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Old 27-05-2004, 10:13 PM
Franz Heymann
 
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Default Chelsea - the fern guys


"Janet Baraclough.." wrote in
message ...
The message
from "Neil Jones" contains these words:


"Janet Baraclough.." wrote

in
message ...
To me their dedicated plant-obsession was the epitome of what

Chelsea
used to be all about, but has mostly lost since the

Bunny'n'Diarmuid
set
started cultivating meeja careers.

Janet.


I tend to agree that there's too much focus on the show gardens,

but
from what I can see the BBC is trying to emphasise a different

part of
the show on each programme - there was much more about plants last

night
than on previous shows.


Still not enough, though :-)


(Let's just assume for a lovely moment that the BBC research dept
takes urg seriously as a barometer of public reaction; and anyway

I've
just laid down tools to cook..long hot fab day here).

I'm pleased that at long last, the BBC is devoting consecutive
evenings of primetime to Chelsea-week coverage; what's not great is

the
dumb-it-down accommodation for viewers who aren't remotely

interested in
plants or gardens. It's completely inconceivable that similar TV
coverage of any other interest or event would make endless

references to
the presenter breastfeeding her baby or who designed the presenters'
clothes. To gardeners, it does not make a water-garden "interesting"

to
see a presenter paddling in it. And so far as I am concerned,

Chelsea
coverage is the very last place to feature the crashingly dull home
garden of breakfast-TV meeja wannabees.

The programme director should be ashamed to waste endless screen

time
on computer-generated pastel dissolves loosely based on a plant, AND
endless references to cod digital-viewer "participation", whilst
ignoring the elementary technical step of providing all viewers with

a
screen subtitle name every time a real plant is shown on camera.

Whenever a presenter is lisping or smirking his/her way through an
auto-cue telling viewers all about a garden or plant they have seen,

I
would prefer the camera shot to be on the garden or plant, not the
presenter. A voiceover would be more than enough from most

presenters.

There. I'm off to the kitchen now.


I'd like to add to Janet's list that chatting to celebs, would-be
celebs and celebettes is neither amusing nor educational in a
programme about gardens and gardening.
And please, could they keep the camera more or less horizontal,
approximately at eye level if possible? I am neither a worm nor a
bird. And my eyes are usually nearly horizontal when viewing at an
exhibition.

Franz