{"id":200784,"date":"2025-06-20T20:36:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T20:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/200784\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T20:36:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T20:36:16","slug":"bbc-gardeners-world-viewers-fume-as-they-make-same-complaint-minutes-into-show-tv-radio-showbiz-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/200784\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Gardeners’ World viewers fume as they make same complaint minutes into show | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC<\/a>\u2019s beloved gardening show Gardeners\u2019 World is facing a wave of backlash with furious viewers claiming the programme has become \u201ca lifestyle program for people with chronic anxiety.\u201d Friday\u2019s episode (June 20), which aired around the summer solstice, saw Frances Tophill gardening at Damson Farm, a magical garden set in the glorious Somerset countryside. But long-time fans were quick to accuse the show of straying too far from its roots.<\/p>\n

\u201cPercy Thrower would be turning in his grave. He was a great gardener,\u201d one fan fumed on X, formerly known as Twitter, invoking the legendary presenter who fronted the series in the 1970s. Tophill was seen exploring edible gardens and wildlife-friendly planting, while Carol Klein shared her tips for colourful summer containers. Adam Frost also met a grower adapting her garden to survive annual floods. Despite the lush visuals and heartfelt stories, some fans weren\u2019t impressed.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just the lack of hands-on gardening that\u2019s got Gardeners\u2019 World viewers worked up \u2014 now even the birds are under fire.<\/p>\n

One of the show\u2019s most consistent targets is the abundance of birdsong at Monty Don\u2019s Longmeadow garden, with sceptical fans accusing the BBC<\/a> of layering in fake sound effects.<\/p>\n

But according to Monty, the chorus of chirping is 100% real \u2014 and sometimes even a little too real.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the latest episode of the Gardeners\u2019 World podcast, Monty addressed the long-running complaint: \u201cWe’ve had a number of letters along the lines of: ‘I watch Gardeners’ World and I really enjoy it, but it’s spoiled for me by the fact that you impose this bird song which is so unrealistic and so over the top… why don’t you just record the natural sounds?’ And the answer is: ‘I hate to disappoint you, but that is the natural sound’.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot much horticultural guidance on #GardenersWorld these days,\u201d one viewer complained.<\/p>\n

Another wrote: \u201c#GardenersWorld is becoming a lifestyle program for people with chronic anxiety. I remember when it taught you how to garden. Now anything goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, he says the birdsong can be so intense that it sometimes interferes with filming. \u201cIt is really loud. And occasionally when we’re filming, we delay filming because the bird song is so loud, that even to us it feels a bit odd and unnatural.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monty and his wife Sarah took over Longmeadow back in 1991, transforming a neglected two-acre field into the lush landscape that now appears on the show.<\/p>\n

Surrounded by farmland stripped of biodiversity, their garden has become a haven for wild birds \u2014 precisely because of modern farming\u2019s overuse of pesticides and herbicides.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Longmeadow is like, literally an oasis surrounded by not-so-good,\u201d Monty said. \u201cWe have great density of blackbirds and song thrushes and blackcaps and all kinds of songbirds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC\u2019s beloved gardening show Gardeners\u2019 World is facing a wave of backlash with furious viewers claiming the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[192,6169,77,6172,13538,81102,81101,16,15,71861],"class_list":{"0":"post-200784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-bbc-gardeners-world","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-gardeners-world","12":"tag-gardening","13":"tag-horticultural-guidance","14":"tag-lifestyle-program","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-viewer-backlash"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114717615227014250","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}