It's funny how people like to hark back
to the 'good old days', when prices were cheaper, life was simpler,
and generally things were better. In fact if you could go back in a
time machine you would find that yes, prices were cheaper but wages
were lower, life was simpler with no mobile phone/internet/digital
TV, and things for most people were as hard or even harder than they
are today. We love to reminisce...
A lot of things in gardening are about reminiscence;
traditional techniques are making a comeback (things like planting in
autumn instead of spring/summer), there is a lot of interest in old
gardens and their restoration, and conservation groups are busy
saving old varieties of garden plants from extinction.
Start a conversation about any TV show
and sooner or later someone will say that things are being 'dumbed
down', especially factual programmes, shows like Gardener's World.
I'll be honest, I don't watch Gardener's World any more; for me
things were much better with Geoff Hamilton, and went down hill
during Alan Titchmarsh's tenure as lead presenter. The thing is that
time can play tricks on you, so it's important to separate reality
from impression. I recently found old episodes of Gardener's World on
Youtube, and watching a couple gave me and idea- I should compare an
old show with Geoff Hamilton and a new show with Monty Don and see if
I can see what it is that I don't like about the new shows, if, of
course, I don't find that actually the old style Gardener's World is
no different from the modern show. I picked two episodes at random,
one from 1991 and one from 2013.
The 1991 show, presented by Geoff
Hamilton featured:
- weeding
- garden construction
- plant maintenance (pruning etc)
- lawn care
- pests and disease advice (including a feature about Japanese Knotweed
- a visit to the garden of a very uncomfortable Carol Klein (her first TV appearance!)
- gardening under glass (Integrated Pest Management (IPM), plant maintenance, Fuchsia propagation and training
By comparison the 2013 show, presented
by Monty Don, featured:
- planting Clematis
- a garden visit
- planting brassicas
- a 'jobs for the weekend' section (sowing sweet peas and wallflowers, and weeding with a hoe)
- tulips in the garden
- another garden visit (this time to Holland, with more tulips!)
- sowing hardy annuals
I noted 23 plants named in the half
hour show, and identified 18 hints and tips.
What struck me was that there was more
packed into the 1991 show, and it covered a very wide variety of
garden tasks compared to the 2013 show, which I reckon was probably
filmed a little later in the year, but definitely still in spring.
The other thing that struck me was the
general style of the show. The 1991 show was pretty basic, with
presenters talking to the camera or shots of the plant/task in
question- this might have been due to technical differences in the TV
filming technology of the time. By comparison the 2013 show was much
more advanced in it's filming style, and had been 'padded' in several
places with clips of no real significance; let's take, for example, a
30 second clip of Monty picking up a tray of plants and walking to
the place where he's going to plant them, all set to an intrusive
backing tune. Why does the audience of a practical gardening
programme need to see a man walk from one place to another? The
camera work was excellent but the section was pointless. This
'padding' happened a few times in the show.
There was also significant chunks of
show given over to presenters, not just Monty, getting all poetic and
contemplative over the garden they were in. In the second garden
visit, Rachel de Thame spoke at length with her mother about a trip
they had made over 40 years ago to visit a garden in Holland
(apologies, I forget which). Actual airtime was given over to a
conversation between them about how much Rachel has grown in 40
years! Fair enough, we all have conversations like this but they are
actually private conversations, not because they contain dark secrets
but because they are only relevant to the people concerned.
Despite the fact that in real terms the
old Gardener's World format only managed to slip in a few more plants
and tips than the new format show there was a marked difference in
the overall feel. Most notable was that the show now seems to be more about
the relationships between the presenters and the gardens than between
the viewer and what they are seeing. The presenting team on the 2013
show (including Carol Klein who has come out of her shell since the
1991 show) seemed keen to show off their own poetic interpretations
of gardens and gardening than getting down to some 'nitty gritty'
horticulture. In some ways Monty Don has an excuse; in his own words
"I was – am – an amateur gardener and a professional
writer...” (not sure which interview this quote is from).
All in all I don't think my fond
memories of the Geoff Hamilton era are misplaced; the very 'down to
earth' presenting style, most notably with Geoff but also with the
rest of the team, was in keeping with gardening itself.
Likewise the only egos in the show belonged to the plants and the
gardens which, through excellent camera work, and careful, accurate
and never patronising explanation, were brought to life for the
viewer. I still remember hearing about the sudden death of Geoff
Hamilton, the man who had instilled the thrill of gardening in
me. My parents and I sat in silence for Geoff's last ever show, and
somehow, even then, I knew that gardening TV would never be the same
for me. For many gardeners up and down the country, these words from
Alan Titchmarsh's tribute at the beginning of Geoff's last episode of
Gardener's World are still fresh, poignant and above all, still true.
“When
Geoff Hamilton died, earlier this week, television viewers all over
the country must have felt they've lost a great friend. For 17 years,
on a Friday night, they'd watched him sowing and planting, often in
his own garden at Barnsdale, and whether they were keen gardeners or
novices they couldn't have failed to have been impressed by his easy
going manner, his friendly approach, and his sheer passion for
gardening.” Alan Titchmarsh, August 1996.
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