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2 Episodes 2018 - 2018
Episode 1
59 mins
Monty begins his tour of paradise gardens, steeped in the culture of Islam, in what many may consider an unlikely locale, namely in Europe which is more closely associated with Christianity. Specifically, he stops by the most famous gardens in Andalusia in southern Spain - namely the Alhambra in Grenada and the Alcázar in Seville - among others, which were developed before the arrival of the Christians. He then crosses the strait into Morocco to visit gardens in Marrakesh, known as a city of gardens, one, the Agdal, created in the twelfth century, which is a four hundred hectare man-made oasis in the desert hidden behind a wall. Monty wants to see how the paradise garden translates into modern times, and as such visits another just completed a year ago before he moves to his next stop, Iran, which is the "home" of the paradise garden. Here, he delves deeper into the origin of the paradise garden, and visits what is considered the idealized paradise garden of Fin located in Kashan. In discussing the three locales of Spain, Morocco and Iran, Monty talks about the similarities of the symbolic and practical aspects of water, fruit trees and fragrance in the gardens, but also talks about their differences stemming largely from the differences in the Moorish, Arabic and Persian cultures.
Episode 2
59 mins
Monty's next stop is Istanbul, which literally means "city of Islam". While the city itself is seen as the crossroads between east and west in part of the city being located in Asia and the other part in Europe, the paradise gardens here also have that melding of what is culturally regarded as eastern and that regarded as western. One of the unique features is the predominance of tulips, those favored, unlike in most western societies, being more pointed in shape, and being multi-colored. And before heading home to Britain, Monty makes several stops in India, including to many tomb gardens, which take the notion of paradise in the afterlife to the next level, and the most famous of those being attached to the Taj Mahal, and to pleasure gardens which are seen more as directed to immediate sensory aspects. Monty then concludes with a tour of three gardens in Britain, each which adapts the notion of the paradise garden in a different way.