Imagine the world's most elegant tour guide, illuminating some of the world's most breathtaking vistas. The Emmy-winning PBS series Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn features the graceful film icon, in her last screen appearance before her death in 1993, as host of a tour of the world's most elegant and spectacular gardens. Hepburn herself was a gardening enthusiast (at least one rose and one tulip have been named for her), and her passion for the subject will entrance even those who struggle to keep a pot of herbs on the windowsill. The chapters are organized around type of garden (rose gardens, formal, country, etc.) as well as geography (Japanese gardens, tropical), and within each segment, Hepburn, and her co-narrator, Michael York, outline the history, details and art behind all manner of gorgeous spreads. The "Formal Gardens" segment, for instance, spans nearly 3,000 years, with the original gardens of the pharaohs providing fruit, shade trees, even herbs for embalming. The Persians introduced the concept of pleasure gardens, influenced by Islamic belief of heaven as a vast, restorative garden. The classical Greeks and Romans added statuary to the formal ideal; the Italians, cascading fountains; the French, the idea, embodied at Versailles, of man's mastery over nature. Every garden is breathtaking in its own way, yet there are principles that even a novice gardener can absorb: the notion of architecture and structure, inside which the "furniture" of flowers and other plants, as suggested by the British garden expert Penelope Hobhouse, can be placed just so. Along the way, and around the world through history, Hepburn is a compelling guide whose obvious passion for the subject makes the series as riveting as any nature documentary. Extras in the Special Tribute Edition include a documentary, In Pursuit of Beauty, in which Hepburn visits more than 30 locations (including Giverny, known as Monet's flower garden). It also includes an interview with Hepburn and a splendid soundtrack featuring selections by Debussy, Vivaldi, and Berlioz. --A.T. Hurley
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