Norfolk master beekeeper John Everett has advised BBC Radio 4 World at One presenter Martha Kearney on her latest four-part programme on bees.

The Wonder of Bees was filmed in south Norfolk and in the heart of Suffolk.

The first programme will be shown on BBC4 on Monday (8pm) and forms the centrepiece of the channel's Growing Gardens and Green Fingers Season.

It coincides with what looks like being a 'phenomenal year' for bees and honey production, said Mr Everett, of Rockland St Mary, who was asked to help the former Newsnight presenter. Her ambition to harvest her first crop of wildflower honey was quite a challenge, said Mr Everett, because the chosen location, a four-acre species-rich meadow at Worlingworth, near Framlingham, was better suited to bumble and solitary bees than foraging honey bees.

Mr Everett said that fortunately an adjoining field of oilseed rape was in full flower, which was much more attractive.

The series celebrates every aspect of the honey bee.

Part of the series was also filmed in the garden of her home, where she lives with her husband Chris Shaw, who is the editorial director of ITN. Ironically, the programme was made for the BBC by ITN.

Mr Everett said that so far, the exceptionally mild winter and early spring was showing signs of becoming a 'very good bee year' after two difficult years.