On 2014-05-13 20:47:13 +0000, Martin said:

On Tue, 13 May 2014 18:38:41 +0100, Sacha wrote:

As for the treatment of Alan Titchmarsh, words just fail me. I'm at a
loss to understand how the BBC would - effectively - ditch a man who
has spent his entire life in horticulture and worked hard and well for
the BBC and humiliate him as they have. It beggars belief and I suspect
the really knowledgeable in horticulture will feel the same. I cannot
count the number of people we know who have stopped watching Gardener's
World and who may well give up on the BBC presentation of Chelsea for
all the same reasons. What a mess! On top of that, Monty Don's
'sidekick' knows little about gardening but her parents have a garden
they open to the public. That being the case, I'm putting forward the
names of all 3 of my children for next year's coverage. They know
bugger all about gardening but not only do their olds have a garden,
one of them owns a Nursery and this garden is open to the public every
day 50 weeks of the year! They'd be a shoo-in on that basis!

I assume you read the Daily Telegraph's report too.

OTOH Alan said he wouldn't mention Monty's lack of training. :-)

It's bit more complicated than just the BBC pushing Alan out of the job. Alan
refused the job, but doesn't say why.

The number of viewers of the Big Allotment programme has fallen to 1.7 million.
We told them so!

He says in another report that he couldn't accept being asked to play
second fiddle to Monty Don after years of being THE anchor for RHS
Chelsea for the BBC. He didn't use those exact words but that is the
gist of it. It was a humiliation too far, would seem to be the case.
As it is, it's freed him up to enter a Show Garden of his own!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk