Jeremy Clarkson has offered up an unexpected suggestion for who should replace Monty Don on Gardeners’ World.
Beloved presenter Don shocked the world last week as he announced that he was stepping down as head gardener on the BBC programme after 23 years.
The 71-year-old said that working with the “superlative” BBC team had been a deeply rewarding experience, but “now is the right time for a change”.
The news was met with despair from Gardeners’ World viewers including Clarkson, who wrote in his The Sunday Times column that Don had been “a safe haven in a troubled world”.
open image in gallery“I was sad this week to hear that after 23 years, Monty is leaving the show,” Clarkson wrote, of the presenter exiting before the end of the year.
“And I’m even sadder now because I’ve realised he will have to be replaced, and I have the most horrible feeling that whoever gets the gig will not be the sort of person who wears corduroy. The material of choice for anyone with a safe, gentle pair of hands.”
Rather than going for a “young person” – or himself or Paddy McGuinness – Clarkson said that the BBC needed “to remember that Gardeners’ World is a show about gardening, for sure, but it’s also a state of mind”.
“This is a show that’s watched by a certain type of people. And it should be presented and written and produced by that sort of person,” argued the former Top Gear host and farmer.
“They should burn autumn leaves without guilt, use whatever compost they like, and deal with insects in whatever way they think is best. And they should have no shame about any of it. They should pay no mind to ‘the latest thinking’ because this is a show about gardens, and there should be no politics or Twitter think in such a thing.”
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open image in galleryClarkson then proffered his own thoughts on who should replace Don, first suggesting that producers “trawl the staff in the nation’s garden centres for candidates”.
He then put forward Irish influencer Chloe Winter, who posts gardening videos under the name Blooms and Green.
“She’s like Monty Don, if he was 50 years younger, and Irish, and a girl,” he said. “I could watch her for hours. She makes me feel as safe as the cheese counter in a Waitrose, and that’s the main reason for making a show about gardening.”
Hailing from Galway, Winter, 27, shares videos online with gardening tips about growing both flowers and fruit and vegetables. She has 672,000 followers on Instagram and 226,000 on TikTok.
Responding to Clarkson’s praise on the former platform, Winter joked: “@jeremyclarkson1 I didn’t know you were a fan [cry-laughing emoji].”