Gardeners' World presenter Joe Swift was "banned" by the BBC over a career move he made. Joe, 60, has been a regular on the popular programme since 1998.
He has also fronted the BBC's coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show since 2001. It wasn't however until more than a decade later that Joe decided he wanted to actually present a garden at the competition. It led him to joining forces with DIY store Homebase in 2012. It led to Joe entering into the main "show garden" category at the competition.
The decision led to Joe being slapped with a six-week presenting ban by the BBC. At the time, the corporation described presenting on and entering the flower show as a "conflict of interest".
Fellow TV gardeners Chris Beardshaw and Andy Sturgeon, who presented the daytime coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show, received similar bans. Joe opened up about his decision to present a garden at the show on the Garden Masterclass podcast.
He said: " I'd been presenting the programme for a long time, since 2001 actually, and every time I went I would stand on other people's gardens, friends of mine, and you'd stand on their gardens and think, 'I really want to do one of these'.
"And I actually got an opportunity because Homebase, the DIY shop, were teaming up with Teenage Cancer Trust and they asked me a year in advance. Tom Hoblyn had done three gardens for them and I thought, 'I've just got to go for this'.
"The BBC banned me from the TV for six weeks over this garden but I didn't care. I was like, 'I don't care, I've got to do it."
At the time, a BBC spokesman told the Telegraph: "The BBC has guidelines which ensure editorial integrity and independence from external interests. Each instance is looked at on an individual basis."
Meanwhile, Bob Sweet, the-then head of shows at the RHS, said the BBC explained that someone who was "heavily involved in designing a show garden" would not be presenting on the coverage of the event. He went on to say the BBC has "quite strong rules about conflict of interest for presenters".
Last year fellow Gardeners' World star Monty Don designed his first garden at the show. He designed the RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden, a special project aiming to create a space perfect for pooches.
Joe will return to screens with Gardeners' World this evening (May 8). He will be attending the RHS Malvern Spring Festival in Worcestershire with fellow presenter Rachel de Thame.
They will also visit the Devon-Somerset border to meet a grower who has transformed a woodland landscape into a stunning nursery. Another garden designer will demonstrate the art of pressing flowers.
