RHS Chelsea Flower Show (BBC1, 3.45pm, 7.30pm and BBC2, 8pm)

WORKING with the Royal Horticultural Society, the BBC are attempting to air as much live coverage of the world famous flower show in its 103rd year in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Monty Don, Sophie Raworth, Joe Swift, Nicki Chapman and James Wong return for more than 12 hours of broadcasts which will spotlight the latest designs and planting innovations in the horticultural world.

Today and and Friday there are three programmes per day, with two broadcast on Tuesday, and Thursday plus a Wednesday hour-and-a-half show, at 8pm, which will launch the People’s Choice Award. Viewers will get a chance to vote for their favourite large show garden. There are 17 in total.

Each programme will contain pre-recorded VT inserts relevant to exhibitors and show garden designers at the show, together with live and as live inserts from the show ground.

Nicki Chapman will be joined once again by James Wong as daytime co-hosts with Monty Don and Joe Swift presenting the BBC2 programmes. Other familiar faces include Rachel de Thame, Carol Klein, Toby Buckland and Ann-Marie Powell and some faces new to Chelsea include Instant Gardener Danny Clarke and gold medal-winning Chelsea designer Adam Frost. Two new views of gardening will come from Zephania Lindo and Mark Lane.

Being involved, enthuses Raworth, is "just wonderful. I'm incredibly lucky to have the job, and it's not just that one week, it's the run up to it as well. I really enjoy the build-up; to get an idea of the hard work, graft and expertise needed to create these spectacular gardens is a real privilege."

On the important BBC People's Choice Award the mum-of-three says: "We'll announce the winner on the Friday. It means an awful lot to the designers, because it's the real public seal of approval. The designers tell these wonderful stories through a pretty small garden, and I always say to people, 'Make sure you read up on them'. All the gardens have a different concept, and understanding what the designer is trying to achieve adds so much more to it."

So does the week-long event leave her itching to take the shears to her own garden?

"I'm very comfortable in gardens, I've grown up with them all my life," says the reporter-turned-TV personality, whose parents – including her mother, an ex-florist – have transformed their own outdoor space into a show garden.

"The problem I have with Chelsea is I tend to go home with rather a lot of it," she says. "I go to the sell-off day on the last day, and I've spent a week wandering around going, 'Gosh, yeah I could find a home for that'. I was looking at my garden today and it is absolutely full of Chelsea...my husband and children are bracing themselves for what comes next."

Very British Problems (Channel 4, 10pm)

THE final episode of the series sees famous faces offering their views on issues faced while on holiday, talking about those bizarre behaviours Brits display when they're out of our comfort zone and bombarded with languages, customs and situations they just don't understand Grace Dent and Alex Brooker share their airport taxi abduction anxieties, while other topics raised include how to stop holiday friendships with other Brits developing and the collective sigh of relief when it's all over.

Upstart Crow (BBC2, 10pmy)

WILL hopes to move up in the world when he is invited to a high-society party hosted by Lord Southampton, but is unsure what a poorly-educated country boy should wear to one of London's most upmarket events. The playwright's rival Sir Robert Greene offers him some fashion tips, but is it a double bluff, a triple bluff, or something even more fiendish? Ben Eltons' comedy about William Shakespeare's family and professional lives, starring David Mitchell as the Bard, with Mark Heap and Liza Tarbuck.

Viv Hardwick