Talkback: Monty Don - Page 7

Oh no not monty again. He has had his go and he was just rubbish. Give us Toby and Alys. And what IS going to happen to Greenacre. That was a goog garden for demonstrating new gardens. Bring them back - call it alternative GW.

Only just heard the awful news(well I have been busy - Christmas etc). How has this disaster happened? Toby and Alys were such a joy to watch. Why would I want to watch Monty who is so dreary and miserable? I looked foward to GW with Toby and recorded every one to watch. I won't bother if monty is back. Why is he back?

I am sorry that Toby will not be presenting Gardeners world. I liked Monty and Alan and Geoff- that should give you an indication of how long I have been watching> My weekly moans and groans have not centred around the presenters but rather around the filming and the dumbing down of gardening! Established and new gardeners need explicit details with camera work focusing on the plants and soil rather than on the presenter - so come on - stop focusing on the presenter and start showing that you really are a gardening programme which wants fellow gardeners to benefit from the weekly programme.

Well done BBC! At long last you have seen sense and done the right thing!! Welcome back Monty!

Worst news for ages - leave Toby in charge where he should be.

In the wake of the financial climate we decided not to buy any Christmas presents.Imagine my surprise when I received one smashing present from the BBC in the form of Monty Don. I am so happy,yes I am in my fifties and Monty is just great. I also can't wait to see his beautiful garden. I do admit I am sorry to see Toby go,please BBC give him his own programme. Alys is just to quirky for me, Rachel for a bit of elegant glamour is just perfect. So,can't wait until March and to all gardeners out there 'Be nice...'

What wretched news. Toby was a gardener I could relate to, and his style was well judged. He'll be missed, as will Alys Fowler. Let's hope some other channel snaps them up. It's a great pity the BBC is revisiting the past - it could have redeemed itself by looking forward with someone with real expertise, like Chris Beardshaw. It's a personal view, but I find M Don unwatchable: patronising, pompous, opinionated and uninspiring. Two more viewers lost, I'm afraid. Not that the BBC will care.

Oh me miserum - how can the BBC wreck what is so good and make it so bad ? Why remove such an excellent pair of good gardeners and revert to the old bad one. I like my garden presenters to have a sound knowledge base in their subject. I am not too sure that a bit of business experience in costume jewellery quite cuts the mustard when it comes to gardening. I note that most of those in favour of the expresenter Monty comment that "like" him - not respect him. I respect Toby - clever chap and honourable too. More than you can say for the BBC - or indeed Monty who should have had better grace than to double back on a new man. Bad form that. Then to most who say that Rachel is either glamorous or elegant (which she is) I would say again that I look for more than that in someone giving me gardening advice.Alys is a delight and very well qualified in gardening. I loved her quirkyness. Most academics I know are quirky and when I look for knowledge it is from them that I seek it - not the pretty assistant. When the BBC become aware that their garden content is just all for show then perhaps they can put on a programme for real gardeners who want more than "bling". I will forget about TV gardening until then.

I am 65 and have gardened since I was a child. Both my parents were keen, practical gardeners too, so I have a fairly sound understanding of what I have to do to make plants grow well but I am always learning. Some viewers might think that Monty Don is a good presenter, but he isn't a qualified professional gardener. I only returned to watching Gardeners World when he left. I found he lacked substance and real knowledge. Too much of a prima donna for my taste. I think Toby is a true professional and I learned much from him. I am very sorry to see him leave. Could we have Toby in a programme for the people who want a real gardener and Monty Don for those who belong to the his fan club and would watch anything he presented? I can't say I'll miss Alys. Very sound background but too fey for my taste. But strange to get rid of her if the BBC wants to appeal to younger people. Give me Carol every time. And Alan Titchmarsh too. They are both gardeners down to their toes and excellent presenters.

I'm really pleased Monty is returning, and also that the programme will come from a 'real' garden. Somehow the Greenacre site just hasn't rung true and I was beginning to lose interest.My only regret is that I really liked Alys and am sorry that we shall no longer see her on the programme. At least it will be returning to its 'roots'!

Apologies: I was unfair to Monty in my post. Wrong target. The BBC are the body I should have criticised. They seem to be floundering over what Gardeners' World is, and who it's for. So they're chopping and changing like a clueless football club chairman. What they've done looks to me like a retrograde step - unfair to the team they've kicked out and utterly unimaginative. Sadly, it looks to me as though the programme's great days, with expert presenters like Geoff Hamilton, Alan Titchmarsh and their colleagues, are firmly in the past. It's a great shame, but the end of the programme's long run is probably not far off.

Big mistake!! We loved Monty and had real reservations when he left. However Toby has surpassed our expectations with a natural ability to enthuse the audience with his genuine unpretencious approach to gardening. Alys was the perfect foil and together they provided a sense of humour and fun which previous series lacked. Really sorry format is changing and feel this is a regressive step

Well what an awful end to the year and a dismal start to the new - the end of gardening as we love it. Well done beeb you have gone and spoiled a real gem. Never wanted costume jewels from monty - prefered the real diamonds that you showed us i.e Toby and Alys.

I begin this New Year with the wish that the BBC bring us a decent garden programme with Toby and Alys and leave GW to the Monty fans.

I, for one, will be VERY disappointed that you are RETURNING to a previous presenter. This is an unimaginative and backward step. How about giving a youngster, fresh from agricultural college a chance? I am fed up with YESTERDAY's people populating the television. It is time for some NEW BLOOD. I won't be watching.

Well, it's wonderful news that Monty is better & well enough to continue where he left off and that we will get to see him in his own garden - that will be a real treat. Us gardeners love having a nose round everyone else's little plots of heaven! And well done to Toby and Alys for stepping into te breach when Monty was taken ill. It would be absolutely wonderful if the programme could be extended to a full hour and bring in people such as Roy Lancaster and others in the next generatio (or two)like him who are almost beside themselves with enthusiasm. Out with old & in with the new is sometimes a good thing, but also if something works well, change for change's sake isn't actually progress. It wasn't Toby & Alys's fault that the programme seemed to lose it's way a little, but there were also some refreshing new things in there. Why don't the BBC take this opportunity to bring us an extra gardening treat with Toby & Alys, in a whole new show? Most definitely NOT in competion with GW, but to compliment & broaden our horizons over the garden gate? In these days of credit crunch, we won't all be able to fling pots(no pun intended!) of money on our backyards and acerages and will most likely be spending more of our precious time at home in our gardens. Some of us will need advice and/or inspiration, some of us like traditional, quirky, romantic, formal, exotic, two rows of dahlias & the odd auntyrrhinum(as my grandad used to say) - the possibilities are endless. I'm sure the Beeb could harness this as a relly good opportunity, to provide something really useful, for such a time as this for almost everyone and negate the apparent need for unkind & uneccessarily vitriolic character assassinations of people just trying to do their job in their own way. Just as all our own gardening styles & approach may not be everyone else's cuppa tea. Happy New Year & Happy Gardening!

I am very sorry to see Toby go as he was great and I was inspired to copy several of his ideas - I haven't done that since Geoff Hamilton died. Please Beeb give us Toby and Alys on their own programme. I enjoy learning new ideas from bright young people and do not want to just depend on books for inspiration.

So sorry to see Monty Don returning to GW. A more self-opinionated egotistical presenter you will never find. He is always right and never wrong. He spent the last few programmes when he was presenting undoing everything that the other presenters had done. I was sceptical about Toby but thought he settled in well. I'm sure he is just as knowledgeable as MD (probably more so) but he never talked down to the viewers. And if it's also true that Rachel de Thame will be returning then that's also a retrograde step. She is better suited to a catwalk not a garden (other than sitting in it). We want a gardener, not someone who wears gloves all the time in case she gets her hands and nails dirty. I for one will no longer be watching the programme - you have lost a regular viewer. Someone with Carol Klein's enthusiasm and knowledge should be offered the job. It's time the people who make these decisions were moved on.

What's gloves got to do with anything? I've been gardening since I was old enough to hold a trowel. I nearly always wear glove when I'm weeding & planting as the neighbourhood has a high cat population & in spite of having a dog, they all seem to come & poop in our garden! Not everyone has to get muck up to their elbows & wreck a perfectly good pair of jeans every time a bit of gardening is done - even the heavy duty stuff. We don't have to roll around in soil to be good at it, I'm sure I can't be alone in that?

It is always the same when presenters change, it took me a while to get used to Toby, now it is all change again. I don't have a problem with Monty coming back again, but, like Moss(comment 139) I would like to see Toby and Alys do a programme of their own. Even though more people seem to be getting the 'gardening bug' it needs something to attract younger people, especially to struggling village gardening groups.