In article , Sue
wrote:

When AT first took over on GW from the wonderful down-to-earth Geoff
Hamilton, he did in fact start off quite well and for about one season I
thought he'd make a decent replacement, but thereafter his manner seemed to
me to get more and more arrogant and, yes, smug!

Maybe he was smug because he's the only gardener ever to get into the
Sunday Times Rich List... (unless Doc Hessayon ever made it). My own
impression is that he is smooth rather than smug - and a lot more
professional than just about any other gardening presenter. He's
certainly a lot more knowledgeable than Monty Don who, in addition to
making lots of mistakes, misses no opportunity to ram his organic
gardening principles down our throat. Since organic gardeners are still
a small minority of the total, the BBC should stamp on him before he
alienates a lot of viewers. AT is organic too but he manages to tread a
happy middle path when presenting to the masses.

Incidentally, I didn't like the cosy banter on the balcony during the
Beeb's Chelsea shows either but I'm more inclined to blame the
producer/director than either AT or DG. Probably the idea was to get
Dermot to smile a lot - which is pretty much all he has to offer on TV.
I was _very_ impressed with one sequence filmed in the pavillion where
AT was filmed chatting to camera as he walked up the full length of one
of the aisles, pointing out exhibits along the way and acknowledging
friends and well-wishers as he went. It was maybe a 3 minute sequence
filmed in one take. It may not have been the first take admittedly but
it was a highly professional performance from he who still rules the
airwaves - by a long way, imho. And yes, I do think gardening on TV can
profit from being entertaining as well as informative as it all helps
to draw new gardeners into the fold. Whether the Beed went too far in
this respect this year is a moot point.

Simon

In article , Stan The Man
writes

Since organic gardeners are still
a small minority of the total, the BBC should stamp on him before he
alienates a lot of viewers.

I'm old enough to remember when the BBC felt it had a purpose to educate
and to raise standards, rather than simply pander to the tastes of the
majority.


--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

On 30/5/04 10:36 pm, in article , "Kay
Easton" wrote:

In article , Stan The Man
writes

Since organic gardeners are still
a small minority of the total, the BBC should stamp on him before he
alienates a lot of viewers.

I'm old enough to remember when the BBC felt it had a purpose to educate
and to raise standards, rather than simply pander to the tastes of the
majority.

That rings a bell. Isn't that part of its motto in some way?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 30/5/04 10:36 pm, in article ,
"Kay
Easton" wrote:

In article , Stan The Man
writes

Since organic gardeners are still
a small minority of the total, the BBC should stamp on him before he
alienates a lot of viewers.

I'm old enough to remember when the BBC felt it had a purpose to educate
and to raise standards, rather than simply pander to the tastes of the
majority.

That rings a bell. Isn't that part of its motto in some way?

The mandate is still to inform, educate and entertain.

In article , Stan The Man
writes

Since organic gardeners are still
a small minority of the total, the BBC should stamp on him before he
alienates a lot of viewers.


I am inclined to agree with this. Whilst i am not a chemical fan, I am not
"organic". I am what I would call an eclectic gardener. I choose what I
consider the most effective treatment to zap the problem.

Whilst most of my horticultural and farming neighbours are zapping their
crops with stuff ( including hormones) I dont see what I should ( or even
can) be "organic". Besides, I dont want to be.
And yes, I do resent Monty ( and others - Bob Flowerdew on BBC Radio is
another!) telling me how to conduct my gardening.
I think Monty Don is a good choice as replacement for AT on GW and
possibly by far the best they have around right now ( Cant stand the "team"
by the way R deT and Joe Swift ) and should continue. He does have a relaxed
presentation style.

Actually I think AT does have a smooth way of dealing with controversy and
he is professional in his presentation.
The Beeb will need to go a long way ( a lot further than the current crop of
TV gardeners) to find another like him, certainly in the short term and
possibly in the long term also.

BY the way, whats the name of that lady who replaced R.de T whilst she was
germinating and growing on her seedling? I thought she was OK and ought to
have a place on the regular GW team. Maybe she is no real looker , but she
was a gardener!

In article , mich
wrote:

BY the way, whats the name of that lady who replaced R.de T whilst she was
germinating and growing on her seedling? I thought she was OK and ought to
have a place on the regular GW team. Maybe she is no real looker , but she
was a gardener!

Sarah Raven, the Queen of Grunge - also a lecturer and columnist for
the Daily Telegraph amongst others.

I think she's more than OK. She'd be better still as a presenter if she
went to the same smile trainer that Ms Dimmock has been using. She is
fallible though: I rather like my gardening presenters to be world
champion plantspeople (like James Alexander Sinclair) and it undermines
my faith when one of them says "What is that?" or "I've never seen that
before".

If AT is out of the equation, then JAS (he of the wide-brimmed hat) is
my favourite TV presenter. He's a brilliant plantsman and a very clever
garden designer - and he's very entertaining to boot, although I
concede that his language may be too flowery for some. I loved his
series of Small Town Gardens last year and can't understand why he
isn't more widely used by the BBC.

Simon

On Sun, 30 May 2004 22:36:24 +0100, Kay Easton
wrote:


I'm old enough to remember when the BBC felt it had a purpose to educate
and to raise standards, rather than simply pander to the tastes of the
majority.

Judging from Eastenders viewing figures, the BBC doesn't even do that
well anymore.

On Sun, 30 May 2004 23:54:25 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 30/5/04 10:36 pm, in article , "Kay
Easton" wrote:

In article , Stan The Man
writes

Since organic gardeners are still
a small minority of the total, the BBC should stamp on him before he
alienates a lot of viewers.

I'm old enough to remember when the BBC felt it had a purpose to educate
and to raise standards, rather than simply pander to the tastes of the
majority.

That rings a bell. Isn't that part of its motto in some way?

It's "Nation shall speak peace unto nation"

On Mon, 31 May 2004 07:13:22 +0100, "mich" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
k...
On 30/5/04 10:36 pm, in article ,
"Kay
Easton" wrote:

In article , Stan The Man
writes

Since organic gardeners are still
a small minority of the total, the BBC should stamp on him before he
alienates a lot of viewers.

I'm old enough to remember when the BBC felt it had a purpose to educate
and to raise standards, rather than simply pander to the tastes of the
majority.

That rings a bell. Isn't that part of its motto in some way?

The mandate is still to inform, educate and entertain.

but not all three simultaneously :-)

On 31/5/04 8:58 am, in article , "Stan The
Man" wrote:

In article , mich
wrote:

BY the way, whats the name of that lady who replaced R.de T whilst she was
germinating and growing on her seedling? I thought she was OK and ought to
have a place on the regular GW team. Maybe she is no real looker , but she
was a gardener!

Sarah Raven, the Queen of Grunge - also a lecturer and columnist for
the Daily Telegraph amongst others.

The DT has one of the best gardening sections among all the papers.

I think she's more than OK. She'd be better still as a presenter if she
went to the same smile trainer that Ms Dimmock has been using. She is
fallible though: I rather like my gardening presenters to be world
champion plantspeople (like James Alexander Sinclair) and it undermines
my faith when one of them says "What is that?" or "I've never seen that
before".

Now - be fair! How many plants are there in the world? My husband is a
nursery of many years' experience but he sometimes meets plants he doesn't
know. There was a plant on the NZ stand of which there is only one lefft in
the world!

If AT is out of the equation, then JAS (he of the wide-brimmed hat) is
my favourite TV presenter. He's a brilliant plantsman and a very clever
garden designer - and he's very entertaining to boot, although I
concede that his language may be too flowery for some. I loved his
series of Small Town Gardens last year and can't understand why he
isn't more widely used by the BBC.

Maybe he drives as many people round the bed as he does me. ;-) He's just
another of those 'cult of the personality' people with that stupid hat. If
he dropped the gimmmick and just gardened, perhaps we'd notice that rather
than the headgear. As it is, he strikes me as pretentious.
Llewellyn Bowen has the hair and the shirt cuffs; Sinclair has to have a hat
because everything else is taken - no bra for Charlie, hair and nails for
Rachel, natty suits and "aren't I a one" for Alan, Irish and Cockney accents
for Diarmuid and Joe - nothing else left, really. ;-) Somehow, Geoff
Hamilton got by with a spade and fork and dirty hands. Nowadays, they'd
probably tell him to have a perm, or something. Even Tommy's had a 'hair
do'.

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

On 31/5/04 9:53 am, in article ,
"martin" wrote:

On Sun, 30 May 2004 23:54:25 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 30/5/04 10:36 pm, in article , "Kay
Easton" wrote:

In article , Stan The Man
writes

Since organic gardeners are still
a small minority of the total, the BBC should stamp on him before he
alienates a lot of viewers.

I'm old enough to remember when the BBC felt it had a purpose to educate
and to raise standards, rather than simply pander to the tastes of the
majority.

That rings a bell. Isn't that part of its motto in some way?

It's "Nation shall speak peace unto nation"

That's right but as mentioned upthread, part of its charter is to educate,
inform and entertain. Thanks.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

On 31/5/04 9:53 am, in article ,
"martin" wrote:

On Mon, 31 May 2004 07:13:22 +0100, "mich" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 30/5/04 10:36 pm, in article ,
"Kay
Easton" wrote:

In article , Stan The Man
writes

Since organic gardeners are still
a small minority of the total, the BBC should stamp on him before he
alienates a lot of viewers.

I'm old enough to remember when the BBC felt it had a purpose to educate
and to raise standards, rather than simply pander to the tastes of the
majority.

That rings a bell. Isn't that part of its motto in some way?

The mandate is still to inform, educate and entertain.

but not all three simultaneously :-)


But why not? I'm looking forward to the new Bill Oddie wildlife programme
for a start! (Tonight, I think)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

On 31/5/04 11:07 am, in article
, "Sacha"
wrote:

snip Maybe he drives as many people round the bed as he does me. ;-)
snip

Sigh....'bend', not 'bed' before some smart alec picks up on it. ;-)

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

In article , Sacha
writes

Maybe he drives as many people round the bed as he does me. ;-) He's just
another of those 'cult of the personality' people with that stupid hat. If
he dropped the gimmmick and just gardened, perhaps we'd notice that rather
than the headgear. As it is, he strikes me as pretentious.
Llewellyn Bowen has the hair and the shirt cuffs; Sinclair has to have a hat
because everything else is taken - no bra for Charlie, hair and nails for
Rachel, natty suits and "aren't I a one" for Alan, Irish and Cockney accents
for Diarmuid and Joe - nothing else left, really. ;-) Somehow, Geoff
Hamilton got by with a spade and fork and dirty hands. Nowadays, they'd
probably tell him to have a perm, or something. Even Tommy's had a 'hair
do'.

Hey - that's overstating it a bit! Irish and cockney accents a
'gimmick'? - (good job you didn't say 'lancashire' else you'd have been
well taken to task ;-) )

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

On Mon, 31 May 2004 11:07:55 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 31/5/04 8:58 am, in article , "Stan The
Man" wrote:

In article , mich
wrote:

BY the way, whats the name of that lady who replaced R.de T whilst she was
germinating and growing on her seedling? I thought she was OK and ought to
have a place on the regular GW team. Maybe she is no real looker , but she
was a gardener!

Sarah Raven, the Queen of Grunge - also a lecturer and columnist for
the Daily Telegraph amongst others.

The DT has one of the best gardening sections among all the papers.

Yes!


I think she's more than OK. She'd be better still as a presenter if she
went to the same smile trainer that Ms Dimmock has been using. She is
fallible though: I rather like my gardening presenters to be world
champion plantspeople (like James Alexander Sinclair) and it undermines
my faith when one of them says "What is that?" or "I've never seen that
before".

Now - be fair! How many plants are there in the world? My husband is a
nursery of many years' experience but he sometimes meets plants he doesn't
know. There was a plant on the NZ stand of which there is only one lefft in
the world!

If AT is out of the equation, then JAS (he of the wide-brimmed hat) is
my favourite TV presenter. He's a brilliant plantsman and a very clever
garden designer - and he's very entertaining to boot, although I
concede that his language may be too flowery for some. I loved his
series of Small Town Gardens last year and can't understand why he
isn't more widely used by the BBC.

Maybe he drives as many people round the bed as he does me.

bend Sacha? Freudian slip or what? :-)

;-) He's just
another of those 'cult of the personality' people with that stupid hat. If
he dropped the gimmmick and just gardened, perhaps we'd notice that rather
than the headgear. As it is, he strikes me as pretentious.
Llewellyn Bowen has the hair and the shirt cuffs; Sinclair has to have a hat
because everything else is taken - no bra for Charlie, hair and nails for
Rachel, natty suits and "aren't I a one" for Alan, Irish and Cockney accents
for Diarmuid and Joe - nothing else left, really. ;-) Somehow, Geoff
Hamilton got by with a spade and fork and dirty hands. Nowadays, they'd
probably tell him to have a perm, or something. Even Tommy's had a 'hair
do'.

LOL!