A father from Truro is to star in his own children’s TV show about growing and eating vegetables.

Ben Faulks will become Mr Bloom in Mr Bloom’s Nursery – a programme that grew from the seeds of an idea he came up with five years ago.

In 2006 he wrote a piece of theatre about vegetables in a garden, which now forms the basis of the new CBeebies show.

In it Ben will be encouraging young views to put on their wellies, pick up a trowel and get into the garden to grow their own vegetables, which they can then enjoy on the dinner table.

Ben said: “Sometimes kids can feel a bit alienated from vegetables because they just turn up on their plate and they're expected to eat them.

“This way they get to learn more about veg and to get their hands on them, so they don't need to be frightened of them.”

Each episode will see a group of young helpers, or ‘Tiddlers’ visiting Mr Bloom’s allotment and helping him grow his plants.

When leaves and clippings are added to his ‘compostarium’ some of the vegetables come alive, turning into puppets that the children can play with, teach and look after.

When creating his vegetable characters Ben looked at the individual qualities of the different vegetables.

“If you take a squash it's quite durable and thick skinned, so that lends itself to a character which is maybe a bit ponderous and clumsy,” he explained. “My squash is called Raymond. He is loveable with a big heart, but clumsy.”

Other characters include an aubergine called Sebastian, who is a suave and sophisticated Frenchman.

Mr Bloom’s Nursery will be shown on CBeebies from this Monday at 10.05am.