I appreciate there is a new gardening programme starting on ITV but think the BBC runs the risk of losing viewers by taking GW off for 4 weeks especially as I think Alan T is a very popular presenter. This is the height of the gardening season and, as already mentioned, gardening is the major hobby in the UK so the BBC is really letting its viewers down by not re-scheduling this long running programme. I also have just joined to air my opinion.
Husband and I sat down to Love Your Garden tonight.. not overly impressed... more like a makeover show this time round rather than anything relevant to this time of year, what a shame! Glad frensclan has made a stand, can you remind me of the link someone so I can add my name to it. Happy Gardening everyone, shame about the hayfever though!
Why the surpise and disappointment. The Beeb does it every year so I've come to expect it. Complain all you like, I don't believe it will make a happerth of difference.
And as for 'Love your Garden', it was simply a remake of 'Ground Force', same formula. I couldn't help wondering what roll the lady's husband played in all this. I believe she was married, wasn't she? It was only a tiny garden and I couldn't work out why he couldn't have done what the small army of workers did, only not in two days (obviously).
Why the surprise and disappointment. The Beeb does it every year so I've come to expect it. Complain all you like, I don't believe it will make a happerth of difference.
And as for 'Love your Garden', it was simply a remake of 'Ground Force', same formula. I couldn't help wondering what role the lady's husband played in all this. I believe she was married, wasn't she? It was only a tiny garden and I couldn't work out why he couldn't have done what the small army of workers did, only not in two days (obviously).
I agree Paul N, it is the same every year, and as for Love your Garden, yes, a remake of Ground Force. The lady was married and I thought the same about the hubby. Maybe tho with all the chemo etc he has had a lot extra to do in the house and look after the boy.
So often this country is referred to as 'a nation of gardeners' and there's many an article alluding to the massive growth of the 'gardening industry' in the UK over the past 15 years or so. One of the reasons I single out Gardener's World as more traditional to watch and enjoy is that the presenters aren't trying to introduce you to or entice you to buy a £3,000 arty twisted metal bench, or a £10,000 sperical sculpture or something. All these things have their place of course and I'm sure if I had a large garden and loads of money to spare for pleasure, then I'd likely be interested in some of these things. But Gardener's World sticks to gardening, is completely relaxing to watch and doesn't appear to be commercially/sponsor driven. I don't know if this is anything to do with the fact it's the Beeb, but I wonder if the production budgets and time-allocation suffers because of no obvious sponsor funding. Maybe it is sponsored - I don't know anything about who funds the programme. Very little survives these days without heavy corporate or commercial input but I'd bet that if some huge corporation felt they would gain from exposure via the programme, then you'd get an hour once a week with little problem. Does the Beeb remain advertising/sponsor free still?
If there was a trough of financial investment from some credible horticulture source, (or some funding source) a much expanded Gardener's World programme would be ideally placed to be both unique and massively popular. Monty Don's gardens around the world programmes, the programme of a year at Carol Klein's Cottage - were excellently produced programmes with huge appeal. Gardener's World has quality in it's current presenters and the Beeb ought to be - (hate this phrase but I'm going to use it) - gagging for a longer programme. Maybe the presenters have filled diaries of other personal and commercial commitments of course. BUT - if they increased the programme to one hour, tweeked the content a little to really show off the talents and knowledge of the presenters who really are second to none when seen on their individual projects - it ought to be one of the number 1 rated programmes for popularity.
But - there's something missing that we're not quite grasping in this. There has to be a reason why it's kept to 30 minutes and why it is so easily cast aside when more audience preferred (apparently) type programmes are shown. Whilst we think gardening is on the up and up - maybe viewing figures reflect the opposite? What's the story BBC? I wonder if it's the kind of programme the cable channels are interested in.
Beats me. There's a black hole in the understanding of only 30 minutes for a niche programme which ought to be an absolute winner for an hour's programming at least a week. Two programmes a week even better - and even if it were in the Winter months when surely it could have a good regular cheer everybody up spot when there is so much dark nights depressing Americana and drivel on tv.
It's certainly true that if you were trying to find a way to downgrade and ultimately get rid of a programme you would make broadcasts intermittent and inconsistent, so that people would lose patience and just give up on it. That way the viewing figures would decline and you could then give it the chop and claim that any protests were only from a small and unrepresentative minority.
I found last nights alternative offering from ITV, Love Your Garden, entertaining.
I agree that the Ground Force instant makeover, creating an entire garden with fully grown plants, at huge expense, is unrealistic, and has little to do with real gardening. But that's also true of Chelsea - Chelsea is Ground Force on a grand scale. Chelsea is even more artificial, because the whole thing is then dismantled.
There were some flaws in the program - that garden needed some drainage; 3 lettuces won't feed a family for very long; and the open-air lounge and dining area were inappropriate in our climate. But the progam covered some useful and innovative ideas that people could use.
I don't think that gardening programs need to be botany lectures. If I want to find out some detail about a plant, I go to a book, or look it up on the web. I'm not a dummy waiting to be spoon-fed by the BBC.
Love Your Garden is funded commercially but there was no hard sell. I have no objection to being sold stuff, if it's useful. That's the only reason I visit my garden centre - to buy stuff.
I also liked the sub-text - that gardens are theraputic. It was an entertaining story, well told, with a few inspirational and educational ideas thrown in.
i also thought that the new series of love your garden was a rehash of ground force.. not what i wanted to see.. loved old series visitng peoples gardens etc etc.. wont be bothering with that one again either.
as for no GW becuase of sport.. which seems to have been going on for weeks already.. is outrageous.. as a broadcasting company funded by liecence payers..they should at all times show programmes to cover everyones tastes.. regardless of what is going on.
lucky fo rme i automaticall recorde GW so can re watch them to keep me happy.. but i see no reason why it still cant be shown as normal.. the blooming oplympics is taking over and i can be sure it will be a disaster.. the tickets sales have proved that.. i have recorded many many films and documentaries and bought films to watch as i will not be tuning into the sports at all.. i pay my money and i expect to be able to sit and watch at least one thing a day that i am intersted in.. it is hard to do that now let alone over the summer..
Posts
I appreciate there is a new gardening programme starting on ITV but think the BBC runs the risk of losing viewers by taking GW off for 4 weeks especially as I think Alan T is a very popular presenter. This is the height of the gardening season and, as already mentioned, gardening is the major hobby in the UK so the BBC is really letting its viewers down by not re-scheduling this long running programme. I also have just joined to air my opinion.
Husband and I sat down to Love Your Garden tonight.. not overly impressed... more like a makeover show this time round rather than anything relevant to this time of year, what a shame! Glad frensclan has made a stand, can you remind me of the link someone so I can add my name to it. Happy Gardening everyone, shame about the hayfever though!
Why the surpise and disappointment. The Beeb does it every year so I've come to expect it. Complain all you like, I don't believe it will make a happerth of difference.
And as for 'Love your Garden', it was simply a remake of 'Ground Force', same formula. I couldn't help wondering what roll the lady's husband played in all this. I believe she was married, wasn't she? It was only a tiny garden and I couldn't work out why he couldn't have done what the small army of workers did, only not in two days (obviously).
Why the surprise and disappointment. The Beeb does it every year so I've come to expect it. Complain all you like, I don't believe it will make a happerth of difference.
And as for 'Love your Garden', it was simply a remake of 'Ground Force', same formula. I couldn't help wondering what role the lady's husband played in all this. I believe she was married, wasn't she? It was only a tiny garden and I couldn't work out why he couldn't have done what the small army of workers did, only not in two days (obviously).
I thought the same, Groundforce remake - thowing money at a neglected plot is not gardening!
So often this country is referred to as 'a nation of gardeners' and there's many an article alluding to the massive growth of the 'gardening industry' in the UK over the past 15 years or so. One of the reasons I single out Gardener's World as more traditional to watch and enjoy is that the presenters aren't trying to introduce you to or entice you to buy a £3,000 arty twisted metal bench, or a £10,000 sperical sculpture or something. All these things have their place of course and I'm sure if I had a large garden and loads of money to spare for pleasure, then I'd likely be interested in some of these things. But Gardener's World sticks to gardening, is completely relaxing to watch and doesn't appear to be commercially/sponsor driven. I don't know if this is anything to do with the fact it's the Beeb, but I wonder if the production budgets and time-allocation suffers because of no obvious sponsor funding. Maybe it is sponsored - I don't know anything about who funds the programme. Very little survives these days without heavy corporate or commercial input but I'd bet that if some huge corporation felt they would gain from exposure via the programme, then you'd get an hour once a week with little problem. Does the Beeb remain advertising/sponsor free still?
If there was a trough of financial investment from some credible horticulture source, (or some funding source) a much expanded Gardener's World programme would be ideally placed to be both unique and massively popular. Monty Don's gardens around the world programmes, the programme of a year at Carol Klein's Cottage - were excellently produced programmes with huge appeal. Gardener's World has quality in it's current presenters and the Beeb ought to be - (hate this phrase but I'm going to use it) - gagging for a longer programme. Maybe the presenters have filled diaries of other personal and commercial commitments of course. BUT - if they increased the programme to one hour, tweeked the content a little to really show off the talents and knowledge of the presenters who really are second to none when seen on their individual projects - it ought to be one of the number 1 rated programmes for popularity.
But - there's something missing that we're not quite grasping in this. There has to be a reason why it's kept to 30 minutes and why it is so easily cast aside when more audience preferred (apparently) type programmes are shown. Whilst we think gardening is on the up and up - maybe viewing figures reflect the opposite? What's the story BBC? I wonder if it's the kind of programme the cable channels are interested in.
Beats me. There's a black hole in the understanding of only 30 minutes for a niche programme which ought to be an absolute winner for an hour's programming at least a week. Two programmes a week even better - and even if it were in the Winter months when surely it could have a good regular cheer everybody up spot when there is so much dark nights depressing Americana and drivel on tv.
Mm!
It's certainly true that if you were trying to find a way to downgrade and ultimately get rid of a programme you would make broadcasts intermittent and inconsistent, so that people would lose patience and just give up on it. That way the viewing figures would decline and you could then give it the chop and claim that any protests were only from a small and unrepresentative minority.
I found last nights alternative offering from ITV, Love Your Garden, entertaining.
I agree that the Ground Force instant makeover, creating an entire garden with fully grown plants, at huge expense, is unrealistic, and has little to do with real gardening. But that's also true of Chelsea - Chelsea is Ground Force on a grand scale. Chelsea is even more artificial, because the whole thing is then dismantled.
There were some flaws in the program - that garden needed some drainage; 3 lettuces won't feed a family for very long; and the open-air lounge and dining area were inappropriate in our climate. But the progam covered some useful and innovative ideas that people could use.
I don't think that gardening programs need to be botany lectures. If I want to find out some detail about a plant, I go to a book, or look it up on the web. I'm not a dummy waiting to be spoon-fed by the BBC.
Love Your Garden is funded commercially but there was no hard sell. I have no objection to being sold stuff, if it's useful. That's the only reason I visit my garden centre - to buy stuff.
I also liked the sub-text - that gardens are theraputic. It was an entertaining story, well told, with a few inspirational and educational ideas thrown in.
i also thought that the new series of love your garden was a rehash of ground force.. not what i wanted to see.. loved old series visitng peoples gardens etc etc.. wont be bothering with that one again either.
as for no GW becuase of sport.. which seems to have been going on for weeks already.. is outrageous.. as a broadcasting company funded by liecence payers..they should at all times show programmes to cover everyones tastes.. regardless of what is going on.
lucky fo rme i automaticall recorde GW so can re watch them to keep me happy.. but i see no reason why it still cant be shown as normal.. the blooming oplympics is taking over and i can be sure it will be a disaster.. the tickets sales have proved that.. i have recorded many many films and documentaries and bought films to watch as i will not be tuning into the sports at all.. i pay my money and i expect to be able to sit and watch at least one thing a day that i am intersted in.. it is hard to do that now let alone over the summer..