Alan Titchmarsh has struck out against criticism from the president of the Royal Horticultural Society that the BBC is “dumbing down” its gardening coverage, according to The Telegraph.
The newspaper reported that Elizabeth Banks, head of the RHS, accused the BBC of “talking down” to viewers of its Chelsea Flower Show coverage and of Gardeners’ World. In particular, Ms Banks said the BBC was “scared” of using Latin names for plants and that she would be looking again at the RHS’ contract with the corporation.
Mr Titchmarsh accused Ms Banks of “elitism” and defended the BBC in his column in BBC Gardeners’ World magazine by saying: “Recently the ‘dumbing down’ arrow was loaded into the bow of righteous indignation and fired in the direction of Gardeners’ World and the BBC’s Chelsea Flower Show coverage by the president of the RHS. If I tell you that Metasequoia glyptostroboides was discovered in China in 1948, does that make me a better gardener than if I say that the dawn redwood was discovered in the year that Prince Charles was born? Of course not.”
Mr Titchmarsh went on to say that it was the “quality of the information” that mattered, adding that the full Latin names of plants was almost always shown in the form of a caption on TV coverage.
He concluded: “Popularisation and accessibility are what the broadcasting medium is all about.”
