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 nature Chris packham not so much not sure why i hate his face so much but i do

I bet Nina from Nina and the Neurons isn't really a scientist either.

Presenting on TV is a skill set in its own right though. I suspect it's one of those things that look easy but is surprisingly difficult to do well. Just because you are a leading expert doesn't mean you can be a good TV presenter. As long as there are good researchers for the material I don't mind who presents it as long as they are engaging. A passion for the subject is good as that comes across in the presenting, but academic qualifications in the subject are not strictly necessary.

This has reminded me that I once met Bill odie in threshers :o
He was small as well
Why are they all so small?

Worzel gummidge was a scarecrow, but I doubt Sally was his aunt

why are they all so small

I was thinking maybe to fit on screen - but Clarkson isn't . Dunno.

Cupcakes - I thought she was a top atom scientist innit.

Cupcakes no, she's not a neuroscientist and her name isn't Nina either!

Ainsley Harriot doesn't have much in the way of cooking skills apparently. I've

..oops.

I've often wondered what makes Dion Dublin qualified to present about selling houses?!

I do think Kevin McCloud knows his stuff though :)

Successful film stars are often small with disproportionately large heads. I have no scientific basis for my theory that it is an advantage in showbiz to have this body type but I have seen Tom Cruise, Kiefer Sutherland and Ewan McGregor who all back up my findings.

They were a bit like Cluedo characters

I never suggested for a moment that I 'hate' Lucy Worsley. I've quite liked some of her programmes, though they did seem awfully numerous at one point, and the 'let's dress up' approach grates rather.

She's simply not a historian by any strict definition of the word. She did a doctorate in history and then decided not to go the academic route and became a curator, then a curator-turned-TV-presenter whose books are popular tie-ins to her TV series, largely based on well-thumbed secondary sources.

Good for her, as someone else said above - academic jobs are rare as hen's teeth. But she's not a 'historian' as well as a TV presenter in the sense that Mary Beard is a classicist as well as a TV presenter, ie someone doing world-class research whose worth is recognised by her peers. Npthing wrong with that, but it's stretching the term. Though not, admittedly, as much as some other TV presenters stretch it.

Alan Titchmarsh presenting the Proms
Alan Titchmarsh presenting The Natural History of the British Isles
Sophie Raworth covering the Chelsea Flower Show
Fiona Bruce presenting Antiques Roadshow (I think she does it very well though!)
Danny Wallace fronting an episode of Horizon
Jamie Oliver: Dream School

But Alan Titchmarsh was a professional gardener, studied at kew gardens etc so he did know his stuff about plants!

I think the "weather girls" as they are crudely called on ITV have no knowledge of meteorology, I think the BBC weather presenters have met office experience etc

Tracy on Dickinsons real deal.
Advertises herself as an actress and model.
I can find not find any reference whatsoever to her being any kind of antiques dealer or having any expertise on that field.

Dream School . That was the perfect storm of all the mouthy telly people who love to share a bit of their tiny minds, together in one show. I wonder if that's how it was pitched.

Plants weren't the main theme of The Natural History of the British Isles. It was about the landscape from 3 billion years ago to the present day. It was about rocks and minerals, the Ice Age, dinosaurs, wolves, squirrels and other wildlife, human beings in different ages (Stone Age, Romans, Norman), deserts, volcanoes etc.

Our local weather man on stv is a metorologist (eek spelling) I think the weather girl/boy is a thing of the past

Laura from good morning britain worked for the weather office so she has experience

Here's to Brian Cox, no arguing about his credentials. And has been heard to say how annoying it is that he has to dumb down so much that it can sound like he is making it up.

Why is Tanya Byron not on TV any more?

I thought she was fantastic.

Engaging and clearly knew what she was talking about.

As a rule it does really annoy me if "presenters" are put up as experts and talk crap. However, if every programme had to have a presenter who was not only an appealing presenter but also an acknowledged.peer reviewed expert in that precise topic, I think those programmes would be thin on the ground.
Dan Snow has pretty superficial knowledge, but I think Lucy Worsley is fine - she is highly qualified historian whose day job is within the historic/heritage industry. Also although Titchmarsh is not a natural history expert per se, he has absolutely bona fide credentials in horticulture, arguably a related field, so I don't have a problem with that.

I was asked to co-present an antiques programme as an expert once, despite my protestations that I specialise in one very specific area and know almost nothing about most items. They just wanted a younger woman.

Just wanted to ask why people seem to make distinction between curator and historian? Do you know what a curator of historic buildings actually does?