Toby Buckland speaks of Gardeners' World pain

 TV presenter Toby Buckland has told how he feels "let-down and
humiliated" at being axed from Gardeners' World by the BBC

http://www.hortweek.com/news/bulletin/GardenRetailBulletin/article/104840
3/?DCMP=EMC-CONGardenRetailNews


(You get some interesting news via this website at times!)

Some of the comments esp. about Joe Swift are a bit caustic! :)

Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

 On Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:30:48 +0000, Janet Tweedy


Very Interesting, and nice to see sensible comments (well mostly
sensible) from the readers, agree totally with Dominic Elsom the first
poster.
There is a place for all the presentators , even it would seem, Joe!

www.lincolnfuchsiasociety.info

 

Good one Janet.  I've left this comment:

"It's not so much about presenters, as about producers.  I'm so so sick
of watching fancy London-based presenters "knocking up" something which
probably cost hundreds; or changing a bed with dozens of plants ...which
probably cost hundreds!  The complete antithesis of gardening!
My suggestion: GW should have a "Red Button" option, which gives you a
count-up of the cash being spent as the presenter carries out his latest
make-over."

Toby was a nice bloke. No doubt Monty is too, but he belongs to a
different social class (the Metro-Professional class) to mine, and to
that of 90% of the population.  (As do the flaming producers!)

*Furthermore* <while I'm on ranting> there should be another Red Button
option where we can watch how many "researchers" spent how long
pre-digging the plots for the presenters!  Tchah!

J.

 
So much "Compost" has been produced by this change that many a garden
could be 3 ft deep in the stuff.
We should remember (And so should the producers) that we are having a
change of presenter, that should be the person who introduces the
items and the other people taking part in the "Show" and who holds the
show together.
Not the person who does the whole thing by himself, and who's views
are the only ones aired.
If I had a contract that was renewed year by year I'd be Pissed off if
it wasn't renewed just when I thought I had dug myself a nice little
earner for the next few years.
When someone goes off on long term sick, there is always the chance
they will come back when they are fit enough to resume their old job.
Lets hope wer see the end of the Bulsh (as my mother used to call it)
and give the prog a chance to prove itself one way or another.

David Hill

 

Don't forget that the researchers probably cost less in salary than the
presenters!  And I'm sorry but it is important that gardening tv
presenters show what can be bought in nurseries and garden centres.  I
know I write this as a nurseryman's wife but the growing industry is
quite a large and important one.  If every private gardener swapped
cuttings or bought cheap seeds *only*, not only would a considerable
industry disappear, so would developments in plant breeding and
importation and discovery.   New species are still being found and
plenty are still being bred.  If people want only to grow what has been
grown by their father and all his forebears, everyone will have the
same garden and life will be not just unproductive eventually but
rather boring.

And I don't understand this problem with Monty Don quite honestly,
especially on a class basis.   Class has nothing to do with gardening
in terms of getting your hands dirty and doing the work.  Some of the
keenest gardeners I know are what you would disdain as 'posh', I
suspect and they're never happier than when bums up in the borders!  I
think it's worth remembering that without some of the rich owners of
large gardens, we wouldn't have half the plants available to us that
there are now because those people paid for plant hunters' expeditions
and those plants may well be represented in your garden, in some way,
now. Many of the large gardens open to the public are funded from the
private purse of the house owner and are a source of inspiration and
enjoyment to all sorts of people.  Rosemoor, the RHS garden in Devon,
was given to the RHS by Lady Anne Berry, a daughter of the last Earl of
Orford.  Would we really rather not have such a flagship garden in the
west country for those who can't be popping up to Kew or Wisley very
often?

I really do not think you - or any of us - know the 'class' to which
the producers belong and it's none of our business.  They don't ask
their viewers to declare their roots - forgive the pun.   As to the
Metro-professional (not something I've ever heard of)  Monty Don lives
in Herefordshire, not Kensington and is geographically as far removed
from the Chelsea Tractor set as anyone could wish.  It is from his
garden in Herefordshire that the new series of GW will be broadcast at
*his* insistence.   I suspect what you mean is "he doesn't speak with a
regional accent", which is one of the British hang-ups that is Shavian
in its origins, imo!  ;-)    I am really sorry to see a 'class warfare'
element being introduced into what has always been a
profession/hobby/interest which depends on skill, passion,  knowledge
and ability, not accent or birth.   I think your snobbery is misplaced,
imo.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon