both areas. To be sponsored by some mobile phone network or other.
Fete Has Brought Us Together
Channel: Channel 4
Starring: Sara Cox (voiceover)
Pitch: Four people make over their gardens and take it in turns to host a garden party for each other. Quite obviously, this is just Come Dine With Me without a solid roof, but it does come the guarantee that each episode will feature at least one person stumbling into a pond.
Britain's Got Terrarialent
Channel: ITV
Starring: Dick & Dom (hosts); Simon Cowell, Alan Titchmarsh, Jason Manford and Alesha Dixon (judges)
Pitch: As the title very clearly states this is a show for people who have talent for producing exciting terraria. The humble terrarium – a miniature garden in a bottle or similar glass receptacle – could really open up gardening shows to a teen/student audience, many of whom either don't have gardens of their own or move so frequently that they are wary of committing to a full garden makeover. You might argue that watching people fiddle around with moss and Ewoks isn't exactly primetime Saturday night entertainment, but this is where creative consultant Brian Friedman comes in. (Naturally this show will be cancelled midrun and never spoken of again by anybody at ITV.)
Hoes Before Bros
Channel: E4
Starring: An assortment of "lively" (drunk and spraytanned) youngsters
Pitch: Twelve young women stand in a garden. Structured reality at its very best.
