Topic: Giles and Sue living a good life

[goodlife]

the original good life had good intention behind it and yes it was comedy show.
But this series were more mocking to me...I did enjoyed watching some of the stuff, but some their "comedy" was just food throwing..stuffing eggs into mouth and often eating their mouth open..that is not funny, it's Giles being like a badly behaved kid..not that he doesn't tend to be like anyway ::)..and he do eat his mouth open in other programs too ::)
Sue bless her did had hint of try in her but were drawn in by Giles' stupid games. What a waste of opportunity with all the experts they had in use..I would have like to see more Bob Flowerdew's expertise.
Aww..the bigs were lovely and stole the show in last part ;D

[artichoke]

Possibly its only good feature is how clearly it comes over that you can't dabble in self sufficiency. After the second episode I began to wonder if that is not its true purpose, apart from giving us a laugh (very limited laughs in the case of silly horseplay with boiled eggs, and being rough with the chickens etc etc).

They showed that you have to be responsible with living creatures, do unpleasant things for them, that they can become dirty and diseased if you are not careful - that even plants need weeding and feeding and allotments don't look after themselves - sweet little pigs grow up and can knock you over - you can't eat a creature without killing and butchering it first - all that sort of thing.

There is such a fashion for instant gratification - all you need is an allotment and a few hens to feel smug about yourself - that an antidote like this, showing how it all falls apart if you don't work hard at it, could be quite useful, especially in this popularised format.

[sunloving]

I was really dissapointed with this show because it did neither job
it didnt show how little money there would be in it if you wearnt willing to work eg if they truely owned the pigs hence all giles talk about slaughtering them then they would have paid some very good money for a pair of relatively full sized pigs so when talking about how much they would get at slaughter then the inital price of the pigs should have been considered (plus feed and straw etc). Consider the price of the stall at the show against the £3 odd they made

and they didnt make a decent job of it ie plant up the whole garden read about value of crops and plant up the whole allotment, so it fell on both counts.
not just that but it made such frustrating watching for us becuase we saw all that money and time being thown at it and this all be wasted.
not to mention the cost of cleaning a carpet with strong smelling pig poo on it.

its a shame becuase we have so few programs about real gardeneing /growing that to see this one and hope was just awful.
there is plenty of comedy as it is in veg growing and animal husbandry without contriving extra incompetance and waste of food and foolish mangement of animals.

not good comedy and not good self sufficency so what was the point? maybe if someone other than giles had done it it would have been better.
shame

[saddad]

Like Joe's allotment?????  :-X

[pumkinlover]

did i read on hear that Joe has given up his allotment?

[cornykev]

Not so much give up, more like disappeared, Borlotti will tell you more.  :(   ;D ;D ;D

[Duke Ellington]

So Borlotti has Joe prisoner somewhere :-\ :P

[Digeroo]

Though I found it amusing it was a pity that they did not put more effort into it.  Sue Perkins did not treat conducting an orchestra with so little commitment. 

But when the pig started digging up the veg I found it mildly funny though not sure I would laugh if the pigs next to my lottie managed to escape into my brassicas and strawberry plants.

I suppose Joe spent more time writing the book than actually working on the allotment and  I presume that he had a ghost writer so he did not spend much time writing either.  A do also wish that the real gardeners had been thought worthy of a credit. 

Now I know why you need a shed on allotments - to keep errant presenters tied up in.

[pumkinlover]

Umm I googled "Joe's allotment" before I asked the question and saw there was a book of this name.  That surprises me even more- surely someone on national television would not take on an allotment, having never grown vegetable before, write a book about it  then give up the allotment. Seems very unlikely. :o :o

[betula]

Strange but true  .........
Borlotti said he just went never to return.

I am disappointed in Joe as I have always fancied him big time.......never mind .   ;D

[saddad]

I reckon he's still in that shed....  :-X

[GodfreyRob]

Disappointing that it lacked any real informative value and made a mockery of something really important in my opinion. As oil gets really expensive in the near future (we ain't seen nothing yet) the impact on food prices will be dramatic. Then growing your own will be a skill that a lot of people wish they have.

Pair of plonkers getting paid to fool around strikes me as a complete waste of time.

[grawrc]

So Borlotti has Joe prisoner somewhere :-\ :P

He makes great cat food. I think what you see now on GW must be a hologram!  ;)

[Mrs Gumboot]

I scoured the credits for anything along the lines of 'horticultural advisers, x and y' after the last episode and was very disappointed to see nothing of the sort. It was clear to anyone with even half a brain that they weren't going to do all that from scratch without help or advice. It wouldn't have hurt at all to have put a quick screen up at the end to say thanks to . . . .

This is one of the reasons why people take on allotments & then give up after five minutes when it's clear that they have to actually do some work.

[Borlotti]

Joe did write a book, he even gave some away to people on our site (but not me)  :( :(  He definately is not there anymore, neither is his shed.  If it wasn't so cold I would go and take photos of his plot, which has been split into three, but is looking very sad and overgrown.  I have 3 of his raspberry canes. Anyone want a cat.  ;D ;D ;D

[pigeonseed]

I am disappointed in Joe as I have always fancied him big time.......never mind .   

Intrigued, I just googled his image... hmm. Each to their own!  ;D

Being charitable for just a second, is it possible that he grows his own veg, but that they chose a plot which was suitable for filming a TV series on, if perhaps his own veg garden wasn't what they wanted, or he wanted to grow what he fancied in there, and the TV allotment had to have certain veg in it for the programme.  :-\

People are very fussy when choosing locations for TV shoots.

Doesn't excuse the Giles and Sue thing though.

[Digeroo]

I remember seeing the triangular raised beds on Joes allotment on Gardeners World.

I am disappointed in Joe as I have always fancied him big time.......never mind

Not my type either. 

[timnsal]

So hands up anyone who's had newcomers to their allotment site with similar levels of experience, enthusiasm and commitment to Giles and Sue ...

[grawrc]

So hands up anyone who's had newcomers to their allotment site with similar levels of experience, enthusiasm and commitment to Giles and Sue ...

Yes but not such smartarsed cocky gits being paid over the top for strutting their inane stuff.

[Trevor_D]

You mean you didn't think much of it either?