Included all the original for jane's inspection,
more of my addition at the bottom
:------

On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 12:03:09 +0000 (UTC), jane
wrote:

On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 09:43:15 +0100, "shazzbat"
wrote:

~
~"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
.. .
~ The message .com
~ from contains these words:
~
~
~
~ Why were the ratings disappointing?
~
~ Missed it. Just a guess, but probably, some crazed maverick at the
~ BBC foolishly made a programme with some real gardeners in it, spending
~ a quiet afternoon down the lotty in non-designer wellies. With no
~ camera gimmicks, celebrities or interactive voting opportunities, it
~ was bound to fail.
~
~ Janet
~
~I'm assuming the welsh geezer named Terry is the same Terry who is the
~allotment holder featured on Jeremy Vine's programme on Radio 2, can anybody
~confirm or deny?
~
Confirm!

I have all three so-far broadcast episodes recorded, and was most
put-out to discover that on day 4 I had acquired Flog-it. I complained
to the BBC and got a soothing answer.

They have Simon Mayo doing the fronting - the first thing he admits is
not knowing a thing about gardening. He announces that allotment
holding is getting incredibly popular and is one of the
fastest-growing hobbies, especially among younger people, and then
they have this programme that seems to have very few of said younger
people in it! I suspect they filmed it during weekdays, hence they
were all at work. Mr Mayo also looks permanently frozen.

And of course the same age group is at work when they showed it! I'm
sure that if they took into consideration the number of people who
taped it, then their ratings might have been a bit higher. But that
doesn't excuse the timing.

The programme in itself is odd because there are continual recaps and
even little trailers within itself for something which is coming up
not 2 minutes later. So I think it was initially filmed for a
commercial channel. Either way, they are extrememly irritating and
they could edit them out and reduce the length of the programme to 50
or even 45 minutes. (Fast forward is useful here!). They might like
to rename it too. Big Dig sounds like it's an archaeology programme.

It is slightly patronising - they have folk doing biodynamic
plantings, and Terry keeps going on about the World's Most Expensive
Potatoes ie Sarpo Mira, the blight-resistant ones. Except they keep
saying they are blight-proof which isn't accurate. I got mine for 20p
each so I have no idea how this chap's were almost 50p each...

They also keep going on about how women can't dig the Welsh allotments
as they're up a hill and the soil is clayey and there's a male
tradition/ preserve... well I'd like some of them to come over to our
plots as they'd soon get told what's what by our ladies, starting with
me! (Honestly, going on about how women had mirrors and lipstick in
their sheds! The only possibly girlie things I've got in mine are a
first aid kit and some sunscreen!) (Ok and some chocolate, but that's
energency rations... really!)

Having said all of that it's a programme on real allotmenteers, the
commentary is mostly them and not SM, and they are comparing
traditional methods with new ideas. So I will continue to watch if and
when they decide to show it.


jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!


Hi Jane, this is a reply to your original post,
just to confirm and to satisfy curiosity :-)