Watched BBC Gardeners World this evening.
Who plans these programmes? They are obviously not gardeners. Not a lot of real information content. In the past when I viewed this programme, at the end I felt inspired to get out in the garden and allotment and practice what I had learned. It has spurred me on to greater efforts. But not recently.
And to be left with the message ............. try and get out into the garden for half an hour this weekend................ to pick runner and french beans and courgettes !! who is their "target audience" - obviously not me.
Am I alone in this ?
Always used to watch it but gave up earlier this year!
Quote from: Flighty on August 28, 2009, 21:49:36
Always used to watch it but gave up earlier this year!
Me too flighty. I happened to see it tonight for the first time since they moved to the new garden and remembered why I stopped watching it. Shame, I used to look forward to it.
As a long term member of the NO TV brigade I'm glad I don't know what I'm not missing... :-X
bring back monty!
Quote from: trickydiggy on August 28, 2009, 22:43:21
bring back monty!
no no no Geoff Hamilton he was a real gardener
Quoteno no no Geoff Hamilton he was a real gardener
No he wasn't.
Someone along the lines of Geoffrey Smith
I agree that GW is very frustrating to watch. If you've got satellite TV there is a much better weekly programme on BBC Scotland called Bechgrove Garden.
I have not watched it for sometime. Used to be a favourite. Thought they might bring back Geoffrey Smiths World when he died but I think they must have lost it.
Not long ago I described it as BIll and Ben the flowerpot men, my opinion has not changed.
Its thanks to Georffrey Smith that I rarely have more than the odd broad bean plant with black fly.
I was also disappointed with GW on Friday - very vague and little I could actually put to use in my garden.
I definitely agree with Roy that you should try and catch the Beechgrove Garden - Wednesdays at 7.30pm on channel 971 on Sky. You can also catch it on the iPlayer. :)
I like the Beechgrove as they seem to have a good mix of features - fruit and veg, flowers, wildlife gardening, plant and product trials...
Quote from: shonam on August 29, 2009, 10:25:59
I was also disappointed with GW on Friday - very vague and little I could actually put to use in my garden.
I definitely agree with Roy that you should try and catch the Beechgrove Garden - Wednesdays at 7.30pm on channel 971 on Sky. You can also catch it on the iPlayer. :)
I like the Beechgrove as they seem to have a good mix of features - fruit and veg, flowers, wildlife gardening, plant and product trials...
Thanks I have put it to record on Sky+ ;D
I think the consensus is that GW has been "dumbed down" by giving it a touchy-feely style and forgetting that a degree of gravitas is appreciated by a large part of the population.
Even Bob Flowerdew contributed ideas that were helpful and unusual (and cheap).
The GW team seem to be able to plant £1000 worth of plants at the drop of a hat, dig and stock a lake, and of course, work from an orangery when they should be showing what can be done cheaply and using a 6x8 greenhouse.
Breaking off to admire 20 acre gardens in other parts of the country is also not very helpful or interesting, if it was the BBC would launch separate programs-
I suggest the following breakaway programs which would get no audience-
Other Peoples Huge Gardens.
Gardening for Tiny Tots.
Carol Splits More Perennials
Gardening for Millionaires.
Tomorrows World followed a similar path until it was axed.
http://allaboutallotments.com/index.html
Quote from: shonam on August 29, 2009, 10:25:59I definitely agree with Roy that you should try and catch the Beechgrove Garden - Wednesdays at 7.30pm on channel 971 on Sky. You can also catch it on the iPlayer. :) I like the Beechgrove as they seem to have a good mix of features - fruit and veg, flowers, wildlife gardening, plant and product trials...
I LOVE the Beechgrove Garden for two reasons - one, the presenters are obviously gardeners and know their stuff and two, their timescales are more realistic for me living in Ayrshire - most of what happens in GW could well be happening on the moon for all the relevance or information I can use.
Meg
I miss Monty. And Carol - she doesn't get enough to do this series. I like Joe and Alice seems ok but this 'banter' nonsense they've got her doing with the eejit boy does my head in. Toby (eejit boy) is clearly a garden designer not a gardener. Its more like Blue Peter than Gardeners World - i hate the new show and have stopped watching.
Thank you for all your responses. I thought it might be me getting old and grumpy, but those who responded seem to agree with me.
If the BBC saw this thread would they be interested, and would they change things.
I am not adverse to change, but the fact that this programme had been so popular with gardeners over the years and now is losing its core audience, should mean that the innovation has not been a success.
Best wishes, Ann
Ann I think that the BBC are well aware of what many people think of Gardeners' World as the BBC Gardening message boards have had plenty of similar comments over the past few months.
As to what, if anything, they'll do in the future remains to be seen. Sad to say I'd be surprised if they make few, if any changes.
I have just watched the Beechgrove programme on iPlayer and its great.
Thank you Roy and others for suggesting it. Have added the site to my Favourites and will be watching from now on.
In fact I will watch it on Friday evenings instead of GW.
Best wishes Ann
For all the Beechgrove converts:
http://www.thebeechgrovegarden.com/index_new.php
Details of upcoming episodes & factsheets summarising those gone by. ;) It doesn't cover the Radio Scotland phone in show, but that's on iPlayer...
I like it.
This is the first series I've watched so can't compare it with 'past glories'.
Sure, it's a bit light and fluffy, but I don't wish to be lectured to.
Plus, Alys is a sweetheart.
I gave up on it - too many zany camera angles, blurring in and out and superficial content. I was going downhill towards the end of Monty's stint when, I think, a new director took over. Half the time you can't see what's going on as they're focussing on the wrong thing. I have no issue with going back to basics but no need to turn it into cbeebies
And Alys is dreadful.
Part of the problem is the BBC's obsession with youth. There used to be more older and experienced gardeners on GW now there a 3 regular (not counting Carol), relatively young gardeners/designers whose combined experience still falls short of Percy Thrower's years in the field.
Just look at Beechgrove that has Jim McColl (another stalwart over the decades). Also Carole Baxter who has been with the show for many many years both behind and in front of the camera. Not forgetting Don the head gardener behind the scenes who from all accounts is a vicious martinet to 'doing the job properly.'
I have to say that I have a good opinion of Toby Buckland but based mainly on his writing in magazines. He appears to dumb down when on TV. Monty Don was a mistake from start to finish. I'd pay good money to see the back of Joe Swift.
In its current form GW is a complete waste of time and license fee.
I'm a new convert to Beechgrove Garden since I caught my first episode on iplayer. :)
Have to agree with the poster that liked Geoff Hamilton, too. Was only just getting into gardening when he died. Would love to have watched more of him and I borrow my mum's books all the time.
Geoff Hamilton and Felicity Kendal have inspired my gardening in equal measure. Before Geoff, GW was for the aspiring middle classes in their suburban semis, with rose borders and spring bedding, and it had changed very little since the war. Geoff Hamilton (and Bob Flowerdew, and Anne Swithinbank) blew that away. For me Geoff's greatest contribution was that he encouraged me to think about gardening - my garden could be what I wanted it to be, and not what fashion and conformity dictated. He was also a modest bloke who did much to raise awareness of environmental issues before it had become tiresomely trendy.
Overnight Titmarsh undid all the good Geoff Hamilton had done and turned GW into just another personality cult reality gameshow for the obscenely affluent and privileged.
Whatever they get up to, it has nothing in common with what I call gardening.
I have switched to Beechgrove Garden as it more of a real gadening programme than GW.
I'm hooked, I have just watched Beechgrove on BBC iPlayer and agree that it is streets ahead of GW.
The knowledgeable presenters are not acting up to the camera and the information is relevant and interesting, they are happy to show failures and try to explain why they failed. My knowledge is based on how things went wrong and how I learned from my mistakes and failures.
Now I have got to try and get the preceding programmes!
I love Alan Titchmarsh in fact I have one of the first allotment books he wrote and we use it all of the time. Its a very basic book full of easy to understand instructions. But then I am a very simple person ;D
Quote from: allaboutliverpool on August 31, 2009, 20:01:38
Now I have got to try and get the preceding programmes!
That's a lot of viewing! In 1982 I moved next door to the Beechgrove Garden which at that time was filmed from the garden of the TV studio in Aberdeen city centre.
I love Alan Titchmarsh too, but he is married and has 'got out of his pram' since he was on afternoon T.V.
I think Gardeners World has been ruined by the producers. They dictate what goes in and I think they waste what talent they have. Carol Klein knows her stuff but all she is able to do is simple stuff. I went to a composters conference at Ryton and Alys Fowler sat at my lunch table cause she was giving a talk there. Yes she is a sweety but she has a good background in gardening - Wisley and New York Botanic Gardens. She is very down to earth and funny and not into being a celebrity. She is into the environment, composting and growing veg and is involved with getting her local community involved. But she doesn't do much of that on the programme. The programme is far too trite. Surely there is a need for a programme that will tell people what to do each week with regard to growing their own food. That is not catered for and yet there are loads of new gardeners out there who want to be told what to do.
Quotewho want to be told what to do.
I lot of people on our site have realised they need a bit of help with growing for succession.
I am impressed that 'allaboutliverpool' is impressed by Beechgrove. It is a real endorsement having seen his website.
I have signed up for the Beechgrove newsheets and have already received 2 e-mail responses from the website.
Had wondered...........is it me? But evidently it is not, there's a lot of us out there.
Best wishes, Ann
Have put Beechgrove in the sky planner ready to have a look at on wednesday. Just going to have a look at their website. Why dont they repeat gw with Geoff Hamilton im sure things havent changed that much.
Quote from: bazzysbarn on August 31, 2009, 23:35:03
Why dont they repeat gw with Geoff Hamilton im sure things havent changed that much.
They used to - until recently, May 2009 I think, on UKTV Gardens.
But the powers that be decided, (bowing to popular demand ?? ??) to scrap that and replace it with the Home Channel (Bargain Hunt/Hash in the Attic/Ground Force).
It was probably on a time i couldnt watch then. To busy to watch much telly. Wouldnt have one if i had my way. Just waiting for everyone to leave home lol!!
I don't like Carol Klein at all, I'm afraid.
Toby is excellent. He gives clear instructions.
I can see why the more experienced gardener would not like the show, but for the newcomer like me it is enjoyable.
(I must admit, though, thatI record it and fast-forward through the silly 'Look at me, I'm a millionaire and this is my garden' segments)
In terms of content style, Gardeners World TV is the same as Gardeners World magazine and any other magazine/newspaper - take the bits that you enjoy, bin the rest. We all like different things.
If the cost exceeds the value of the bits you enjoy, don't buy/watch.
I like to see other peoples gardens for design/planting ideas, some of Carols stuff is ok, but most of it is repetitious (maybe thats the point - to show there are only a handfull of propagation methods). Most of the veg stuff I skip - I don't need to know how to sow carrots/pots/salads etc.
We're all different.
For me the value is marginal, but I still keep watching because of habit (and the crap thats on the other channels).
Quote from: Pesky Wabbit on September 03, 2009, 12:54:16
If the cost exceeds the value of the bits you enjoy, don't buy/watch.
Except that you're required by law to buy a TV license even if you never watch the BBC. If you take the ultimate choice of no TV then you face years of harassment from TV licensing. Ultimately there's no choice.
I watch Beechgrove Garden too....its all set up on Sky + ! Much more enjoyable than Gardeners World
Duke :)
I watch GW and enjoy it. Alys is rather nice too.