Monty Don and leaving GW - disappointing interview

[LaughterintheRains]

Has anyone else heard or read his interview about how he plans to leave GW?
I feel differently about him now. He's clearly not enjoying it- referring to the 'relentless treadmill' of it. But it's only 6 months of the year anyway and for the rest of the time, he's giving talks on cruises, writing books and making TV progs in faraway places.

I guess what I'm saying is he gives the impression each week of enjoying the programme, yet now he's said he is a bit fed up with it. So I don't feel the same about him anymore.

He also said they needed a new presenter, ideally female, with a more diverse background, not Oxbridge educated, middle class male. I think that's discriminatory at best (should be the best person for the job) but also, his predecessor was Alan Titchmarsh who didn't go to any uni (but trained in horticulture. )

He was evidently pissed off when Don got the job as a 'non-expert hobbyist gardener'. And before that, Geoff Hamilton was not Oxbridge.

I've always had a lot of time for MD (and his MH struggles) but this time I think he's talking out of his and it won't be the same watching the next series knowing he doesn't really want to be doing it.

I assumed he had a team of helpers in the garden and hardly did anything himself.

Can't believe Carol is 78. She's bright eyed and full of beans.

She's bloody brilliant. Love watching her talk about plants.

She's very tactile, and sensory. And I like her jumpers.

Can't stand Adam. He makes me think of a used car salesman.

Yes, quite. I just don't trust him. He's not a gardener or horticulturalist anyway, he's a landscaper and garden designer - a builder basically.

Plus he's called Frost. The enemy of most gardens.

I didn't know until recently that he also has a farm in the Black Mountains and in reality he spends little time at Longmeadow, (where others do the gardening) apart from filming the show.

You do seem to have a bit of a weirdly judgemental tone about MD, OP. You give the impression he should do nothing but stay in his garden all year and be happy for the job all the time. Life’s not like that for most workers.

I like Adam but he's really distracting as he constantly has his hands on the move.

I really like Nick Bailey, he has the same relaxed, quiet tone that Monty has. I'd be happy to see him take over when the time comes when Monty decides to go.

I do like Carol and Frances too.

I reckon adam-enemy-of-the-garden frost and sue kent should share it actually, sue's great, find her very watchable and inspirational

Amazed carol is 78! Wasnt she bitter it had gone to monty back in the day and saw it as discrimination for her sex and accent?

Absolutely this. I do occasional talking head cultural stuff on TV, and what little I do looks in its final form as though I just walked into shot in front of a house or sat in front of a bookcase and said a few things, but it takes freakish amounts of work from a whole team of people to produce a few minutes of apparently effortless TV.

I now look at GW or something else that looks cosy, intimate and effortless, like Nigella's cookery shows, with a weird, discombobulating sense of how many people are in the room as she curls up apparently solo with whatever she's just made, glinting naughtily at the camera, and how many people it took in filming, planning, food production set up and styling, post-production, editing etc etc...

I like MD (and have much enjoyed Mn Style and Beauty threads about MD-inspired women's clothes) and am glad he's gone on as long as he has, given the stroke quite a few years ago now.

I certainly don't think he should be performing enthusiasm in interviews.

Another Nick Bailey fan here.

Not keen on Adam's presenting style in that he is too descriptive of a pants, flowers etc...
A bit waffly .

Love Frances and Sue too.

I went to see him talk live last night and he covered this. He is a truly lovely chap.

Filming is a huge part of the week with people onsite for at least 10 hours from 7.30am two days per week. He is getting older and mentioned his grandchildren and wanting to spend more time with them as well as his wife and children. He won’t stop working but I think feels it’s time to step back from GW. He’ll be much missed.

“Gardeners World has been ruined by the woke BBC, adding numerous presenters just because they tick a box (disabled, black, female, etc).”

I’ve barely watched it this year because of this. All I want to do is look at beautiful gardens and learn a bit about how to grow them. I’m not interested in seeing viewers gardens on shaky, pixelated mobile phone footage , people overcoming challenges to garden (impressive though it is) or the peddling of endless diversity. It’s a gardening programme FGS, just show me the plants.

I hope Frances takes over from Monty.

I see GW as a life-style programme, and Monty plays the part of a wealthy man who potters around in his massive garden where the real work is done off-camera by a team of professionals. When he leaves, I'm sure they'll find someone to continue in a similar vein.

Nothing wrong in that, it clearly draws an audience, but I find Beechgrove Garden more interesting, where actual gardening takes place on plots that are a size more relevant to most people.

He told the audience last night that he has two full time gardeners and that he and his wife also do some. He explained about the rigorous process of planning and filming content and how he involves planning the garden team’s work around that (eg whether he needs certain jobs doing as they won’t be filmed or need them leaving as he will be doing them for an item).

I love Monty but he's never made any secret of being brutally honest and generally quite grumpy, with bouts of depression and not overly keen on fame. This can't be a surprise to a regular viewer or anyone who takes an interest in his life?

I would love to stop time and have him present forever, but they've obviously been preparing/testing various people for a while. Personally I love Frances, she's knowledgeable and has the right temperament for the programme. Adam is fine, I assumed he'd take over until he downsized his garden - but if they changed the format it could work, and it's more relatable that he's in a new build. Nick Bailey is dull and likes gardens I'm not interested in, I tend to fast forward his bits. I think multiple presenters is most likely but I do like to have the anchor of going back to Longmeadow and seeing it change over the seasons, so I hope they carry that on. That and the silent/birdsong shots, which are my favourite part.

My current GW bingo is when we visit someone else's garden and it's a man who loves tropical/jungle plants. It's every bloody man! Even the ones with otherwise more traditional gardens have a bloody great incongruous banana in the middle of the border. I'm convinced it's something to do with penises.

I really like Frances Tophill and think she would be an excellent main presenter, along with Rekha Mistry who is also very knowledgeable. I loved it when she managed to grow cotton!

Guffawing at why men plant banana trees!

I also saw Monty live this week. As Bimblesalong says, he was frank (but not grumpy, I thought) about how much the filming of GW intrudes into home life and wanting more time for other things.

Well he can't do it forever! Adam would do a fine job I think

Ooh yes I love Rekha Mistry! I usually have very little interest in allotment/veg growing (am all about the flowers) but she makes it so interesting.

I agree Rekha is brilliant, she is so enthusiastic.

I'm always going to think of her as Frances Topsoil now.😁

I'm amazed so much love for Frances.....she is just....so odd! So, it's a no from me, I always fast forward through her, and as for Carol, she's just annoying. Sorry. Just goes to show we all like different things, and it's going to be difficult to please everyone.

Agree with pp's about the video pieces. They were a COVID necessity, but enough now. I am not interested in a small, irritating child, growing tomatoes.

Anyone who thinks horticulture doesn't have a racism problem should follow James Wong (@ botanygeek) on Twitter.

Never been a fan of Monty Don so I don't mind him leaving. I've seen him be snobby about small gardens and houseplants, though he appears to have changed his opinion a little in recent years.

Quite like Adam Frost. Perhaps they could rotate it between different people so we get a month by month view, and no one has to tolerate a film crew in their life for 6 months of the year.

He also suffers badly from seasonal depression which starts to kick in as early as August, so he's probably not feeling his best right now!

God forbid it be representative or inspiring! 🙄

I've never been a fan of MD particularly, and whoever takes it on, then I hope it is someone who is a real professional horticulturalist - a plantsman/woman. Gardeners World has moved too far away from its roots.

Maybe Joe Swift, Carol Klein, Adam Frost or Chris Beardshaw.

Why do they need to be representative? Of who exactly? It's a programme about plants.