Hoooooooooray, welcome back Monty. I have missed you so much and prayed that you would get well again and how wonderful it would be if you was to return to Gardener's World. I could not believe my eyes,reading that you will be returning next year. I will certainly be back to watching Gardener's World every week again now. Happy Christmas to you and your family.
Oh No!! Much as I wish Monty Don good health, I can't bear his smug and dogmatic the-only-way-is-my-way style of presenting. I stopped watching GW within weeks when he took over from Alan, and really enjoyed it when the Toby, Alys, Carol, Joe team came on screen. Think again BBC - Monty is okay presenting 'specials' but on a week by week basis we need Alan or Toby.
I very much welcome the return to a GW presented from a garden that will have a sense of ownership and care but I do have to wonder if it is not a retrogade step to go back to Monty Don. It is true he has experience and gravitas but he also has rather fixed ideas about some styles of gardening that limit his appeal is some quarters.
I don't expect him to indulge in idiocies like the Hot/Not board or the 30 minute fixes which made the start of Toby's tenure such a farce but I shall never forget those long borders at Berryfields which had to be completely replanned and redug to deal with the clay pan - an elementary and avoidable mistake. I therefore hope some serious planning is currently underway so we get a GW which is relevant to the season and has something for old and new, young and old alike as well as being well researched and filmed in focus with the camera aimed at the plant or task and not at the presenter's face.
I think it's a pity that Alys has been dropped as she appealed to newer and younger gardeners. I hope she gets her own series. I feel more ambivalent about Toby as I always felt he was shabby, slapdash and patronising but I can't help feeling the Beeb has been shabby and unprofessional towards him too.
Being a gardener requires a certain level of optimism so I'm hoping this is a good move but it will depend largely on the production team and they have been found sadly wanting in teh last few years. I hope they've been pruned or composted and we get a team that is up to the demands of producing a flagship GW and does not further alienate its remaining audience.
What a blooming disgrace. I don't know much about gardening but I enjoyed watching both Tony Buckland (who seemed like a jolly good hands-on gardener to me) and Alys Fowler (who I thought brightened up TV whenever she was on). And what about all the Licence Fee money the BBC has spent on that new garden - What's going to happen to that?
I think it is both extremely unfortunate and unfair that TB and AF will no longer be presenting GW. Over the last few years GW has evolved in to a down to earth, informaitve and stimulating programme. It did not seek to preach to viewers but instead allowed them to make their own informed decisions as to how they preferred to garden. I fear that will no longer be the case. In any case it is never a good idea to go back.
Such a bad decision by the BBC, pandering to the wishes of a minority of people who want stale, boring, workaday, all-purpose, jack-of-all-trades (but.....) dull presenters like Monty Don, instead of proper gardeners like Toby.
You might as well bring back Peter Seabrook - actually, he's a proper gardener too, and I'd happily see him back on the show any time rather than Don. Wasn't it Monty Don who brought about a collapse in viewing numbers last time, anyway?
If there are some sad people who want to see Monty Don back again, put him on something where he can't do any harm - like daytime television.
Leave proper programming like GW to the professionals - we don't want it wrecked by Don.
Oh no - I think Monty is awful - so dull and dreary. I have done various gardening courses and almost all of the stuff he says is just rubbish. I thought he trained as a jeweller not a gardener. I want garden advice from a proper gardener like Toby or Alys and from the guys on the allotment who know what they are doing not a boring guy like him. Why have the BBC wasted all that money on Greenacres and made a bad change just to pay for his garden. I want my licence fee back to spend on stuff for my garden!Bring back Toby.
Posts
I have missed you so much and prayed that you would get well again and how wonderful it would be if you was to return to Gardener's World.
I could not believe my eyes,reading that you will be returning next year.
I will certainly be back to watching Gardener's World every week again now.
Happy Christmas to you and your family.
Not a gardener, not any good at the job, not even a good presenter.
And - not on my screen. Bye bye GW unti you get rid of the dreadful man.
I don't expect him to indulge in idiocies like the Hot/Not board or the 30 minute fixes which made the start of Toby's tenure such a farce but I shall never forget those long borders at Berryfields which had to be completely replanned and redug to deal with the clay pan - an elementary and avoidable mistake. I therefore hope some serious planning is currently underway so we get a GW which is relevant to the season and has something for old and new, young and old alike as well as being well researched and filmed in focus with the camera aimed at the plant or task and not at the presenter's face.
I think it's a pity that Alys has been dropped as she appealed to newer and younger gardeners. I hope she gets her own series. I feel more ambivalent about Toby as I always felt he was shabby, slapdash and patronising but I can't help feeling the Beeb has been shabby and unprofessional towards him too.
Being a gardener requires a certain level of optimism so I'm hoping this is a good move but it will depend largely on the production team and they have been found sadly wanting in teh last few years. I hope they've been pruned or composted and we get a team that is up to the demands of producing a flagship GW and does not further alienate its remaining audience.
And what about all the Licence Fee money the BBC has spent on that new garden - What's going to happen to that?
You might as well bring back Peter Seabrook - actually, he's a proper gardener too, and I'd happily see him back on the show any time rather than Don. Wasn't it Monty Don who brought about a collapse in viewing numbers last time, anyway?
If there are some sad people who want to see Monty Don back again, put him on something where he can't do any harm - like daytime television.
Leave proper programming like GW to the professionals - we don't want it wrecked by Don.
Why have the BBC wasted all that money on Greenacres and made a bad change just to pay for his garden. I want my licence fee back to spend on stuff for my garden!Bring back Toby.