GW revamp of revamp.

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Catherine
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Thank god for that, I will start watching it as I stopped last year when it got more and more silly.

Does that mean that they will get rid of Toby Buckland and take on Carol Klien i thought she was really good.
PLUMPUDDING
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Thank goodness they've taken notice of real gardeners. I look forward to seeing what they come up with this time and hope they get a good gardener to present it.
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Cider Boys
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Toby Buckland is I believe being kept as the main presenter and I consider him a very knowledgable, formally trained gardener.

I don't know if he had anything to do with the stupid, ridiculous, dumbed down, pathetic excuse for a gardening programme that it had become, I hope not.

Still, I shall watch as things can only get better, it is a shame that those BBC idiots responsible for the depths that this once interesting programme had sunk to, aren't having their arses kicked up the road towards their nearest job centre.

Harsh but fair

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seedling
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That is good news. The last years programmes were awful and I gave up watching after just a few.
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John
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There is some mention in the papers of that grinning Mr T returning to the programme. Tony Buckland and the others, especially Carol Klein, deserve another crack of the whip though as I'm sure that it was the production people that lumbered them with that awful comic book style of programme. It might be a bit crowded however with four presenters in the new half-hour slot.

John
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Elaine
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Brilliant news. :D I think the article speaks for all of us who lamented the loss of a good gardening programme and, as Stephen whatsisname said, "Replaced it with a Blue Peter/Top Gear imitation" or words to that effect.
I will definitely give it another chance to redeem itself.
Cheers.
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Geoff
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Not that encouraging when you read it :

Gill Tierney, the show's executive producer, acknowledged that the relaunch had been a mistake. "Change is always difficult and sometimes you don't get it completely right. We have listened to the audience and have taken the criticism on the chin, which is why we are making the changes we are making.

"We are simply going to refocus to satisfy the needs of our core audience," she said.


The management hasn't changed which is where the real weakness is.
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glallotments
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Almost the same article is in next week's Radio Times.
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Johnboy
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Oh How I agree with Geoff! Toby Buckland is a superb horticulturalist but as a presenter he has to do what his masters tell him to do.
The fault lies squarely on the shoulders of the production team and it is, for sure, they who need replacing and those above them who have been at fault for several years now.
The very same thing happened with Nature Watch when Kate Humble was made to clown in the same fashion of Bill Oddie. Oddie went but the clowning remained and although I have the greatest respect for the great knowledge of Kate Humble I am sure she would be the first person to admit that she is not and never will a clown.
I think that the BBC through their production team have let down Toby Buckland causing real career damage and hope that in the years to come he will be viewed in an entirely different light as the good horticulturalist that he is.
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It is not just Gardeners World and it is not just us being grumpy. There was a brief item on the Today programme earlier this week. I wasn't listening too carefully but there is a report which recommends that the BBC should not target the 16-35 age range so much, and should not spend most of the licence money on dumbed-down light entertainment and sport. Rather it should revert to making "proper" programmes and leave the rest to commercial broadcasting.
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Primrose
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Quite agree with Binky's comments that the BBC should target older viewers and listeners. After all, we're the ones who pay the Licence Fees !
The galling thing is that these poncy producers are probably the ones who are earning some of the big bonuses.
The BBC always used to be good at producing high quality programmes but in recent years they really seem to have dumbed down. Perhaps it's as a result of all the worthless "Media Studies" university courses that these graduate producers have attended. I read recently that as a result of cuts, many universities will be having to reduce the number and type of courses they offer. If that means them going back to concentrating on high quality degrees in serious subjects like Medicine, Science, Maths, Engineering, Agriculture, etc. which we need in this country to deepen our skills base, that may be no bad thing.
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Johnboy
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Hi Primrose,
What this country very urgently needs is skilled tradesmen and not so many graduates.
When the modern people of today have a degree they somehow have the idea that they must then be in charge of everything and work is not involved they are only there to supervise. This may be a totally unfair comment for some hardworking graduates but the overall picture we see many unemployed graduates especially in the more obscure degrees.
I give an example of a person with a BSc in furniture design who wanted to play darts in the pub but couldn't get on the board because he could not score. He could not subtract 32 from 501! He has been unemployed for 6 years since leaving Uni.
We then get to the point where we have too many Chiefs and not enough Indians.
JB.
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Primrose
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Johnboy - you're right of course and I much regret the passing of the old-style apprenticeships for skilled craftsmen and tradesmen. I don't know how the country is expected to function without these necessary people. A lot of people have gone to university who didn't really have the right qualifications. I used to work in HR and was appalled at the number of graduates who sent in job applications with even basic words misspelt. I think the government has been very remiss in encouraging many people to think they should aspire to a university education when in reality they would have been far more suited - and probably far more successful in trying for a different career route.
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glallotments
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This latest idea of fast tracking people with high level degrees into teaching is a mistake as well. Just because someone has a good degree doesn't mean they make a good teacher. We had teachers at school who had exceptional subject knowledge but couldn't teach for toffee. Also they couldn't relate to people. Children pick up on that sort of thing fairly quickly and behave accordingly. They also found it tedious teaching the basics.

Young teacher now are fast tracked into becoming headteachers with little classroom experience.

At the other end of the argument they have been employing more teaching assistants and expecting them to do some of the teaching in school on the cheap. I'm not sure they know what they want.

It's wrong to make everyone believe that going to university is the be all and end all. Highly skilled craftsmen and people with other skills are needed for society to operate effectively.
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