How many TV personalities are really clued up about their suggested expertise?

[AnotherPrickInTheWall]

Sorry about disjointed grammar.
I'm a keen gardener and have worked in horticulture on and of for about 15 years.
I have a massive collection of books on the subject and love to dip into them when I get a moment to myself.
Recently I bought a few books on Amazon written by the well know organic gardener Bob Flowerdew.
Nicely illustrated and fairly informative, but nothing the average organic gardener wouldn't already know about.
I delved further and did a bit of research on him.
I've met the bloke twice, a bit of an eccentric but not particularly interested in discussing his chosen field.
Thing is there is something lacking in his work history that leads me to think he was randomly picked by TV producers because of his persona and not about his actual knowledge of gardening. Does having a long plait and being out of he ordinary qualify as giving good entertainment value.?
I do wonder about a few other people I've seen on TV; chefs in particular.

I love Lucy Worsley her programmes are great why isnt she an expert

David Attenborough and Chris Packham both have degrees in zoology, actually.

The big fat hairy bikers spring to mind

I was going to moan about Chris Packham but i googled first glad i kept my gob shut man knows what he is on about he is a smug git though

Robert Winston. I'm not arguing that he is an expert in the causes and treatment of infertility and is qualified to talk about that. But he started being treated as an expert on the ethics of assisted conception, which isn't the same.

Then he was wheeled out for everything.

He once presented a six-part TV series on faith going round the world looking at ancient things and being pompous. It was more like a travel show but not as interesting. He has a personal faith but that doesn't make him an expert and isn't particularly interesting or different from millions of other people.

I used to yell at the screen when he'd come on but he seems to have dropped out of favour, thank God .

I love Chris Packham

And just about everyone who becomes a Government Tsar.

Anyone else thinking of the history programme spoof "We are History"?

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC3A9BB578D945A4D

Yeah the Hairy Bikers definitely got their show through connections rather than actual cooking skills or knowledge of food. One of them was a producer and the other used to do prosthetics make up for TV.

Good for them I suppose. Last time I saw them on TV they were pissing about in a pub. And they've got to be millionaires by now.

I don't think the Two Fat Ladies were actual chefs either. Just vair posh people who wrote about food and could cook a bit.

Good grief - The Hairy Bikers - I forgot about them - no idea how they got a job on TV. Can only assume they have some dirt on someone, likewise Greg Wallace.

I've met Greg Wallace a few times...
Why are they all so small?

Mrsjayy Because her programmes cover such a broad range of unrelated topics that unless she's a polymath who is an authority on Tsarist Russia, Victorian crime, social history and dance in world war 2, King Alfred and all points in between. If she is it would suggest a breadth of scholarship unmatched by any other scholar. Her track record of peer reviewed publication doesn't suggest that improbably wide field of expertise.

As I've said before her qualifications and experience are in curatorship rather than history, but she has a higher level degree. She should know better and that research is littered with doubts, caveats and gaps in the evidence, yet TV historians state as fact things as fact which they must (or should know) are open to interpretation.

Are you listening to him narrating his memoirs on R4? Owllady. I can't bear it but you might like it if you like him. He was going on about tadpoles and being bullied yesterday. I didn't care. I didn't tune in this morning.

Giles fucking Cohren he knows nothing about anything yet there he is ...

Why the hate for Lucy Worsley? She seems pretty well qualified and was a curator for historic royal palaces so she seems qualified for that series on changes to the home/room whatever it was!

Oh and I agree on the Fred Dibnah programmes aside from being great at talking to "experts" he was a top craftsman and a good artist too.

Homes Under The Hammer. Martin Roberts seems to know his business. Apparently he gives lectures on the property business so one would hope he is clued up.

I know one person who has presented a number of programmes about certain literary figures, and his knowledge of them is so thin that the resultant programme is just garbage. This particular person has "contacts", so no doubt that's how he got his opportunity.

I also know quite a few political journalists whose understanding of politics, current affairs and history is extremely poor. Again, nepotism got them their jobs.

Love the Hairy Bikers though and find them entertaining Their recipes actually work. Unlike some other famous chefs.

No, I didn't know he was on r4 I'll see if I can get it on catch up. I do like nature :)

Jennifer Patterson, one half of the Fat Ladies, used to go to my dentist. People would go 'eww!' over her habit of wearing chunky rings while cooking. I wouldn't have fancied a close look down her mouth. I often think that dentists must have stomachs of iron.

^^ that she is well qualified to present history programmes Id rather watch and enjoy Lucy than some dusty academic drone on and on

God I hate Giles Coren

Oh to slow I was agreeing with Silverpenny

Clarkson - self confessed ignoramus about cars. No doubt his Ma's Paddington Bear connections helped him.